Abstract:
A removable wireless storage module comprising: a digital memory for storing digital data; a radio antenna; radio interface electronics coupled to the antenna and the digital memory; a web server; and host interface electronics for coupling the digital memory to a digital host device which can supply electrical power to the module and which can produce digital data which can be stored in the digital memory; wherein the digital memory is also accessible by radio wireless device independently of the digital host device, by means of the radio antenna and the radio interface electronics.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    This invention relates in general to digital devices, such as digital cameras, that have removable digital storage and more particularly to digital devices having removable digital storage that is available via a wireless network to other devices.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    Current digital cameras typically have two ways to get images off the camera. The first way is via removable, digital storage media and the second way is via a wired connection, such as USB (Universal Serial Bus), Firewire, or serial (RS-232).  
           [0003]    Many cameras use the PCMCIA standards based Compact Flash format for removable digital storage media. The Compact Flash trademark and specification were transferred to the Compact Flash Association, by Sandisk, providing a royalty free license to companies that develop products. These Compact Flash cards contain flash memory of various sizes up to 1 Gbyte, or higher. The Intel StrataFlash products are examples of high density flash memory. They typically use 3.3 or 5 volt power.  
           [0004]    These Compact Flash cards can be plugged into digital cameras, PDA&#39;s (Personal Digital Assistant), laptop computers, portable music players, and readers connected to desktop computers. This allows the storage and transfer of digital data in a compact form factor. Other variations of Compact Flash that have emerged from other vendors include; Memory Stick, Secure Digital, Multimedia Card, Smart Media, and xD Picture Card.  
           [0005]    There are also Compact Flash format wireless network cards. These wireless network cards provide a PDA or other portable device connectivity to a standard network via an access point or directly to another device with a wireless network card. The Symbol Spectrum24 Wireless Networker is an example of an IEEE 802.11b wireless LAN card. The Intersil Prism chips are an example of a line of wireless networking chips. There are also Secure Digital format based Bluetooth radios that can be plugged into PDA and other devices. The Toshiba Pocket PC Bluetooth SD Card is an example of such a card.  
           [0006]    Sandisk has recently announced the Connect dual function Compact Flash card that provides both storage and wireless networking in a single card. The Connect product uses the PCMCIA multifunction capability to provide interfaces to both devices from the host. Separate drivers need to be provided on the host to utilize both functions. In addition, the two functions are independently resident on the card and are not operationally linked to each other.  
           [0007]    Many devices can now be configured via a network interface. Printers, Access Points and other devices can be accessed via a standard Internet browser such as Internet Explorer. The browser interface allows the device to be configured and monitored.  
           [0008]    One disadvantage to these devices is that the digital storage media must be removed from the digital device, such as a camera, in order to access the images, or the camera must be connected to a computer making it unable to be used for taking pictures. The current multifunction solution provided by the Connect Compact Flash card requires that the camera control both the memory and wireless interface.  
           [0009]    There is thus a need for a simpler solution to these problems.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0010]    According to the present invention, there is provided a solution to these problems.  
           [0011]    According to a feature of the present invention, there is provided a removable wireless storage module comprising: a digital memory for storing digital data; radio antenna; a radio interface electronics coupled to said antenna and said digital memory; a web server; and host interface electronics for coupling said digital memory to a digital host device which can supply electrical power to said module and which can produce digital data which can be stored in said digital memory; wherein said digital memory is also accessible by radio wireless device independently of said digital host device, by means of said radio antenna and said radio interface electronics.  
         ADVANTAGEOUS EFFECT OF THE INVENTION  
         [0012]    The invention has the following advantages.  
           [0013]    1. By incorporating the wireless interface into the storage card the camera or other digital device is only concerned with writing images to the card simplifying its operation.  
           [0014]    2. The storage card of the invention can also be used in different cameras, and other devices, allowing the user to move the capability from one device to another.  
           [0015]    3. The images are immediately available to other devices via the wireless network. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0016]    [0016]FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a digital camera and its main components.  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the components of a personal computer.  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic view of the web based setup screen for the invention.  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic view of a cradle that can be used with the invention.  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a incorporating the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0022]    Although in the following description, the present invention will be described incorporated into a digital camera, it will be understood that the invention is also applicable to other hand held or portable digital information/imaging systems such as cell phones, personal digital assistants, portable computers and the like.  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary digital camera which incorporates the present invention. The digital camera  30  produces digital images that are stored on the removable memory card  74 . The digital camera  30  includes a lens  32 , an electrically adjustable aperture  33  driven by aperture motor drive  34  and an electrically driven mechanical shutter  36  driven by shutter motor drive  35 . The lens  32  focuses light from a scene (not shown) on an image sensor  40 , for example, a single-chip color CCD image sensor, suing the well known Bayer color filter pattern. The image sensor  40  are controlled by sensor driver  42 . The aperture motor  34  and shutter motor  35  and the sensor driver  42  are controlled by control signals supplied by a control interface processor  62  and photo systems interface  37 .  
