JP2003244498A - Digital camera connected with data processor - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a digital camera in which the equipment information of a transfer destination acquirable for a data processor is acquired and processing is selected corresponding to that information in the digital camera capable of connecting the data processor having a communication function. <P>SOLUTION: In the digital camera connected with a data communication system and capable of an acquired image to the other data processor, the digital camera has an information acquisition means for acquiring information to be acquired by the connected equipment and a processing selection means for selecting any processing method on the basis of the acquired information and processing the acquired image data on the basis of the selected processing system. By transmitting an image picked up by the digital camera while changing its size corresponding to the size of a display device that the data processor of a transmission destination has, communication traffics between transmitting equipment and receiving equipment can be reduced and at the same time, a load on the memory or display function of the data processor of the transmission destination can be reduced. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a digital camera to which a data processing device having a communication function such as a mobile phone can be connected.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Images taken by a digital camera can be easily edited as digital data, communicated, etc., and have elements used for purposes different from silver halide photography.
For example, an image taken on the spot while moving or in a remote place can be transferred to another place to accurately convey local information. In recent years, with the progress of information technology, the information capacity has increased,
There is a demand for a high-speed image communication system that is diversified and faster, more portable, and faster.

Currently, there is a method of using a mobile phone as a system for transmitting image data. Like a stationary image communication device, a mobile phone can transmit and receive images wirelessly. Therefore, it is possible to connect a digital camera to a mobile phone and transmit an image captured by the digital camera via the mobile phone.

[0004]

In the above system, the image to be transmitted is the image taken by the connected digital camera. That is, the attributes of the image such as the size and compression rate of the captured image are limited to the functions of the digital camera that captures the image, and are not related to the information of the destination device.

Consider, for example, an image communication system as shown in FIG. Reference numeral 1 denotes a transmission system, which has a configuration in which a digital camera 2 and a transmission side mobile phone 3 are connected. On the other hand, 4 is a receiving system, and 5 is a receiving side mobile phone. In this system, an image taken by the digital camera 1 can be transmitted to the receiving side mobile phone 5 of the receiving system 4 by wireless communication of the transmitting side mobile phone 3, and the data can be viewed on the display device 6. Now, it is assumed that the digital camera 2 can select the recording size of an image to be picked up from the following: VGA (640 * 480 pixels) SVGA (800 * 600 pixels) XGA (1024 * 768 pixels). On the other hand, the image display size of the display device 6 of the mobile phone 5 on the receiving side is set to QVGA (320 * 24).
0). At this time, if the image captured by the digital camera 2 with the smallest size VGA is used as it is, the receiving side mobile phone 5
The image size larger than QVGA cannot be displayed on the display device 6 even when the image is transmitted to the user. Therefore, the image size must be changed in the receiving mobile phone 5, or only a part of the received image can be viewed. become. In other words, wasteful memory is consumed on the memory (not shown) of the mobile phone 5 on the receiving side,
Since transmission / reception transmission involves useless traffic, it constitutes a very inefficient image communication system.
Originally, it is necessary to transmit images that are necessary and sufficient for the performance of the destination device, and it is necessary to consider the side that transmits the data, so the image capturing device that actually creates the image data communicates with the external data device. There is a need for interlocked processing of a communication device that can perform the operation.

In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-090019, IEEE
When communicating between devices connected by E1394, a proposal has been made to acquire device information of a connection destination and determine a processing method, but in this case, it is a method between devices that actually perform communication. It does not mention the processing of a digital camera connected to a device that does.

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above points, and an object of the invention of the present application is to specify a destination of an image when transmitting an image to a data device having only a small display device such as a mobile phone. It is to propose a digital camera having a function of editing image data to be transmitted according to device information.

[0008]

In a digital camera which is connected to a data communication system and can transfer an acquired image to another data processing device, information acquiring means for acquiring information acquired by a connected device, It is characterized by comprising a processing selection means for selecting a processing method based on the information acquired in the previous period and processing the acquired image data based on the selected processing method.

In a digital camera which is connected to a data communication system and which can transfer an acquired image to another data processing device, an information acquisition means for acquiring information acquired by a connected device and an information acquired in the previous period are used as sources. And a software having an algorithm having a processing selection unit for processing the image data obtained based on the selected processing method, and a medium having the software recorded therein.

The data communication system according to claims 1 and 2 is a mobile phone.

The information acquisition means in claim 1 or 2 acquires the device information of the communication destination acquired by the data communication system.

The processing selection means in claims 1 and 2 is characterized in that the size of the image to be transferred is changed according to the device information of the communication destination acquired by the data communication system.

In a digital camera connectable to a data communication system, an information acquisition means for acquiring information acquired by a connected device and a processing method are selected based on the information acquired in the previous period, and the selected processing method is selected. It is characterized in that it is provided with processing selection means for processing the image data acquired based on the processing.

In a digital camera which can be connected to a data communication system, an information acquisition means for acquiring information acquired by a connected device and a processing method are selected based on the information acquired in the previous period, and the selected processing method is selected. It is characterized by comprising software having an algorithm having a processing selection means for processing the image data acquired based on the software and a medium recording the software.

The data communication system according to claims 1 and 2 is a position information measuring device.

