Electronic camera with reproduction and display of images at the same timing

• US 5,963,204 A
• Filed: 09/19/1997
• Issued: 10/05/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Nikon Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nikon Corporation
• Inventors: Kazami, Kazuyuki, Ikeda, Osamu, Toyoda, Kenji, Yokonuma, Norikazu
• Primary Examiner(s): Bayerl, Raymond J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Thai, Cuong T.
• Application Number:
  US08/934,074
• Time in Patent Office: 746 Days
• Field of Search: 345/302, 345/327, 345/328, 345/348, 345/349, 345/354, 345/972, 345/977, 386/69, 386/70, 386/117, 348/333, 348/334, 348/341, 358/909.1, 358/906
• US Class Current: 715/723
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/10 Indexing; Addressing; Timing or synchronising; Measuring tape travel
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/34 Indicating arrangements indicating means incorporated in magazine or cassette G11B23/046 and G11B23/0875; indicating measured values in general G01D
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/2624 for obtaining an image which is composed of whole input images, e.g. splitscreen
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/772 the recording apparatus and the television camera being placed in the same enclosure
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/85 on discs or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/9261 involving data reduction
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 358/906 Hand-held camera with recorder in a single unit

Abstract

An electronic camera with an image reproducing apparatus which starts concurrently reproducing a plurality of motion images at the same timing includes a display which displays on a screen a plurality of thumbnails (symbols) respectively corresponding to a plurality of motion images recorded on a recording medium, and a selector which selects some of the thumbnails displayed by the display in accordance with an external selecting operation. A reproducing device starts reproducing a plurality of motion images respectively corresponding to the thumbnails selected by the selector at the same timing in accordance with an external reproducing operation. The motion images reproduced by the reproducing device are displayed in the form of an array on the screen.

Claims

1. An electronic camera comprising, in one portable unit:

a photoelectric convertor to convert an image into output electronic image information;

a recording medium to store the electronic image information as a motion image file;

a display to display a plurality of symbols respectively representing a plurality of the motion image files on a display screen;

a selecting device to select some of the symbols displayed by the display in accordance with an external selecting operation;

a reproducing device to reproduce motion image files respectively corresponding to the symbols selected by the selecting device at the same time in accordance with an external reproducing operation; and

an array display device to display an array of the motion image files reproduced by said reproducing device on the display screen.

2. An electronic camera according to claim 1, wherein said array display device changes display regions of motion image files to be displayed in the form of an array in accordance with the number of motion image files to be reproduced by said reproducing device.

3. An electronic camera according to claim 1, further comprising a reproduction information storage device to store identification information that identifies a plurality of motion image files to be reproduced by said reproducing device, and wherein said reproducing device concurrently reproduces a plurality of motion image files corresponding to the identification information in accordance with a calling operation for the identification information stored in said reproduction information storage device.

4. An electronic camera according to claim 3, wherein

said reproduction information storage device stores, in addition to the identification information, a reproduction state indicating a way each of the motion image files is reproduced the last time, and

said reproducing device regenerates the reproduction state stored in said reproduction information storage device for each of the motion image files in accordance with the calling operation.

5. An electronic camera according to claim 1, wherein when two symbols are selected by said selecting device, said display device switches display positions of the two symbols.

6. An electronic camera according to claim 1, further comprising a screen operating device to accept an operation on the display screen, and wherein said display device moves a symbol corresponding to a start position of an operation accepted by said screen operating device to an end position of the operation, and, if the end position is present between two symbols on the display screen, displays the moved symbol between the two symbols to rearrange the symbols on the screen.

7. An electronic camera according to claim 6, wherein the operation on the screen is a drag-and-drop operation.

8. An electronic camera comprising, in one portable unit:

a photoelectric convertor to convert an image into output electronic image information;

a recording medium to store the electronic image information as a motion image file;

a display to display a plurality of symbols respectively representing a plurality of the motion image files on a display screen;

a selecting device to select some of the symbols displayed by the display in accordance with an external selecting operation;

a reproducing device to reproduce motion image files respectively corresponding to the symbols selected by the selecting device concurrently in accordance with an external selecting operation;

a reproducing device to reproduce motion image files respectively corresponding to the symbols selected by the selecting device concurrently in accordance with an external reproducing operation; and

a synthetical display device to synthetically display the motion image files concurrently reproduced by the reproducing device by overlapping the images in a nested form on the display screen.

9. An electronic camera according to claim 8, wherein said reproducing device starts concurrently reproducing the motion image files at the same timing.

10. An electronic camera according to claim 8, wherein said synthetical display device displays at least one of the motion image files concurrently reproduced by said reproducing device as a still image by repetitively displaying one predetermined frame or field constituting the motion image file.

11. An electronic camera according to claim 8, wherein said synthetical display device displays a boundary of two motion image files synthetically displayed on the screen in a predetermined form other than a rectangle.

12. An electronic camera according to claim 8, further comprising a reproduction information storage device to store identification information that identifies a plurality of motion image files to be reproduced by said reproducing device, and

wherein said reproducing device concurrently reproduces a plurality of motion image files corresponding to the identification information in accordance with a calling operation for the identification information stored in said reproduction information storage device.

13. An electronic camera according to claim 12, wherein said reproduction information storage device stores, in addition to the identification information, a reproduction state indicating a way each of the motion image files is reproduced the last time, and, when the reproduction state is stored in said reproduction information storage device, said reproducing device regenerates the reproduction state of each of the motion image files in accordance with the calling operation.

14. An electronic camera according to claim 12, wherein said reproduction information storage device stores, in addition to the identification information, a display state indicating a way each of the motion image files is displayed the last time, and, when the display state is stored in said reproduction information storage device, said synthetical display device regenerates the display state of each of the motion image files in accordance with the calling operation.

15. An electronic camera comprising, in one portable unit:

photoelectric convertor means for converting an image into output electronic image information;

recording means for storing electronic image information as a motion image file;

display means for displaying a plurality of symbols respectively representing a plurality of the motion image files on a display screen;

selecting means for selecting some of the symbols displayed by the display means in accordance with an external selecting operation;

reproducing means for reproducing motion image files respectively corresponding to the symbols selected by the selecting means at the same time in accordance with an external reproducing operation; and

array display means for displaying an array of the motion image files reproduced by the reproducing means on the display screen.

16. An electronic camera comprising, in one portable unit:

photoelectric convertor means for converting an image into output electronic image information;

recording means for storing electronic image information as a motion image file;

display means for displaying a plurality of symbols respectively representing a plurality of the motion image files on a display screen;

selecting means for selecting some of the symbols displayed by the display means in accordance with an external selecting operation;

reproducing means for reproducing motion image files respectively corresponding to the symbols selected by the selecting means at the same time in accordance with an external reproducing operation; and

synthetical display means for synthetically displaying the motion image files concurrently reproduced by the reproducing means by overlapping the images in a nested form on the display screen.