JP2001128113A - Picture data transfer system, electronic camera, and communication terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a picture data transfer system, an electronic camera, and a communication terminal which surely prevent the remaining memory capacity in a digital camera from running out in the picture data transfer system where picture data photographed by the digital camera is transferred to a server through the communication terminal such as a portable telephone. SOLUTION: When the remaining memory capacity for preservation of picture data is reduced to a prescribed value or smaller in a digital camera 10, a signal of a service information request is transmitted to a communication terminal 12. Then the communication terminal 12 automatically connects a line to a server 16 and acquires service contents from the server 16 and displays acquires service contents. When a user selects, for example, a picture preservation service and instructs transfer of picture data, the digital camera 10 transfers picture data in the memory for preservation to the server 16 through the communication terminal 12 and erases transferred picture data from the memory for preservation. Thus the empty capacity of the memory for preservation is secured.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image data transfer system, an electronic camera and a communication terminal, and more particularly to an image data transfer system for transferring image data recorded by an electronic camera to an Internet server, an electronic camera and a communication terminal.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, image data transferred by transferring image data captured by a digital camera from a digital camera to a communication terminal (such as a mobile phone) and transferring the image data from the communication terminal to a server on the Internet via a public line. A system is known (JP-A-9-322114,
JP-A-10-336238). According to this system, even when the memory of the digital camera is full of image data, the image data can be transferred to the server to make room in the memory, so that the memory becomes full and shooting cannot be performed. This has the advantage that the amount of memory mounted on the digital camera can be reduced. In recent years, services provided by a server have also been diversified, and it has become possible to place a print order or the like by transferring image data to the server.

[0003]

However, even if the above-described system is used, it takes a long time to transfer the image data. Therefore, the image data is transferred to the server after the memory of the digital camera becomes full. In that case, there was a risk of missing a shooting opportunity next time. Further, even if image data is transferred every time a picture is taken, the next shooting cannot be performed immediately, and furthermore, communication charges are extra than in the case of transferring image data collectively. There is.

[0004] Furthermore, with respect to the saving of the amount of mounted memory, which is one of the advantages of the above system, the memory capacity of the memory card has been increasing in recent years, and the problem itself has become less important.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an image data transfer system, an electronic camera, and an image processing apparatus capable of preventing a recording medium from being exhausted by image data taken by an electronic camera. It is intended to provide a communication terminal.

[0006]

According to the present invention, in order to achieve the above object, image data captured by an electronic camera is recorded on a recording medium, and the image data recorded on the recording medium is transmitted to a target server via a communication line. In the image data transfer system for transferring, a memory remaining amount detecting unit that detects that the memory remaining amount of the recording medium is smaller than a predetermined amount,
When the memory remaining amount detecting unit detects that the memory remaining amount is smaller than a predetermined amount, the user is notified that the memory remaining amount is smaller than a predetermined amount,
Image data transfer promoting means for prompting transfer of image data to the server.

According to the present invention, when the remaining memory capacity of a recording medium for storing image data captured by an electronic camera becomes smaller than a predetermined capacity, a display or the like is displayed so that a user can recognize the remaining capacity. As a result, the user can reliably determine whether to transfer the image data to the server before the memory becomes insufficient, and if necessary, transfer the image data to the server and save the image data for storage. By erasing the transferred image data from the memory, it is possible to prevent an unforeseen situation in which the remaining memory capacity of the recording medium becomes insufficient and shooting becomes impossible. On the other hand, when the photographing is prioritized, the transfer of the image data to the server can be canceled and performed at another occasion.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of an image data transfer system, an electronic camera and a communication terminal according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an image data transfer system to which the present invention is applied. As shown in FIG. 1, the present system includes a digital camera 10, a communication terminal 12, a base station 14, and a server 16. Digital camera 1
0 and the communication terminal 12 are connected by short-range communication. Here, the communication terminal 12 is a terminal that performs communication using a communication line such as a mobile phone, and short-range communication is, for example, IrDA communication using infrared rays or Bluetooth using weak radio waves.
And so on.

[0010] The communication terminal 12 and the base station 14 are connected by public communication, and the base station 14 and the server 16 are connected by data communication through a communication network such as the Internet. The server 16 need not be connected to the Internet. Therefore, the user can transfer the image data recorded in the digital camera 10 to a desired server 16 via the communication line using the communication terminal 12. In addition to the image data, it is of course possible to transfer additional information such as a shooting date and time and a shooting location added to the image data. However, in the following description, when transferring image data, It is assumed that such additional information is also transferred.

