JP2001101356A - Memory card adapter with displaying function - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a memory card adapter with a displaying function which simply giving information on a picture recorded in a smart medium and is excellent in portability. SOLUTION: An LCD 24 is provided at a PC card adapter 10 for using a smart medium 12 at the PC card slot 16 of a personal computer 14 to display a picture recorded in the medium 12 on this LCD 24. Further, additional information on a photographing date, etc., recorded with picture data in the medium 12 can properly be displayed on the LCD 24 by an information key 34, too. A charging-type battery is mounted inside to charge the battery at the time of mounting the adapter 10 to the slot 16.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a memory card adapter with a display function, and more particularly to a memory card adapter with a display function for reproducing and displaying image data in a memory card.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a digital camera, a small memory card such as a smart media or a compact flash is generally used as a recording medium for recording a photographed image. When an image recorded on such a memory card is reproduced by a reproducing device such as a personal computer, the data is taken in by a dedicated card reader or by inserting the memory card into a PC card adapter and using a PC card slot. ing. The PC card is a memory card standardized by PCMCIA, and many portable personal computers are provided with a PC card slot for reading and writing data of the PC card as standard. The PC card adapter is such that a memory card (smart media, compact flash, etc.) having a different size and a different connector type from the PC card can be used in the PC card slot. The adapter is described in
-28960.

[0003]

However, in order to reproduce an image recorded on a memory card by a personal computer, the personal computer must be started up and a predetermined software must be started, which takes time and effort. was there. In addition, a conventional reproducing apparatus such as a personal computer is inconvenient to carry, and requires a dedicated card reader and a PC card adapter, so that they must be carried at the same time.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a memory card adapter with a display function which can easily know data recorded on a memory card and is excellent in portability. Aim.

[0005]

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a memory card adapter for loading a memory card into a card slot of a different type, comprising a display unit, And a display function for displaying information recorded on the memory card.

Further, the invention according to claim 2 is characterized in that the display function displays an image recorded on a memory card.

According to the present invention, the display section is provided on the memory card adapter, and the information recorded on the memory card is displayed on the display section. It is possible to easily know the contents of the recorded image, additional information, and the like. In addition, if the memory card adapter according to the present invention is carried, there is no need to carry a special playback-only device, and in particular, the memory card adapter is small and convenient to carry.

[0008] Further, as in the third aspect of the present invention, a rechargeable battery is mounted on the memory card adapter, and the charging is performed by a power supply supplied from the connector of the card slot, thereby displaying on the display unit. External power supply is unnecessary.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of a memory card adapter with a display function according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is an external view showing an embodiment of a PC card adapter to which the present invention is applied. The PC card adapter 10 shown in FIG. 1 uses an SSFDC (Solid State Floppy Disc Card) 12 called a smart media by a PCMCIA.
An adapter for use with compatible PC card slots. For example, after photographing with a digital camera, the image data of the photographed image and additional information (frame number, photographing date and time, photographing place, etc.) related to the photographed image are recorded in the SSFDC 12, and then the SSFDC 12 is connected to the PC card adapter 10. Then, the PC card adapter 10 is inserted into the card slot 16 of the personal computer 14. As a result, the image recorded on the SSFDC 12 and its additional information can be read by the personal computer 14. In addition, SSFDC 12
It is of course possible to write data to In the present invention, the image data and the like recorded in the SSFDC 12 are not limited to those recorded by a digital camera.

A PCMC is provided at the front end of the PC card adapter 10.
An IA connector 18 is provided, and at the rear end of the PC card adapter 10, an SSFDC insertion port 2 for mounting the SSFDC 12 is provided.
0 and the SSFDC 12 attached to the PC card adapter 10
An SSFDC eject knob 22 for taking out the SSFDC is provided.

