EP2393667B1 - Photo album - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to a photo book.

Photobooks of this kind contain photographs in printed form, that is to say that the photo book provides a collection of printed images in bound form. Furthermore, of course, text can also be present in a photo book.

To create a photo book, a customer may use a software provided by a commercial provider, through which he can specify the nature and extent of photographs that should be included in the photo book. The software then generates a corresponding print template for the photo book.

With the photobook, a previously loose, incoherent collection of images and photographs is used to generate a bounded unit of this data, which remains permanently connected. This will provide the customer with a captive collection of photographs.

The disadvantage here is that the number in the photo book printed photographs is limited. The customer who commissioned the photo book typically makes a selection of his photographs so that only part of his photographs are included in the photo book. It is not possible to record movies in the photobook. The other photographs, especially those that are created after the creation of the photo book, are stored on other storage media such as PC, DVD, CD or mobile phones. The storage of photographs scattered on these storage media is very confusing and difficult for the customer to handle.

The EP 1 820 661 A1 concerns a book with a built-in tone generator. The cover has a cavity bounded by two walls of the cover into which a microcomputer and a loudspeaker are inserted. The cover itself contains connections for the loudspeaker and the microcomputer.

The US 2008/0016133 A1 refers to a book in whose cover an electronic unit such as a calculator is provided. The cover has for this purpose a cavity into which the electronic unit is introduced. Then a housing is applied to the electronic unit and fixed with a screw. The entire unit is then attached with clip-on parts.

The GB 2 386 464 A concerns a multimedia photo album. On an inner side of the cover of the photo album pockets are provided, in which clip-shaped memory elements can be inserted. Audio data is stored in the memory elements. In an essay, which is mounted on an inside of the cover, there is a controller with which the memory elements can be controlled. The controller can be operated by means of buttons provided on the attachment.

The invention has for its object to provide a photo book with extended functionality.

To solve this problem, the features of claim 1 are provided. Advantageous embodiments and expedient developments of the invention are described in the subclaims.

The photo book according to the invention comprises a cover in which an electronic memory element and a connection element connected thereto are integrated. The connection element terminates at an edge of the cover and can be connected to external connection means for reading data into the memory element and reading out data from the memory element.

The photo book according to the invention has a considerably extended functionality, since this not only contains printed information, but also offers a possibility of electronically storing data. The stored information is preferably associated with the printed information. In particular, the stored data are photographs and / or image sequences, that is to say film sequences which are thematically associated with the printed information.

This results in a significant advantage that the photo book according to the invention in addition to the pictorial representations on the sides of the photo book allows a central archiving electronic data, which by reading or deleting data in the memory element of the database flexible everyone time can be changed. Furthermore, the data can also be read out for use at any time.

The photobook according to the invention preferably has photographs printed on its sides. For the user of the photo book, however, there are typically more photographs than printed in the photo book or associated films. By the storage possibility of all this additional data in the photo book itself omitted otherwise necessary distributed storage media such as computer, DVD, CD, mobile phone or the like. The availability and retrievability of the data can thus be significantly increased.

Another variant of the photo book is to use the photo book itself as a pure index book for data stored in the memory element. In this case, the photo book contains as printed information only indexing, that is cataloging of data stored in the memory element, which are preferably formed by photographs or films.

The integration of the electronic components for the electronic data storage in the cover of the photo book no additional space is claimed, that is, the dimensioning of the photo book can be independent of the formation of these electronic components.

As a further electronic component must be provided in addition to their connection element and the memory element only one of these components connecting cable advantageous, so that the cost of electrical data storage can be kept low.

Particularly advantageously, the cover has a base body, in which recesses are incorporated. In each case a recess, the memory element, the connecting element and the cable can be inserted.

In this case, the cover has a cover which can be applied to the base body, whereby the recesses can be covered.

Thus, the integration of the electronic components in the photo book with little manufacturing fonts and can be done rationally and inexpensively.

The electronic memory element is preferably formed by a memory chip in which data can be read in and stored non-volatile. The memory chip has a small, flat design that can be easily integrated into the cover of the photo book.

The connecting element is preferably designed as a plug, which also has a small, flat design and can be easily integrated in the cover. Particularly suitable plug shapes for this purpose are mini USB plugs or magnetically adhesive plugs. In the latter connectors, a particularly user-friendly operation results from the fact that a mating connector as an external connection means is simply placed on an exposed at the edge of the cover interface surface of the plug, wherein the mating connector has a corresponding interface surface. The interfaces then adhere to each other automatically, whereby a contact between plug and mating connector is made in a particularly simple manner.

