JP2002314943A - Image reproducing apparatus and method therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image reproducing apparatus capable of shortening the time required for the start of displaying an image even when the capacity of an image data file is large. SOLUTION: Upon receiving an image reproduction request from a user, a control microcomputer 16 reads the header including a thumbnail image in an image data file from a memory card 18 into a DRAM 14. The header is extended in an image processing circuit 12, and is converted into a prescribed size in a resolution converter 15 to being displayed on an image displaying section 13. Subsequently, the microcomputer 16 reads the remaining part including a main image from the memory card 18 into the DRAM 14. The remaining part is extended in the circuit 12, and is converted into a prescribed size in the converter 15 to being displayed on the section 13.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an image display means for reading out and reproducing each data from an image data storage medium storing an image data file including data relating to a main image and data relating to its auxiliary information. The present invention relates to an image reproducing apparatus and an image reproducing method for displaying.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in order to reduce the time required to read image data from an image data file stored in a recording medium by an image reproducing apparatus and to confirm a reproduced image, the image data file includes main image data and The following processing has been performed using auxiliary image data smaller in size than the main image data stored together.

That is, first, an image data file is read from the recording medium to a temporary storage medium such as a DRAM,
For example, a thumbnail image in the auxiliary image data is extracted from the image data file, expanded and enlarged first, and displayed on the display unit, and during that time, the main image data is extracted from the image data file and expanded to the expanded and displayed size. Was resized and displayed on the display unit. A similar process has been performed for fast-forwarding while checking a reproduced image.

[0004]

By the way, the time required to read an image data file from a recording medium does not change and only the time required for decompression processing is reduced by the above-described method alone. That is, as in the case of the decompression process, when the image size increases, the capacity of the image data file also increases, and the time required for reading the image data file also increases. Therefore, it greatly affects the time required until the image is displayed.

[0005] The thumbnail image in the auxiliary image data is small with respect to the display screen, and the enlarged and displayed image is coarser than when the main image is displayed. When the image size is large, the time required to play the main image is long and nothing is displayed for a long time, so displaying an image with a thumbnail enlarged is a great merit, but the time until the thumbnail is enlarged is displayed. If the main image can be displayed in a time that is almost the same as the main image, the advantage is small, and the disadvantage that the time until the main image is displayed becomes longer is more prominent.

If the image quality of the thumbnail image is low,
When the enlargement is performed, the roughness is enlarged and displayed, and the confirmation image may be too coarse to be displayed.

Further, if the above processing is performed when the image file to be reproduced is an image larger than the image size that can be reproduced by the reproduction device, the main image is displayed even though the enlarged thumbnail image is displayed. Are not reproduced, and the display is performed in accordance with the rule when the main image cannot be reproduced, which results in an unnatural display.

Therefore, it is not advantageous to perform a process of unconditionally enlarging the thumbnails of all the images and displaying the main image.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to provide an image reproducing apparatus and an image reproducing method which can reduce the time required for image display even if the image data file has a large capacity. I do.

Further, the present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and depending on the size of the main image and the image quality of the auxiliary image, execution of continuous reproduction of the auxiliary image and the main image is stopped, and an appropriate image is displayed. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image reproducing apparatus and an image reproducing method capable of performing the above.

[0011]

According to the present invention, there is provided an image reproducing apparatus for storing an image data file which stores an image data file including data relating to a main image and data relating to attached information. In an image reproducing apparatus for reading and reproducing each data from a recording medium and displaying the data on an image display means, a display storage means for temporarily storing data of an image to be displayed on the image display means; Included in the additional information in the image data file from the recording medium, the header portion including the auxiliary image smaller in size than the main image is first read out to the display storage means and enlarged, and displayed on the image display means, And control means for reading out data relating to the main image from the image data file and displaying the data on the image display means.

[0012] The image reproducing apparatus further includes resolution conversion means for enlarging the auxiliary image to a predetermined size and converting the resolution of the main image. Further, when the auxiliary image and the main image are compressed images, the image processing apparatus further includes image expansion means for expanding each of the images.

