Image taking apparatus and method with display and image storage communication with other image taking apparatus

• US 8,006,276 B2
• Filed: 02/12/2007
• Issued: 08/23/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Nakagawa, Noriaki, Yoshimoto, Kazumi, Koda, Michitomo, Yamaji, Hidenori, Narukawa, Yoshitaka
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran; Sinh
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pasiewicz; Daniel M
• Application Number:
  US11/705,567
• Publication Number:
  US 20070199033A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,653 Days
• Field of Search: 348/14.01, 348/14.02, 348/14.07, 348/211.99, 348/211.8, 34821111-21113, 348/333.05, 348/333.11, 725/105
• US Class Current: 725/105
• 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 1/00159 for sharing images without access restriction, e.g. publishing images
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00161 Viewing or previewing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00164 at a remote location
• 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 1/00278 with a printing apparatus, e.g. a laser beam printer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00347 with another still picture apparatus, e.g. hybrid still picture apparatus circuits or arrangements for control or supervision between image input and image output device H04N1/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0039 Connection via a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0084 Digital still camera

Abstract

Disclosed herein is an image-taking apparatus for taking an image of a subject, which may include: image taking means for taking an image of the subject; communication means for communicating, via a network, with a mate of communication that is another image-taking apparatus; image acquire means for acquiring, via the network, an image taken by a mate of communication; and display means for displaying an image taken by the image taking means and an image taken by a mate of communication onto one screen in a sequence of image taken.

Claims

1. An image-taking apparatus for taking an image of a subject, comprising:

image taking means for taking an image of said subject;

communication means for communicating, via a network, with a mate of communication that is another image-taking apparatus;

storage means for storing images taken by said image taking means;

image acquire means for acquiring, via said network, at least one image from images taken by a mate of communication and stored in said storage means on the mate of communication, said images taken and stored comprising a most recently taken image and previously taken images; and

display means for displaying, simultaneously onto one screen, an image that the image-taking apparatus is about to take and images acquired from the mate of communication, wherein images acquired from the mate of communication are displayed in a time sequence of image taken, wherein an image that is newest in the time sequence is displayed in a size larger than other images acquired from the mate of communication, and the image that the image-taking apparatus is about to take is displayed in a size larger than the image that is newest in the time sequence.

2. The image-taking apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said display means displays an image taken by said image taking means and an image taken by a mate of communication onto one area of said screen in a sequence of image taken.

3. The image-taking apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said display means displays an image taken by said image taking means onto an area allocated to the own image-taking apparatus of said screen and an image taken by a mate of communication onto an area allocated to said mate of communication of said screen in a sequence of image taken.

4. The image-taking apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

list acquire means for acquiring, from a mate of communication, via said network, a list containing an address in a storage medium at which an image taken by said mate of communication is stored,

wherein said image acquire means acquiring, on the basis of said list, an image taken by a mate of communication.

5. The image-taking apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

update means for, when said subject has been taken, updating a list containing an address in a storage media at which an image is stored so as to add an address at which the image acquired by image taking is stored in said storage media; and

list acquire means for acquiring said list;

wherein said image acquire means, if said list of a mate of communication has been updated, acquires an image taken by said mate of communication from an address added to said list of said mate of communication at which said image taken by said mate of communication is stored.

6. The image-taking apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said list contains each image that is content related with a storage location of image data indicative of data about said image, a storage location of thumbnail image data indicative of data about a thumbnail image representative of said image, an encoding algorithm of said image data, and information indicative of a resolution of said image.

7. The image-taking apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said display means displays an image taken by a mate of communication and an image for identifying said mate of communication.

8. The image-taking apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said display means displays an every image taken by a mate of communication with a name of said mate of communication.

9. The image-taking apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said display means still further displays an image of said subject to be taken on a screen on which an image taken by said image taking means and an image taken by a mate of communication is displayed.

10. The image-taking apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising:

controlling means for controlling, when an image taken by said image taking means, an image taken by a mate of communication, and an image of said subject to be taken are displayed, the storing of said image taken by said image taking means into said storage means as instructed by a user of said image-taking apparatus.

15. The image-taking apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

memory means for storing a communication scheme for connecting said image-taking apparatus with said network in a mode of operation that correlates with a mode of operation in which said image-taking apparatus is currently operating;

input means for receiving a request for said correlated mode of operation;

controller means for establishing, responsive to said request, a connection with said mate of communication by;

obtaining said communication scheme from said memory means;

causing said communication means to connect to said network in said correlated mode of operation;

determining whether said mate of communication is in a mode of operation that is in concert with said correlated mode of operation; and

causing said communication means to negotiate said connection with said mate of communication responsive to a determination that said mode of the mate of communication is in concert with said first mode.

