Patent ID: 7612821

Claim:
A modular camcorder comprising: a camera unit and an optional camera unit camcorder control application installed thereon, said camera unit comprises a lens configured to capture one or more optical images of objects, a microphone configured to capture audio signals associated with the optical images, an imager configured to convert the captured optical images to electrical video signals, an analog-to-digital converter configured to digitize the electrical signals to digital signals, and a processor together with a memory configured to compress the digital signals and to encode the captured audio signals; and a portable multimedia player (PMP) unit and a PMP unit camcorder control application installed thereon, said PMP unit comprises a storage device configured to store the compressed digital signals and the encoded audio signals, a display screen configured to display the captured optical images and to play back the stored digital signals, a memory configured to store the PMP unit camcorder control application, a microprocessor configured to execute instructions from the PMP unit camcorder control application and a user input interface configured to enable a user to traverse a menu of camcorder control commands and select one of the commands, wherein said PMP unit is coupled to said camera unit via a first connector in said camera unit and a second connector in said PMP unit and the menu of camcorder control commands is activated only when said camera unit is detected by the PMP unit camcorder control application.