Patent ID: 7936474

Claim:
An information processing apparatus which includes (a) a communication unit for communicating with an image sensing device which has an instruction unit for issuing an instruction to start dubbing and a display unit for displaying a status of dubbing progress, and (b) a recording unit for recording data in a predetermined writable storage medium, whereby the apparatus acquires a data file held in the image sensing device via said communication unit and performs the dubbing processing by writing the received data file in the predetermined writable storage medium by controlling said recording unit, said apparatus comprising: a detection unit for, when an connection with an external device via said communication unit is detected, establishing a mass storage communication according to a mass storage class protocol, and detecting a device name of the connected external device; a determination unit for determining whether or not a writable storage medium has been set in said recording unit; a dubbing initial stage processing unit for, if the device name detected by said detection unit indicates an image sensing device to be a subject for dubbing and said determination unit determines that a writable storage medium has been set in said recording unit, transmitting, to the image sensing device via said communication unit, a status command including data so that the display unit of the image sensing device indicates a status for prompting a user to issue an instruction to start dubbing using said instruction unit; and a dubbing midterm stage processing unit for, after said dubbing initial processing unit transmits the status command, whenever receiving a respond command from the image sensing device via said communication unit, transmitting a status command to the image sensing device so that the display unit of the image sensing device displays a status indicating the dubbing progress, wherein said dubbing midterm stage processing unit comprises: (a) a dubbing unit for, if the respond command includes information indicating that the instruction unit has been operated, recognizing the image sensing device as a mass storage device and starting the dubbing process including a reading process of all of data files stored in the mass storage device and writing process of all of the read data files into the recording medium; (b) a unit for transmitting, to the image sensing device via said communication unit, a status command including data indicating that data is being transmitted for each received respond command in the dubbing processing performed by said dubbing unit; and (c) a unit for transmitting, to the image sensing device via said communication unit, a status command including data indicating the dubbing process completion after the dubbing processing performed by said dubbing unit has been completed.