A liquid crystal display (LCD) 24 is provided on the front of the PC card adapter 10, and various operation buttons such as a power button 26, a forward button 28, a return button 30, a delete button 32, and an information button 34 are provided. You.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a display state of the LCD 24 in the PC card adapter 10. As shown in FIG. As shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, the LCD 24 has an SSFDC
The image recorded in No. 12 can be displayed in one of the states of “no information display” and “information display”. In the display state of "no information display" in FIG. 6A, only the image recorded on the SSFDC 12 is displayed, and in the display state of "information display" in FIG. As in the case of (1), the image recorded in the SSFDC 12 is displayed, and the additional information of the image is displayed in a superimposed manner. Here, the display frame number is displayed at the top of the LCD screen, and the shooting date and time are displayed at the bottom of the LCD screen. The display state of "no information display" and "display of information" can be switched by pressing the information button 34. Note that the content of the additional information displayed in “information display is present” is not limited to the content shown in FIG.

When an image is displayed with either "no information display" or "information display" as described above, when the forward button 28 is pressed, the image of the next frame number is transmitted from the SSFDC 12. The display is read, and the display on the LCD 24 is switched to the image. Conversely, when the return button 30 is pressed, the image of the previous frame number is read from the SSFDC 12, and the display on the LCD 24 is switched to that image. When the delete button 32 is pressed, the image data of the currently displayed image and its additional information can be deleted from the SSFDC 12.

Further, a rechargeable battery is mounted in the PC card adapter 10. When the remaining capacity of the battery is reduced, the character "LOW BATTERY" is displayed at the center of the screen as shown in FIG. And a low battery warning is displayed.

As described above, the L of the PC card adapter 10 is
Since the image recorded on the SSFDC 12 and its additional information can be displayed on the CD 24, the image recorded on the SSFDC 12 can be easily known without using the personal computer 14. Also, simple file management such as deletion of image data can be performed without using the personal computer 14.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an internal circuit of the PC card adapter 10. As shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 1, the PC card adapter 10 includes an adapter unit 40 operating as a normal PC card adapter, an image processing unit 42 for displaying images and the like recorded on the SSFDC 12 on the LCD 24,
And a power supply unit 44 for supplying power to the image processing unit 42.

The adapter section 40 is a circuit which operates as a normal adapter for using the SSFDC 12 in a PC card slot 16 compatible with PCMCIA. SS of adapter part 40
When the SSFDC 12 is inserted into the SSFDC insertion slot 20, the FDC terminal contact 46 contacts the terminal (electrode) of the SSFDC 12,
The FDC 12 and the SSFDC interface 48 are connected.
The SSFDC insertion detection switch 54 detects whether the SSFDC 12 has been inserted into the SSFDC insertion port 20. When the SSFDC 12 is inserted into the SSFDC insertion slot 20, the SSFDC interface 48 conforms to the SSFDC 12 specification.
12 data is read or written. When the PC card adapter 10 is inserted into the PC card slot 16 of the personal computer 14, the PCMCIA interface 50
It is connected to a connector (PC side connector) 52 of the personal computer 14 via the connector 18 and exchanges signals with the personal computer 14 according to PCMCIA specifications. Signals acquired between the PCMCIA interface 50 and the SSFDC interface 48 are transferred. When the SSFDC 12 is mounted on the PC card adapter 10 and the PC card adapter 10 is loaded into the PC card slot 16 of the personal computer 14 by the processing of the adapter section 40, the personal computer 14 can read or write data of the SSFDC 12.

The image processing section 42 includes the PC card adapter 1
This circuit operates when the power is turned on by the power button 26 when 0 is not inserted into the card slot 16. The CPU 60 of the image processing unit 42 controls the power button 2 via the key input interface 62.
6, forward button 28, return button 30, delete button 3
2. The operation of the information button 34 is detected, and various processes are performed based on the detected operation. The processing contents of the CPU 60 will be described later. The main memory 64 records image data, additional information, and the like read from the SSFDC 12 via the SSFDC interface 48. The display control circuit 66 includes the LCD 2
4 is a circuit for controlling the display, and stores the image data for display given from the CPU 60 in the video memory 68;
The image data is read from the video memory 68 and the image is displayed on the LCD 24. The image displayed on the LCD 24 has been processed by the CPU 60 into image data for display based on the image data read into the main memory 64. The detection switch interface 70 is SSFDC
A detection signal from the insertion detection switch 54 is given to the CPU 60.

