Facsimile and static presentation processing – Static presentation processing – Communication
Reexamination Certificate
2001-11-29
2004-06-01
Wallerson, Mark (Department: 2622)
Facsimile and static presentation processing
Static presentation processing
Communication
C358S487000, C358S506000, C355S040000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06744529
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to electronic photography, and more particularly, to a system and method for enabling a user to easily select and enhance one or more images taken by a digital still camera for printing without using a personal computer or some other complex user interface.
Digital still cameras (DSCs) are rapidly gaining popularity with consumers. They permit high resolution color images to be stored for subsequent printing by conventional ink jet and laser printers. The quality of the color prints that are produced approaches that of conventional silver halide photographic prints. More importantly, the digital images can be permanently stored on different forms of media such as compact disks (CDs), manipulated and altered in a personal computer (PC), inserted into computer graphics and word processing programs, sent to friends and relatives via e-mail, and transmitted over the Internet as part of web pages. From an environmental standpoint digital still cameras are attractive because they eliminate the need for chemical developer solutions.
Commercially available digital still cameras typically have a removable data storage media such as floppy diskette or a flash memory card onto which the digital representation of the images captured by the camera optics and charge coupled device (CCD) can be stored. These forms of media may be removed and plugged into a personal computer so that the digital representations of the images may be viewed. The personal computers may be provided with digital still camera image processing software for enhancing the color balance, contrast, borders and other characteristics of the images prior to storage, printing or transmission. Typically the image processing software that runs on the personal computer allows certain images to be selected and others discarded or ignored.
Other digital still cameras have been developed that may be coupled directly to a printer. These cameras are desirable for consumers who do not own personal computers or feel uncomfortable using such computers. The command buttons and graphical user interface (GUI) menus on such a camera's liquid crystal display (LCD) are used in accordance with a preprogrammed protocol to select the images to be printed. This type of digital still camera image selection and printing system has the advantage of not requiring a personal computer. It is normally undesirable to print all images, because some are usually poor in quality, and printing all images results in wasted time, paper and ink or laser toner. However, the user is faced with a complex and bewildering set of commands for selecting, downloading and printing images. As an alternative, the printer itself can be provided with a user interface for selecting images from a digital still camera. However this is undesirable because the printer ends up having user-unfriendly interface software. With either approach for coupling a digital still camera directly to a printer, without a PC interface, it is very tedious and cumbersome to vary the characteristics of the selected images to be printed, such as size, brightness, cropping, etc. For the sake of simplicity, such characteristics, along with others, are generally referred to herein as something that will “enhance” the original image taken by the digital still camera.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a system and method for enabling a user to easily select and enhance one or more images taken by a digital still camera for printing without using a personal computer or some other complex user interface normally required in a camera-direct-to-printer environment.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore the primary object of the present invention to provide a system for enabling a user to easily select and enhance one or more images taken by a digital still camera for printing without using a personal computer or a complex user interface normally required in a camera-direct-to-printer environment.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for enabling a user to easily select and enhance one or more images taken by a digital still camera for printing without using a personal computer or a complex user interface normally required in a camera-direct-to-printer environment.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a combination proof sheet and order form including a graphical representation of at least one of a plurality of images taken by a digital still camera, the proof sheet and order form having a plurality of image selection and/or image enhancement user designation areas on the form that can be completed by a user and thereafter scanned and detected by a printer as a set of instructions that cause the printing of the chosen number of final prints in the desired quantity, size, brightness and so forth.
In accordance with the present invention a system is provided for enabling a user to select and print digitally stored images. A digital still camera is used for taking and storing digital representations of a plurality of images. A printer is used for generating graphical representations of selected ones of the plurality of images on a preselected print media. A flash memory card, floppy diskette, direct data link or some other conventional data transfer scheme is used to transfer the digital representations of the plurality of images from the digital still camera to the printer. The printer includes programming for generating a combination proof sheet and order form. The combination proof sheet and order form includes a graphical representation of at least one of the images and a plurality of user designation areas. The printer has circuitry and software for detecting the user designation areas on the form that have been completed by the user. The programming in the printer thereafter causes it to generate at least one final print sheet with the images and enhancements designated by the user on the combination proof sheet and order form.
In accordance with the present invention a method is provided for enabling a user to select and print digitally stored images. The method involves the steps of: 1) taking and storing digital still representations of a plurality of images; 2) transferring the digital still representations of the plurality of images to a printer capable of generating graphical representations of selected ones of the plurality of images on a preselected print media; 3) generating with the printer a combination proof sheet and order form including a graphical representation of at least one of the images and a plurality of image selection and/or image enhancement user designation areas; 4) completing at least one of the user designation areas on the combination proof sheet and order form; 5) using the printer to read the combination proof sheet and order form to determine the user designation areas completed by the user; and 6) generating with the printer at least one final print sheet with the images and enhancements designated by the user on the combination proof sheet and order form.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4441807 (1984-04-01), Bartz
patent: 4489351 (1984-12-01), d'Alayer de Costemore d'Ar
patent: 4827347 (1989-05-01), Bell
patent: 4965662 (1990-10-01), Saiota
patent: 5359387 (1994-10-01), Hicks
patent: 5426481 (1995-06-01), Slater
patent: 5447827 (1995-09-01), Ishikawa
patent: 5563722 (1996-10-01), Norris
patent: 5666215 (1997-09-01), Fredlund
patent: 5706097 (1998-01-01), Schelling
patent: 5748248 (1998-05-01), Parke
patent: 5768444 (1998-06-01), Nishimura
patent: 5838458 (1998-11-01), Tsai
patent: 6141111 (2000-10-01), Kato
patent: 6434579 (2002-08-01), Shaffer et al.
patent: 6623528 (2003-09-01), Squilla et al.
Compaq A900 Press Release entitled “Compaq Goes All-In-One with New A900 for Printing, Faxing, Color Copying and Scanning” Houston, Texas, Mar. 22, 1999.
Compaq A900 All-In-One User Guide; Copyright 1998 for Compaq Computer Corporation.
Compaq A1000 “All-In-One” User Guide; Copy right 1999 for Compaq Computer Corporation.
Epstein Yoav
Hilliard William C.
Winter Kirt A.
LandOfFree
System and method for printing and scanning a user-completed... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with System and method for printing and scanning a user-completed..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and System and method for printing and scanning a user-completed... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3356043