JP2002009690A - Radio communication equipment, radio communication system, radio communication method and information equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To attain the radio communication by adding a function to a CF card, having an external storage function for the information equipment such as a digital camera to perform the radio communication with other equipment, and also to secure the physical sharing of I/F between the CF card and the information equipment. SOLUTION: This system includes a communication data storage part, a data read/write control part of the communication data storage part, a radio communication part, a communication control part and a shared information equipment I/F.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a wireless communication device, a wireless communication system, a wireless communication method, and an information device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a recording medium in information equipment, there is a removable and portable storage medium such as a magnetic card. As an example of information equipment, in a digital camera, the captured image is recorded in this memory, connected to a personal computer etc. to transfer the accompanying data such as the captured image and the shooting date, and printed using the software on the personal computer It is used by doing. As shown in FIG. 5, the card includes a storage unit 501 and an information device interface 5.
02 and a control unit 503 for controlling them.

On the other hand, wireless communication devices such as mobile phones and PHS have become widespread, and not only voice communication but also data communication represented by e-mail, the Internet, etc. by connecting the wireless communication device to a portable personal computer or the like. It is being actively performed. Recently, a standard of a spread spectrum wireless communication system using a frequency hopping system called Bluetooth ^™ is being formulated (http://www.bluetooth.com/).
/ Www. Bluetooth. com /), B
An antenna-integrated card-type wireless communication device using Bluetooth has been announced. By connecting this device to information equipment, wireless communication can be easily performed. As shown in FIG. 6, the wireless communication device includes an antenna 601, a wireless module 602, an information device interface 603, and a control unit that controls them.

[0004]

Considering that the digital camera is provided with an interface on which a wireless communication device can be mounted, two physical interfaces for a storage medium and a wireless communication device are required. FIG. 7 shows an overview of a wireless communication system in which these two cards are connected to information devices. 7, reference numeral 701 denotes an information device, 702 denotes a storage medium, and 703 denotes a wireless communication device. As described above, more surface area of the information device 701 is required, and since two types of cards 702 and 703 are attached and detached, the operation becomes complicated.

The operation between the control units is independent between the two types of cards for the storage medium and the wireless communication device.
There has been no idea of a method of exchanging data by controlling them efficiently.

[0006]

Means for Solving the Problems In order to achieve the above object, a first invention according to the present application is directed to a wireless communication device having a wireless communication unit and an antenna, which is detachable from information equipment.
A storage unit that stores communication data, a storage control unit that is connected between the storage unit and the information device interface and controls reading and writing of data to the storage unit, and the storage unit that is connected between the wireless communication unit and the information device interface And a communication control unit for controlling transmission and reception of communication data stored in the communication control unit.

[0007]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a radio communication apparatus and information equipment using the present invention. In addition, only the configuration necessary for the present invention is described. In this embodiment, a digital camera will be described as an example of the information device.

As shown in FIG. 1, a wireless communication apparatus 100 includes a storage unit 101 for storing communication data, a digital camera 11
0, interface 102, first control unit 103, antenna 104, Bluetooth module 105,
And the second control unit 106. First control unit 10
Reference numeral 3 controls reading or writing of data based on a reading or writing command from the digital camera 110. The second control unit 106 transmits a Blu-ray based on a communication command transmitted from the digital camera 110 or a partner terminal (not shown) via the antenna 104.
It controls the ethod module 105.

On the other hand, the digital camera 110 includes an image input unit 111, an operation unit 112, a display unit 113, and a temporary storage unit 1.
14, a wireless communication device interface 115, and a CPU 116 for controlling them. Temporary storage unit 114 is used when temporarily writing image data input by image input unit 111 or temporarily reading image data stored in storage unit 101 of wireless communication apparatus 100. The wireless communication device interface 115 can be connected to the interface 102 of the wireless communication device 100. Through the interfaces 102 and 115, the CPU 116 of the digital camera communicates with the first and second control units 103 and 106 of the wireless communication device. Each sends and receives commands.
The transmitted command is transmitted to the CPU 116 and the first controller 10.
It does not cause confusion as to whether the command is between three or between the CPU 116 and the second control unit 106 if the commands are not overlapped in advance.

The wireless communication device 100 is a digital camera 11
FIG. 2 shows a schematic diagram of the wireless communication system connected to the wireless communication system 0.

