Patent Application
20100141592
The present invention generally relates to digital cameras and, more particularly, to digital cameras having a touch-screen that receives hand-written input from a user, such as letters of the alphabet, for indicating the desired camera mode.
Currently, digital cameras include a display for displaying images and various user interfaces for permitting the user to capture images, (still or video), displaying video or still images, setting operational functions such as manual or automatic mode and the like. The user manually operates the particular user interface by turning knobs or moving a dial for selecting the desired function. The camera then initiates the selected function.
Although the presently known and utilized camera is satisfactory, it includes drawbacks. Operating user interfaces sometimes present challenging situations for the user, particular those users who do not like remembering what particular knob or dial does what. This may cause the user to miss unique image capture opportunities because the camera is not in the correct mode.
US Publication 2008/0005703A1 uses hand gestures for launching a particular application on a PDA. Sensors are disposed of along the periphery of the PDA for sensing the hand gestures that are interpreted by the PDA for launching a particular application. This device uses a “training period” so that the gestures are known to the PDA. However, this method and system presents drawbacks since sensors must be added to the device which escalates the price. The downturn of the economy makes such expensive features undesirable. Still further, the particular hand gestures are individual to the person since training is required by the first user so that sharing a personal device is cumbersome and not user-friendly. Finally, devices like the present invention that use known technology, such as touch screens, to achieve improvements are more receptive to the general population since they are already familiar with the technology.
Consequently, the present invention ascertained that putting easily recognizable and well known characters that are easily identifiable with a particular mode of the camera, well known to all users, and easy to input would overcome these drawbacks.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above. Briefly summarized, according to one aspect of the invention, the invention resides in a digital camera including a touch-screen for receiving individually or in any combination one ore more characters all of which are short-hand notation for corresponding camera modes or functions from a user; memory for storing one or more characters all of which individually or in any combination are short-hand notation for corresponding camera modes or functions; and a processor that receives the user input from the touch-screen and correlates the received input to one of the stored characters and directing the selected camera mode or function to initiate.
These and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading of the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the drawings wherein there is shown and described an illustrative embodiment of the invention.
The present invention has the advantage of providing the user with a user-friendly mechanism for selecting the desired camera mode by using letters and symbols that are readily associated with the desired camera mode.
While the specification concludes with claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter of the present invention, it is believed that the invention will be better understood from the following description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Before describing the present invention, it is useful to understand the terms as used herein. In the regard, “character” is a symbol or mark used in a writing system.
Referring to
The analog output of each pixel is amplified and analog processed by an analog signal processor (ASP) 16 to reduce the image sensor's output amplifier noise. The output of the ASP 16 is converted to a digital image signal by an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter 18, such as, for example, an 8 bit A/D converter which provides an 8 bit signal in the sequence of the Bayer CFA.
The digitized image signal is temporarily stored in a frame memory 20, and is then processed and compressed by a digital signal processor (DSP) 22. The image processing typically includes white balance, color correction, tone correction, and image sharpening. The DSP 22 also decimates (or re-samples) the digitized image signal for each still image to produce a thumbnail image having fewer pixels (i.e., lower resolution) than the original captured image as described in commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,164,831 to Kuchta et al., the disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference. The image file containing both the fill resolution image and the thumbnail image is stored in a data memory 26, and then transferred through a memory card interface 32 to a memory card 28 that is present in a memory card slot 30 of the digital camera 10. The thumbnail image is also sent to a touch-screen image display 24 through an LCD controller 25 where the user can view the image. Although the display is shown as an LCD display, OLED displays may also be used. The image display 24, which is shown in more detail in
The memory card 28 can be adapted to the PCMCIA card interface standard, such as described in the PC Card Standard, Release 2.0, published by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association, Sunnyvale, Calif, September 1991. The memory card 28 can also be adapted to the Compact Flash interface standard, such as described in the CompactFlash Specification Version 1.3, published by the CompactFlash Association, Palo Alto, Calif, Aug. 5, 1998.
Electrical connection between the memory card 28 and the digital camera 10 is maintained through a card connector (not shown) positioned in the memory card slot 30. The memory card interface 32 and the card connector provide, e.g., an interface according to the aforementioned PCMCIA card or CompactFlash interface standard. The image file may also be sent to a host computer (not shown), which is connected to the digital camera 10 through a host computer interface 34.
In operation, a camera microprocessor 36 receives user inputs 48, such as from a shutter release (not shown), and initiates a capture sequence by signaling a timing generator 38. The timing generator 38 is connected generally to the elements of the digital camera 10, as shown in
Referring to
These characters may be recognized during particular modes, such as start-up and idle modes, for permitting the user to indicate what mode the user desires next for the camera 10. For example, the letter “v” (as shown in
Referring to
Although the present invention uses short-hand notation, the entire word or words may be spelled out in their entirety on the display, and in this case, the memory 26 the entire word or words so that the data input via the display and data stored in memory may be correlated.
The invention has been described in detail with particular reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof but it will be understood that variations and modifications can be effected within the spirit and scope of the invention.