Next, the sequence of the image data transfer system shown in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIG. First, in the digital camera 10, a user sets a predetermined amount of the remaining memory of a storage memory for recording captured image data. This predetermined amount is a determination amount for automatically executing processing for prompting transfer of image data to the server 16 when the remaining memory capacity of the storage memory becomes small, as described later. In the communication terminal 12, the user registers data (telephone number and address) for automatically connecting to the server 16 that provides the image application. The service contents provided by the server 16 in the present system include a print service for printing and delivering image data to a user, an image storage service for storing image data in a temporary image server, and providing image data to a third party. An image exhibition service to be disclosed is conceivable, and the specific service contents will be described later. However, all services transfer image data and store the image in a predetermined format.

In the digital camera 10, when the user takes a picture and the remaining memory capacity of the storage memory is less than the predetermined amount, the digital camera 10 determines this (step A1) and sends the service information to the communication terminal 12. Automatically sends a request signal. The service information request signal is
As will be described later, it requests the guidance information of the service provided by the server 16.

When the communication terminal 12 receives the service information request signal from the digital camera 10, it connects the line to the server 16 set in advance as described above, and
A signal for requesting service information is transmitted to the server 16 via. As a result, the service content is notified from the server 16 to the communication terminal 12 via the base station 14.

When the communication terminal 12 obtains the notification of the service content from the server 16, it displays the service content on the display unit (step B1). Here, the user can select a service to be provided and instruct transfer of image data (step B2). However, it is not always necessary to receive the provision of the service, and the photographing can be canceled when the photographing is prioritized.

When the user selects one of the services provided by the server 16 and instructs to transfer image data, the communication terminal 12 instructs the digital camera 10 to select an image to be transferred. Upon receiving the instruction, the digital camera 10 allows the user to select image data to be transferred to the server 16, reads out the image data to be transferred from the storage memory, and transmits the image data to the communication terminal 12. The communication terminal 12 transmits the image data transmitted from the digital camera 10 to the server 16 via the base station 14. Further, the user inputs necessary information according to the service content of the server 16 and transmits the information to the server 16. Thereby, the image data stored in the digital camera 10 is transferred to the server 16. However, the image data to be transferred is not selected by the user, but may be, for example, all the image data recorded in the storage memory, or the number of frames that can be transferred within the time designated by the user. The processing of the digital camera 10 when receiving an image selection instruction from the communication terminal 12 may be arbitrarily designed as a program.

Thereafter, the digital camera 10 deletes the transmitted image data from the storage memory and secures a sufficient free space in the storage memory (step A2).

On the other hand, the server 16 processes the image data according to the selected service content. For example, when the print service is selected, the transferred image data is printed out as a photo print, and the photo print is delivered to a desired place (step C1).

As described above, when the remaining memory capacity of the storage memory of the digital camera 10 reaches a predetermined amount (for example, the recording capacity of image data for several frames), the service guidance of the server 16 is transmitted to the communication terminal 12. Since the information is automatically displayed, the user can reliably recognize that the remaining memory capacity of the storage memory of the digital camera 10 is low.
Therefore, if necessary, transfer the image data to the server,
By erasing the transferred image data from the storage memory, it is possible to prevent an unexpected situation in which the remaining memory capacity of the storage memory is insufficient and shooting cannot be performed.
On the other hand, if canceling the provision of the service is canceled, shooting can be performed with priority.

Next, the internal configuration and operation of the digital camera 10 and the communication terminal 12 will be described. FIG.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of the digital camera 10 and the communication terminal 12. First, the digital camera 10 will be described. The digital camera 10 mainly includes a controller 20, a camera unit 22, a display unit 24, a key input unit 26, a storage memory 28, a transmission / reception unit 30, and the like.

The controller 20 comprehensively controls the operation of each unit as described below in accordance with the operation content input from the key input unit 26. The camera unit 22 is a photographing lens,
It is composed of a CCD image pickup circuit, a signal processing circuit, etc., and picks up an image of a subject via a photographic lens and a CCD, and loads image data representing the subject image into the image memory 32. The image memory 32 is a memory for temporarily recording image data for one field. The capture of image data by the camera unit 22 is executed under the control of the controller 20 in synchronism with the on-operation of the shutter button from the key input unit 26 to the controller 20, and the image data is stored in the storage memory 28. Is stored. Regardless of whether the shutter button is turned on or not, when displaying a through image on the display unit 24, image data is sequentially taken in from the camera unit 22 and the image data in the image memory 32 is rewritten. An image of the data is displayed on the display unit 24.