         [0024]    The control interface processor  62  receives inputs from the Photo Systems Interface  37 . The analog output signal from the image sensor  40  is amplified and converted to digital data by the analog signal processing (ASP)  50  and analog-to-digital (A/D) converter circuit  52 . The digital data is stored in a DRAM buffer memory  64  and subsequently processed by a digital image processor  66  controlled by the firmware-stored in the firmware memory  70 , which can be flash EPROM memory. Alternatively, the digital image processor  66  can be provided by custom circuitry (e.g., by one or more custom integrated circuits [ICs] design only for use in digital cameras), or by a combination of programmable processor(s) and custom circuits.  
         [0025]    The processed digital image file is provided to a memory card interface  72  which stores the digital image file on the removable memory card  74 . Removable memory cards  74  are known to those skilled in the art. For example, the removable memory card  74  can include memory cards adapted to the PCMCIA card interface standard, as described in the PC Card Standard, Release 2.0, published by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA), Sunnyvale, Calif., September 1991, or to the  CompactFlash Specification Version  1.3, published by the CompactFlash Association, Palo Alto, Calif., Aug. 5, 1998. Other types of removable memory cards, including Smart Memory cards, Secure Digital (SD) cards, and Memory Stick cards, or other types of digital memory devices, such as magnetic hard drives, magnetic tape, or optical disks, could alternatively be used to store the digital images.  
         [0026]    In some embodiments, the digital image processor  66  performs color interpolation followed by color and tone correction, in order to produce rendered sRGB image data. The rendered sRGB image data is then JPEG compressed and stored as a JPEG image file on the removable memory card  74 . In other embodiments, the processor directly compressed data on the removable memory card  74 , and the image is later “finished” by processing the compressed Bayer color image data using the host PC  80 .  
         [0027]    The processor  66  also creates a “thumbnail” size image that is stored in RAM memory  68  and supplied to the color image LCD  78 , which displays the captured image for the user to review. A digital status dot matrix LCD  82  is also provided. The graphical user interface displayed on the color LCD image display  78  and on the digital status LCD  82  is controlled by the user interface portion of the firmware stored in the firmware memory  70  and by digital buttons  84 - 100 . A third display (not shown) can be provided on the top of the camera  30  to show camera body settings such as aperture, shutter speed, exposure mode, etc.  
         [0028]    After a series of images have been taken and stored on the removable memory card  74 , the removable memory card  74  can be inserted into a card reader (not shown) in host PC  80  (FIG. 2). Alternatively, an interface cable  77  can be used to connect between the interface  76  in the digital camera  30  and the host PC  80 . The interface cable  77  can conform to, for example, that well known IEEE 1394 interface specification, the universal serial bus (USB) interface specification, or other wired or wireless interface specifications.  
         [0029]    According to the invention there is provided a new configuration of flash storage and wireless networking that provides a simple interface to data. Conventional Compact Flash memory needs to be removed from a camera to provide access to the images on a computer, see FIG. 1. The camera can also be plugged into a computer for access but then the camera is not available, see FIG. 2. As shown in FIG. 2, computer  80  includes a CPU  340 , display monitor  350 , keyboard  360 , mouse  370 , a memory card reader  380 , and network interface  390 . Digital camera  30  can be directly connected to CPU  340  by connector  400  (USB, firewire, etc.).  
         [0030]    The present invention describes a memory device for a digital camera or PDA type device (or any other digital device) that also can be seen on a wireless network. The concept is to use such a device as a way to access images in a digital camera via a wireless network. The interface could be via a Compact Flash Card, Secure Digital/Multimedia Card or any other common camera storage device. FIG. 3, for example shows a block diagram of a Compact Flash Card according to the invention with these capabilities. As shown, wireless memory module (memory card)  100  interfaces with other digital devices via host interface  110 . Module (card)  100  includes a digital memory storage system  120  (e.g., 128 MBRAM), host interface electronics  130 , radio (wireless) interface electronics  140 , web server  150  and antenna  160 .  
         [0031]    To the digital camera, or other host digital device, the card  100  would look like a standard storage card. Images could be written to the card in a standard manner. The host digital device would be unaware of the networking capabilities of the card  100  thus simplifying the firmware of the host device. The storage  120  on the card  100  would also be available on the network via a file sharing protocol or via ftp. (ISCSI is an example of a protocol for storage over an IP-based network). The card  100  would be configured via a special configuration file written to the card or via the network using a browser like Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. The card  100  would run a simple web server  150  that contained the configuration parameters or the host device. This would be similar to how a printer or other network device can be configured via a browser. The card  100  could also be configured to be available as storage on the network using these methods. Data (e.g., digital images) written to the card  100  would then be available to any wireless network device such as a computer independently of the digital host device.  
