JP2000278658A - Portable telephone terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To surely prevent illegal use by a third party by releasing a locking only when an inputted face picture matches the face picture information on a possessor stored for lock release. SOLUTION: When a face picture is detected from inputted picture information, a key release processing is started and locking is released only when the picture matches the face picture information of a possessor, which is stored for releasing lock. In the system, a face picture area detection means 107 detects a face picture area by a method for detecting the area of complexion from picture information inputted from a picture input means 100 and stored in a picture memory 104, for example. A picture comparison means 112 compares the face picture of a user, which is detected by the face picture area detection means 106, with the face picture of a terminal possessor, which is stored in a lock release picture storage means 105. A user history picture storage means 107 stores the face picture of the user when the results of comparison area not matched.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a portable videophone terminal having a key operation locking function for preventing unauthorized use by a third party, the portable videophone terminal performing image and voice communication.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a desktop type videophone terminal for realizing communication by image and voice over a wired telephone network such as an ISDN or a public analog telephone network is limited to a place where the apparatus is installed. A portable videophone terminal that can be used on a wireless telephone network has been desired. On the other hand, portable videophone terminals that can be used on a wireless telephone network have become feasible due to the miniaturization of mobile phones and the development of image coding technology. Such a mobile videophone terminal is provided with image input means and image information transmitting / receiving means in addition to the telephone section of a conventional mobile phone, and image display means for taking an image with the image input means or displaying an image received from a partner terminal. It is configured.

On the other hand, in recent years, portable telephones such as portable telephones and PHSs have been rapidly advanced in functions such as a kanji input function, a large-capacity telephone number registration function, and an e-mail transmission / reception function due to improvement in performance. . However, with the advancement of functions, a large amount of personal information including privacy, such as personal names, telephone numbers, and e-mail addresses, is stored in memories in mobile telephone terminals. Unauthorized use of such a large amount of personal information by malicious third parties also poses a privacy issue.
There is a need for a means for preventing unauthorized use by persons.

As a means for preventing such unauthorized use by a third party other than the owner, a conventional mobile phone or PHS has a key lock function. In the conventional key lock function, the owner inputs a plurality of digits (for example, four digits) in a setting menu, and registers as a lock code for releasing the lock function. When the lock code is registered, an input of the lock code is requested in response to a key input during standby. On the other hand, the user inputs a four-digit number, and only when the input number matches a registered lock code, the lock function is released and the terminal can be used. On the other hand, if they do not match, the lock function is not released, and operations such as transmission cannot be performed. Therefore, it is possible to prevent unauthorized use of the mobile phone by a third party who does not know the lock code.

[0005]

As described above, in the lock function of the conventional portable telephone terminal, the lock code is realized by a combination of four-digit numbers. There is a problem that the lock function may be released by the third party and the terminal may be used. The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a portable videophone terminal capable of more reliably preventing unauthorized use by a third party.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve these problems. In a portable videophone terminal provided with an image input means, an image display means and an image / voice information transmitting / receiving means, the present invention relates to a portable videophone terminal. Key lock means for preventing unauthorized use by three parties; image storage means for storing the terminal owner's face image information input from the image input means when the key lock is set by the key lock setting means; A face image area detecting means for detecting a user's face image area from the image information captured by the input means; and a terminal owner's face image information stored in the image storing means and detected by the face image area detecting means. Image comparing means for comparing the face image information of the terminal user, and comparing the images by the image comparing means. The portable videophone terminal is configured to release the key lock by the lock means, and to store the face image information detected by the face image area detecting means in the image storage means as the user history when the keys do not match. provide.

According to the present invention, when the face image is detected from the image information input from the image input means at the time of use, the key lock release processing is started, and the key lock release processing is compared with the face image information of the owner stored for unlocking. As a result, control is performed such that the lock function is released only when the face image information matches, so that unauthorized use by a third party can be prevented more reliably than in the conventional method. If the detected face image of the user does not match the face image information of the terminal owner for unlocking, the face image of the user is stored as a user history in the storage means in the terminal. Therefore, it is possible to confirm the person who tried to use the terminal later.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining the configuration of the mobile videophone terminal of the present invention.