When the image reproducing apparatus receives an image reproducing request from a user, the image reproducing apparatus first reads a header portion including the auxiliary image from the recording medium for storing image data to the display storage means, and decompresses the image. Means, the image is converted to a predetermined size by the resolution conversion means and displayed on the display means, and then the remaining portion including the main image is read out to the display storage means and is sent to the image expansion means. Then, the image data is converted into a predetermined size by the resolution conversion means and displayed on the display means.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an image reproducing apparatus according to the present invention is configured to transfer each data from an image data storage recording medium storing an image data file including data relating to a main image and data relating to its auxiliary information. In an image reproducing apparatus for reading, reproducing and displaying on an image display means, a display storage means for temporarily storing data of an image to be displayed on the image display means, and the image data from the image data storage recording medium. At a different timing, a header portion including an auxiliary image smaller in size than the main image included in the accessory information in the image data file as a part of the file and a data portion related to the main image as the rest of the image data file are read out at different timings. Control means;
Resolution control means for enlarging the auxiliary image to a predetermined size and converting the resolution of the main image, wherein the control means reads a header portion including the auxiliary image first.

The image reproducing apparatus includes image expansion means for expanding each of the auxiliary image and the main image when the auxiliary image and the main image are compressed images.

In the image reproducing apparatus, when a fast forward command for the image data file is issued by a user, the header portion including the auxiliary image of each image data file is successively read from the image data storage medium. The image data is read out to the display storage unit, expanded by the image expansion unit, then enlarged by the resolution conversion unit, and displayed on the display unit.

When the image reproducing apparatus receives a desired image reproducing request from a user, the image reproducing apparatus first reads a header portion including the auxiliary image from the recording medium for storing image data into the display storage means, and After the image data is expanded by the expansion unit, the image data is converted into a predetermined size by the resolution conversion unit and displayed on the display unit. Then, the remaining part including the main image is read out to the display storage unit and the image expansion unit Then, the data is converted into a predetermined size by the resolution conversion means and displayed on the display means.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image reproducing method, comprising the steps of: transferring each data from an image data storing recording medium storing an image data file including data relating to a main image and data relating to its auxiliary information; In an image reproducing method for reading, reproducing, and displaying on an image display means, a header portion including an auxiliary image smaller in size than the main image included in the additional information in the image data file from the recording medium for storing image data. First reading into the display storage means, an auxiliary image enlarging step for enlarging the auxiliary image read out by the header part reading step, and an auxiliary image enlarged in the auxiliary image enlarging step. An auxiliary image display step of displaying the image data in the image data file from the image data storage medium. A main image data portion reading step of reading data relating to an image; a main image size conversion step of converting the main image data portion read by the main image data portion reading step into a predetermined size; and a main image size conversion step. A main image display step of displaying the main image converted to the size of the image on the image display unit following the auxiliary image displayed on the image display unit.

Here, the auxiliary image enlargement step and the main image size conversion step are a resolution conversion step of enlarging the auxiliary image to a predetermined size and converting the resolution of the main image.

Further, the image reproducing method includes an image expanding step of expanding each of the auxiliary image and the main image when the auxiliary image and the main image are compressed images.

In this image reproducing method, when an image reproducing request is received from a user, the header portion reading step includes a step of reading the header data from the recording medium for storing image data in a size smaller than that of the main image included in the additional information in the image data file. The header portion including the auxiliary image having a small size is first read out to the display storage means, the image expansion step expands the auxiliary image, the resolution conversion step enlarges the auxiliary image to a predetermined size, and displays the auxiliary image. The step displays the auxiliary image enlarged to a predetermined size in the resolution conversion step, the main image data partial reading step reads data related to the main image in an image data file from the recording medium for storing image data, The image expansion step expands the main image, and the resolution conversion step changes the expanded main image to a predetermined size. And, the main image display step displays on the image display unit following the displayed auxiliary image on the image display unit main image which is converted into the predetermined size.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an image reproducing method according to the present invention is to convert each data from an image data storing recording medium storing an image data file including data relating to a main image and data relating to its auxiliary information. In an image reproducing method for reading, reproducing, and displaying on an image display means, a header portion including an auxiliary image smaller in size than the main image included in the additional information in the image data file from the recording medium for storing image data. First reading into the display storage means, an auxiliary image enlarging step for enlarging the auxiliary image read out by the header part reading step, and an auxiliary image enlarged in the auxiliary image enlarging step. And an auxiliary image display step of displaying the image data file. The header portion reading step reads the header portion including the auxiliary image of each image data file one after another from the image data storage recording medium to the display storage means, and in the auxiliary image enlarging step, It is expanded and displayed continuously on the display means.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an image reproducing apparatus according to the present invention is capable of transferring each data from an image data storing recording medium storing an image data file including data relating to a main image and data relating to its auxiliary information. Read, expand the auxiliary image smaller in size than the main image to the display image size, reproduce and display it before the main image, and then convert the main image to the display image size and reproduce An image reproducing apparatus capable of continuously displaying the auxiliary image and the main image on an image display means; a display storage means for temporarily storing data of an image to be displayed on the image display means; An auxiliary image smaller in size than the main image included in the additional information in the image data file as a part of the image data file from the recording medium Control means for reading a header portion including the image data file and a data portion relating to the main image as the remainder of the image data file; and resolution conversion means for enlarging the auxiliary image to a predetermined size and converting the resolution of the main image. The control means controls the continuous reproduction of the auxiliary image and the main image based on information obtained from the header portion or the data portion relating to the main image read from the image data file of the image data storage recording medium. I do.

