Image reproduction apparatus and image reproduction program product

• US 8,176,426 B2
• Filed: 09/27/2005
• Issued: 05/08/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nikon Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nikon Corporation
• Inventors: Mitsuhashi, Setsu
• Primary Examiner(s): Theriault, Steven B
• Application Number:
  US11/235,050
• Publication Number:
  US 20060069999A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,415 Days
• Field of Search: 715730-732, 345/473, 386/285
• US Class Current: 715/730
• 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 1/00198 Creation of a soft photo presentation, e.g. digital slide-show

Abstract

An image reproduction apparatus that sequentially reproduces and displays a plurality of images, includes: a display effect setting unit that sets a display effect for each image based upon image data of the image stored in a storage means; and a display unit that reproduces and displays the image with the display effect set by the display effect setting unit when sequentially reproducing and displaying the plurality of images.

Claims

1. An image reproduction apparatus that sequentially reproduces and displays a plurality of images of a slideshow, the apparatus comprising:

a display effect setting unit that analyzes with image processing image data of one of the plurality of images of the slideshow stored in a storage device to set a display effect of the one of the plurality of images of the slideshow, the display effect setting the one of the plurality of images in motion on display; and

a display unit that reproduces and displays the one of the plurality of images in motion with the display effect set by the display effect setting unit when sequentially reproducing and displaying the plurality of images of the slideshow, wherein;

the display effect setting unit comprises;

a directionality judging unit that judges directionality of a subject present in the one of the plurality of images, the directionality judging unit judging the directionality of the subject present in the one of the plurality of images based on a number and a direction of edges within the one of the plurality of images, and

a shifting direction setting unit that sets a shifting direction along which the one of the plurality of images is to be shifted for reproduced image display based upon the directionality of the subject present in the one of the plurality of images judged by the directionality judging unit; and

the display effect setting unit selects as the display effect for the one of the plurality of images a shifting image display achieved by shifting the one of the plurality of images along the shifting direction set by the shifting direction setting unit.

2. The image reproduction apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one of the plurality of images comprises a number of horizontal edges and a number of vertical edges, the directionality being judged based on whether the number of horizontal edges is greater than a number of vertical edges.

3. An image reproduction apparatus that sequentially reproduces and displays a plurality of images of a slideshow, the apparatus comprising:

a display effect setting unit that analyzes with image processing image data of one of the plurality of images of the slideshow stored in a storage device to set a display effect of the one of the plurality of images of the slideshow, the display effect setting the one of the plurality of images in motion on display; and

a display unit that reproduces and displays the one of the plurality of images in motion with the display effect set by the display effect setting unit when sequentially reproducing and displaying the plurality of images of the slideshow, wherein;

the display effect setting unit comprises a main subject identifying unit that detects a person'"'"'s face present in the one of the plurality of images and identifies the person'"'"'s face as a main subject;

the display effect setting unit selects as the display effect for the one of the plurality of images zoom-in and/or zoom-out relative to the main subject identified by the main subject identifying unit; and

the main subject identifying unit detects a plurality of faces in the one of the plurality of images and calculates an area occupied by each of the faces, the greatest area of the calculated areas being identified as the main subject.

4. An image reproduction apparatus that sequentially reproduces and displays a plurality of images of a slideshow, the apparatus comprising:

a display effect setting unit that analyzes with image processing image data of one of the plurality of images of the slideshow stored in a storage device to set a display effect of the one of the plurality of images of the slideshow, the display effect setting the one of the plurality of images in motion on display; and

a display unit that reproduces and displays the one of the plurality of images in motion with the display effect set by the display effect setting unit when sequentially reproducing and displaying the plurality of images of the slideshow, wherein;

the display effect setting unit comprises a main subject identifying unit that detects an alphanumeric character present in the one of the plurality of images and identifying the alphanumeric character as a main subject; and

the display effect setting unit selects as the display effect for the one of the plurality of images zoom-in and/or zoom-out relative to the main subject identified by the main subject identifying unit.