In a particularly advantageous embodiment of the invention, a wirelessly operating communication module can be applied to the connection element, the communication module preferably being a WLAN or Bluetooth module.

With the attached to the connecting element, in particular the plug communication module can be read directly from the memory element data and wirelessly transmitted to a playback unit such as a PC, where the data can be visualized directly, that is, displayed. With the Communication module thus significantly extends the functionality of the photo book.

According to a further advantageous embodiment, an electronic side detection is provided, whereby selectively a subset of the data in the memory element is readable in dependence on the electronically detected currently open page.

This creates a particularly user-friendly access to specific subsets of the data stored in the memory element. This embodiment can be used particularly advantageously in conjunction with the communication module. Then, by simply opening a desired page of the deposited for this page content of the memory element can be read via the communication module and displayed directly on a playback unit.

To create the photo book, a software is generally used by means of which a print template for the photo book to be printed is created. A customer who wants to create a photo book, provides the corresponding image data, which are integrated into the print template and provided with texts. In the provision of these image data, the customer defines which image data should appear in printed form in the photo book and which should be stored in the memory element. The operation of the software is then such that parallel to the creation of the print template, the data provided in each case are read into the memory element. The writing of the data in the memory element is thus fully integrated into the working process for creating the print template of the photo book. The software can generally be part of a client-server architecture, in which an offline data input, for example via CD or DVD takes place. Alternatively, the data entry can be made online via a web service of the Internet.

Figur 1:

Schematische Darstellung eines Photobuchs.

Figur 2:

Querschnitt durch den Einband des Photobuchs gemäß Figur 1 mit dort integrierter Elektronikkomponenten in Form eines Steckers, eines Speicherchips und eines Kabels.

Figur 3:

Schnittdarstellung durch den Einband gemäß Figur 2 mit einer Aufnahme für das Kabel.

Figur 4:

Schnittdarstellung durch den Einband gemäß Figur 2 mit einer Aufnahme für den Speicherchip.

Figur 5:

Perspektivische Darstellung des Einbands gemäß Figur 2 mit einem darauf aufsetzbaren Kommunikationsmodul.

The invention will be explained below with reference to the drawings. Show it:

FIG. 1:

Schematic illustration of a photobook.

FIG. 2:

Cross section through the cover of the photo book according to FIG. 1 with integrated electronic components in the form of a plug, a memory chip and a cable.

FIG. 3:

Sectional view through the cover according to FIG. 2 with a receptacle for the cable.

FIG. 4:

Sectional view through the cover according to FIG. 2 with a recording for the memory chip.

FIG. 5:

Perspective view of the cover according to FIG. 2 with a communication module that can be placed thereon.

FIG. 1 schematically shows an embodiment of a photo book 1. For the production of the photo book 1, a software is used, which may be part of a client-server computer system. Then, image data of photographs taken offline via data carriers such as CD or DVD are used to generate a print template for the photo book 1 with the software. Alternatively, the software can be part of a web service, so that the image data can be made available online. The photo book 1 thus created then contains pages provided with photographs. The photo book 1 also has a cover 2, in which the sides are fixed. In principle, the photo book 1 can also have the shape of a folder.

How out FIG. 2 can be seen, 2 electronic components are integrated in the cover 2 of the photo book 1, in particular in the upper or lower lid of the cover. The electronic components comprise a memory element in Shape of a memory chip 3 and a connected via a cable 4 to this memory chip 3 connecting element in the form of a plug 5. In the memory element data, in particular image data such as photographs or films can not be stored volatile. Via the plug 5, which may be in the form of a mini-USB plug or a magnetically adhesive plug, data can be read into or read from the memory chip 3. The initial data entry is expediently carried out in the manufacturing process using the software for producing the print template.

For the integration of the electronic components, recesses 6, 7, 8 are incorporated in the main body 2a of the cover 2, which consists of stable, bending-free material such as cardboard, which open out at its upper side. In the first recess 6, the memory chip 3 is inserted from above, in the second recess 7, the cable 4 is inserted. Finally, the plug is inserted into the third recess 8. The main body 2a may in particular also consist of plastic or linen.

The recess 7 for receiving the cable 4 (in FIG. 3 in a section perpendicular to the cross-sectional plane of FIG. 2 represented) forms a channel which connects the other recesses 6, 8.

The recess 6 for receiving the memory chip 3 encloses the memory chip 3 at all narrow-side edges. The lying in the recess 6 memory chip 3 is in FIG. 4 shown in a sectional view, wherein the sectional plane perpendicular to the cross-sectional plane of the FIG. 2 runs.