In this image reproducing apparatus, the control means may be configured to perform a control based on image size information of a main image obtained from the header portion or the data portion relating to the main image read from an image data file of the image data storage recording medium. Controls the continuous reproduction of the auxiliary image and the main image.

Specifically, when the image size information of the main image is larger than the image size that can be displayed on the image display unit, the control unit skips the auxiliary image enlargement / display processing and skips the main image. Is reproduced and displayed on the image display means.

Further, the control means may determine whether the auxiliary image and the main image are continuous with each other based on image quality information of the auxiliary image obtained from the header portion read from the image data file of the image data storage medium. Control playback.

Specifically, when the image quality of the auxiliary image has not reached a predetermined level, the control means skips the enlargement / display processing of the auxiliary image, reproduces the main image, and sends the main image to the image display means. indicate.

[0028] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the image reproducing method according to the present invention is to convert each data from an image data storage recording medium storing an image data file including data relating to a main image and data relating to its auxiliary information. Read, the auxiliary image smaller in size than the main image is enlarged to the display image size, reproduced and displayed earlier than the main image, and then reproduced after converting the main image to the display image size, In the image reproduction method capable of continuously displaying the auxiliary image and the main image on an image display unit, the image data is stored in the image data file as a part of the image data file from the recording medium for storing the image data. A header portion including an auxiliary image smaller in size than the main image, and data relating to the main image as a remainder of the image data file. A read control step of reading the minutes and a resolution conversion step of converting the resolution of the main image while enlarging the auxiliary image to a predetermined size, wherein the read out from the image data file of the image data storage medium is performed. Continuous reproduction of the auxiliary image and the main image is controlled based on information obtained from a header portion or a data portion relating to the main image.

In this image reproducing method, the auxiliary image and the auxiliary image are obtained based on image size information of the main image obtained from the header portion or the data portion relating to the main image read from the image data file of the image data storage medium. The continuous reproduction with the main image is controlled.

More specifically, when the image size information of the main image is larger than the image size that can be displayed on the image display means, the main image is reproduced by skipping the auxiliary image enlargement / display processing. It is displayed on the image display means.

Further, in this image reproducing method, the auxiliary image and the main image can be distinguished from each other based on the image quality information of the auxiliary image obtained from the header portion read from the image data file of the image data storage recording medium. Control continuous playback.

Specifically, when the image quality of the auxiliary image has not reached a predetermined level, the main image is reproduced by skipping the enlargement / display processing of the auxiliary image and displayed on the image display means.

[0033]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The embodiments of the image reproducing apparatus and the image reproducing method according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

This embodiment incorporates an image reproducing apparatus for reproducing image data from a recording medium for storing image data according to the image reproducing method of the present invention and displaying the image data on an image display unit.
This is a digital still camera 10 shown in FIG.

In FIG. 1, a digital still camera 10
An image processing circuit 12 for performing image processing such as image compression and image expansion on an image from a lens & CCD unit 11 described later;
An image display unit 13 for displaying an image processed by the image processing circuit 12, and a DRAM 14 serving as a display storage unit for temporarily storing image data to be displayed on the image display unit 13
And a resolution conversion device 15 for performing resolution conversion processing on an auxiliary image and a main image, which will be described later, and read out main image data and auxiliary image data from a memory card 18 serving as a recording medium for storing image data, and display them on an image display unit 13. And a control microcomputer (hereinafter, referred to as a microcomputer) 16 for performing the control. The image processing circuit 12 and the image display unit 1
3. The DRAM 14, the resolution conversion device 15, and the control microcomputer 16 constitute an image reproducing device.

The digital still camera 10 includes, in addition to the components constituting the image reproducing apparatus, a lens & CCD unit 11 for capturing an image of a subject, and a memory card controller 17 for controlling a writing and reading process for a memory card 18. ing.

The image display unit 13 is, for example, 640 × 480
It is a built-in liquid crystal panel having a display range of the size of a pixel. Further, any device capable of displaying an image, such as an EVF or an externally connected television monitor, may be used.

The memory card 18 is a removable medium, and stores a thumbnail image and a main image obtained from the same subject as an image data file.