5. The image reproduction apparatus of claim 4, wherein the main subject identifying unit detects the alphanumeric character by optical character recognition.

6. The image reproduction apparatus of claim 4, wherein the main subject identifying unit detects a plurality of alphanumeric characters in the one of the plurality of images and calculates a size of each character, a largest character being identified as the main subject.

7. An image reproduction apparatus that sequentially reproduces and displays a plurality of images of a slideshow, the apparatus comprising:

a display effect setting unit that sets a display effect of the one of the plurality of images of the slideshow, the display effect setting the one of the plurality of images in motion on display; and

a display unit that reproduces and displays the one of the plurality of images in motion with the display effect set by the display effect setting unit when sequentially reproducing and displaying the plurality of images of the slideshow, wherein

the display effect setting unit comprises a main subject identifying unit that detects a main subject from a title of the one of the plurality of images; and

the display effect setting unit selects as the display effect for the one of the plurality of images zoom-in and/or zoom-out relative to the main subject identified by the main subject identifying unit.

8. An image reproduction apparatus that sequentially reproduces and displays a plurality of images of a slideshow, the apparatus comprising:

a display effect setting unit that sets a display effect of the one of the plurality of images of the slideshow, the display effect setting the one of the plurality of images in motion on display; and

a display unit that reproduces and displays the one of the plurality of images in motion with the display effect set by the display effect setting unit when sequentially reproducing and displaying the plurality of images of the slideshow, wherein;

the display effect setting unit comprises a main subject identifying unit that detects a distance from a focus point of a camera that captured the one of the plurality of images to areas containing objects present in the one of the plurality of images and identifies an area containing an object closest to the camera as a main subject; and

the display effect setting unit selects as the display effect for the one of the plurality of images zoom-in and/or zoom-out relative to the main subject identified by the main subject identifying unit.

9. An image reproduction apparatus that sequentially reproduces and displays a plurality of images of a slideshow, the apparatus comprising:

a display effect setting unit that sets a display effect of the one of the plurality of images of the slideshow, the display effect setting the one of the plurality of images in motion on display; and

a display unit that reproduces and displays the one of the plurality of images in motion with the display effect set by the display effect setting unit when sequentially reproducing and displaying the plurality of images of the slideshow, wherein;

the display effect setting unit comprises a main subject identifying unit that detects a first distance from a camera that captured the one of the plurality of images to a focus position of the camera when a shutter button is pressed half way down and a second distance from the camera to areas containing objects present in the one of the plurality of images when the shutter button is pressed completely down and identifies an area containing an object at a second distance closest to the focus position as a main subject such that a difference between the first distance and the second distance is minimized; and

the display effect setting unit selects as the display effect for the one of the plurality of images zoom-in and/or zoom-out relative to the main subject identified by the main subject identifying unit.

10. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium that stores instructions for controlling an image reproduction apparatus that sequentially reproduces and displays a plurality of images of a slideshow, the instructions comprising:

setting a display effect by analyzing, with image processing, image data of one of the plurality of images of the slideshow stored in a storage device to set a display effect of the one of the plurality of images of the slideshow, the display effect setting the one of the plurality of images in motion on display; and

reproducing and displaying the one of the plurality of images in motion with the display effect set when sequentially reproducing and displaying the plurality of images of the slideshow, wherein;

the setting the display effect comprises;

judging directionality of a subject present in the one of the plurality of images based on a number and a direction of edges within the one of the plurality of images, and

setting a shifting direction along which the one of the plurality of images is to be shifted for reproduced image display based upon the directionality of the subject present in the one of the plurality of images the directionality judged; and

the display effect is selected as the display effect for the one of the plurality of images by selecting a shifting image display achieved by shifting the one of the plurality of images along the shifting direction set by the setting the shifting direction.

11. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium that stores instructions for controlling an image reproduction apparatus that sequentially reproduces and displays a plurality of images of a slideshow, the instructions comprising:

setting a display effect by analyzing, with image processing, image data of one of the plurality of images of the slideshow stored in a storage device to set a display effect of the one of the plurality of images of the slideshow, the display effect setting the one of the plurality of images in motion on display; and

reproducing and displaying the one of the plurality of images in motion with the display effect set when sequentially reproducing and displaying the plurality of images of the slideshow, wherein;

the setting the display effect comprises;

identifying a main subject by detecting a person'"'"'s face present in the one of the plurality of images and identifying the person'"'"'s face as the main subject;

selecting as the display effect for the one of the plurality of images zoom-in and/or zoom-out relative to the main subject identified; and

the identifying the main subject includes detecting a plurality of faces in the one of the plurality of images and calculating an area occupied by each of the faces, the greatest area of the calculated areas being identified as the main subject.

12. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium that stores instructions for controlling an image reproduction apparatus that sequentially reproduces and displays a plurality of images of a slideshow, the instructions comprising:

setting a display effect by analyzing, with image processing, image data of one of the plurality of images of the slideshow stored in a storage device to set a display effect of the one of the plurality of images of the slideshow, the display effect setting the one of the plurality of images in motion on display; and

reproducing and displaying the one of the plurality of images in motion with the display effect set when sequentially reproducing and displaying the plurality of images of the slideshow, wherein;

the setting the display effect comprises;

identifying a main subject by detecting an alphanumeric character present in the one of the plurality of images and identifying the alphanumeric character as a main subject; and

selecting as the display effect for the one of the plurality of images zoom-in and/or zoom-out relative to the main subject identified.

13. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium that stores instructions for controlling an image reproduction apparatus that sequentially reproduces and displays a plurality of images of a slideshow, the instructions comprising:

setting a display effect of the one of the plurality of images of the slideshow by setting the one of the plurality of images in motion on display; and

reproducing and displaying the one of the plurality of images in motion with the display effect set when sequentially reproducing and displaying the plurality of images of the slideshow, wherein

the setting the display effect comprises;

identifying a main subject by detecting a main subject from a title of the one of the plurality of images; and

selecting as the display effect for the one of the plurality of images zoom-in and/or zoom-out relative to the main subject identified by the main subject identifying unit.

14. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium that stores instructions for controlling an image reproduction apparatus that sequentially reproduces and displays a plurality of images of a slideshow, the instructions comprising:

setting a display effect of the one of the plurality of images of the slideshow by setting the one of the plurality of images in motion on display; and

reproducing and displaying the one of the plurality of images in motion with the display effect set when sequentially reproducing and displaying the plurality of images of the slideshow, wherein;

the setting the display effect comprises;

identifying a main subject by detecting a distance from a focus point of a camera that captured the one of the plurality of images to areas containing objects present in the one of the plurality of images and identifying an area containing an object closest to the camera as a main subject; and

selecting as the display effect for the one of the plurality of images zoom-in and/or zoom-out relative to the main subject identified.

15. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium that stores instructions for controlling an image reproduction apparatus that sequentially reproduces and displays a plurality of images of a slideshow, the instructions comprising:

setting a display effect of the one of the plurality of images of the slideshow by setting the one of the plurality of images in motion on display; and

reproducing and displaying the one of the plurality of images in motion with the display effect set when sequentially reproducing and displaying the plurality of images of the slideshow, wherein;

the setting the display effect comprises;

identifying a main subject by detecting a first distance from a camera that captured the one of the plurality of images to a focus position of the camera when a shutter button is pressed half way down and a second distance from the camera to areas containing objects present in the one of the plurality of images when the shutter button is pressed completely down and identifying an area containing an object at a second distance closest to the focus position as a main subject such that a difference between the first distance and the second distance is minimized; and

selecting as the display effect for the one of the plurality of images zoom-in and/or zoom-out relative to the main subject identified.