The recess 8 for receiving the plug 5 is open at the narrow-side edge of the cover 2, so that the contact surface 5a, the plug 5 mounted therein is exposed there and can be contacted with an external connection means. In the case that the plug 5 is formed as a magnetically adhesive plug, the contact surface 5a forms a magnetic interface surface, on which the corresponding interface of a complementary external connection means can be placed.

The plug 5, the cable 4 and the memory chip 3 are inserted as interconnected units in the associated recesses 6, 7, 8. Since the sizes of the recesses 6, 7, 8 are adapted to the dimensions of the respective electronic components, they are positively or with little play in the recesses 6, 7, 8 and are fixed in position. The openings of the recesses 6, 7, 8, in which the electronic components are exposed, are then closed with a cover 2b, which are glued to the top of the main body 2a. The cover 2b of the cover 2 is made of paper, thinner cardboard or plastic.

By contacting an external connection means on the connector 5, data can be read out of the memory chip 3, for example to visualize data formed as photographs or films, that is to display on a display unit such as a PC. Likewise, anytime new data in the memory chip 3 can be stored.

A particularly advantageous variant shows this FIG. 5 , There is a wireless communication module 9 is shown, which may be formed for example as a WLAN or Bluetooth module. The communication module 9 becomes, as in FIG. 5 represented, placed on the plug 5. Then data of the memory chip 3 can be read out with the communication module 9 and transmitted wirelessly to a communication unit 9 with the communication module 9.

In an advantageous development, the photobook 1 can have an electronically operating side recognition, which has, for example, side markings which can be detected by electronic means. The electronic page recognition supplies as output data for the memory chip 3, which side of the photo book 1 is currently open. In memory chip 3 itself are the stored data is assigned to individual pages. If, in addition, a specific side of the photobook 1 is opened, the associated memory area, that is to say the page, is activated by the output signal generated in the side detection in the memory chip 3 so that it can be read out selectively from the memory chip 3.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

(1)

Photo book

(2)

cover

(2a)

body

(2 B)

cover

(3)

memory chip

(4)

electric wire

(5)

plug

(5a)

contact area

(6)

recess

(7)

recess

(8th)

recess

(9.)

communication module

Claims (15)

1. Photo album (1) with an book cover (2), in which an electronic memory element and a connecting element connected therewith are integrated, characterised in that the connecting element communicates with an edge of the book cover (2) and is connectible with external connecting means for the reading-in of data into the memory element and reading-out of data from the memory element, and the memory element can be recorded with data.
2. Photo album according to claim 1, characterised in that the memory element and the connecting element are connected by way of a cable (4) extending in the book cover (2).
3. Photo album according to claim 2, characterised in that the book cover (2) comprises a base body (2a) in which cut-outs (6, 7, 8) are formed, wherein each of the memory element, connecting element and cable (4) is insertable into a respective cut-out.
4. Photo album according to claim 3, characterised in that the book cover (2) comprises a covering (2b) which can be placed on the base body (2a), whereby the cut-outs (6, 7, 8) can be covered.
5. Photo album according to one of claims 3 and 4, characterised in that the base body (2a) of the book cover (2) consists of cardboard, plastic or cloth.
6. Photo album according to one of claims 4 and 5, characterised in that the covering (2b) of the book cover (2) consists of paper, plastic or cardboard.
7. Photo album according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterised in that the memory element is a memory chip (3).
8. Photo album according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterised in that the connecting element is a plug (5).
9. Photo album according to claim 8, characterised in that the plug (5) is a mini-USB plug or a magnetically adhering plug.
10. Photo album according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterised in that a wirelessly operating communications module (9) can be mounted on the connecting element, wherein the communications module (9) is a WLAN or Bluetooth module.
11. Photo album according to any one of claims 1 to 10, characterised in that an electronic page detection means is provided, by means of which a currently opened page of the photo album (1) is detectable, and that a sub-set of the data in the memory element can be selectively read out in dependence on the electronically detected currently opened page.
12. Photo album according to any one of claims 1 to 11, characterised in that image data associated with the items of information printed on the pages of the photo album (1) are stored in the memory element.
13. Photo album according to any one of claims 1 to 12, characterised in that photographs are printed on the pages thereof.
14. Photo album according to any one of claims 1 to 13, characterised in that an index for image data present in the memory element is printed in the photo album.
15. Photo album according to any one of claims 1 to 14, characterised in that the print thereof can be generated by means of software.

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