Acquisition and organization of digital images

• US 7,499,200 B2
• Filed: 08/29/2001
• Issued: 03/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Sutton, James E., Hamilton, David O., Breidenbach, Steven T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Worku; Negussie
• Application Number:
  US09/942,503
• Publication Number:
  US 20030043420A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,743 Days
• Field of Search: 358/474, 358/1.2, 358/1.15, 358/1.16, 358/504, 358/505, 358/514, 358/523, 358/537, 358/471, 358/473, 358/1.9, 358/906, 358/909.1, 358/527, 358/302, 358/1.6, 348/333.1, 348/231.99, 348/231.9, 348/231.3, 348/207.1, 348/231.2, 348/362, 382/313, 382/154, 345/781, 345/783, 345/845, 345/156, 400/76, 400/61
• US Class Current: 358/474
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00132 in a digital photofinishing system, i.e. a system where digital photographic images undergo typical photofinishing processing, e.g. printing ordering
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00135 Scanning of a photographic original
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00137 Transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00148 Storage information retrieval G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00167 Processing or editing H04N1/00196 - H04N1/00201 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00172 directly from a still digital camera or from a storage medium mounted in a still digital camera H04N1/0018 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00188 Printing, e.g. prints or reprints H04N1/0019, H04N1/00196 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00822 Selecting or setting a particular reading mode, e.g. from amongst a plurality of modes, simplex or duplex, or high or low resolution
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3214 of a date
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 358/906 Hand-held camera with recorder in a single unit

Abstract

A system and method for organizing digital images automatically. A digital image is acquired and automatically converted into an image data file with an associated date, and stored into a file system folder associated with that date. When the digital image is to be acquired using an optical scanner, the method automatically acquires the image using predefined scanner settings that are appropriate to a photographic image to scan the item.

Claims

1. A method of optically scanning a target item, comprising:

configuring an optical scanning arrangement with predefined settings for scanning parameters appropriate to a photographic image;

initiating a scanning operation;

in response to the initiating, optically scanning the target item using the predefrned settings to form a digital image of the target item; and

converting the digital image into a data file, wherein the scanning and the converting are performed automatically without intervention by a user, and wherein the predefined settings are not defined by the user.

2. The method of claim 1, further including:

automatically storing the data tile.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the storing includes storing the data file on a file system.

4. The method of claim 3, further including specifying a date, and wherein the storing further includes storing the data file on the file system in a folder having a folder name indicative of the date.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the folder name is indicative of a particular month and year.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the file system has no folder having a folder name indicative of the date, further including:

creating the folder having the folder name indicative of the date.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the data file is a plurality of data files and wherein the file system has a plurality of folders, further including:

viewing a representation of the plurality of folders; and

viewing a representation of the data files in one of the folders.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the scanning parameters are selected from the group consisting of pixel depth, resolution, crop mode, and skew correction mode.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the scanning parameter settings appropriate to a photographic image includes:

pixel depth=24-bit colon

resolution=150 dots per inch;

crop mode=automatic border detection; and

skew correction mode=automatic image straightening.

10. An image processing system, comprising:

at least one image source, each image source for providing at least one digital image upon request;

an image capture subsystem coupled to the at least one image source for requesting and receiving the at least one digital image from the at least one image source, the image capture subsystem further for associating a date with each digital image and automatically converting each digital image into a corresponding image file; and

a file system coupled to the image capture subsystem for automatically storing each image file in a selected one of a plurality of data folders, the selected data folder having a folder name indicative of the date.

11. The image processing system of claim 10, comprising:

an image management subsystem coupled to the image capture subsystem and the file system for viewing the plurality of data folders and the image files in a specified data folder.

12. The image processing system of claim 11, comprising:

a post-processing subsystem coupled to the image management subsystem for post-processing at least one selected one of the image files.

13. The image processing system of claim 12, wherein the post-processing subsystem is further coupled to the file system for accessing the selected ones of the image files.

14. The image processing system of claim 12, comprising:

an image destination coupled to the post-processing subsystem for receiving output data corresponding to at least one selected one of the image files.

15. The image processing system of claim 10, wherein the date is an image acquisition date provided by the image source.

16. The image processing system of claim 10, wherein the date is a current date provided by a date subsystem coupled to the image capture subsystem.

17. The image processing system of claim 10, wherein the at least one image source is an optical scanner, and wherein the image capture subsystem provides predefined settings appropriate to a photographic image to the optical scanner for use in providing the at least one digital image.

18. A processor-readable medium having processor-executable instructions thereon which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

acquire a digital image from an image source;

automatically convert the digital image into a data file having a date associated with the digital image; and

store the data file into a data folder of a file system, the folder having a folder name indicative of the date.

19. A processor-readable medium having processor-executable instructions thereon which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

configure an optical scanning arrangement with predefined settings for scanning parameters appropriate to a photographic image;

detect an initiation of a scanning operation;

in response to the initiation, optically scan the target item using the predefined settings to form a digital image of the target item; and

convert the digital image into a data file, wherein the instructions to scan and convert are performed automatically after the initiation without intervention by a user, and wherein the predefined settings are not defined by the user.

20. An image processing system, comprising:

means for configuring an optical scanning arrangement with predefined settings for scanning parameters appropriate to a photographic image;

means for initiating a scanning operation;

means for optically scanning the target item using the predefined settings to form a digital image of the target item; and

means for converting the digital image into a data file, wherein the scanning and the converting are performed automatically without intervention by a user, and wherein the predefined settings are not defined by the user.

21. An image processing system, comprising:

at least one image source, each image source for providing at least one digital image upon request;

an image capture subsystem coupled to the at least one image source which requests and receives the at least one digital image from the at least one image source, associates a date with each image, and automatically converts each image into a corresponding image file; and

a file system coupled to the image capture subsystem which receives each image file from the image capture subsystem and automatically stores each image file in a selected one of a plurality of data folders, the selected data folder having a folder name indicative of the date.