JPH11243516A - Digital camera system that can be integrated with a printer - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Problem] To provide a digital still camera system which can be integrated with a printer, which can print out one output screen so as to be composed of a plurality of images by a simple operation. A system comprising a printer and a digital camera integrally connected to the printer, wherein a printer-side operation unit (19) is provided so that one print output screen is composed of a plurality of desired screens. By providing a selection unit for a plurality of screens and an image forming unit 18 for performing a predetermined thinning process on a plurality of images in accordance with the selection setting, one output screen including a plurality of desired screens is printed out.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a system comprising a printer and a digital camera which can be integrally connected to the printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a digital camera and a printer are generally connected via a personal computer to a printer connected to the personal computer. Processing can be performed.

[0003]

However, in a system including a printer and a digital camera which can be integrally connected to the printer, if there is no special means for selecting an image to be printed out from a storage medium of the digital camera, However, there is a problem that only one image can be printed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a digital still camera system which can be integrated with a printer which can print out one output screen so as to be composed of a plurality of images by a simple operation.

[0005]

According to the present invention, there is provided a system comprising a printer and a digital camera integrally connected to the printer, the system having a connection portion on one side of the printer. Directly connected to the image output terminal section of the digital camera to display an image to be printed on the liquid crystal screen of the digital camera or an original image to be processed and printed, and a part of the operation section on the digital camera or printer side In a digital camera system which can be integrated with a printer which is configured to print out by using a printer, a plurality of screen selecting means is provided on an operation unit of the printer so that one print output screen is composed of a plurality of desired screens And image forming means for performing a predetermined thinning process on a plurality of images according to the setting of the selecting means. Providing a printer integrally bondable digital camera system, characterized in that.

According to the above configuration, it is possible to print out one output screen including a plurality of desired screens by a simple operation.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a circuit of a digital camera system that can be integrated with a printer according to the present invention. When the digital camera is mounted on the printer, the camera-side I / F unit 50 and the printer-side I / F unit 51 are electrically connected. The digital camera-side controller 13 reads out the image in the memory 10 that has been photographed and stored by the imaging unit 8 and the image processing unit 9,
Is reproduced and displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 12 via.

By operating the image feed selection button of the operation unit 14, images are sequentially reproduced and displayed, and an image to be printed and an original image to be processed and printed can be selected. When the print button of the operation unit 19 is pressed, the printer-side controller 18 sends a control signal to the camera-side controller 13 and the printer-side controller 18
The displayed image is read out and sent to the printer controller 18. The printer controller 18 drives the printer driver 21 to print the image sent by the printer unit 22.

FIG. 2 is a layout diagram showing an embodiment of the printer operation unit 19 in the digital camera system according to the present invention. In the figure, when the division number setting button 1 is first turned on, the liquid crystal screen 5 becomes a division number selection menu.
Here, the number of divisions X in the horizontal direction and the number of divisions Y in the vertical direction of the screen are selected with the selection button 4 and the determination button 3. Next, the image setting button 2 causes the liquid crystal screen 5 to be an image selection menu. Here, the number of the recorded image of the digital camera is set by the selection button 4 and the determination button 3 by the division number (X
× Y) is selected. The setting is completed as described above, and the printout is performed by the print button 7. If the number of divisions does not match the number of the selected images, a setting error is displayed and printing is not performed. The liquid crystal screen 5 normally uses the screen of the liquid crystal monitor 12 in FIG. 1, but may be separately provided on the printer side.

Image data captured by the digital camera is compressed and stored in the storage medium 15. When a print output is requested from the printer side, if a file with the designated number exists in the storage medium 15, the image data is read out to the memory 10, decompressed, and written into the memory 10. The camera-side controller 13 analyzes the number of divisions set by the printer-side operation unit 19, and
, And determines a thinning process when transferring the image data to the printer. In this thinning process, the number of divisions is set to 1 / division in both the vertical and horizontal directions. The data sent from the camera is written in the memory 20 by the printer controller 18 while controlling the address. This operation is repeated for the number of designated images.

FIG. 3 shows a display example of a divided screen, in which the number of divisions is 3 × 4 and images are 1, 3, 6, 7, 10, 1
FIG. 11 is a print diagram when 2, 13, 15, 18, 21, 22, and 27 are selected. In this case, the camera-side controller 13 sequentially reads out the data in the storage medium 15 a total of 12 times and sends the data to the printer. The printer-side controller 18 performs a thinning process to a predetermined size according to the set value, and stores the thinned image in the memory 20 in the image of FIG.

[0012]

As described above, according to the present invention, in a digital still camera system that can be integrated with a printer, a plurality of images can be arbitrarily selected for one print output by the operation unit on the printer side. Therefore, album creation, list of recorded images, and the like can be easily performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a circuit of a digital camera system that can be integrated with a printer according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a layout diagram showing an embodiment of a printer-side operation unit in the digital camera system according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a display example of a split screen according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 division number setting button 2 image setting button 3 enter button 4 selection button 5 liquid crystal screen 6 power button 7 print button 8 imaging unit 9 image processing unit 10 memory in digital camera 11 liquid crystal driver 12 liquid crystal monitor 13 camera side controller 14 camera operation Unit 15 Storage medium 16 Camera-side I / F unit 17 Printer-side I / F unit 18 Printer-side controller 19 Printer operation unit 20 Printer memory 21 Printer driver 22 Printer unit

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code FI // H04N 5/262 H04N 5/91 H

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A system comprising a printer and a digital camera integrally connected to the printer, the system having a connection portion on one side of the printer and being directly connected to an image output terminal portion of the digital camera. The image to be printed or the original image to be processed and printed is displayed on the liquid crystal screen of the camera, and the printer can be integrated with a printer configured to print out by using a part of the operation unit on the digital camera or the printer side. In a digital camera system, a plurality of screen selection means and a plurality of images are specified in accordance with a setting of the selection means on an operation unit of a printer so that one print output screen is composed of a plurality of desired screens. Digitally connectable printer, characterized in that image forming means for thinning processing is provided. Camera system.