WO2011044960A1

WO2011044960A1 - Photobook

Info

Publication number: WO2011044960A1
Application number: PCT/EP2010/000747
Authority: WO
Inventors: Thomas Fischer; Michael Frech
Original assignee: Thomas Fischer; Michael Frech
Priority date: 2009-10-16
Filing date: 2010-02-06
Publication date: 2011-04-21
Also published as: EP2393667A1; PL2393667T3; EP2393667B1; DE102009049593A1; ES2436270T3

Abstract

The invention relates to a photobook (1), which comprises a binding (2), in which an electronic memory element and a connection element connected thereto are integrated. The connection element opens at an edge of the binding (2) and can be connected to external connection means in order to read data into and out of the memory element.

Description

Photo book

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 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 band 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, enables a central archiving of electronic data, whereby the data stock can be flexibly stored by reading in or erasing data in the memory element. 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 printed than in the photo book, or even related 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, ie 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.

In this way, the integration of the electronic components into the photo book can take place with little production fonts and correspondingly rational and cost-effective.

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

Figure 1: Schematic representation of a photo book.

Figure 2: Cross-section through the cover of the photo book according to Figure 1 with there integrated electronic components in the form of a plug, a memory chip and a cable.

Figure 3: sectional view through the cover according to Figure 2 with a

Recording for the cable.

Figure 4: sectional view through the cover of Figure 2 with a

Recording for the memory chip. FIG. 5: Perspective view of the cover according to FIG. 2 with a communication module which can be placed thereon.

1 shows schematically an exemplary 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 pages are fixedly arranged. In principle, the photo book 1 can also have the shape of a folder.

As can be seen from FIG. 2, electronic components are integrated in the cover 2 of the photo book 1, in particular in the upper or lower cover of the cover 2. 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, 3 data can be read or read out of the memory chip. The initial data entry is expediently carried out in the production process using the software for producing the print original.

For the integration of the electronic components, recesses 6, 7, 8 are incorporated in the base 2 a of the cover 2, which consists of stable, bending-free material such as cardboard, which open at the top thereof. 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 (shown in Figure 3 in a section perpendicular to the cross-sectional plane of Figure 2) forms a channel which connects the other recesses 6, 8.

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

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 event that the plug 5 is designed as a magnetically adhesive plug, the contact surface 5a forms a magnetic interface surface che, on which the corresponding cut surface 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 upper side 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 of this is shown in FIG 5. There, a wireless communication module 9 is shown, which may be formed for example as a WLAN or Bluetooth module. The communication module 9 is, as shown in Figure 5, 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 selectively read from the memory chip 3.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

0) Photobook

(2) Cover

(2a) basic body

(2b) cover

(3) Memory chip

(4) cables

(5) Plug

(5a) contact surface

(6) recess

(7) recess

(8) recess

(9) communication module

Claims

claims

1. Photo book (1) with a cover (2) in which an electronic memory element and a connecting element connected thereto are integrated, wherein the connecting element at one edge of the cover (2) and opens to external connection means for reading data into the memory element and Readout of data from the memory element is connectable.

2. Photobook according to claim 1, characterized in that the storage element and the connecting element via a cover (2) extending cable (4) are connected.

3. Photobook according to claim 2, characterized in that the cover (2) has a base body (2a), in which recesses (6, 7, 8) are incorporated, wherein in each case a recess, the memory element, the connecting element and the cable ( 4) can be inserted.

4. Photobook according to claim 3, characterized in that the cover (2) has a cover (2b) which on the base body (2a) can be applied, whereby the recesses (6, 7, 8) are coverable.

5. Photobook according to one of claims 3 or 4, characterized in that the base body (2a) of the cover (2) consists of cardboard, plastic or linen.

6. Photobook according to one of claims 4 or 5, characterized in that the cover (2b) of the cover (2) made of paper, plastic or cardboard.

7. Photobook according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the memory element is a memory chip (3).

8. Photobook according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the connecting element is a plug (5).

9. Photobook according to claim 8, characterized in that the plug (5) is a mini-USB plug or a magnetically adhesive plug.

10. Photobook according to one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that on the connection element, a wireless communication module (9) can be applied.

11. Photobook according to claim 10, characterized in that the communication module (9) is a WLAN or Bluetooth module.

12. Photobook according to one of claims 1 to 11, characterized in that an electronic side detection is provided, by means of which a currently open page of the photo book (1) can be detected.

13. Photobook according to claim 12, characterized in that selectively a subset of the data in the memory element is readable as a function of the electronically detected currently open page.

14. Photobook according to one of claims 1 to 13, characterized in that in the memory element to the printed on the sides of the photo book (1) associated image data are stored.

15. Photobook according to one of claims 1 to 14, characterized in that photographs are printed on the pages.

16. Photobook according to one of claims 1 to 15, characterized in that in this an index for image data contained in the memory element is printed.

17. Photobook according to one of claims 1 to 16, characterized in that the print template can be generated by means of software, by means of which the memory element with data is playable.