The DRAM 14 temporarily stores image data to be displayed on the image display unit 13. Memory card 1
8, the header portion including the thumbnail image read out by the reading control of the control microcomputer 16 described later and the remaining portion including the main image are also read out here, but at different timings.

The image processing circuit 12 includes a memory card 18
When the image data file is read from the CPU, when the thumbnail image or the main image is a compressed image, the control microcomputer 1
Under the control of 6, the thumbnail image is expanded and the main image is expanded.

The resolution converter 15 enlarges the thumbnail image to a predetermined size and converts the resolution of the main image.

When the control microcomputer 16 receives an image reproduction request from the user, the control microcomputer 16 reads a header portion including a thumbnail image (shown in FIG. 2A) from the memory card 18 into the DRAM 14 and performs image processing. After being expanded by the circuit 12, it is converted to a predetermined size by the resolution converter 15 and displayed on the image display unit 13 as shown in FIG. Then, the image data is expanded by the image processing circuit 12, then converted to a predetermined size by the resolution conversion device 15, and displayed on the image display unit 13 as shown in FIG. Details of the control microcomputer 16 and the image data file will be described later.

Next, the appearance of the digital still camera 10 will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 3 is a perspective view from the front side, and FIG. 4 is a perspective view from the rear side.

The digital still camera 10 has a photographing unit 101 mounted on an upper part of a camera main body 100 so as to be rotatable forward and backward. In the camera body 100, the image reproducing device is built in, and a memory card 18 is stored so as to be able to be inserted and removed.
Are arranged. Further, a lens unit 11a and a flash unit 102 are arranged in the photographing unit 101 at a required interval in the horizontal direction. Bottom 1 of camera body 100
03, an insertion opening 104 for loading the memory card 18 is formed, and the insertion circuit 104 is covered by a lid 105.

Next, a general operation of the digital still camera 10 will be described. The image of the subject is a lens &
The image is taken in through the CCD unit 11, subjected to predetermined image processing by the image processing circuit 12, and displayed on the image display unit 13.

When the photographer presses the shutter button SB, the image picked up by the lens & CCD unit 11 is stored in the DRAM 14 through the image processing circuit 12. Next, if necessary, the image is converted into a target image size by the resolution conversion device 15 and stored again in the DRAM 14, subjected to a compression process or the like by the image processing device 12, and stored in a different area of the DRAM 14.

Further, necessary information such as a header is added by the control microcomputer 16 and recorded on the memory card 18 via the memory card controller 17. Here, the recording medium is not limited to a memory card, but may be any recording medium such as a built-in memory.

When a reproduction request is issued, the image data recorded on the memory card 18 is read out via the memory card controller 17 and stored in the DRAM 14.

After that, necessary information such as a header is read by the control microcomputer 16, decompressed by the image processing device 12, and stored in a different area of the DRAM 14. Further, if necessary, the image is converted into a size of an image to be displayed by the resolution conversion device 105, and the image processing circuit 1
After the processing in step 2, the image is displayed on the image display unit 13.

Next, the Ex recorded on the memory card 18 is
Processing for reproducing and displaying a JPEG image data file in the if2.1 format according to the present invention will be described.

First, FIG. 5 shows the basic structure of a JPEG image data file. The image data file contains an application file immediately after the SOI marker indicating the beginning of the file.
Marker segment APP1 is inserted. The inside of the application marker segment APP1 includes an APP1 marker (Maker), APP1Length, an Exif identification code, additional information, and a header portion.

The auxiliary information has a TIFF structure including a file header, and can record up to two IFDs (0th IFD, 1th IFD). The 0th IFD records additional information about the compressed image (main image). Thumbnail images can be recorded in the 1st IFD.

FIG. 6 shows a processing flow. When a reproduction request is received, a part of the image data file whose format is shown in FIG. 5 is read from the memory card 18 from the beginning (step S1), and the control microcomputer 16 controls the marker (Maker) of the application marker segment (APP1).
(Step S2), and if there is a marker (YES), the number of bytes of the marker described immediately after the marker is obtained (step S3). As shown in FIG. 5, APP1 includes a header portion such as an Exif identification code, attached information, and thumbnail image data.

Next, the acquired data for the number of bytes of APP1 is read from the memory card 18 and stored in the DRAM 14 (step S4). As shown in FIG. 5, if the file is a JPEG compressed file according to the Exif format, the image size of the main image can be obtained from the header information included in APP1. That is, in the 0th IFD of the APP1, additional information regarding the compressed main image is recorded, and the size of the main image can be obtained from this (step S5).

