Wireless hand-held digital camera

A digital image system having a host computer and a hand-held digital camera, said host computer being a conventional computer, wherein said host computer and said hand-held digital camera are co-operative in the absence of a physical connection, comprising:

• an Image camera, having imaging optics and a photosensor array, said image capture module outputting a single frame of electronic image data representative of a picture of a subject;
• a camera transceiver located within said digital hand-held camera and operatively connected to said image capture module, said camera transceiver having a first input for receiving said electronic image data as only said single frame output by said image capture module and having a camera transmitter and a camera receiver for transmitting said electronic image data and for receiving related electronic image data;
• a computer transceiver located at said host computer and compatible with said camera transceiver for receiving said electronic image data and for transmitting said related electronic image data as only one related frame in a generally continuous manner by which said transmitting is an automated response to said receiving said only single frame, said host computer being a general-use computer having programming configured to enable said automated response;
• a computer memory, located within said host computer and operatively connected to said computer transceiver for storing said electronic image data and said related electronic image data;
• an image processor located within said host computer and operatively connected to said computer transceiver and said computer memory for processing said only single frame of electronic image data that is received from said camera transceiver to generate said related electronic image data that is transmitted as said automated response, said image processing being configured to adjust said electronic image data for color balance;
• and
• a camera display device, associated with said digital hand-held camera and operatively connected to said camera transceiver, for displaying a related image from said related electronic ,camera transceiver from said computer transceiver of said host computer, said camera display device being dependent upon said processing by said image processor of said electronic image data by said host computer for image information that is compatible with displaying an image on said camera display device.

A method of managing image information utilizing a hand-held camera comprising the steps of:

• capturing a single frame of image data representative of a picture of a subject of interest utilizing an imaging device of said hand-held camera;
• transmitting said single frame of image data to a host computer during a continuous session via a wireless link between said hand-held camera and said host computer, said host computer being a conventional general-use computer having programming configured to enable automated transmissions and retransmissions between said host computer and said hand-held camera;
• receiving, as an automated response by said host computer to said transmitting step, related image data at said hand-held camera during said continuous session via said wireless link;
• forming an image from said related image data on a display device of said hand-held camera wherein enabling a display of said subject of interest on said display device from said image data of said single frame is dependent upon operations at said host computer to generate image information that is compatible with said dlsplay on said display device;
• and
• retransmitting said related image data to said host computer for storage in host computer memory following said step of forming said image on said display device.