Image display and archiving system and method

An image display system for acquiring and archiving image files derived from multiple sources, said system comprising:

• a computer;
• a hard disk drive coupled to the computer;
• a digital audio tape drive coupled to the computer;
• a magneto-optical disk drive coupled to the computer;
• a monitor coupled to the computer;
• a keyboard coupled to the computer;
• an interface coupled to the computer for connecting to a digital photographic image source to permit transfer of images therefrom;
• a mouse pointer coupled to the computer, said mouse pointer having a cursor that is displayed on the monitor and that is moved by an operator to select predefined graphical icons displayed on the monitor that are representative of the disk drives, applications, image acquisition tools, utility functions, and a display function;
• a scanner coupled to the computer for scanning images into the computer;
• a modem coupled to the computer for receiving image files from a remotely located source;
• and
• at least one printer coupled to the computer for printing image files;
• and wherein the graphical icons are constructed so that an operator can only perform a predetermined set of functions that correspond to the graphical icons, and wherein each of the icons comprises a set of linked macro functions that initialize the modem, control image file transfer from the remotely located source by way of the modem, from the scanner, from the digital photographic image source, from the digital audio tape drive, and from the disk drives, and format received image files into a predetermined format, attach textual data to the image files, and automatically archive and print the image files as a function of the selected icon.

A method of acquiring and archiving image files derived from a plurality of sources, said method comprising the steps of:

• providing a computer system comprising a computer, a hard disk drive, a magneto-optical disk drive, a monitor, a keyboard, a modem for receiving image files from a remotely located source, a digital audio tape drive, an interface for connecting to a digital photographic image source, a scanner, and a mouse pointer having a cursor that is displayed on the monitor;
• constructing a plurality of graphical icons that are displayed on the monitor that limit operator control of the computer system to a predetermined set of image acquisition and archiving functions, and that comprise a set of linked macro functions that initialize the modem, control image file transfer from the remotely located source to the hard disk drive by way of the modem, format received image files into a predetermined format, attach textual data to the image files, and automatically archive image files;
• disposing a magneto-optical disk in the magneto-optical disk drive;
• activating a predetermined icon to initialize the modem and transfer image files from the remotely located source to the hard disk drive by way of the modem, format received image files into a predetermined format, attach textual data to the image files, and archive the image files with attached textual data.