If the size of the acquired main image is reproducible (YES in step S6), the process proceeds to step S8 in FIG. In step S8 in FIG. 7, the thumbnail processing is expanded by the image processing circuit 12, and D
It is stored in another area on the RAM 14. After that, in step S9, the enlargement process is performed by the resolution conversion device 15,
It is displayed on the image display unit 13 in step S10.

Thereafter, the image data including the main image data is read from the memory card 18 and recorded in the DRAM 14 (step S11), the main image is expanded by the image processing circuit 12, and stored in another area on the DRAM 14. Is performed (step S12).

Then, the image is converted into a display image size by the resolution conversion device 15 (step S13) and displayed on the image display device 103 (step S14).

However, when the marker of APP1 cannot be obtained (NO in step S2 in FIG. 6), or when the image size of the obtained main image is an unreproducible image size (FIG. 6). In step S6 (NO), the process proceeds to the main image reproduction process without performing the thumbnail enlargement process (step S7).

As described above, when the digital still camera 10 reproduces a JPEG image accompanied by a thumbnail image, the digital still camera 10 first stores the thumbnail image (FIG. 2A) containing the thumbnail image from the memory card 18. Is read out, subjected to expansion / enlargement processing and displayed on the image display unit 13 (FIG. 2 (b)), and then data including the main image is read out, subjected to expansion / resolution conversion processing, and displayed on the image display unit 13. By displaying ((c) in FIG. 2), the time until image display can be shortened.

That is, the digital still camera 10
Reduces the time required for image data to be expanded and displayed by expanding and displaying the thumbnail image first.However, even when reading image file data from a recording medium, By dividing and reading, the time until display can be further reduced.

Next, some modified examples of the digital still camera 10 will be described. The configuration of each of the modified examples is the same as that shown in FIG. 1, and the description of the configuration is omitted here.

First, the operation of the first modification will be described with reference to FIG. In the first modified example, there is a marker in step S2 (YES), and the process to be continued after acquiring the number of bytes of the marker described immediately after in step S3 is different.

That is, in step S 4 ′, the number of bytes obtained by adding the fixed number of bytes α in APP 1 is read from the memory card 18 and stored in the DRAM 14. By reading the data from the memory card 18 by adding the fixed byte number α and including the frame header SOF of the JPEG file of the main image, the image size of the main image described in the SOF can be obtained.

Since the processing after step S5 is the same as the processing shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the description is omitted here.

Therefore, also in the first modification, when a JPEG image accompanied by a thumbnail image is reproduced, a part of the image file including the thumbnail image is first read from the memory card 18 to perform the expansion / enlargement processing. Then, the data including the main image is read out, the data including the main image is read out, and the image data is subjected to decompression / resolution conversion processing and displayed on the image display unit 13, so that the time until image display can be reduced.

Next, a second modification will be described with reference to FIG. This second modified example is different from the subsequent processing when a marker cannot be obtained in step S2 (NO).

If the marker of APP1 cannot be obtained (NO in step S2), the flow advances to step S16 to read out a specified amount of data including the header. If there is a rule that the head portion is contained within a certain fixed range, the fixed number of bytes is read from the memory card 18 and
It is stored on the RAM 14. Thereafter, the process proceeds to the processes after step S5 shown in FIGS.

Therefore, also in the second modification, when reproducing a JPEG image accompanied by a thumbnail image, a part of the image file including the thumbnail image is first read from the memory card 18 and the expansion / enlargement processing is performed. Then, the data including the main image is read out, the data including the main image is read out, and the image data is subjected to decompression / resolution conversion processing and displayed on the image display unit 13, so that the time until image display can be reduced.

Next, a third modification will be described. This third modified example corresponds to step S10 in FIG.
Between step S11 and step S11, step S18 shown in FIG.
Is provided. In step S18, it is determined whether or not another image data file is selected. If another image data file is selected, the process proceeds to step S19, and the next image data file is fetched. On the other hand, if another image data file is not selected, the process proceeds to step S11 described above.

Step S18 is a process corresponding to a case where another thumbnail image is continuously requested after the thumbnail image is displayed in step S10. Step S1 is performed on the next image data file without performing the process of reading the main image data from the memory card 18.
By performing the thumbnail image reading and reproduction processing described in steps S10 to S10, it is possible to further reduce the time until the confirmation image is displayed when the image is fast-forwarded.

