Photography system

• US 20040066455A1
• Filed: 10/08/2002
• Published: 04/08/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Shutterfly, LLC
• Original Assignee: Lifetouch Incorporated (Shutterfly, LLC)
• Inventors: Holmes, Jon A.
• Granted Patent: US 7,446,800 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/207.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00127 Connection or combination of a still picture apparatus with another apparatus, e.g. for storage, processing or transmission of still picture signals or of information associated with a still picture
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00129 with a display device, e.g. CRT or LCD monitor with a television apparatus H04N1/00283; arrangements for control of display devices G09G
• 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 1/00148 Storage information retrieval G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00167 Processing or editing H04N1/00196 - H04N1/00201 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00172 directly from a still digital camera or from a storage medium mounted in a still digital camera H04N1/0018 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00188 Printing, e.g. prints or reprints H04N1/0019, H04N1/00196 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00193 to a portable storage medium, e.g. a read-writable compact disk
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00204 with a digital computer or a digital computer system, e.g. an internet server programmed control between transmitter and receiver or between image input and image output device H04N1/32561
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00278 with a printing apparatus, e.g. a laser beam printer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00286 with studio circuitry, devices or equipment, e.g. television cameras television studio circuitry, devices or equipment per se H04N5/222
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00326 with a data reading, recognizing or recording apparatus, e.g. with a bar-code apparatus arrangements for the associated working of recording or reproducing apparatus with related apparatus G11B31/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00334 with an apparatus processing barcodes or the like arrangements for sensing record carriers G06K7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0041 Point to point H04N2201/0039 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0049 By wire, cable or the like
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0075 by a user operated remote control device, e.g. receiving instructions from a user via a computer terminal or mobile telephone handset
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0084 Digital still camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3242 of processing required or performed, e.g. for reproduction or before recording H04N2201/3256 and subgroups take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3247 Data linking a set of images to one another, e.g. sequence, burst or continuous capture mode
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/51 Housings
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/64 : Computer-aided capture of images, e.g. transfer from script file into camera, check of taken image quality, advice or proposal for image composition or decision on when to take image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/66 : Remote control of cameras or camera parts, e.g. by remote control devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/80 : Camera processing pipelines; Components thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/222 : Studio circuitry; Studio devices; Studio equipment cameras or camera modules comprising electronic image sensors, or control thereof H04N23/00

Abstract

A photographic processing system is disclosed in which subject and other data is stored in a database and such data is automatically linked to photographs taken using either a film or digital camera.

Claims

1. A photography system comprising:

(a) an editable database containing subject data related to a plurality of subjects;

(b) a computer capable of retrieving data from said database related to a particular subject; and

(c) a camera coupled to said computer capable of taking a photograph of said particular subject wherein said photograph is stored in a frame and said camera and said computer cooperate to create and store a link between said frame and data in said database related to said particular subject.

2. A photography system comprising

(a) an editable database containing subject data related to a plurality of subjects;

(b) a computer capable of retrieving data from said database related to any of said plurality of subjects;

(c) a camera coupled to said computer capable of taking a photograph of a group including at least one of said plurality of subjects and storing said photograph in a frame, wherein said camera and computer cooperate to create and store a link between said frame and the subject data related to said at least one of said plurality of subjects.

3. The photography system of claim 2 wherein said camera and computer cooperate to create and store a plurality of links between said frame and the subject data for each of a plurality of subjects included n said group.

4. A photographic system comprising:

(a) a camera capable of taking photographs of a subject, said photographs stored in frames;

(b) an output device;

(c) an editable database; and

(d) a computer capable of communicating with said camera and with said output device and also capable of accessing said editable database, wherein said editable database includes subject data for each of a plurality of subjects, data linking each frame to the subject data of at least one subject shown in the photograph stored in said frame; and

order data linked to a subject and a frame such that the computer controls the output device to create representations of said photographs as directed by said order data.

5. The photographic system of claim 4 wherein said output device is a display.

6. The photographic system of claim 4 wherein said output device is a printer.

7. The photographic system of claim 4 wherein said output device is a disk drive.

8. The photographic system of claim 7 wherein said disk drive is a compact disk recorder.

9. The photographic system of claim 4 wherein said output device comprises a connection to a network of computers.

10. The photograph system of claim 4 when said output device is a solid state memory device.

11. A system for storing digital representations of photographic images and linking said digital representations to a database comprising:

(a) a digital camera for capturing digital representations of photographic images, said camera having a memory in which said digital representations are temporarily stored;

(b) a computer coupled to said digital camera, said computer capable of accessing the database and having a memory with a plurality of first-in/first-out memory slots;

(c) a sensor coupled to said digital camera and said computer that senses each time the digital camera captures a digital representation of a photographic image and sends a signal to the computer in response, wherein said computer (i) in response to each such signal received from the sensor creates an image file name and subject/image link and stores the image file name and subject/image link in the first available of said first-in/first-out memory slots;

(ii) periodically determines whether the digital camera has a digital representation of a photographic image in its memory; and

(iii) when the digital camera has a digital representation of a photographic image in its memory, reads the oldest saved image file name and subject/image link stored in said first-in/first-out memory slots, retrieves the oldest digital representation of a photographic image still in the digital camera'"'"'s memory, processes and stores the digital representation of the photographic image retrieved from the camera per said file name and stores said image file name and said subject/image link in the database.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein any digital representation of a photographic image retrieved by the computer is deleted from the memory of the digital camera.

13. The system of claim 11 when once the oldest saved image file name and subject/image link have been read from the first-in/first-out memory slots, they are deleted from the first-in/first-out memory slots.

14. A method for capturing digital representations of photographic images using a digital camera and linking those images to a database using a computer, comprising:

(a) using the digital camera to collect and temporarily store in an internal memory a plurality of digital representations of photographic images;

(b) using a sensor coupled to the digital camera and the computer to send a signal to the computer each time the digital camera collects a digital representation of a photographic image;

(c) using the computer to automatically create an image file name and a subject/image link and storing the image file name and subject/image link in a first-in/first-out memory of the computer upon receipt by the computer of each of said signals from said sensor;

(d) automatically and periodically determining whether the digital camera has a digital representation of a photographic image in its memory;

(e) whenever it is determined that the digital camera has a digital representation in its memory, using the computer to (i) read the oldest saved image file name and subject/image link stored in said first-in/first-out memory slots;

(ii) retrieve the oldest digital representation of a photographic image still in the digital camera'"'"'s memory; and

(iii) process and store the retrieved digital representation of the photographic image per said image file name and store said image file name and said subject/image link in the database.

15. The method of claim 14 further including the steps of deleting from the memory of the digital camera any digital representation of a photographic image retrieved by the computer.

16. The method of claim 14 further including the step of deleting from the first-in/first-out slot any image file name and subject/image link read out of said memory by said computer.