Patent US7468744 - System and method for automatically transferring data from an electronic camera

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(12) United States Patent

Edwards et al.

(io) Patent No.: (45) Date of Patent:

US 7,468,744 B2 Dec. 23, 2008

(54) SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR

AUTOMATICALLY TRANSFERRING DATA
FROM AN ELECTRONIC CAMERA

(75) Inventors: Eric D. Edwards, San Francisco, CA
(US); Neal J. Manowitz, Woodcliff
Lake, NJ (US)

(73) Assignees: Sony Corporation, Tokyo (JP); Sony Electronics Inc., Park Ridge, NJ (US)

( * ) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 768 days.

(21) Appl.No.: 09/784,429

(22) Filed: Feb. 15, 2001

(65) Prior Publication Data

US 2001/0045985 Al Nov. 29, 2001

Related U.S. Application Data

(60) Provisional application No. 60/187,184, filed on Mar. 6, 2000.

(51) Int. CI.

H04N 5/232 (2006.01)
H04N 5/225 (2006.01)
G06F15/16 (2006.01)

(52) U.S. CI 348/211.1; 348/211.6; 348/207.1;

709/232

(58) Field of Classification Search 348/207.1,

348/211.1, 211.2, 211.3, 333.01, 333.02, 348/231.1, 231.9, 207.99, 208.6, 211.6, 208.15 See application file for complete search history.

(56) References Cited

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(Continued)

Primary Examiner—Lin Ye

Assistant Examiner—Kelly L Jerabek

(74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Gregory J. Koerner;

Redwood Patent Law

A system and method for efficiently transferring data from an electronic camera device includes a camera device that is configured to capture image data and temporarily store the image data into an economical limited local buffer memory. A transfer manager from the camera device may then periodically arbitrate for access to a wireless communications network, and may transfer the captured image data from the buffer memory to a designated data destination, such as an image service on a distributed computer network like the Internet. A system user may then efficiently access the transferred image data from a dedicated storage location on the data destination by utilizing any appropriate data-access device, such as a personal computer device or a portable electronic device.

56 Claims, 9 Drawing Sheets