Apparatus and method for processing digital images

• US 8,514,254 B2
• Filed: 12/29/2009
• Issued: 08/20/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Joo, Young-Hun, Choi, Min-Seok
• Primary Examiner(s): Amini, Javid A
• Application Number:
  US12/648,460
• Publication Number:
  US 20100164995A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,330 Days
• Field of Search: 345/667, 345/660, 345/670, 345/671, 345/698, 345/629
• US Class Current: 345/667
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/00 General purpose image data processing
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/391 Resolution modifying circuits, e.g. variable screen formats
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/102 characterised by the element, parameter or selection affected or controlled by the adaptive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/156 Availability of hardware or computational resources, e.g. encoding based on power-saving criteria
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/172 the region being a picture, frame or field
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/59 involving spatial sub-sampling or interpolation, e.g. alteration of picture size or resolution
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/60 using transform coding

Abstract

An apparatus and method for processing a digital image are provided, including a decoder that decodes a high-resolution image and outputs the decoded high-resolution image, a resizer that resizes a thumbnail image to a size to be displayed on a display, and a controller that outputs the resized thumbnail image on the display, then replaces the thumbnail image with the decoded high-resolution image.

Claims

1. An apparatus for processing a digital image, the apparatus comprising:

a controller;

a decoder that decodes a high-resolution image from image information and outputs the decoded high-resolution image to a display;

a resizer that resizes a thumbnail image according to a size and resolution of the display and outputs the resized thumbnail image to the display; and

the display that displays the resized thumbnail image, then replaces the thumbnail image with the decoded high-resolution image received from the decoder,

wherein, when replacing the thumbnail image, the thumbnail image and high-resolution image are divided into corresponding blocks, and one block of the thumbnail image is sequentially replaced with the corresponding block of the decoded high-resolution image.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a memory for storing the image information.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the controller determines whether the image information includes the thumbnail image and, if included, provides the thumbnail image to the resizer.

4. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the high-definition image is encoded using one of a sequential method and a progressive method.

5. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the controller determines whether the thumbnail image is included in the image information by checking Exchangeable image file (Exif) information in the image information.

6. A method for processing a digital image using image information, the method comprising:

resizing, at a processor, a thumbnail image from the image information according to a size and resolution of a display;

displaying the resized thumbnail image on the display;

decoding a high-resolution image from the image information; and

replacing the thumbnail image with the decoded high-resolution image by dividing the thumbnail image and high-resolution digital image into corresponding blocks, and sequentially replacing one block of the thumbnail image at a time with the corresponding block of the decoded high-resolution image.

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising determining whether the image information includes the thumbnail image.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the high-definition image is encoded using one of a sequential method and a progressive method.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein determining whether the image information includes the thumbnail image further comprises checking Exchangeable image file (Exif) information in the image information.

10. The method according to claim 8, wherein determining whether the image information includes the thumbnail image further comprises checking Exchangeable image file (Exif) information in the image information.

11. A method for displaying a high-resolution digital image on a mobile terminal, the method comprising:

decoding a high-resolution digital image;

displaying a thumbnail image of the high-resolution image on a display of a mobile terminal while the high-resolution image is being decoded;

replacing the thumbnail image with the decoded high-resolution digital image by dividing the thumbnail image and high-resolution digital image into corresponding blocks, and sequentially replacing one block of the thumbnail image at a time with the corresponding block of the decoded high-resolution image.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising resizing the thumbnail image according to a size and resolution of the display before displaying the thumbnail image.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the high-resolution digital image is a Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) file format.

14. An apparatus for displaying a high-resolution digital image on a mobile terminal, the apparatus comprising:

a decoder that decodes the high-resolution digital image;

a controller that displays a thumbnail image of the high-resolution image on a display of a mobile terminal while the decoder is decoding the high-resolution digital image; and

replaces the thumbnail image with the decoded high-resolution digital image,

wherein the controller divides the thumbnail image and high-resolution digital image into corresponding blocks, and sequentially replaces one block of the thumbnail image at a time with the corresponding block of the high-resolution digital image.

15. The apparatus according to claim 14, further comprising a resizer that resizes the thumbnail image according to a size and resolution of the display before displaying the thumbnail image.

16. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the high-resolution digital image is a Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) file format.