[0011] As shown in FIG.
One slot of the wireless communication device interface 115 may be provided for the wireless communication device 100.

Next, the operation of storing image data input by the digital camera 110 in the storage unit 101 of the wireless communication device 100 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. This operation is performed by the CPU 116 of the digital camera 110 as shown in FIGS.
Are stored and executed based on the program. Here, it is assumed that the wireless communication device 100 is connected to the digital camera 110 in advance.

First, the operation unit 11 of the digital camera 110
In 2, when an image input request operation is performed by the camera user (301), an image is input in the image input unit 111 (302), and the image data is stored in the temporary storage unit 114
And display it on the display unit 113 (303). If the camera user wishes to save the input image data and performs a save request operation using the operation unit 112 (304), the operation shifts to a save operation in the storage unit 101 of the wireless communication device 100.
In the saving operation, the CPU 116 of the digital camera 110 transmits a data write request command to the first control unit 103 of the wireless communication device 100 (305), and the first control unit 10
3 returns a data write permission command (30
6) Write the image data stored in the temporary storage unit 114 to the storage unit 101 of the wireless communication device 100 (30)
7).

Next, the storage unit 101 of the wireless communication device 100
The operation of transferring the image data stored in the terminal to another terminal via the Bluetooth module 105 and the antenna 104 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.
This operation is also performed based on a program stored in the CPU 116 of the digital camera 110. Here, it is assumed that a plurality of image data are stored in the storage unit 101 in advance.

First, the operation unit 11 of the digital camera 110
In 2, when a data display request operation is performed by a camera user (401), the CPU 116
00, a data read request command is transmitted to the first control unit 103 (402), and the data stored at the head of the storage unit 101 is read out to the temporary storage unit 114 and displayed on the display unit 113 (403). ). When the user performs a selection operation when the displayed image is image data to be transferred to the partner terminal (404), the storage unit 1 identifies the data.
01 is stored in the storage unit 101 of the wireless communication apparatus 100 as a pair with the identifier and the transfer request flag stored in (4).
05). The above operations (401) to (405) are repeated,
The user reads and displays the data one after another until the end of the image data comes (406).

Next, when the user performs a data transfer request operation on the operation unit 112 (407), the CPU 11
6 transmits a call request command to the second control unit 106 of the wireless communication device 100 (408), and makes a call to the other terminal via the Bluetooth module 105 and the antenna 104. When the call connection with the partner terminal is established, the second control unit 106 returns a data transfer permission notification to the CPU 116 (409).

The CPU 116 of the digital camera 110
A transfer data read request command is transmitted to the first control unit 103 of the wireless communication device 100 (411), and the control unit 10
3 is based on the Bragg information stored in the storage unit 101,
The first image data to be transferred is read out to the temporary storage unit 114 of the digital camera 110. When reading is completed,
The control unit 103 returns a read completion notification to the CPU 116 (412). Next, the CPU 116 controls the second control unit 1
A data transmission request command is transmitted to 06 (413).
The second control unit 106 reads out the image data read out to the temporary storage unit 114 to the Bluetooth module 105 and transmits the image data to the partner terminal via the antenna 104. When the transmission is completed, the second control unit 106 transmits the image data to the CPU 116. A completion notification is returned (414), which means that one piece of image data has been transmitted to the partner terminal.

When all data to be transmitted has been transmitted (410), a call disconnection process is performed and the process is terminated (41).
5).

As an example of displaying a plurality of image data stored in the storage unit 101 of the wireless communication apparatus 100 on the display unit 113 of the digital camera 110, in addition to the above, thumbnail images corresponding to the stored image data are paired. You may memorize | store and display it. In this case, it is obvious that a plurality of image data can be displayed on the display unit at a time, and the operation of selecting the transfer data becomes easy.

Further, instead of the thumbnail image, text data describing the description of the image may be stored as a pair with the image data and displayed. in this case,
Even a digital camera having a display unit that cannot display an image can perform a selection operation.