The display section 24 is an image display means such as an LCD, and displays the image data taken into the image memory 32 from the camera section 22 as described above, various operation menu screens, and the like. The image data recorded in the storage memory 28 can also be reproduced and displayed on the display unit 24 by operating the key input unit 26. In this case, the image data recorded in the storage memory 28 is controlled by the controller 20. The read image data is read out to the image memory 32, and the image data is displayed on the display unit 24.

The storage memory 28 is a memory for recording image data such as a memory card. When the shutter button is turned on from the key input unit 26 to the controller 20 as described above, the camera unit The image data taken in from 22 into the image memory 32 is recorded via the compression / expansion circuit 34. The compression / expansion circuit 34
The image data is compressed or decompressed in a predetermined format. When the image data in the image memory 32 is recorded in the storage memory 28, the image data is compressed and the compressed image data in the storage memory 28 is displayed on the display unit. At the time of reproduction and display on the image data 24, the compressed image data is expanded and restored to the original image data, and written into the image memory 32.

The transmission / reception unit 30 exchanges data with the communication terminal 12 by short-distance communication, and transmits a service information request signal, image data in the storage memory 28, and the like to the communication terminal 12 as described with reference to FIG. Send. Further, it receives an image selection instruction signal and the like from the communication terminal 12. An image selection instruction signal from the communication terminal 12 is given to the controller 20.

The digital camera 10 configured as described above
First, as described with reference to FIG. 2, the user first reserves the remaining memory (the predetermined amount) of the storage memory 28 when automatically transmitting a service information request signal to the communication terminal 12. From the key input unit 26,
Set. The setting of the predetermined amount may be performed, for example, by designating the number of remaining recordable frames, or by designating the number of remaining bytes.

The controller 20 detects the remaining amount of memory in the storage memory 28 at the time of photographing, and if it detects that the remaining amount of memory is smaller than the predetermined amount, the controller 20 outputs a signal for requesting service information. Is transmitted from the transmission / reception unit 30 to the communication terminal 12. Thereby, the communication terminal 12
In, the service content is notified from the server 16, and the service content is displayed on the display unit 42 of the communication terminal 12.

When the user selects a predetermined service at the communication terminal 12 and issues an image transfer instruction, a signal of an image selection instruction is transmitted from the communication terminal 12 to the digital camera 10. When the image selection instruction is given via the transmission / reception unit 30, the controller 20 of the digital camera 10 displays a screen for selecting image data to be transferred on the display unit 24, and allows the user to execute the selection. When the user selects image data to be transferred from the key input unit 26, the controller 20
Reads the image data from the storage memory 28 and transmits the image data to the communication terminal 12 via the transmission / reception unit 30. And
The transmitted image data is deleted from the storage memory 28.
Thereby, the free space of the storage memory 28 is secured. The image data may be deleted automatically from the transferred image data, or only the necessary data may be deleted from the key input unit 26 by the user.

Next, the communication terminal 12 will be described. As shown in the figure, the communication terminal 12 has, for example, a function as a mobile phone, and mainly includes a controller 40, a display unit 42, a key input unit 44, a transmission / reception unit 46, and a transmission unit 48.
And so on. Here, description of the functions of a general communication terminal such as a mobile phone is omitted.

The controller 40 comprehensively controls the operation of each unit as described below in accordance with the operation content input from the key input unit 44. The display unit 42 is a display unit such as an LCD, and mainly displays service information acquired from the server 16 as display contents related to the present invention. Information and the like displayed on the display unit 42 are stored in the memory 50.
And read out from the memory 50 to the display unit 42.

The transmission / reception unit 46 is provided with the digital camera 10
For exchanging data with the transmission / reception unit 30 of the digital camera 10 through short-range communication, receives a signal for requesting service information and image data from the digital camera 10, and a signal for instructing image selection when transferring image data to the server 16. Is transmitted to the digital camera 10. The received image data is temporarily recorded in the memory, and the service information request signal is sent to the controller 40.
Give to.

The transmission section 48 is a base station 14 for public communication.
To the desired server 16 via the base station 14
And data communication. For example, when a service information request signal is received from the digital camera 10 as described above, the controller 40 automatically transmits a telephone number or the like from the transmission unit 48 to connect to a line with the Internet and connect to a desired server. The server transmits the address of the server 16 and connects to the server 16. Then, a signal of a service information request is transmitted to the server 16. Thereby, the server 1
6 provides the service content from the server 16 to the transmission unit 48.
Is transmitted to The service information transmitted in this manner is recorded in the memory 50 and displayed on the display unit 42.