By the way, in the operation of the digital still camera 10 shown in FIG. 6, the main image is not an image size reproducible on the image display unit 13 in step S6 (NO).
In some cases, the process proceeds to step S7, where the main image is reproduced. In this method, when the image size of the main image is larger than the displayable image size, the enlargement / display processing of the thumbnail image is skipped and the main image is reproduced. That is, depending on the image size of the main image, the main image can be reproduced without performing the enlarged display of the thumbnail image. The reproduction process of the main image here is a reproduction process for a consistent display in accordance with a rule when the main image cannot be reproduced.

On the other hand, in the following fourth modified example, as shown in FIG. 11, in place of the processing in step S6, it is determined in step S21 whether or not the main image has a reproducible image size. Then, in step S22, it is determined whether or not the image size of the main image is so small that there is no merit of performing the expansion / enlargement processing of the thumbnail image.
If the image size of the main image is small (YES), the expansion / enlargement processing of the thumbnail image is not performed, and step S7 is performed.
To perform only the main image reproduction process.

Next, a fifth modification will be described with reference to FIG. In the fifth modification, execution / cancellation of the thumbnail enlargement process is determined based on the image quality of the thumbnail image.

When a reproduction request is received, data including the entire thumbnail image is read from the memory card 18 from the image file data (step S31). If the thumbnail image is an uncompressed JPEG image in the Exif 2.1 format, the enlargement process is executed unconditionally (YE in step S32).
S).

If the thumbnail image is compressed (NO in step S32), a certain value in the quantization table described in the header portion of the JPEG image is obtained, and a rough image quality is obtained by a deviation from the default value. It is possible to know. If the value of the quantization table is larger than the specified value, it is determined that the image quality has not reached a certain value (YES in step S33), the thumbnail enlargement process is skipped, and the main image is reproduced (step S34). move on. Also,
As a simpler method, the image quality is simply determined from the number of bytes of APP1, and if the number of bytes has not reached a certain value, it is determined that the image quality has not reached a certain value, and the thumbnail enlargement process is skipped. To the reproduction process.

If the image quality of the thumbnail image is at a certain level in step S33 (YES in step S33), the process proceeds to step S8 in FIG.

Therefore, in the fifth modification, the image quality of the thumbnail image can be known, and the reproduction process of the main image is performed without performing the enlarged display of the thumbnail depending on the image quality of the thumbnail image.

When executing / cancelling the enlargement processing of the thumbnail image according to the image size of the main image, or executing / cancelling the enlargement processing of the thumbnail image according to the image quality of the thumbnail image, the present invention is also applied at the time of fast-forwarding the image.

In the above description, a digital still camera has been described as an example.
The present invention can be applied to a portable telephone device with a D, a telephone device, a portable information terminal, and the like. Also, for images,
Although a JPEG image in the if2.1 format is taken as an example, the image format does not matter as long as an attached image such as a thumbnail image is added.

[0080]

According to the present invention, an auxiliary image smaller in size than the main image, for example, a thumbnail image is first expanded and enlarged, thereby shortening the time required to expand and display the image data. Also, when reading image file data from a recording medium, it is possible to further reduce the time required for display by dividing and reading data necessary for each process.

Further, the image size of the main image is obtained, and the enlarged reproduction of the thumbnail is not performed depending on the image size of the main image. Therefore, when the image size of the main image is small, the main image is directly reproduced. Processing can be performed, thereby avoiding the disadvantage that the time until the main image is displayed is extended.

Further, even when the image file to be generated is an image larger than the image size that can be played back by the playback device, it is possible to not perform the thumbnail enlargement playback processing, and the main image cannot be played back. A consistent display according to the provisions of the case can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a digital still camera to which the present invention has been applied.

FIG. 2 is a view schematically showing an operation of the digital still camera.

FIG. 3 is a front perspective view of the digital still camera.

FIG. 4 is a rear perspective view of the digital still camera.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a basic structure of a JPEG image data file.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing of the digital still camera.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing of the digital still camera.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining an operation of a first modification of the digital still camera.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a second modification of the digital still camera.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a third modification of the digital still camera.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a fourth modification of the digital still camera.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a fifth modification of the digital still camera.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 digital still camera, 12 image processing circuit, 1
3 image display device, 14 DRAM, 15 resolution conversion device, 16 control microcomputer, 17 memory card

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) H04N 5/92 H04N 5/93 Z // H04N 101: 00 5/92 HF term (Reference) 5C022 AA13 AC01 AC42 5C023 AA02 AA31 AA37 AA38 CA01 DA04 5C052 GA02 GA03 GA07 GB06 GC03 GC05 GE08 5C053 FA06 FA08 FA27 KA04 LA01 LA06

Claims (23)

