Apparatus and method for creating digital collage

• US 8,126,192 B2
• Filed: 09/13/2007
• Issued: 02/28/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Sagoo, KiranPal, Lee, Ju-youn
• Primary Examiner(s): KOZIOL, STEPHEN R
• Application Number:
  US11/854,851
• Publication Number:
  US 20080205694A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,629 Days
• Field of Search: 382/100, 382/276, 707/1, 715/750
• US Class Current: 382/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/34 Indicating arrangements indicating means incorporated in magazine or cassette G11B23/046 and G11B23/0875; indicating measured values in general G01D

Abstract

A method and apparatus for creating a digital collage, the apparatus including a sending/receiving unit and a creating unit, the sending/receiving unit receiving contents from a plurality of slave devices, and the creating unit merging the received contents in a predetermined form to create the digital collage.

Claims

1. An apparatus for creating a digital collage, the apparatus comprising:

a sending/receiving unit of a host device which sends a message requesting contents to a plurality of slave devices that are selected by a user of the apparatus, and which receives contents from a plurality of slave devices; and

a creating unit which merges the received contents according to a preset form that is based on an intended recipient of the digital collage, to create the digital collage,

wherein each of the plurality of slave devices that are selected by the user of the apparatus accept or refuse to make the contents for the digital collage, the sending/receiving unit receives contents from the plurality of slave devices that accept to make the contents for the digital collage, and the sending/receiving unit further sends the created digital collage to the intended recipient based on a user selection.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a sync unit which synchronizes a creation date of the digital collage with the digital collage or synchronizes the creation date of a part of the digital collage contributed by each of the members who participated in creating the digital collage, and stores the synchronized digital collage.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a control unit which determines whether or not the received contents are from the slave devices that received a request message from the host device.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the slave devices are mobile devices.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the contents include at least one of text, icons, images, or video.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the creating unit includes an effect unit that applies a predetermined effect to the digital collage or the contents.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

an output unit which outputs at least one of the digital collage, the contents, or information about members who participate in creating the digital collage.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein when a pointer is placed on a predetermined part of the digital collage, the output unit outputs information of a member who made content corresponding to the part.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein when a certain date is selected, the output unit outputs the digital collage which is synchronized with the date.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the digital collage is formed as an image file, video file, or an application file.

11. An apparatus for creating a digital collage using a story template, the apparatus comprising:

a sending/receiving unit which sends a message requesting contents to a plurality of slave devices that are selected by a user of the apparatus, and which receives contents that are created by the plurality of slave devices in which each respective slave device selects one or more objects from the story template; and

a creating unit which creates the digital collage using the received contents according to a preset form that is based on the story template,

wherein each of the plurality of slave devices that are selected by the user of the apparatus accept or refuse to make the contents for the digital collage, the sending/receiving unit receives contents from the plurality of slave devices that accept to make the contents for the digital collage, and the sending/receiving unit further sends the created digital collage to an intended recipient based on a user selection.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the story template includes at least one of background images, characters, music, dialogue boxes, or photo images.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the creating unit includes an arranging unit that merges a plurality of the contents in a predetermined form.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the story template is sent sequentially to a plurality of slave devices according to a sequence created using a host device.

15. A method of creating a digital collage using a story template, the method comprising:

receiving user input that selects a plurality of slave devices to send a message requesting contents of the story;

sending the message requesting contents to the plurality of slave devices that are selected by a user;

receiving contents that are created by the plurality of slave devices in which each respective slave device selects one or more objects from the story template;

creating the digital collage using the received contents according to a preset form that is based on the story template; and

sending the created digital collage to an intended recipient based on a user selection,

wherein each of the plurality of slave devices that are selected by the user accept or refuse to make the contents for the digital collage, and the receiving contents comprises receiving contents from the plurality of slave devices that accept to make the contents for the digital collage.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the story template includes at least one of background images, characters, music, dialogue boxes, and photo images.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the creating of the digital collage includes merging a plurality of contents in a predetermined form.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the story template is sent sequentially to a plurality of slave devices according to an sequence created using a host device.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising sending the story template to a second slave device from a first slave device which has finished producing assigned contents.