Patent Application
20070172216
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for automatic 3-D image generation and automatic image format conversion, particularly to a computer controlled system for synchronizing photography implementation between a 3-D turntable and an image capture device with automatic image format conversion.
2. Description of the Related Art
Capturing the images of a physical object at different rotation angles via a manually operated 3-D turntable has existed for a long time. However, it is hard to accurately transform the created format into a clear and displayable image format. Besides, the procedures thereof are complicated and time-consuming. Recently, digital cameras have been very popular. However, computer controlled digital-camera photography is still uncommon. Those who intend to replace the manually operated 3-D turntable with an automatic one are usually unfamiliar with the synchronizing control of digital cameras. Therefore, the best performance of full automatic photography implementation between the computer controlled 3-D turntable and image capture device is still hard to achieve. The image format of the images generated by the image capture device is usually in RAW DATA, JPG, TIFF format or others. However, the images of such a format have a very big data capacity. Therefore, they would need to be opened and transformed into the images of a low-color-level image format (such as 256 colors) manually in one by one basis; then, the images of low-color-level image format are synthesized into an image format (such as GIF) capable of displaying rotating object.
If a computer can be utilized to control a 3-D turntable and an image capture device to undertake synchronizing photography with image format conversion automatically, the persons, who are not skilled in photography or image format conversion, will also be able to work out high-quality 3-D displayable images easily, and thereby, can enhance the possibility of the created 3-D images as a tool of business communication.
One of objects of the present invention is to provide a computer controlled system for synchronizing photography implementation between a 3-D turntable and an image capture device with automatic image format conversion, wherein the procedures from image generation to image format conversion for a 3-D displayable format are all full automatically controlled by a computer.
To achieve the abovementioned objective, the present invention proposes a computer controlled system for synchronizing photography implementation between a 3-D turntable and an image capture device with automatic image format conversion, which includes: a computer, a 3-D turntable, a 3-D) turntable control module, an image capture device, an image capture control module and an automatic image format conversion module, wherein a physical object is placed on the 3-D turntable, and the image capture device shoots the object for each increment of a given degree of rotation angle; after a full around of a rotation, the image capture device completes the capturing of a plurality of images and stores those images into a computer; the automatic image format conversion module transforms those images format created by the image capture device into the images of an automatic displayable format.
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Step 1: placing the object on the 3-D turntable;
Step 2: after executing the 3-D turntable control module, image capture control module and automatic image format conversion module, and then determining the number of images to be created for a single revolution of the 3-D turntable and the time interval between two neighboring images from the user interface on the computer screen;
Step 3: initiating the synchronizing photography system by the user interface on the computer screen;
Step 4: after parameter settings are completed, starting automatic synchronizing photography, and controlling the image capture device to do synchronize object shooting once the computer controlled 3-D turntable to advance one increment of a given degree of rotation angle, until one full around of the 3-D turntable has been completed;
Step 5: after the completion of one full around of image capturing, the captured images are transferred to a preset folder in the computer via USB, and completing the image-capturing task;
Step 6: after completing the image-capturing task, initiating the computer automatically to retrieve the captured images from the preset folder and utilize the automatic image format conversion module one-by-one to transform the captured images into a plurality of images in a lower-capacity image format, which are then synthesized into a directly displayable image format capable of showing the rotation of the object.
During the abovementioned operational process, the computer automatically controls the 3-D turntable and the image capture device, and the captured images are at the output format of the image capture device. After the image capture device has completed image capturing task, the computer utilizes the automatic image format conversion module to transform the output-images format one-by-one into the images of a lower-capacity image format and integrate them into a 3-D directly displayable image format. In other words, the steps from the image generation to the integration of 3-D directly displayable image format are all automatically controlled by the computer.
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In summary, the present invention proposes a system for automatic 3-D photography and automatic image format conversion, wherein a computer is used to control a 3-D turntable and an image 20 capture device to automatically undertake a synchronizing photography to generate images; an automatic image format conversion module is used to transform the images into high-quality 3-D displayable images automatically. Thus, the persons, who are not skilled in photography or image format conversion, can also work out high-quality 3-D displayable images easily.
Those described above are only the preferred embodiments of the present invention, and it is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention; any equivalent modification and variation according to the spirit of the present invention is to be also included within the scope of the claims of the present invention. Thus, the present invention has been respectfully submitted above, and the approval thereof will be greatly appreciated by the inventors.
