Patent ID: 6897891
Filing Date: 2005-05-24
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. A computer system comprising: a host computer for electronic conferencing with another computer; a digital camera for picking up a scene with an image sensor and recording image data representative of said scene in a recording medium; and a high-speed serial interface connecting said digital camera to said host computer; said host computer comprising a device driver including: said digital camera comprising a controller for driving, in response to an access made from one of said first device function, said second device function, and said third device function of said host computer via said high-speed serial interface, portions of said digital camera corresponding to said access to thereby control data transfer and a shooting operation, wherein said high-speed serial interface comprises at least one of a USB (Universal Serial Bus) serial interface and an IEEE 1394 serial interface, wherein, when said high-speed serial interface comprises said USB serial interface, during an electronic conference between said host computer and said another computer, the image data representative of a still picture is transferred by said first device function using bulk transfer, which transfers image data at an idle position of a transfer frame, and wherein, when said high-speed serial interface comprises said IEEE 1394 serial interface, during said electronic conference between said host computer and said another computer, the image data representative of said still picture is transferred by said first device function using asynchronous transfer, which transfers data when a bus is idle in a preselected transfer cycle.