Patent ID: 7184082
Filing Date: 2007-02-27
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. An electronic camera, comprising: a display unit having a display mode for displaying a single image fully on the display unit and a display mode for displaying a plurality of images at the same time in parallel fully on the display unit, and is capable of displaying in the display modes switching from one to another; an extracting unit extracting an image from among a plurality of images which are recorded on a recording medium, and attached with shooting time and date information and obtained by shooting, based on any of a plurality of rules that include an image whose shooting date and time is oldest among images in the recording medium, an image whose shooting time is oldest among images in the recording medium shot on a same date, and an image whose shooting time is oldest among images in the recording medium shot on a current date; a representative image display unit making said display unit display the image extracted by said extracting unit; and a switching unit for directing a switching of display; wherein in a condition that a single image is displayed fully on said display unit, according to a direction from said switching unit, said representative image display unit makes a screen display an image representing selection rules for selecting an image to be displayed as a representative image between an image whose shooting date and time is oldest among images in the recording medium and an image whose shooting time is oldest among images in the recording medium shot on a current date, and in a case that said switching unit directs to display an image whose shooting date and time is oldest among images in the recording medium, said extracting unit extracts the image whose shooting date and time is oldest among images in the recording medium and the representative image display unit makes said display unit display the extracted image, and in a case that said switching unit directs to display an image whose shooting time is the oldest among images in the recording medium shot on a current date, said extracting unit extracts the image whose shooting time is the oldest among images in the recording medium shot on a current date and said representative image display unit makes said display unit display the extracted image; and in a condition that said displaying unit displays a plurality of images in parallel, according to a direction from said switching unit, said representative image display unit makes a screen display an image representing selection rules for selecting an image to be displayed as a representative image from among an image whose shooting date and time is oldest among images in the recording medium, an image whose shooting time is oldest among images in the recording medium shot on a same date, and an image whose shooting time is oldest among images in the recording medium shot on a current date, in a case that said switching unit directs to display an image whose shooting date and time is oldest among images in the recording medium, said extracting unit extracts an image whose shooting date and time is oldest among images in the recording medium along with a plurality of successive images of which a top image is the extracted oldest image and said representative image displaying unit makes said display unit display the extracted images at the same time in parallel, and in a case that said switching unit directs to display an image whose shooting time is oldest among images in the recording medium shot on a same date, said extracting unit extracts an image whose shooting time is oldest among images in the recording medium shot on a same date for a plurality of dates and said representative image display unit makes said display unit display the plurality of extracted images in ascending order based on date and time at the same time in parallel, and in a case that said switching unit directs to display an image whose shooting time is oldest among images in the recording medium shot on a current date, said extracting unit extracts an image whose shooting time is oldest among images in the recording medium shot on a current date along with a plurality of successive images of which a top image is the extracted oldest image, and said representative image display unit makes said display unit the extracted images at the same time in parallel.