The image input means 100 is, for example, a device such as a CCD, and is arranged on the front of the portable videophone terminal to capture a face image of the terminal user. Voice output means 1
Reference numeral 01 denotes a device such as a speaker, which outputs an audio signal decoded by the audio decoding unit 109. The image display unit 102 is, for example, a device such as an LCD, and displays an image input from the image input unit 100 or displays a received image output from the image decoding unit 110.

In some cases, character information such as an operation menu of a portable videophone terminal is displayed. Voice input means 1
A device 03 such as a microphone picks up a terminal user's voice or the like and sends it to the voice encoding unit 111. Image memory 10
Numeral 4 temporarily stores the image information input from the image input means 100. Unlocking image storage means 1
Numeral 05 stores face image information of the terminal owner inputted from the image input means 100 when the key lock is set.

The face image area detecting means 106 detects a face image area from the image information input from the image input means 100 and stored in the image memory 104 by, for example, detecting a skin color area. . Image comparison means 112
Compares the face image of the user detected by the face image area detection means 106 with the face image of the terminal owner stored in the unlock image storage means 105. The user history image storage unit 107 stores the face image of the user when the result of the comparison of the face images by the image comparison unit 112 does not match.

[0012] The image encoding means 108 is an image input means 10
The image signal input at 0 is compressed by using a transform method such as discrete cosine transform (DCT) or wavelet transform, and the form of the image code is formed by using a coding means such as Huffman coding or arithmetic coding. To be encoded. The audio decoding unit 109 decodes the audio code information separated from the received data by the multiplexing / demultiplexing unit 116 into an audio signal by a corresponding decoding method, and passes the audio signal to the audio output unit 101 for reproduction.

The image decoding means 110 includes a multiplexing / demultiplexing means 1
The image code information separated from the received data in step 16 is decoded by using a decoding method corresponding to the coding method used by the image coding means 108, and further corresponds to the conversion method used by the image coding means 108. Regenerate the received image using the inverse transformation technique. The voice encoding unit 111 includes the voice input unit 1
The speech signal input at step S03 is encoded into a speech code using a speech encoding technique (for example, as defined in G.729).

The key input detecting means 113 detects an input operation of each key arranged on the terminal, and transfers a code corresponding to each key to the control unit 115 through the key lock control means 114. The key lock control unit 114 controls a key code passed from the key input detection unit 113 to the control unit 115, and implements a key lock function. That is, when the key lock is set, the input is restricted so as to accept only the input from the specific key, and the control is performed such that all the key inputs are accepted when the key lock is released. The control unit 115 controls the operation of the entire system.

The multiplexing / demultiplexing means 116 is an image encoding means 1
08 and the video coding information 10
9 to generate transmission data by multiplexing the coded information from the voice code information coded in step 9, and conversely, separate the image code information and the voice code information from the received data received from the partner terminal, and Decoding means 110 and voice decoding means 1
09 to pass the output. The image / audio information transmission control unit 117 controls the transmission of the transmission data created by the multiplexing / demultiplexing unit 116 and the reception of the received data received from the network side. The network interface 117 is responsible for transmitting and receiving data between the terminal and the transmission path.

First, the procedure for setting the key lock function of the portable videophone terminal of the present invention will be described. In an initial state (a state in which the key lock function is not set), when a key lock function setting process is called by a key operation of the terminal owner (S11), the image input unit 100 starts capturing an image and captures an image. The image is displayed on the image display means 102 (S12).

The terminal owner copies an image including the face of the owner to the image input means 100, and presses a specific key (for example, a photographing key) (S13) to store the image in the image memory 10.
4 is taken (S14). The captured face image of the owner is displayed on the image display means 102, and is stored in the unlock image storage means 105 by the registration operation by the terminal owner (S17). Thereafter, the key lock function is activated (S18). In the registration operation at this time, a password consisting of, for example, a four-digit number is input (S15, S16), and is used for changing the key lock release image and canceling the key lock function. The image stored in the unlocking image storage unit 105 may store the captured image signal as it is, or may store image information processed according to the comparison unit used by the image comparison unit 112.