The operation of the communication terminal 12 configured as described above will be described. First, as described in FIG.
The user registers data (telephone number, address, etc.) for automatically connecting to the server 16 in the communication terminal 12.

Then, as described above, the digital camera 10
The remaining memory of the storage memory 28 becomes less than a predetermined amount,
When a signal for requesting service information is input from the digital camera 10 to the controller 40 via the transmission / reception unit 46, the controller 40 transmits a telephone number or the like from the transmission unit 48, connects to the Internet, and changes the address of the server 16 The transmission is performed and the line is connected to the server 16. Then, a signal of a service information request is transmitted to the server 16. Thereby, the service contents (service guidance) provided by the server 16 are notified from the server 16 to the transmission unit 48.
The service content thus notified is recorded in the memory 50 and displayed on the display unit 42.

Subsequently, when the user selects a desired service from the service contents displayed on the display unit 42 with the key input unit 44 and instructs the transfer of image data, the controller 40 transmits the image data to the server 16 from the transmission unit 48. A signal requesting the provision of the selected service is transmitted, and a signal of the image selection instruction is transmitted to the digital camera 10. As a result, the image data to be transferred is selected by the digital camera 10 as described above. When the image data is transferred from the digital camera 10 to the transmission / reception unit 46, the image data is stored in the memory 50 and the transmission unit 48. Via the server 16. In addition, it is naturally possible to input necessary information according to the service provided by the server 16 from the key input unit 44 of the communication terminal 12 and send the information to the server 16 via the transmission unit 48. The present invention is not limited to the image data described above.

Next, an example of the service contents provided by the server 16 will be described with reference to FIG. The server 16 shown in the figure provides various services to users through the Internet. The service contents of the server 16 considered suitable in the present invention include, for example, a print service, an image storage service, an image exhibition service, and the like.

The print service is a service in which image data transferred from a user via communication is printed as a photograph and returned to the user. Specifically, when the user selects a print service and transmits image data to be printed and registration information (user ID, password, number of prints of each image data, and print paper size) to the server 16, the server 16 transfers the print data. The received image data and registration information (user ID, password, print quantity designation, print paper size designation) are transmitted to the laboratory. The lab prints out the image data to a photo print by the photo printer 60 according to the registration information,
The photo print is delivered to a photo shop 64 by 2.
The user can receive the photo print by authenticating the ID and password at the photo shop 64 and paying the fee.

The image storage service is a service for temporarily storing image data transferred from a user via communication, and is intended to avoid a trouble that a memory of a digital camera or the like becomes full. Specifically, when the user selects an image storage service and transmits image data to be stored to the server 16 and also transmits user ID and password registration information, the server 16 stores these images on a hard disk or the like. I do. After returning home,
These images can be obtained at hand through the Internet or the like. From there, you can request a print service.

The image display service is a service that prompts a user to share a photograph by displaying and releasing a digital image via communication. Specifically, when the user selects the image exhibition service and transmits the image data to be displayed and disclosed and registration information (user ID and password),
The server 16 registers these images in the digital image database 66, links these images by HTML, and creates and publishes a homepage on which the images can be viewed. The published image can be referred by an acquaintance, and a download and print service can be requested.

As described above, in the above-described embodiment, the service provided by the server 16 is displayed on the display unit 42 of the communication terminal 12, and the service provided by the communication terminal 12 is selected. However, the present invention is not limited to this. The service contents are displayed on the display unit 24 of the digital camera 10 and the digital camera 10 is displayed.
May be used to select a service to be provided.

In the above embodiment, when the remaining memory of the storage memory 28 of the digital camera 10 becomes less than a predetermined amount, the communication terminal 12 connects the line to the server 16 and provides the service contents of the server 16 (service guide). ) Is acquired and displayed. However, the present invention is not limited to this. Before connecting a line to the server 16, first, the user confirms whether or not to transfer image data, and transfers the image data. Only in this case, a line may be connected to the server 16. In this case, as a method for confirming to the user whether or not to transfer the image data, for example, the service content of the server 16 is stored in the communication terminal 12 in advance, and the service content is displayed on the display unit 42. Then, it may be confirmed whether the user has selected or canceled any service.
Note that the service selected at this time may be automatically selected by the communication terminal 12 after the line connection, so that the user does not have to select the service again.
As another method, a screen for selecting whether or not to transfer image data is displayed on the digital camera 10 or the communication terminal 12, and confirmation is made based on whether or not the user has selected to transfer image data on the selection screen. It may be.