The power supply unit 44 is a circuit for supplying power to the image processing unit 42. When the PC card adapter 10 is not inserted into the card slot 16 of the personal computer 14 and the power is on, the power supply control circuit 80 controls the rechargeable battery 82 to switch the image processing unit 42
Power is supplied to each of the circuits. PC card adapter 10
Is inserted into the card slot 16 of the personal computer 14, the battery 8 is controlled by the power control circuit 80.
2 is performed. In this case, the power control circuit 80
Power is acquired from the personal computer side connector 52 via the PCMCIA connector 18 and the battery 82 is charged by the power supply. The control of the power supply unit 44 will be described later.

Next, the processing contents of the CPU 60 of the image processing section 42 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When the power button 26 of the PC card adapter 10 is turned on, the CPU 60 captures the state of the SSFDC insertion detection switch 54 via the detection switch interface 70 (Step S10). Then, the SS
It is determined whether the FDC 12 has been inserted (step S12). If the determination is NO, the above processing is repeatedly executed. On the other hand, if YES is determined, SSFDC
The image data of the first frame number and the additional information recorded therein are read out to the main memory 64 via the SSFDC interface 48 (step S14). Then, image processing is performed on the image data, and the image is displayed on the LCD 24 by the display control circuit 66 (step S16).

Next, the CPU 60 determines the state of various keys (operation buttons 26 to 34) by using a key input interface 62.
(Step S18), and it is first determined whether or not the power button 26 has been pressed (step S2).
0). If the determination is YES, the power supply is turned off and the image display is terminated (step S22).

On the other hand, if the determination is NO, it is determined whether the delete button 32 has been pressed (step S).
24). If the determination is YES here, the image being displayed is deleted from the SSFDC 12 (step S26), and the image data of the previous frame number and the additional information are read from the SSFDC 12 to the main memory 64 in the same manner as described above (step S26). Step S28). Then, the process returns to step S16, and the image is displayed on the LCD 24 in the same manner as described above.

If the determination in step S24 is NO, then it is determined whether or not the feed button 28 has been pressed (step S30). If the determination is YES, the image data of the next frame number and its additional information are read from the SSFDC 12 to the main memory 64 (step S32). Then, the process returns to step S16, and the image is displayed on the LCD 24 in the same manner as described above.

If the determination in step S30 is NO, it is determined whether or not the return button 30 has been pressed (step S34). If the determination is YES here, the image data and the additional information of the previous frame number are read from the SSFDC 12 to the main memory 64 (step S36). Then, the process returns to step S16, and the image is displayed on the LCD 24 in the same manner as described above.

If the determination in step S34 is NO, it is determined whether the information button 34 has been pressed (step S38). If NO is determined,
It returns to step S18. On the other hand, if the determination is YES, the information display state is switched (step S40). That is, as shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, the display state is switched to “information displayed” and “no information displayed”. When the display is switched to “information display available”, the additional information read out together with the image data in the main memory 64 is superimposed on the image displayed on the LCD 24 thereafter. When switching to "no information display", the additional information is not displayed on the image displayed on the LCD 24 thereafter. Then, returning to step S16, the LCD 24 displays an image according to the display mode of "information display" or "no information display".