Next, a method of releasing the key lock function when using the terminal will be described. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a flow of the key lock release processing when the terminal is used. When the key input detection unit 113 detects any key operation by the user in a state where the key lock is set in the terminal (S20), the terminal starts capturing an image from the image input unit 100 (S21). The captured image is temporarily stored in the image memory 104. Next, the face image area detecting means 106 detects the face image area of the terminal user from the image information stored in the image memory 104 (S22).

If the face image area cannot be detected, the image information stored in the image memory 104 is discarded, and the image is fetched again (S23). On the other hand, when the face image area is detected, the image comparison unit 112 compares the image with the face image of the unlocking owner stored in the unlocking image storage unit 105 (S25). As a result of the comparison (S26), if the face image information matches and it is determined that the user is the authorized owner, the image comparing means 112 passes the comparison result to the key lock control means 114, and the key lock control means 114 Is released and all key inputs are made valid (S27). For detecting the degree of coincidence of the images in the image comparing means 112, a method of extracting feature points from the input image and matching the pattern of the feature points can be used.

On the other hand, if the result of the image comparison does not match the unlocking image, the image stored in the image memory 104 is stored in the user history image storage means 107 as the user history (S28). A request for password input is made (S29). If the input passwords match, the key lock function is released to enable the key operation (S30). If they do not match, a message indicating that the key lock function is set is displayed. Then, the key lock function is continued (S31). At this time, the four-digit number input at the time of registering the key lock function is used as the password used.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a flow of key lock release processing when the portable videophone terminal of the present invention is used.
In the second embodiment of the present invention, when the image comparing unit 112 compares the face image of the user input from the image input unit 100 with the face image of the terminal owner, and the face images do not match, A password input request is made (S48),
If the passwords match, the key lock is released to enable the key operation (S47). If the passwords do not match, a message indicating that the key lock function setting is valid is displayed. The image stored in the image memory 104 is stored as the user history in the user history image storage means 107 (S50), and the key lock function is continued (S51).

[0022]

According to the portable videophone terminal of the present invention, the key lock release process is started when a face image is detected from image information input from the image input means at the time of use, and the owner of the owner who has stored the unlocked key is used. As a result of comparison with the face image information, control is performed such that the lock function is released only when the face image information matches, so that unauthorized use by a third party can be more reliably prevented than in the conventional method. If the detected face image of the user does not match the face image information of the terminal owner for unlocking, the face image of the user is stored as a user history in the storage means in the terminal. Therefore, it is possible to confirm the person who tried to use the terminal later.

Further, the key lock function of the portable videophone terminal of the present invention does not need to add a new component to acquire the face image of the owner, and can be realized only with the components of the conventional portable videophone terminal. Therefore, the problem that the terminal body becomes large due to the addition of this function does not occur.

In the configuration of the second embodiment of the portable videophone terminal according to the present invention, the face image is not left in the user history when the terminal owner uses the authorized user who has disclosed the password.
Since an image is left in the user history only in the case of use by a third party who does not know the password, the memory usage for storing the user history image can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 illustrates a system configuration according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a key lock setting process according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a key lock release process according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100 image input means 101 voice output means 102 image display means 103 voice input means 104 image memory 105 unlock image storage means 106 face image area detection means 107 user history image storage means 108 image encoding means 109 voice decoding means 110 images Decoding means 111 voice coding means 112 image comparison means 113 key input detection means 114 key lock control means 115 control unit 116 multiplexing / demultiplexing means 117 image / voice information transmission control means 118 network interface

Claims (1)

[Claims] A key lock means for preventing unauthorized use by a third person in a portable videophone terminal provided with image input means, image display means and image / voice information transmitting / receiving means, and setting of the key lock. Image storage means for storing the terminal owner's face image information input from the image input means when the key lock is set by the means, and a face for detecting the face image area of the user from the image information captured by the image input means when in use Image region detecting means, and image comparing means for comparing the face image information of the terminal owner stored in the image storage means with the face image information of the terminal user detected by the face image area detecting means, As a result of comparison of these images by the image comparison means, when the image information matches, the key lock is released by the key lock means. Mobile videophone terminal, wherein the face that the detected face image information in the image area detection unit configured to store a user history in the image storage means.