Motion video signal processing for recording or reproducing – Local trick play processing – With randomly accessible medium
Reexamination Certificate
1997-11-14
2001-02-20
Chevalier, Robert (Department: 2715)
Motion video signal processing for recording or reproducing
Local trick play processing
With randomly accessible medium
C386S349000, C386S349000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06192184
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and a system for generating an edited picture print such as prints edited for an album print, and also to a recording medium for recording a program for the method.
2. Description of the Related Art
A printing service for generating a picture postcard, a creative calendar and the like, using a picture recorded by a customer, has been known. In such a service, a negative film or a print deposited by a customer is usually read by a scanner to digitize the picture image. After editing processing according to a customer's requirements has been carried out on the picture image, the picture image is printed. The editing processing herein referred to means determining a layout, trimming processing, and combining the picture image with an illustration or characters, for example. A customer's requirements regarding editing are usually conveyed to a service provider by pointing out an area to be trimmed using a drawing, or by selecting a desired layout or an illustration among samples prepared in advance.
Meanwhile, software for editing picture image data on a personal computer has been known. By taking in a picture image as digital image data using a medium such as a photo CD, the software can, for example, select a necessary picture image, position or trim the picture image, and combine the picture image with characters and an illustration.
In the printing service described above, an operator in a laboratory or the like carries out an actual editing operation, referring to a drawing a customer has drawn, for example. Therefore, it is not necessarily guaranteed that a print comes out as the customer expects. It is not rare that an area having been trimmed is not the area the customer wanted to trim, or that a position of a character string is slightly different from the position that a customer wants to place the character string at.
In the case where a large number of picture images positioned in a complex layout for an album are generated, the workload on the customer has been heavy, because detailed instructions should be provided to an operator. Furthermore, since the workload on the operator is naturally heavy in the case such as mentioned above, it is inevitable that the service provider raises the service charge.
If a customer orders a service provider to carry out a printing service by providing image data which have already been edited by the customer using the software described above for example, the intention of the customer is reliably conveyed. However, it is necessary to use a large capacity recording medium, since such high resolution image data that they can be printed out by both the service provider and the customer should be exchanged.
Nevertheless, a large capacity recording medium such as an MO disc or a ZIP disc is costly compared with a floppy disc and the like, and it is not preferable to put the cost on the service charge. Moreover, such a large capacity recording medium is far less prevalent among general households than a floppy disc. Therefore, imposing restrictions on a medium may hinder spreading of the service.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Based on consideration of the problems described above, an object of the present invention is to provide a picture print generating method for generating a picture print according to a customer's requirements with a simple operation and at a low cost.
The picture print generating method of the present invention is a picture print generating method for generating a picture print by editing a picture image recorded on a film, comprising the steps of carrying out a variety of operations for the editing using low resolution image data of the picture image, recording the operations as editing instruction information, and generating the picture print by carrying out automatic editing on high resolution picture image data of the picture image, based on the editing instruction information having been recorded.
The picture print generating system of the present invention for generating a picture print according to the above method is a picture printing system for generating a picture print by editing a picture image recorded on a film, comprising a film scanner for reading the film, low resolution image data obtaining means which obtains low resolution image data of the picture image and records the low resolution image data in a predetermined recording medium, editing means which enables operations for the editing to be carried out using the low resolution image data recorded in the recording medium while recording the operations having been carried out in a predetermined recording medium as editing instruction information, and print generating means which generates the picture print by carrying out automatic editing of high resolution image data of the picture image based on the editing instruction information recorded in the recording medium. It is preferable that the print generating means is a digital printer.
“The low resolution image data” herein referred to may be generated by roughly reading the film by the film scanner, or by carrying out pixel number converting processing on high resolution image data read by the film scanner. In other words, “the low resolution image data obtaining means” may be a film scanner or a combination of a film scanner and a pixel number converting processing means. The film scanner for reading the high resolution image data and the film scanner used for obtaining the low resolution image data may be a single scanner or two separate scanners.
“The predetermined recording medium” for recording the low resolution image data means a recording medium such as a floppy disc used by a personal computer or the like. An MO disc or a ZIP disc may also be used as the recording medium. However, since a large capacity is not necessary for recording the low resolution image data, it is preferable to use a less costly medium, emphasizing cost rather than capacity. If a communication means can be used for sending the low resolution image data from a service provider to a customer, the recording medium can be a hard disc or the like.
“The editing means” herein referred to concretely means a personal computer in which software for image editing as described above is installed. A recording medium which stores a program of the present invention is equivalent to a recording medium storing such a software program. Using this program, a personal computer displays, on a display apparatus, the low resolution image data stored in the predetermined recording medium, enables a variety of operations for the editing by an input device to be carried out using the displayed low resolution image data, and records the operations having been carried out as the editing instruction information in the predetermined recording medium.
“Enables a variety of operations for the editing” herein referred to means, for example, that low resolution image data and a menu of editing operations are displayed on a display screen of a personal computer so that a user can, for example, select a frame to be included in the prints, designate the area to be trimmed, position a picture image or an illustration, and input characters to be included in the prints, by using an input device such as a mouse or a keyboard.
“Recording in a predetermined recording medium operations having been carried out as the editing instruction information” herein referred to means to record, for example, a selected menu, coordinates pointed out by a mouse or the like, and a character string input by a keyboard, in a predetermined format. In other words, the editing instruction information means information such as the selected frame number, the shape of the area designated to be trimmed, the size and the coordinates of the area, the coordinates of each positioned image, the content of the character string input, the coordinates of the character string, and the font and the size of the character string. However, the coordinates to be stored as the editing instru
Haneda Norihisa
Makishima Sugio
Nakajima Nobuyoshi
Ohtsuka Shuichi
Shiota Kazuo
Chevalier Robert
Fuji Photo Film Co. , Ltd.
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