Electronic camera with quick view and quick erase features

• US 7,508,444 B1
• Filed: 01/22/1998
• Issued: 03/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/22/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Monument Peak Ventures, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
• Inventors: Dunsmore, Clay A., Napoli, Thomas A., Izumi, Masaki, Bussi, Carolyn A., Omata, Kyoichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Ometz; David L
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGUYEN, LUONG TRUNG
• Application Number:
  US09/012,144
• Time in Patent Office: 4,079 Days
• Field of Search: 348/333, 348/334, 348/231, 348/222, 348/372, 348/333.11, 348/333.12, 348/333.13
• US Class Current: 348/372
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/63 by using electronic viewfinders
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/651 for reducing power consumption by affecting camera operations, e.g. sleep mode, hibernation mode or power off of selective parts of the camera

Abstract

An electronic camera includes a sensor for capturing an image, an electronic image display for displaying the captured image, and a user interface for selectively enabling a quick view feature in which the image display is automatically turned on for a set period of time after an image is captured, and then automatically turned off, in order to quickly review the captured image. The camera further includes a processor for performing processing on the captured image and generating a processed image file therefrom, and a memory for storing the processed image file. When an erase command is provided to the processor, the processing of the image file is terminated and the partially completed image file is deleted from the second memory.

Claims

1. An electronic still camera for capturing and displaying images, said camera comprising:

a shutter button for initiating capture of the images;

a sensor for capturing the images;

a first memory for storing a captured image;

an electronic image display is automatically powered up after the image is captured by the sensor for automatically displaying the captured images from the first memory for a first time interval in response to operation of said shutter button;

a second memory for storing a plurality of processed images;

a processor for processing images from the first memory and storing the processed images as image files in the second memory, said processor operating over a second time interval to process an image;

a user enabled control section coupled to the processor for erasing the image before the end of the second time interval so as to facilitate the capture and processing of another image;

the camera also includes an image display control section to enable the image display to be automatically turned off after displaying the captured image for the first time interval; and

wherein the captured image stored in the first memory is subsampled and stored in the first memory prior to the electronic image display being powered up.

2. The camera as claimed in claim 1 wherein the processor responds to the erase command by terminating the processing and deleting a partially completed image file from the second memory.