With reference to
The frame body (10) is rectangular and has a front side and a rotatable circular frame (101) configured on the front side of the frame body (10).
The input and output interface (11) is configured inside the frame body (10) and is used to connect to an external storage device (111) to read multiple pictures formed as a digital image formats stored in the external storage device (111).
The buffer unit (12) is connected to the input and output interface (11) to temporary store the pictures read from the external storage device (111).
The control unit (13) is configured inside the frame body (10) connected to the buffer unit (12). The control unit (13) is a processing center of the digital photo frame in accordance with the present invention. The control unit (13) determines whether the pictures stored in the buffer unit (12) are of horizontal or vertical types according to the properties of the digital image formats. If the picture is the vertical type, the picture will be rotated to be as a horizontal type.
The storage unit (14) is configured inside the frame body (10) for storing pictures.
The image processing unit (15) is configured inside the frame body (10) coupled to the control unit (13) for processing the pictures.
The display panel (16) is configured on the rotatable circular frame (101) and coupled to the image processing unit (15). The display panel (16) forms a standard rectangle having a large width and a short length. The display panel (16) is used to display the pictures.
The control panel (17) is configured on the front side of the frame body (10) and coupled to the control unit (13). Users select a specific picture to display on the display panel (16) by using the control panel (17).
With reference to
In a step (20), the external storage device (111) or the storage unit (14) reads a picture. The control unit (13) determines whether the picture formed in the digital image format is of a horizontal type in a step (21). If the present picture is the horizontal type, the present picture is processed by the image processing unit (15) in a step (22). And then the display panel (16) displays the picture in a step (23). On the other hand, if the picture is the vertical type, the control unit (13) rotates the picture in a step (24). And then the picture is processed by the image processing unit (15) in the step (22) to be displayed in the display panel (16) in the step (23). In this way, the original vertical picture can be transformed to the horizontal type to fill in the whole display panel (16). Hence an issue that the vertical picture is too small to fit the display panel (16) or black images on both sides of the display panel (16) can be solved.
After step (23), a step (25) is further added to determine whether a user operates the control panel (17) to select a specific picture to display. If the control panel (17) is used, then the process goes back to the initial step (20) to read another picture from the external storage device (111) or the storage unit (14). If the control panel (I 7) is not used by the user, then the picture is still displayed as in the step (23).
With reference to
With reference to
The tilt detector (18) is configured on the rotatable circular frame (101) with a level basis when the display panel (16) is of the horizontal type to detect whether a direction of the display panel (16) is of the horizontal or the vertical types.
The transmission unit (19) is coupled between the control unit (13) and the circular frame (101). The control unit (13) controls the transmission unit (19) to rotate the circular frame (101), so as to further rotates the display panel (16) to the correct direction of the pictures.
With the second preferred embodiment, the user does not need to manually operate the display panel to display picture in the correct direction. The digital photo frame of the present invention can auto-detect the picture format and auto-rotate the circular frame (101) to rotate the display panel (16) to show the picture in the correct direction.
Furthermore, a third preferred embodiment of the present invention is approximately similar to the second preferred embodiment. The difference of the third preferred embodiment is that the control unit (13) is further set a display order for the pictures stored in the storage unit (14) in accordance with the digital image format thereof. Therefore, the control unit (13) can continuously display the same type pictures. Hence the user or the transmission unit (19) can get rid of the inconvenience that the display panel (16) has to be repeatedly rotated to display the pictures correctly due to different picture formats.
It can be clearly understood from the above description that the digital photo frame that can auto-adjust the pictures to match the display panel of the present invention can detect whether the pictures are the horizontal or vertical types by using the control unit. If the detected picture is the horizontal type, the picture is directly displayed on the display panel. On the other hand, if the detected picture is of the vertical type, the control unit rotates the picture and then to display the picture on the display panel. In this way, the picture can be auto-adjusted to match the display panel, so as to avoid the conventional photo frame to display the vertical picture on the horizontal display panel and cause the black regions in the both sides of the picture or to reduce the picture size. Therefore the digital photo frame that can auto-adjust the pictures to match the display panel of the present invention indeed includes features of good utility and unobviousness to meet the requirements of a patent.
While the invention has been described by way of example and in terms of a preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited thereto. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements and procedures, and the scope of the appended claims therefore should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements and procedures.