         [0032]    [0032]FIG. 4 shows an example of how the web page  170  to configure the device might look on a computer monitor  350 .  
         [0033]    [0033]FIG. 6 shows a typical wireless network  1000  where the wireless storage card of the invention would look like another node on the network. As shown, network  1000  includes access points  220 , with radio antennas  160 , connected via a standard network switch  250 . Computers  80  can also be connected by cable or wire to switch  250 . Laptop computer  230 , PDA  240  and digital camera  30  can access the network via the wireless network through antennas  160 . Data can be copied from and to the storage device  120  of card  100  just like any other network accessible storage.  
         [0034]    The card  100  can connect to the network via an Access Point  220  or in an Ad Hoc manner directly to a device like a computer  80 ,  230 .  
         [0035]    The network  1000  can be 802.11a, 802.11b, Bluetooth, or any other wireless protocol. The card can even have a wired network or USB interface. In the case of the USB interface the device would have a wired USB interface that would connect to a host, in the same manner as a card reader, as well as plug into the camera as a storage device. In this case the card would need to be multi-ported (i.e., have more than one card slots) so that the digital camera  30  could access the memory  120  as well as the host at the same time.  
         [0036]    The card  100  can also include capability such as automatic emailing of images or copying files to another location. This functionality would be programmable via a configuration file or via the web browser interface  150 .  
         [0037]    Additional capabilities could be provided in the configuration for security and other required setup parameters.  
         [0038]    As shown in FIG. 5, the Wireless Storage module (card)  100  can also be made available when not in a digital device (such as digital camera  30 ) by using a cradle  180  that contains either a battery  200  or a connector  195  for external power via. a DC power source like a standard AC to DC converter  190 . This cradle  180  can also provide a communications interface  210  to a computer via a connection such as USB. The device would then appear to the computer as a standard USB storage device but would also be available via the wireless network.  
         [0039]    The invention has been described in detail with particular reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, but it will be understood that variations and modifications can be effected within the spirit and scope of the invention.  
       Parts List  
       [0040]    [0040] 30  digital camera  
         [0041]    [0041] 32  lens  
         [0042]    [0042] 33  adjustable aperture  
         [0043]    [0043] 34  aperture motor drive  
         [0044]    [0044] 35  shutter motor drive  
         [0045]    [0045] 36  mechanical shutter  
         [0046]    [0046] 37  Photo Systems Interface  
         [0047]    [0047] 40  image sensor  
         [0048]    [0048] 42  sensor drive  
         [0049]    [0049] 50  analog signal processing (ASP)  
         [0050]    [0050] 52  converter circuit  
         [0051]    [0051] 60  card  
         [0052]    [0052] 62  control interface processor  
         [0053]    [0053] 64  DRAM buffer memory  
         [0054]    [0054] 66  digital image processor  
         [0055]    [0055] 68  RAM memory  
         [0056]    [0056] 70  firmware memory  
         [0057]    [0057] 72  memory card interface  
         [0058]    [0058] 74  removable memory card  
         [0059]    [0059] 76  interface  
         [0060]    [0060] 77  interface cable  
         [0061]    [0061] 78  color image LCD  
         [0062]    [0062] 80  host PC  
         [0063]    [0063] 82  digital status LCD  
         [0064]    [0064] 84  digital buttons  
         [0065]    [0065] 100  compact flash module card  
         [0066]    [0066] 110  host interface  
         [0067]    [0067] 120  storage system  
         [0068]    [0068] 130  host interface electronics  
         [0069]    [0069] 140  radio interface electronics  
         [0070]    [0070] 150  web server  
         [0071]    [0071] 160  radio antenna  
         [0072]    [0072] 170  web page  
         [0073]    [0073] 180  cradle  
         [0074]    [0074] 190  AC/DC converter  
         [0075]    [0075] 195  connector  
         [0076]    [0076] 200  battery  
         [0077]    [0077] 210  communications interface  
         [0078]    [0078] 220  access point  
         [0079]    [0079] 230  laptop computer  
         [0080]    [0080] 240  PDA  
         [0081]    [0081] 250  network switch  
         [0082]    [0082] 340  CPU  
         [0083]    [0083] 350  display monitor  
         [0084]    [0084] 360  keyboard  
         [0085]    [0085] 370  mouse  
         [0086]    [0086] 380  memory card reader  
         [0087]    [0087] 390  network interface  
         [0088]    [0088] 400  connector  
         [0089]    [0089] 1000  network