Patent Application
20080143599
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a capturing apparatus, and more particularly to a processing method for obtaining and displaying a location on a digital photo.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the prior art, when a user wanted to mark the metadata of a location on a digital photo, the user had to input the captured digital photo and corresponding metadata based upon their own recollections, to a computer. Next, the computer would further process the digital photos and the corresponding metadata of the digital photo via application software (for example, Photoshop, PhotoImpact, Illustrator, etc.) for further embedding the metadata into the corresponding digital photo.
Such a method, involving writing the location metadata into the header field of the storage file format of the digital photo, is inconvenient and difficult for users.
The present invention provides a first embodiment of a capturing apparatus that includes an image sensing unit, an image processing unit, an image display unit, an internal memory unit, an external memory control unit, a global positioning unit, a processor, an external memory with a location database, and a bottom control unit.
The processor first drives the global positioning unit to automatically download longitude and latitude information regarding the location of the capturing apparatus once the capturing apparatus has been turned on. If a user uses the capturing apparatus to capture an image, the capturing apparatus will produce a corresponding digital photo. The capturing apparatus checks the location database to obtain a corresponding location for the digital photo. Finally, the capturing apparatus can write the location into the corresponding header field of the storage file format of the digital photo and store the digital photo in the external memory.
Moreover, the present invention provides a second embodiment of capturing apparatus that includes an image sensing unit, an image processing unit, an image display unit, an internal memory unit with a location database, an external memory control unit, a global positioning unit, a processor, an external memory, and a bottom control unit.
In this case, the processor first drives the global positioning unit to automatically download longitude and latitude information regarding the location of the capturing apparatus once the capturing apparatus is turned on. If a user uses the capturing apparatus to capture an image, the capturing apparatus will produce a corresponding digital photo. The capturing apparatus further checks the location database to obtain a corresponding location for the digital photo. Finally, the capturing apparatus can write the location into the corresponding header field of the storage file format of the digital photo and store the digital photo in the external memory.
According to above description of the first and second embodiments, the global positioning units can be preset in the capturing apparatus or externally connected to the capturing apparatus. Furthermore, users can set the capturing apparatuses to display corresponding locations on images of digital photos or directly embed corresponding locations into digital photos as described in the first and second embodiments.
The above and further advantages of this invention may be better understood by referring to the following description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
The drawings will be described further in connection with the following detailed description of the present invention.
In
After turning on the capturing apparatus 1, the capturing apparatus 1 drives the processor 170 to control internal operations. That is, the processor 170 first drives the external memory control unit 150 to determine whether the external memory 180 is plugged into the capturing apparatus 1. If the external memory 180 is plugged into the capturing apparatus 1, users will be able to capture images to obtain digital photos and then store digital photos in the external memory 180.
Users can enter the control command to drive the processor 170 via the bottom control unit interface 190 to control the image sensing unit 110. The processor 170 processes the images captured by the image sensing unit 110 to obtain the digital photos and store the digital photos in the external memory 180 through the external memory control interface 150. In this case, operation information is stored in the internal memory unit 140 while the processor 170 processes the images.
The global positioning system module 160 automatically downloads longitude and latitude information when the capturing apparatus 1 is turned on. The longitude and latitude information is stored in the internal memory unit 140 so that when an image is captured corresponding information can be written into the corresponding header field of the storage file format of the digital photo.
Moreover, the external memory 180 includes a location database 181 that stores a plurality of location information. Each location information refers to at least one longitude and latitude information. For example, the longitude and latitude information for Taipei, Taiwan is 23°N and 120°E, while the longitude and latitude information for Berlin, Germany is 53°N and 15°E.
The processor 170 obtains the corresponding longitude and latitude information of an image from the internal memory unit 140. Next, the processor 170 obtains the longitude and latitude information from the external memory 180. Next, the processor 170 writes the location information into the corresponding header field of the storage file of the digital photo through the exchangeable image format (EXIF) technique before finally storing the image in the external memory 180.
Users can set the capturing apparatus 1 to display the captured digital photo on the display unit 130 after capturing the image. Furthermore, users can set the capturing apparatus 1 to show the location information of the digital photo and even embed the location information into the image data of the digital photo.
Alternatively, as shown in
According to above description of the first and second embodiments, the global positioning system module 160 and 260 can be placed in the capturing apparatus or connect externally to the capturing apparatus.
In
Furthermore, the processor can obtain location information of the digital photo based on the corresponding longitude and latitude information, from the location database. Next, the processor can write the location information into the header field in the corresponding storage file format of the digital photo based on EXIF technique and store the digital photo in the external memory (S340).
Finally, the user can set the capturing apparatus via the control bottom unit to display the location information written into the header field in the corresponding storage file format of the digital photo displayed on the display unit (S350).
If the user sets the capturing apparatus to display the location information on the digital photo, the processor will drive the display unit to show the location information and the digital photo (S352). If the user doesn't set the capturing apparatus to display the location information on the digital photo, the processor will drive the display unit to show only the digital photo (S354). The user can also choose for the display unit to not display anything, in order to reduce power use for example.
Alternatively, the user can use the bottom control unit to set the capturing apparatus to embed the location information into the image of the digital photo directly (S360). If the user sets the capturing apparatus to embed the location information into the image of the digital photo directly, the processor will process the digital photo and the location information for further embedding the location information into the image of the digital photo (S362). If the user does not set the capturing apparatus to embed the location information into the image of the digital photo, the processor will not process the location information and the digital photo for further embedding the location information directly into the digital photo (S364).
The description above only illustrates specific embodiments and examples of the invention. The invention should therefore cover various modifications and variations made to the herein-described structure and operations of the invention, provided they fall within the scope of the invention as defined in the following appended claims.