Although not described in the above embodiment, as a function of the digital camera 10 and the communication terminal 12, a user manually operates an operation switch of the digital camera 10 or an operation switch of the communication terminal 12 to obtain a desired function. Sometimes, a communication line can be connected to a desired server, and an image data transfer function capable of transferring image data from the digital camera 10 to the server can be provided.
In the same manner as the image data transfer operation by such a manual operation, for example, when the remaining memory amount of the storage memory 28 of the digital camera 10 becomes less than a predetermined amount,
The communication terminal 12 connects a line to the server 16 and
The process of acquiring and displaying the service content (service guide) is automatically performed in the same manner as in the above embodiment, and thereafter, the desired image data is transmitted to the server 16 by the manual operation similar to the image data transfer function. The transferred image data may be erased. Alternatively, when the remaining memory capacity of the storage memory 28 of the digital camera 10 is less than a predetermined amount, the user may be notified that the remaining capacity of the storage memory 28 in the digital camera 10 or the communication terminal 12 is smaller than the predetermined capacity. Then, only a display or a sound to be recognized by the user may be generated, and thereafter, the communication line may be connected to the server by a manual operation similar to the image data transfer function to transfer the image data to the server. .

The storage memory 28 in the digital camera 10 is not limited to a removable recording medium such as a memory card, but may be a recording medium fixed inside the digital camera 10.

The present invention can be applied to an electronic camera that electrically records a captured image in the same manner as the digital camera 10 described above.

In the above embodiment, the digital camera 10 and the communication terminal 12 are provided separately. However, a system in which the function of the communication terminal 12 according to the present invention is mounted on the digital camera 10 and the communication terminal 12 is not used. It may be.

[0044]

According to the image data transfer system, electronic camera and communication terminal of the present invention described above, the remaining memory capacity of the recording medium for storing the image data shot by the electronic camera is larger than the predetermined capacity. When the number is low, the display is performed so that the user can recognize this, so the user must make sure that the image data should be transferred to the server before the memory capacity becomes insufficient. If necessary, transfer the image data to the server and delete the transferred image data from the storage memory. Can be prevented.
On the other hand, when the photographing is prioritized, the transfer of the image data to the server can be canceled and performed at another occasion.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an image data transfer system to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a sequence of the image data transfer system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of a digital camera and a communication terminal.

FIG. 4 is a diagram used to describe an example of service contents provided by a server;

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Digital camera, 12 Communication terminal, 14 Base station, 16 Server, 20, 40 Controller, 22
Camera unit, 24, 42 display unit, 26, 44 key input unit, 28 storage memory, 30, 46 transmission / reception unit, 48
... Transmission section

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Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. An image data transfer system for recording image data picked up by an electronic camera on a recording medium and transferring the image data recorded on the recording medium to a target server through a communication line. A memory remaining amount detecting means for detecting that the remaining amount of memory is smaller than a predetermined amount; and when the memory remaining amount detecting means detects that the remaining amount of memory is smaller than a predetermined amount, That the amount is less than the predetermined amount,
An image data transfer system, comprising: an image data transfer promoting unit that prompts transfer of image data to the server. 2. The image data transfer system according to claim 1, further comprising processing means for deleting the transferred image data from the recording medium when the transfer of the image data to the server is executed. 3. The image data transfer system according to claim 1, wherein said image data transfer promoting means displays a selection screen for selecting transfer of image data to said server. 4. The image data transfer promoting unit automatically connects a communication line to the server when the memory remaining amount detecting unit detects that the memory remaining amount is smaller than a predetermined amount. 3. The image data transfer according to claim 1, wherein a service content provided by the server is acquired from the server, and the service content is displayed so that transfer of image data to the server can be selected. system. 5. The image data transfer according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined amount serving as a reference for detection by the memory remaining amount detecting means can be set to an arbitrary amount. system. 6. The image data transfer system according to claim 1, wherein the transfer of the image data to the server is performed via a communication terminal capable of communicating with the electronic camera. . 7. The image data transfer system according to claim 6, wherein said image data transfer promotion means is provided in said communication terminal. 8. The electronic camera includes the holding memory and a memory remaining amount detecting unit, and when the memory remaining amount detecting unit detects that the memory remaining amount becomes smaller than a predetermined amount, the electronic camera includes: A predetermined signal is transmitted to the communication terminal, and the image data transfer promoting unit allows the user to recognize that the remaining amount of memory is smaller than a predetermined amount,
8. The image data transfer system according to claim 7, wherein transfer of the image data to the server is prompted. 9. The image data transfer system according to claim 1, wherein the server provides a service for printing the transferred image data. 10. An electronic camera used in the image data transfer system according to claim 1. 11. A communication terminal used in the image data transfer system according to any one of claims 6 to 9.