Automatic upload of pictures from a camera
First Claim
1. A system comprising:
- (a) a portable device that is operable to take and store pictures, and that includes a lens, a plurality of microphones, and a controller coupled to each of;
i) an image sensor,ii) a voice-recognition unit,iii) a touch sensitive display screen,iv) a wireless network interface, andv) a local memory;
(b) the controller including a control program having instructions to control and respond to at least the voice recognition unit, the touch sensitive display screen, and the wireless network interface;
(c) wherein the voice-recognition unit is coupled to at least two microphones, and is configured to (i) receive and process sounds transduced by the at least two microphones, (ii) apply a voice-recognition algorithm based on the energy detected at each of two microphones, and (iii) recognizes a first human spoken word as a specific word that is assigned by the control program to be a voice-activated command for the camera; and
(d) wherein the controller is configured to;
(i) receive a command from a user and in response to the received command, to cause the system to take a picture by collecting data from the image sensor;
(ii) store information related to the data collected from the image sensor comprising a picture in local memory; and
(iii) automatically back up the picture information stored in local memory to a user-instructed internet picture hosting website via the wireless network interface, upon the controller receiving at least;
(1) an indication from the wireless network interface that the system can make an internet connection via the wireless network interface; and
(2) an indication from the local memory that the picture information stored in local memory is designated to be backed-up to the user-instructed internet picture hosting website; and
(e) the controller automatically causing an email to be sent to a particular email account regarding the picture.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method is disclosed for enabling user friendly interaction with a camera system. Specifically, the inventive system and method has several aspects to improve the interaction with a camera system, including voice recognition, gaze tracking, touch sensitive inputs and others. The voice recognition unit is operable for, among other things, receiving multiple different voice commands, recognizing the vocal commands, associating the different voice commands to one camera command and controlling at least some aspect of the digital camera operation in response to these voice commands. The gaze tracking unit is operable for, among other things, determining the location on the viewfinder image that the user is gazing upon. Another aspect of the invention provides for gesture recognition to be used to interface with and control the camera system.
69 Citations
41 Claims
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1. A system comprising:
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(a) a portable device that is operable to take and store pictures, and that includes a lens, a plurality of microphones, and a controller coupled to each of; i) an image sensor, ii) a voice-recognition unit, iii) a touch sensitive display screen, iv) a wireless network interface, and v) a local memory; (b) the controller including a control program having instructions to control and respond to at least the voice recognition unit, the touch sensitive display screen, and the wireless network interface; (c) wherein the voice-recognition unit is coupled to at least two microphones, and is configured to (i) receive and process sounds transduced by the at least two microphones, (ii) apply a voice-recognition algorithm based on the energy detected at each of two microphones, and (iii) recognizes a first human spoken word as a specific word that is assigned by the control program to be a voice-activated command for the camera; and (d) wherein the controller is configured to; (i) receive a command from a user and in response to the received command, to cause the system to take a picture by collecting data from the image sensor; (ii) store information related to the data collected from the image sensor comprising a picture in local memory; and (iii) automatically back up the picture information stored in local memory to a user-instructed internet picture hosting website via the wireless network interface, upon the controller receiving at least; (1) an indication from the wireless network interface that the system can make an internet connection via the wireless network interface; and (2) an indication from the local memory that the picture information stored in local memory is designated to be backed-up to the user-instructed internet picture hosting website; and (e) the controller automatically causing an email to be sent to a particular email account regarding the picture. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method of operating a portable photographic device that includes a controller coupled to each of i) an image sensor, ii) a voice-recognition unit, iii) a touch sensitive display screen, iv) a wireless network interface, v) a local memory, and vi) a voice recognition unit that is coupled to at least two microphones, comprising the acts of:
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(a) the voice recognition unit processing sounds transduced by the at least two microphones, the processing including at least the operations of (i) determining the energy detected at each of the two microphones and (ii) recognizing a first human spoken word as a specific word that is assigned by the control program to be a voice-activated command for the camera; (b) the controller, in response to receiving a command to take a picture, collecting picture data from the image sensor and storing information related to the picture data in local memory; (c) thereafter, the controller automatically uploading the picture data stored in local memory to a user-instructed location at an internet picture hosting website via the wireless network interface upon the controller receiving at least; (1) an indication from the wireless network interface that the portable photographic device can make an internet connection via the wireless network interface; and (2) an indication from the local memory that the picture data in local memory has been designated to be uploaded to the user-instructed location at the internet picture hosting website; and (d) the controller automatically causing an email to be sent to a particular email account regarding the picture data. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A camera system comprising:
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(a) a camera that is operable to take and store pictures, and includes;
(i) a lens, (ii) an image sensor, (iii) at least one microphone, (iv) a voice recognizer, (v) a camera controller, (vi) a wireless network interface, and (vii) a touch sensitive display;(b) the camera controller including a control program having instructions to control and respond to the voice recognizer; (c) the voice recognizer coupled to, and configured to receive and process sounds transduced by, the at least one microphone to recognize human spoken words as words associated with a specified command to be performed by the camera controller; (d) the camera controller configured to; (i) cause the camera to perform the specific command associated with the spoken word recognized by the voice recognizer; (ii) cause the system to take a plurality of pictures by collecting data from the image sensor and storing the pictures in a local memory of the camera; and (iii) automatically upload pictures stored in the local memory of the camera via the wireless network interface to a location at an internet picture hosting website as instructed by a user of the camera, but only if defined predetermined conditions are met, the predetermined conditions including at least the camera controller receiving; (1) an indication from the wireless network interface that the system can make an internet connection via the wireless network interface; and (2) an indication that some of the pictures stored in local memory are designated by a user to be uploaded to the internet picture hosting website. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
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Specification