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JP-7857127-B2 - Electronic device with communication function, control method and program thereof

JP7857127B2JP 7857127 B2JP7857127 B2JP 7857127B2JP-7857127-B2

Inventors

  • 石津 明彦

Assignees

  • キヤノン株式会社

Dates

Publication Date
20260512
Application Date
20220318

Claims (13)

  1. It is an electronic device, A means of communication for communicating with an external device, A generation means for generating an image list showing images to be provided to the external device, The system includes control means for transmitting the image list to the external device when a request to acquire the image list is received from the external device. The control means, after a predetermined operation relating to establishing communication with the external device and before receiving a request from the external device to acquire the image list, starts generating a cache of the image list, and, upon receiving the request to acquire the image list, transmits the image list based on the cache to the external device . The control means starts generating a cache of image lists in response to a predetermined operation relating to establishing communication used to provide images to the external device . An electronic device characterized by the following features.
  2. The generation means generates multiple image lists, each of which is a list of images selected according to the type of image. The electronic device according to claim 1, characterized in that the control means transmits to the external device an image list corresponding to the specified list from among the plurality of image lists in response to receiving a request from the external device to acquire the specified image list .
  3. An imaging means for capturing an image, The system further includes a classification means for classifying an image based on its image information, The electronic device according to claim 2 , characterized in that the control means adds information about the image to a cache of the image list corresponding to the classification result for the image among the plurality of image lists.
  4. The system further includes a deletion means for deleting an image stored in a storage means, The electronic device according to any one of claims 1 to 3 , characterized in that the control means deletes the cache of the image list when a predetermined image is deleted by the deletion means.
  5. The electronic device according to claim 4 , characterized in that the control means does not delete the image list cache if the information of the image to be deleted by the deletion means is not included in the image list cache.
  6. The electronic device according to claim 5, characterized in that when the image list cache is deleted, the control means starts generating an image list cache in response to receiving a request to acquire the image list from the external device, and transmits the image list based on the cache to the external device.
  7. The communication means is capable of establishing a first communication and a second communication, which has a higher communication speed than the first communication and is used to provide images to the external device, with the external device. The electronic device according to any one of claims 1 to 6 , characterized in that the control means does not generate a cache of image lists when establishing the first communication with the external device.
  8. The communication means is capable of establishing a first communication and a second communication, which has a higher communication speed than the first communication and is used to provide images to the external device, with the external device. The electronic device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the control means starts generating a cache of image lists in response to a predetermined operation relating to establishing communication that changes the communication with the external device from a first communication to a second communication.
  9. The electronic device according to claim 8, wherein the predetermined operation relating to the establishment of the communication includes receiving a request to hand over the communication with the external device from the first communication to the second communication, activating an access point for the second communication, or receiving a connection request to perform the second communication using the access point.
  10. The electronic device according to any one of claims 1 to 9 , characterized in that the control means deletes the image list cache in response to detecting a disconnection of the communication used to provide images to the external device.
  11. The communication means is capable of establishing a first communication and a second communication, which has a higher communication speed than the first communication and is used to provide images to the external device, with the external device. The electronic device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the control means does not delete the image list cache even if it detects a disconnection of the second communication when the communication with the external device is changed from the first communication to the second communication.
  12. A control method for an electronic device having communication means for communicating with an external device and generation means for generating an image list showing images to be provided to the external device, After a predetermined operation relating to establishing communication with the external device and before receiving a request from the external device to acquire the image list, the process of starting the generation of an image list cache, The process includes a step of controlling the system to transmit the image list based on the cache to the external device in response to receiving a request from the external device to acquire the image list, A method for controlling an electronic device, characterized in that, in the step of initiating the process, the generation of an image list cache is initiated in accordance with the predetermined operation relating to the establishment of communication used to provide images to the external device .
  13. A program for causing a computer to function as one of the means of an electronic device according to any one of claims 1 to 11 .

Description

This invention relates to an electronic device equipped with communication functions, a control method therefor, and a program for such a device. In recent years, technologies have become known for transmitting image data and other information from electronic devices such as digital cameras to information processing devices such as smart devices via wireless LAN (Local Area Network) and other communication methods, and displaying the data on the information processing device. To display a list of images held by an electronic device on the information processing device, it is sometimes necessary to send a list of data from the electronic device to the information processing device. However, if the electronic device holds a large number of images, generating the list can take time. Patent Document 1 proposes a technique in which, when a list to be sent to an external device spans multiple pages, the server device sends a list of target pages requested by the external device, while also pre-fetching pages other than the target pages to generate the list. Japanese Patent Publication No. 2007-310446 Block diagram showing the configuration of a digital camera as an example of an electronic device in an embodiment of the present invention.Block diagram showing an example configuration of a smart device as an example of an information processing device in an embodiment.Sequence diagram showing an example of processing between a digital camera and a smart device in this embodiment.A diagram showing an example of a user interface displayed on a smart device in an embodiment.A flowchart illustrating the series of operations involved in the image provisioning process of a digital camera in this embodiment.A flowchart illustrating the series of operations for image acquisition processing of a smart device in an embodiment. The embodiments will be described in detail below with reference to the attached drawings. Note that the following embodiments do not limit the invention as defined in the claims. While multiple features are described in the embodiments, not all of these features are essential to the invention, and the features may be combined in any way. Furthermore, in the attached drawings, identical or similar configurations are given the same reference numerals, and redundant descriptions are omitted. <Digital camera configuration> Referring to Figure 1, an example configuration of a digital camera 100 as an example of an electronic device in this embodiment will be described. In this embodiment, the electronic device is described as a digital camera, but the electronic device is not limited to a digital camera. For example, the electronic device may be a portable media player, a so-called tablet device, a smartphone, a personal computer, a smart speaker, or other electronic device. Furthermore, in the following description, the case in which a smart device is used as an example of an information processing device will be described. A smart device includes portable terminals such as smartphones and tablet devices. Note that the information processing device is not limited to a smart device; for example, the information processing device may be a digital camera, printer, television, or personal computer with wireless communication capabilities. The control unit 101 includes, for example, one or more processors such as a CPU, and controls each part of the digital camera 100 by executing the program described later. Alternatively, instead of the control unit 101 controlling the entire device, multiple hardware components may share the processing to control the entire device. The imaging unit 102 is composed of, for example, an optical lens unit, an optical system for controlling aperture, zoom, and focus, and an image sensor for converting light (image) introduced through the optical lens unit into an electrical image signal. Generally, CMOS (Complete Metal Oxide Semiconductor) or CCD (Charge Coupled Device) are used as the image sensor. The imaging unit 102, under the control of the control unit 101, converts the subject light imaged by the lens included in the imaging unit 102 into an electrical signal using the image sensor, performs noise reduction processing, and outputs the digital data as image data. In the digital camera 100 of this embodiment, the image data is encoded by the control unit 101 and recorded as a file on the recording medium 110 according to the DCF (Design Rule for Camera File System) standard. The non-volatile memory 103 includes electrically erasable and recordable non-volatile memory, and stores programs and the like executed by the control unit 101 (described later). The working memory 104 includes volatile memory and is used as a buffer memory for temporarily holding image data captured by the imaging unit 102, as well as for image display memory for the display unit 106 and as a working area for the control unit 101. The working memory 104 may also hold a cache for the image list (descr