Saved-image management

• US 7,872,675 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2005
• Issued: 01/18/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Invention Science Fund I, L.L.C. (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: The Invention Science Fund I, L.L.C. (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Levien, Royce A., Lord, Robert W., Malamud, Mark A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ye, Lin
• Assistant Examiner(s): CAMARGO, MARLY S.B.
• Application Number:
  US11/263,587
• Publication Number:
  US 20060274163A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,905 Days
• Field of Search: 348/211, 348/211.2, 348/211.3, 348/231.2, 348143-160, 348/47, 348/211.11, 348/211.1, 348/231.1, 348/14.12, 348/208.13, 348/333.11, 348/231.3, 348/208.12, 348/333.12, 725/105
• US Class Current: 348/231.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00137 Transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00148 Storage information retrieval G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00954 Scheduling operations or managing resources H04N1/0096 takes precedence; program initiating or switching G06F9/48; allocation of computer resources G06F9/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/2112 using still video cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32101 Display, printing, storage or transmission of additional information, e.g. ID code, date and time or title
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2101/00 Still video cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0084 Digital still camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0087 Image storage device
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/212 Selecting different recording or reproducing modes, e.g. high or low resolution, field or frame
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/214 Checking or indicating the storage space
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3225 of data relating to an image, a page or a document
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3274 Storage or retrieval of prestored additional information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/33328 Resolution
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/33357 Compression mode
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/33378 Type or format of data, e.g. colour or B/W, halftone or binary, computer image file or facsimile data

Abstract

Embodiments include an apparatus, device, system, computer-program product, and method. In an embodiment, a device includes a user-accessible digital storage medium, and a storage medium manager module. The storage manager module includes a storage manager module operable to save a digital image in a form in the user-accessible digital storage medium, and then alter the form of the saved digital image if a condition is met.

Claims

1. A digital camera, comprising:

an image acquisition module for capturing an image;

a nontransitory computer readable medium; and

an image management unit associated with a processor for;

(i) saving a captured image at a first resolution in a user-accessible data structure in the computer readable medium and in a user-accessible form;

(ii) decreasing the resolution of the saved captured image at the first resolution in the user-accessible data structure by saving the captured image at a second resolution less than the first resolution if a condition is met, the condition comprising capturing a second image that is determined to be duplicative or repetitive of the saved captured image; and

(iii) removing the captured image at the first resolution from the user-accessible data structure if the condition is met.

2. The digital camera of claim 1, wherein the image acquisition module for capturing an image includes:

an image acquisition module for capturing a still image, an image stream, and/or a combination of a still image and an image stream.

3. The digital camera of claim 1, wherein the image acquisition module for capturing an image includes:

an image acquisition module for capturing at least one of a visual image, an audio image, and/or a combination of a visual image and an audio image.

4. The digital camera of claim 1, wherein the image acquisition module for capturing an image includes:

an image acquisition module for capturing an image in response to a received instruction from another digital camera.

5. The digital camera of claim 1, wherein the nontransitory computer readable medium includes a non-volatile computer storage device.

6. The digital camera of claim 1, wherein the nontransitory computer readable medium includes a non-volatile nontransitory computer readable medium.

7. The digital camera of claim 1, wherein the nontransitory computer readable medium includes a removable non-volatile nontransitory computer readable medium.

8. The digital camera of claim 1, wherein the image management unit associated with a processor for saving a captured image at a first resolution in a user-accessible data structure in the nontransitory computer readable medium and in a user-accessible form includes:

an image management unit associated with a processor for saving a captured image at a resolution in the nontransitory computer readable medium and in a user-accessible album of images stored in a nontransitory computer readable medium.

9. The digital camera of claim 1, wherein the image management unit associated with a processor for saving a captured image at a first resolution in a user-accessible data structure in the nontransitory computer readable medium and in a user-accessible form includes:

an image management unit associated with a processor for saving a captured image at a resolution in the nontransitory computer readable medium and in a user-accessible collection of images stored in a nontransitory computer readable medium.

10. The digital camera of claim 1, wherein the image management unit associated with a processor for decreasing the resolution of the saved captured image at the first resolution in the user-accessible data structure by saving the captured image at a second resolution less than the first resolution if a condition is met includes:

an image management unit associated with a processor for decreasing the resolution of the saved captured image in the nontransitory computer readable medium using a lossy compression algorithm if a condition is met.

11. The digital camera of claim 1, wherein the image management unit associated with a processor for decreasing the resolution of the saved captured image at the first resolution in the user-accessible data structure by saving the captured image at a second resolution less than the first resolution if a condition is met includes:

an image management unit associated with a processor for decreasing the resolution of the saved captured image in the nontransitory computer readable medium if a time for displaying the saved captured image does not exceed a preselected time threshold.

12. The digital camera of claim 11, wherein the preselected time threshold exceeds five seconds.

13. The digital camera of claim 11, wherein the preselected time threshold exceeds at least a selected one of ten seconds, thirty seconds, one minute, thirty minutes, ninety minutes, five hours, twelve hours, one day, one week, one month, or one year.

14. The digital camera of claim 1, wherein the image management unit associated with a processor for decreasing the resolution of the saved captured image at the first resolution in the user-accessible data structure by saving the captured image at a second resolution less than the first resolution if a condition is met includes:

an image management unit associated with a processor for decreasing the resolution of the saved captured image in the nontransitory computer readable medium if a time value is framed by a preselected time window.

15. The digital camera of claim 1, wherein the image management unit associated with a processor for decreasing the resolution of the saved captured image at the first resolution in the user-accessible data structure by saving the captured image at a second resolution less than the first resolution if a condition is met includes:

an image management unit associated with a processor for decreasing the resolution of the saved captured image in the nontransitory computer readable medium if a condition is met where the condition corresponds to at least one of a storage space availability in the nontransitory computer readable medium, a user established parameter, a preselected content of the image, and/or a parameter established by a storage management algorithm.

16. The digital camera of claim 1, wherein the image management unit associated with a processor for decreasing the resolution of the saved captured image at the first resolution in the user-accessible data structure by saving the captured image at a second resolution less than the first resolution if a condition is met includes:

an image management unit associated with a processor for decreasing the resolution of the saved captured image in the nontransitory computer readable medium if a condition independent of the operation to save a captured image at a resolution in the nontransitory computer readable medium is met.

17. The digital camera of claim 1, wherein the image management unit associated with a processor for decreasing the resolution of the saved captured image at the first resolution in the user-accessible data structure by saving the captured image at a second resolution less than the first resolution if a condition is met includes:

an image management unit associated with a processor for decreasing the resolution of the saved captured image in the nontransitory computer readable medium if a condition responsive to an examination of at least one other captured image saved in the nontransitory computer readable medium is met.

18. The digital camera of claim 1, wherein the image management unit further includes an image management unit for:

(iv) further decreasing the resolution of the captured image saved in the nontransitory computer readable medium if another condition is met.

19. The digital camera of claim 1, wherein the digital camera further comprises a processing unit.

20. The digital camera of claim 1, wherein the image management unit is further for:

decreasing the resolution of the saved captured image at the second resolution if the saved captured image at the second resolution is not displayed for a predetermined amount of time after the resolution has been decreased.

21. The digital camera of claim 1, wherein the image management unit is further for:

examining a content or context of one or more saved captured images for repetitiveness or duplication upon capturing an additional image.

22. The digital camera of claim 1, wherein the image management unit associated with a processor for decreasinq the resolution of the saved captured image at the first resolution in the user-accessible data structure by saving the captured image at a second resolution less than the first resolution if a condition is met includes:

aggregating the saved captured image with a second saved captured image.