[Claims] 1. An image reproducing apparatus which reads out and reproduces each data from an image data storage medium storing an image data file including data relating to a main image and data relating to the auxiliary information, and displays the image on an image display means. In the apparatus, display storage means for temporarily storing data of an image to be displayed on the image display means, and the main image included in the additional information in an image data file from the image data storage medium A header portion including a small-sized auxiliary image is first read out to the display storage means and enlarged, and displayed on the image display means,
An image reproducing apparatus, further comprising: control means for reading data on the main image in the image data file from the image data storage medium and displaying the data on the image display means. 2. The image reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a resolution conversion unit that enlarges the auxiliary image to a predetermined size and converts a resolution of the main image. 3. The image reproducing apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising an image expansion unit that expands each of the auxiliary image and the main image when the auxiliary image and the main image are compressed images. 4. The control means, upon receiving an image reproduction request from a user, first reads a header portion including the auxiliary image from the image data storage medium into the display storage means, and reads the image expansion means. Then, the image data is converted to a predetermined size by the resolution conversion means and displayed on the display means, and then the remaining part including the main image from the image data storage medium is stored in the display storage means. 4. The image reproducing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the image data is read and expanded by the image expansion unit, then converted to a predetermined size by the resolution conversion unit and displayed on the display unit. 5. Image reproduction for reading and reproducing each data from an image data storage recording medium storing an image data file including data relating to a main image and data relating to its auxiliary information, and displaying the image on an image display means. In the apparatus, a display storage unit for temporarily storing data of an image to be displayed on the image display unit, and the additional information in the image data file as a part of the image data file from the image data storage medium Control means for reading out, at different timings, a header portion including an auxiliary image smaller in size than the main image included in the auxiliary image, and a data portion relating to the main image as a remaining portion of the image data file; and enlarging the auxiliary image to a predetermined size. And resolution conversion means for converting the resolution of the main image, the control means, Image reproducing apparatus characterized by reading the header portion including the serial auxiliary image first. 6. The image reproducing apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising an image expansion unit that expands each of the auxiliary image and the main image when the auxiliary image and the main image are compressed images. 7. When a fast-forward command for the image data file is issued by a user, the control means displays the header portion including the auxiliary image of each image data file one after another from the recording medium for storing image data. 7. The image reproducing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the image data is read out to the storage means, expanded by the image expansion means, then enlarged by the resolution conversion means and displayed on the display means. 8. The control means, upon receiving a desired image reproduction request from a user, first reads a header portion including the auxiliary image from the recording medium for storing image data to the display storage means, and expands the image. Means, the image is converted to a predetermined size by the resolution conversion means and displayed on the display means, and then the remaining portion including the main image is read out to the display storage means and is sent to the image expansion means. 7. The image reproducing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the image data is converted into a predetermined size by the resolution conversion means and displayed on the display means after the image data is expanded. 9. A method for reading and reproducing each data from an image data storage medium storing an image data file including data relating to a main image and data relating to its auxiliary information, and displaying the image on an image display means. In the image reproducing method, a header portion reading step of first reading a header portion including an auxiliary image smaller in size than the main image included in the auxiliary information in the image data file from the image data storage recording medium to a display storage means. An auxiliary image enlarging step of enlarging the auxiliary image read by the header part reading step; an auxiliary image displaying step of displaying an auxiliary image enlarged in the auxiliary image enlarging step on an image display means; Main image data section for reading data related to the main image in an image data file from a storage medium A reading step, a main image size conversion step of converting the main image data portion read by the main image data portion reading step to a predetermined size, and a main image converted to a predetermined size in the main image size conversion step. A main image display step of displaying the auxiliary image displayed on the image display means, followed by displaying the image on the image display means. 10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the auxiliary image enlarging step and the main image size converting step are a resolution converting step of enlarging the auxiliary image to a predetermined size and converting the resolution of the main image. The image reproduction method as described. 11. The image reproducing method according to claim 10, further comprising an image expanding step of expanding each of the auxiliary image and the main image when the auxiliary image and the main image are compressed images. 12. When receiving an image reproduction request from a user, the header part reading step includes an auxiliary image smaller in size than the main image included in the additional information in the image data file from the image data storage recording medium. Is read out to the display storage means first, the image expansion step expands the auxiliary image, the resolution conversion step enlarges the auxiliary image to a predetermined size, and the auxiliary image display step Displaying the auxiliary image enlarged to a predetermined size in the conversion step, the main image data partial reading step reads data relating to the main image in an image data file from the image data storage recording medium, and the image decompression step includes: Decompressing the main image, the resolution conversion step converts the decompressed main image into a predetermined size, Claim step and displaying on the image display unit following the displayed auxiliary image on the image display unit main image which is converted into the predetermined size 1