In the present embodiment, as data stored in the storage unit 101, image data input from the digital camera 110 or the Bluetooth module 10
Although the image data to be communicated to another information device via the communication device 5 has been described, the storage unit 101 may be used to store image data transmitted from another information device by wireless communication. In this case, at the time of negotiation performed at the start of wireless communication with another communication device, the wireless control unit 106 causes the storage control unit 103 to check the use status of the storage unit 101, for example, the capacity of an unused area, and performs wireless communication. May determine whether the received data can be stored or whether the wireless communication itself can be performed.

Further, in the present invention, a digital camera has been described as an example of information equipment, but the present invention is also applicable to a terminal having a wireless communication device interface, such as a computer, a printer, or a facsimile. In this case, when the wireless communication device is connected to the information device, or when the information device is powered on after connection, or when a command from the information device first arrives at the wireless communication device, the type of the information device is changed. When a display request is sent to the wireless communication device, an item to be displayed is selected from the storage unit 101 based on the request, and the temporary storage unit 11
4 may be read and displayed.

[0023]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the surface area of an information device can be reduced.
Also, the operation is simplified. In addition, there is an effect that data can be exchanged by efficiently controlling operations between the control units between the storage medium and the wireless communication device.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a wireless communication device and an information device using the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an overview diagram of a wireless communication system using the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a storage operation according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a transfer operation according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a conventional storage medium.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a conventional wireless communication device.

FIG. 7 is an overview diagram of a conventional wireless communication system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100 wireless communication device 101 storage unit 102 information device interface 103 storage control unit 104 antenna 105 Bluetooth module 106 communication control unit 110 digital camera 111 image input unit 112 operation unit 113 display unit 114 temporary storage unit 115 wireless communication device interface 116 CPU

Claims (16)

[Claims] 1. A wireless communication device having a wireless communication unit and an antenna, which is detachable from an information device, is connected between the storage unit and a first information device interface, and controls storage of data in the storage unit. A communication control unit that is connected between the wireless communication unit and the second information device interface and controls communication data stored in the storage unit; and a storage unit that stores the data or the communication data. A wireless communication device characterized by the above-mentioned. 2. The wireless communication device according to claim 1, wherein the storage unit stores data of an information device and communication data from the wireless communication unit. 3. The wireless communication device according to claim 1, wherein a communication system of the wireless communication unit is a spread spectrum communication system. 4. The wireless communication device according to claim 3, wherein the communication method is a Bluetooth method. 5. The wireless communication device according to claim 1, wherein the information device is an image input device and / or an image output device. 6. A wireless communication system in which the wireless communication device according to claim 1 is connected to said information device. 7. The wireless communication system according to claim 6, further comprising: an operation unit for inputting a read / write instruction to said memory and / or a wireless communication instruction by said wireless communication unit. 8. The wireless communication system according to claim 7, further comprising a display unit for displaying the communication data. 9. The wireless communication system according to claim 8, further comprising a selection unit for selecting the communication data. 10. The wireless communication system according to claim 8, wherein contents to be displayed on the display unit are determined according to a type of the information device. 11. The wireless communication system according to claim 10, wherein the identification of the information device type is performed when the wireless communication device is connected to the information device, when the information device is powered on, or when the information device is turned on. A wireless communication system, wherein the command is either when the command first arrives at the wireless communication device. 12. A wireless communication method between an information device accommodating a detachable wireless communication device and a partner information device, the method comprising: storing data from the information device to the wireless communication device; A wireless communication method comprising: selecting all or all of the units; reading the selected data; and transmitting the read data. 13. The wireless communication method according to claim 12, further comprising the step of setting a flag for the data selected in said selecting step. 14. The wireless communication method according to claim 12, wherein when there are a plurality of data selected in the selecting step, the data reading step and the data transmitting step are performed alternately. Communication method. 15. A system comprising a wireless communication unit, a storage unit for storing communication data from the wireless communication unit, a wireless communication device having an antenna, and an information device to which the wireless communication device is detachable. A storage control unit that is connected between the storage unit and the information device interface and controls the storage unit with respect to data of the information device; and the storage device that is connected between the wireless communication unit and the information device interface. A system comprising: a communication control unit that controls communication data stored in a unit; and a storage unit that stores the data or the communication data. 16. An information device having a wireless communication unit, a storage unit for storing communication data from the wireless communication unit, and an antenna, the wireless communication device being detachable, and control means for storing data in the storage unit. And an means for communicating data stored in the storage unit to an external device via the wireless communication unit.