Mobile terminal and control method thereof for displaying image cluster differently in an image gallery mode

• US 9,503,631 B2
• Filed: 02/11/2015
• Issued: 11/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Lee, Jungmin, Yi, Suhjin
• Primary Examiner(s): Giles, Nicholas
• Application Number:
  US14/619,907
• Publication Number:
  US 20150229850A1
• Time in Patent Office: 650 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/215 Recording a sequence of still pictures, e.g. burst mode
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/45 for generating image signals from two or more image sensors being of different type or operating in different modes, e.g. with a CMOS sensor for moving images in combination with a charge-coupled device [CCD] for still images
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/62 Control of parameters via user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/631 Graphical user interfaces [GUI] specially adapted for controlling image capture or setting capture parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/2625 for obtaining an image which is composed of images from a temporal image sequence, e.g. for a stroboscopic effect sequence generated by event triggered capturing H04N7/188

Abstract

A mobile terminal including a display unit; at least one camera; and a controller configured to perform first and second continuous shooting operations using the at least one camera for capturing a plurality of first images in the first continuous shooting operation and capturing a plurality of second images in the second continuous shooting operation, generate a combined image by combining a first image cluster generated from the plurality of first images and a second image cluster generated from the plurality of second images, and distinctively display the first and the second image clusters on the display unit.

Claims

1. A mobile terminal, comprising:

a display unit;

at least one camera; and

a controller configured to;

perform a single shooting operation using the at least one camera for capturing an ordinary image,

perform a continuous shooting operation using the at least one camera for capturing a plurality of images in the continuous shooting operation,

generate an image cluster by combining overlapping portions among the plurality of images, and

display thumbnails including at least one thumbnail of the image cluster and at least one thumbnail of the ordinary image in an image gallery mode,

wherein at least one of a size and shape of the at least one thumbnail of the image cluster is different from at least one of a size and shape of the at least one thumbnail of the ordinary image according to states of images constituting the image cluster.

2. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to change at least one of at least one shooting speed of the continuous shooting operation or at least one of a number of times for continuous shooting of the continuous shooting operation according to a touch input on the display unit.

3. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the state of an image includes at least one of a number of images forming the image cluster or a degree of motion of an object included in the image.

4. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to:

display a part of a thumbnail of the image cluster according to a size of the image cluster on the display unit, and

display another part of the thumbnail subsequently to the part of the thumbnail on the display unit according to a touch input.

7. The mobile terminal of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to:

perform first and second continuous shooting operations using the at least one camera for capturing a plurality of first images in the first continuous shooting operation and capturing a plurality of second images in the second continuous shooting operation,

generate a first image cluster from the plurality of first images and a second image cluster from the plurality of second images,

generate a combined image by combining the first image cluster and the second image cluster, and

distinctively display the first and the second image clusters on the display unit.

8. The mobile terminal of claim 7, wherein the controller is further configured to distinguish the first and the second image cluster from each other in the combined image by indicating an identifier including at least one of a line representing a boundary between the first and the second image clusters or at least one of changes of color, brightness, and chrominance of at least one region of the first and the second image clusters.

9. The mobile terminal of claim 7, wherein the controller is further configured to display at least one image with a different attribute stored in a memory to be distinguished from the combined image.

10. The mobile terminal of claim 7, wherein the controller is further configured to display a plurality of images forming the combined image on the display unit continuously.

11. The mobile terminal of claim 7, wherein the controller is further configured to manipulate an image displayed on the display unit among a plurality of images constituting the combined image in response to a touch input on the combined image.

12. The mobile terminal of claim 11, wherein the manipulation includes at least one of deletion of the displayed image, addition of a new image before or after the displayed image, or change of sharpness of the displayed image.

13. The mobile terminal of claim 7, wherein the controller is further configured to determine whether to generate the combined image combining the first and the second image clusters together based on at least one of a time interval with which the first and the second image cluster are photographed, a degree of commonality of a photographed object in the first and the second image clusters, or a degree of commonality of a photographed background in the first and the second image clusters.

14. The mobile terminal of claim 7, wherein, based on a touch motion on at least one of the first and a second image clusters forming the combined image, the controller is further configured to display on the display unit an image corresponding to the first or second image cluster to which the touch motion has been applied.

15. The mobile terminal of claim 7, wherein, based on a touch motion on at least one of the first and a second image clusters forming the combined image, the controller is further configured to display the first or second image cluster to which the touch motion has been applied separately from the combined image.

16. The mobile terminal of claim 7, wherein the controller is further configured to distinguish the first and the second image clusters from each other in the combined image by indicating an identifier including at least one of a line representing a boundary between the first and the second image clusters or at least one of changes of color, brightness, and chrominance of at least one display region of the first and the second image clusters.

5. A method of controlling a mobile terminal, the method comprising:

performing a single shooting operation using at least one camera for capturing an ordinary image;

performing a continuous shooting operation using the at least one camera for capturing a plurality of images in the continuous shooting operation;

generating, via a controller, an image cluster by combining overlapping portions among the plurality of images; and

displaying thumbnails including at least one thumbnail of the image cluster and at least one thumbnail of the ordinary image in an image gallery mode,

wherein at least one of a size and shape of the at least one thumbnail of the image cluster is different from at least one of a size and shape of the at least one thumbnail of the ordinary image according to states of images constituting the image cluster.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

changing at least one of at least one shooting speed of the continuous shooting operation or at least one of a number of times for continuous shooting of the continuous shooting operation according to a touch input on the display unit.

17. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

performing first and second continuous shooting operations using the at least one camera capturing a plurality of first images in the first continuous shooting operation and capturing a plurality of second images in the second continuous shooting operation;

generating, via the controller, a first image cluster from the plurality of first images and s second image cluster from the plurality of second images;

generating, via the controller, a combined image by combining the first image cluster and the second image cluster; and

distinctively displaying the first and the second image clusters on a display unit.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

distinguishing the first and the second image clusters from each other in the combined image by indicating an identifier including at least one of a line representing a boundary between the first and the second image clusters or at least one of changes of color, brightness, and chrominance of at least one display region of the first and the second image clusters.