2. The image reproducing method according to 1. 13. An image display device for reading and reproducing each data from an image data storage medium storing an image data file comprising data relating to a main image and data relating to the auxiliary information, and displaying the image on an image display means. In the image reproducing method, a header portion reading step of reading from the image data storage recording medium a header portion including an auxiliary image smaller in size than the main image included in the auxiliary information in the image data file to a display storage means, An auxiliary image enlarging step of enlarging the auxiliary image read by the header part reading step; and an auxiliary image displaying step of displaying an auxiliary image enlarged in the auxiliary image enlarging step on an image display means; Reading a header portion when a fast forward command for Reading the header portion including the auxiliary image of each image data file one after another from the image data storage recording medium into the display storage means, expanding the auxiliary image in the auxiliary image enlarging step, and continuously displaying it on the display means. Characteristic image reproduction method. 14. Each image data is read out from an image data storage medium storing an image data file including data relating to a main image and data relating to its auxiliary information, and an auxiliary image smaller in size than the main image is displayed. Reproducing and displaying the main image prior to the main image after enlargement to the size, then converting the main image to the display image size and reproducing the image, and displaying the auxiliary image and the main image continuously on the image display means. A display storage unit for temporarily storing data of an image to be displayed on the image display unit; and an image data file as a part of the image data file from the image data storage medium. And a header portion including an auxiliary image smaller in size than the main image included in the auxiliary information, and a remaining portion of the image data file. Control means for reading a data portion relating to the main image, and resolution conversion means for enlarging the auxiliary image to a predetermined size and converting the resolution of the main image, the image data file of the image data storage recording medium An image reproducing apparatus, wherein the control means controls continuous reproduction of the auxiliary image and the main image based on information obtained from the header portion or the data portion relating to the main image read from a memory device. 15. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit is configured to control the auxiliary image based on image size information of a main image obtained from the header portion or a data portion related to the main image read from an image data file of the recording medium for storing image data. 15. The image reproducing apparatus according to claim 14, wherein continuous reproduction of the image and the main image is controlled. 16. When the image size information of the main image is larger than the image size that can be displayed on the image display unit, the control unit reproduces the main image by skipping the enlargement / display processing of the auxiliary image. The image reproducing apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the image is displayed on the image display means. 17. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit is configured to determine whether the auxiliary image and the main image are continuous based on image quality information of the auxiliary image obtained from the header portion read from an image data file on the image data storage medium. The image reproducing apparatus according to claim 14, wherein reproduction is controlled. 18. The control unit, when the image quality of the auxiliary image does not reach a predetermined level, skips a process of enlarging and displaying the auxiliary image, reproduces the main image, and displays the main image on the image display unit. 18. The image reproducing device according to claim 17, wherein: 19. Each image data is read from an image data storage medium storing an image data file including data relating to a main image and data relating to its auxiliary information, and an auxiliary image smaller in size than the main image is displayed. The main image is reproduced and displayed before the main image after being enlarged to the size, then the main image is converted to the size of the display image and then reproduced, and the auxiliary image and the main image are continuously displayed on the image display means. A header portion including an auxiliary image smaller in size than the main image included in the attached information in the image data file as a part of the image data file from the image data storage recording medium. A read control step of reading a data portion relating to the main image as a remaining portion of the image data file; A resolution conversion step of converting the resolution of the main image to a predetermined size, and obtaining the header portion or the data portion related to the main image read from an image data file of the image data storage recording medium. Controlling the continuous reproduction of the auxiliary image and the main image based on the information. 20. The auxiliary image and the main image based on image size information of the main image obtained from the header portion or the data portion relating to the main image read from an image data file of the image data storage recording medium. 20. The image reproducing method according to claim 19, wherein continuous reproduction of the image is controlled. 21. When the image size information of the main image is larger than an image size that can be displayed on the image display means,
21. The image reproducing method according to claim 20, wherein the main image is reproduced by skipping the enlargement / display processing of the auxiliary image and displayed on the image display means. 22. Control of continuous reproduction of the auxiliary image and the main image based on image quality information of the auxiliary image obtained from the header portion read from an image data file of the image data storage recording medium. 20. The image reproducing method according to claim 19, wherein: 23. When the image quality of the auxiliary image has not reached a predetermined level, the main image is reproduced and displayed on the image display means, while skipping enlargement / display processing of the auxiliary image. The image reproducing method according to claim 22.