11. An image-taking method for an image-taking apparatus for taking an image of a subject, wherein said image-taking apparatus comprises (i) memory means for storing images taken by the image-taking apparatus and for storing a communication scheme for connecting said image-taking apparatus with a network in a mode of operation that correlates with a mode of operation in which said image-taking apparatus is currently operating, and (ii) input means for receiving a request for said correlated mode of operation, the method comprising:

controlling an image taking of said subject;

controlling communication, via a network, with another image-taking apparatus;

establishing, responsive to said request, a connection with said mate of communication by;

obtaining said communication scheme from said memory means;

controlling connection to said network in said correlated mode of operation;

determining whether said mate of communication is in a mode of operation that is in concert with said correlated mode of operation; and

negotiating said connection with said mate of communication responsive to a determination that said mode of the mate of communication is in concert with said first mode;

acquiring, via said network, at least one image from said images taken by said another image-taking apparatus and stored in memory means of the another image-taking apparatus, said images taken comprising a most recently taken image and previously taken images; and

controlling display of an image that the image-taking apparatus is about to take and images acquired from said another image-taking apparatus simultaneously onto one screen in a time sequence of image taken, wherein an image that is newest in the time sequence is displayed in a size larger than other images acquired from said another image-taking apparatus, and the image that the image-taking apparatus is about to take is displayed in a size larger than the image that is newest in the time sequence.

12. An image-taking method for an image-taking apparatus for taking an image of a subject, comprising:

controlling an image taking of said subject;

storing images taken by said image-taking apparatus, said images taken comprising a most recently taken image and previously taken images;

controlling the communication, via a network, with another image-taking apparatus;

updating, when an image of said subject has been taken, a list containing an address in the storage media at which an image is stored so as to add an address at which the image acquired by image taking is stored in said storage media;

acquiring, if said list of said another image-taking apparatus has been updated, an image taken by said mate of communication and stored in said storage media of said another image-taking apparatus from an address added to said list of said mate of communication at which said image taken by said mate of communication is stored; and

controlling the display of an image that the image taking-taking apparatus is about to take and images acquired from said another image-taking apparatus simultaneously onto one screen in a time sequence of image taken, wherein an image that is newest in the time sequence is displayed in a size larger than other images acquired from said another image-taking apparatus, and the image that the image-taking apparatus is about to take is displayed in a size larger than the image that is newest in the time sequence.

16. The image-taking method according to claim 12, wherein said image-taking apparatus comprises (i) memory means for storing a communication scheme for connecting said image-taking apparatus with a network in a mode of operation that correlates with a mode of operation in which said image-taking apparatus is currently operating, and (ii) input means for receiving a request for said correlated mode of operation, the method further comprising:

establishing, responsive to said request, a connection with said mate of communication by;

obtaining said communication scheme from said memory means;

controlling connection to said network in said correlated mode of operation;

determining whether said mate of communication is in a mode of operation that is in concert with said correlated mode of operation; and

negotiating said connection with said mate of communication responsive to a determination that said mode of the mate of communication is in concert with said first mode.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a program for causing a computer to execute image-taking processing of an image-taking apparatus for taking an image of a subject, said program comprising:

controlling at least one image taking of said subject;

storing the at least one images taken in a storage means of the image-taking apparatus;

controlling the communication, via said network, with another image-taking apparatus;

acquiring, via said network, at least one image from images taken by said another image-taking apparatus and stored in said storage means of said another image-taking apparatus, said images taken comprising a most recently taken image and previously taken images; and

controlling the display of an image that the image-taking apparatus is about to take and images acquired from said another image-taking apparatus simultaneously onto one screen in a time sequence of image taken, wherein an image that is newest in the time sequence is displayed in a size larger than other images acquired from said another image-taking apparatus, and the image that the image-taking apparatus is about to take is displayed in a size larger than the image that is newest in the time sequence.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing according to claim 13, wherein said image-taking apparatus comprises (i) memory means for storing a communication scheme for connecting said image-taking apparatus with a network in a mode of operation that correlates with a mode of operation in which said image-taking apparatus is currently operating, and (ii) input means for receiving a request for said correlated mode of operation, said program further comprising executable instructions for:

establishing, responsive to said request, a connection with said mate of communication by;

obtaining said communication scheme from said memory means;

controlling connection to said network in said correlated mode of operation;

determining whether said mate of communication is in a mode of operation that is in concert with said correlated mode of operation; and

negotiating said connection with said mate of communication responsive to a determination that said mode of the mate of communication is in concert with said first mode.

14. An image-taking apparatus for taking an image of a subject, comprising:

an image taking section configured to take at least one image of said subject;

a storage section configured to store the at least one image taken;

a communication section configured to communicate, via a network, with a mate of communication that is another image-taking apparatus;

an image acquiring section configured to acquire, via said network, an image from images taken by a mate of communication and stored in said storage section of the mate of communication, said images taken comprising a most recently taken image and previously taken images; and

a display section configured to display an image that the image taking section is about to take and images acquired from the mate of communication simultaneously onto one screen in a time sequence of image taking, wherein an image that is newest in the time sequence is displayed in a size larger than other images acquired from the mate of communication, and the image that the image taking section is about to take is displayed in a size larger than the image that is newest in the time sequence.

18. The image-taking apparatus according to claim 14, further comprising:

memory configured to store a communication scheme for connecting said image-taking apparatus with said network in a mode of operation that correlates with a mode of operation in which said image-taking apparatus is currently operating;

an input configured to receive a request for said correlated mode of operation;

a controller configured to cause said communication section to establish, responsive to said request, a connection with said mate of communication by;

obtaining said communication scheme from said memory means;

causing said communication means to connect to said network in said correlated mode of operation;

determining whether said mate of communication is in a mode of operation that is in concert with said correlated mode of operation; and

causing said communication means to negotiate said connection with said mate of communication responsive to a determination that said mode of the mate of communication is in concert with said first mode.