Next, the control contents of the power supply section 44 will be described with reference to FIG.
And the flowchart of FIG. As shown in FIG. 5, when the PC card adapter 10 is inserted into the card slot 16 of the personal computer 14, the power control circuit 80
The power supply state from the personal computer 14 is detected (step S50), and it is determined whether power is supplied (step S52). At this time, if the determination is NO, the above processing is repeatedly executed. On the other hand, if the determination is YES, it is next determined whether or not the image processing unit 42 is operating (step S54). At this time, if the determination is YES, an event to turn off the power is generated (step S5).
6), the power of the image processing unit 42 is turned off. The processing when the power-off event occurs will be described later. After this process, or if the determination in step S54 is NO, the state of the battery 82 is detected (step S58), and it is determined whether or not charging is necessary (step S60). If the determination is NO, the process returns to step S50. On the other hand, if the determination is YES, power is supplied to the battery 82 (step S62), and the process returns to step S58.

Next, the power-off event processing in step S56 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When a power-off event occurs, the CPU 60 of the image processing unit 42 determines whether the SSFDC 12 is being accessed (step S70). If the determination is YES, the access is stopped (step S72). Next, the CPU 60 determines whether or not image processing is being performed (step S74). If the determination is YES, the image processing is stopped (step S76). Then, the power of the image processing unit 42 is turned off (step S78).

In the above embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to the PC card adapter 10 for enabling the reading or writing of data of the SSFDC 12 by the PC card slot 16 has been described. SSFD
It can be applied not only to a PC card adapter for C but also to a PC card adapter for other recording media (for example, a compact flash), and a memory card slot of other specifications without being limited to a PC card adapter for use in a PCMCIA standard PC card slot. Also applicable to memory card adapters for use with

In the above embodiment, the image and the additional information recorded in the SSFDC 12 are displayed on the LCD 24 of the PC card adapter 10. However, only the character information such as the additional information can be displayed. Good. Also, L
The information displayed on the CD 24 may be information other than the information described in the above embodiment, and for example, a file name or the like recorded on the SSFDC 12 may be displayed.

[0031]

According to the memory card adapter with a display function according to the present invention described above, the display section is provided on the memory card adapter, and the information recorded on the memory card is displayed on the display section. Images recorded on a memory card without starting a dedicated playback device,
The contents of the additional information and the like can be easily known. In addition, if the memory card adapter according to the present invention is carried, there is no need to carry a special playback-only device, and in particular, the memory card adapter is small and convenient to carry.

Further, by mounting a rechargeable battery on the memory card adapter and performing the charging with the power supplied from the connector of the card slot, an external power supply for displaying the display unit can be eliminated. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view showing an embodiment of a PC card adapter to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a display mode of an LCD in a PC card adapter.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram showing an internal circuit of a PC card adapter.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing processing contents of a CPU of an image processing unit in the PC card adapter.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing control contents of a power supply unit in the PC card adapter.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing control contents of a power supply unit in the PC card adapter.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 PC card adapter, 12 SSFDC (smart media), 14 PC, 16 Card slot, 18
... PCMCIA connector, 20 ... SSFDC insertion slot, 22 ... SSFDC
Eject knob, 24 ... Liquid crystal display (LCD),
26 power button, 28 forward button, 30 return button, 32 delete button, 34 information button, 40 adapter section, 42 image processing section, 44 power section, 46 SSFD
C terminal contact, 48 ... SSFDC interface, 50 ... PC
MCIA interface, 54: SSFDC insertion detection switch, 60: CPU, 62: key input interface,
64: Main memory, 66: Display control circuit, 70: Detection switch interface, 80: Power supply control circuit, 82
…battery

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A memory card adapter for loading a memory card into a different type of card slot, comprising: a display unit; and a display function of displaying information recorded on the memory card on the display unit. Memory card adapter with display function. 2. The memory card adapter with a display function according to claim 1, wherein the display function displays an image recorded on a memory card. 3. A rechargeable battery for supplying power to the display unit is mounted on the memory card adapter. When the memory card adapter is loaded in the card slot, the battery is supplied from a connector of the card slot. 2. The memory card adapter with a display function according to claim 1, wherein the battery is charged by a power supply.