The information acquisition means according to claims 1 and 2 provides information on whether or not the data communication system is equipped with a position information measuring device, and the current position when the position information measuring device is mounted. It is characterized by acquiring information.

The process selecting means in claim 1 and claim 2 can obtain the current information when there is a position information measuring device depending on whether or not the data communication system is the position information measuring device. It is characterized in that the position information is included in the attribute information of the image captured by the digital camera.

In the image communication system in which the digital camera and the data processing device are connected, by changing the size of the image captured by the digital camera according to the size of the display device of the destination data processing device and transmitting the image, It is possible to reduce the communication traffic between the transmitting and receiving devices and at the same time reduce the load on the memory and the display function of the data processing device at the transmission destination.

[0019]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

(First Embodiment) In this embodiment, in a data communication system in which a digital camera and a mobile phone are connected to each other, when image data taken by the digital camera is transmitted to the communication destination mobile phone via the mobile phone. In the following, a method of changing the display size of the display device of the mobile phone of the reception side acquired by the mobile phone of the transmission side and transmitting the data will be described.

The outline of the image communication system assumed in this embodiment is as shown in FIG. Next, the system configuration in the present invention is shown in FIG. Here, 1 is the whole digital camera, 2 is an image pickup optical system, 3 is a lens, 4 is a CCD, 5 is a CDS / AGC, 6 is an A / D converter, 7 is a signal processing device A, 8 is a V-drive, and 9 is Is a timing generator (hereinafter abbreviated as TG), 10 is a signal processing device B, 11 is a data bus, 12 is a CPU bus, 13 is a CPU, 14 is a recording device, 15 is a user interface having operating members, 16 is a display controller, 17 is VRA
M and 18 are memories such as DRAM, 19 is a liquid crystal monitor, and 2
Reference numeral 0 is an external device connection section. The external device connection unit 20 is composed of a plurality of members below, 23 is a driving unit, 22 is a digital camera communication unit, and 21 is a digital camera external connection I / F.

First, the operation of the digital camera 1 concerning image pickup display will be described. The following controls are all for the recording device 1
The software loaded from a medium (not shown) on the program memory 4 is started on the CPU 13.
First, an image formed on the CCD 4 by the lens 3 of the imaging optical system 2 is adjusted in amplitude and gain of an electric signal by the CDS / AGC 5, and is converted from an analog signal to a digital signal by using the A / D converter 6. Next, this digital signal is converted into a value on the color coordinate system of the image by using the signal processing device A7. Here, in addition to the Y-C coordinate system, the color coordinate system includes coordinate systems of various color spaces such as an RGB coordinate system, but they are not specified in the present invention.

Data corresponding to the number of image pickup pixels of the CCD 4 is output from the signal processing device A7 in synchronization with the pixel clock. That is, in FIG. 1, the value on the control line output from the signal processing device A7 is the pixel clock, and the value on the data line is the actual image data. Further, similarly, a control signal is output on the control line of the signal processing device A7 according to the size of the image pickup area of the CCD 4. That is, the HD signal is output every time one line of the imaging area starts, and the VD signal is output every other field of the imaging area.

In this way, the signal image-captured by the image-capturing optical system 2 and color-converted is output in synchronization with the control signal generated by the signal processing device A 7, and is input to the signal processing device B 10. The signal processing device B 10 mainly reads and writes data from and into the memory 18, and reads and writes data from and into the recording device 14.
It is about driving the display controller 16, writing data to the VRAM 17, converting signals from the CPU 13, transmitting control signals to the image pickup optical system, and so on. For example, the image data is transferred to V through the data bus 11.
An image can be displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 18 by writing in the RAM 17 and simultaneously driving the display controller 16 through the CPU bus 12. With the above configuration, the digital camera 1 records the captured image in the recording device 14
Can be recorded on or reproduced from and displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 18 on the camera.

On the other hand, regarding the mobile phone, first, 24 is the whole mobile phone, 25 is a control circuit, 26 is a dial operation unit, 27 is a monitor for displaying the operation status, 28 is a speaker, 29 is a receiving device, and 30 is a transmitting device. Device, 31 is a microphone,
Reference numeral 32 is an antenna, and 33 is a communication connector cord.
The control circuit 25 is composed of a plurality of members, 34 is a mobile phone external connection I / F, 35 is a mobile phone communication means, and 36 is a memory.

The wireless communication operation of the mobile phone 24 will be described below. However, all the following controls do not have software resident on the memory 36 as CP in the mobile phone (not shown).
This is done by starting up on U. The user activates the control circuit 25 according to the operation input from the dial operation unit 26,
The transmitter and the receiver are driven according to the control sequence. The voice input from the microphone 31 is transmitted through the antenna 32 after being subjected to data modulation and carrier wave superposition in the transmitter. On the contrary, the data received by the antenna 32 is input to the receiving device, demodulated, and the generated voice data is passed through the speaker 28, so that the user can hear the received voice. Data other than voice data is stored in the memory 36 as mail character data and image data. At this time, the control circuit 25 controls so that the contents of each operation such as the destination and source of the voice data to be communicated are displayed on the attached monitor 27. The digital camera 1 and the mobile phone 24 are connected to respective external connection I / Fs 21 and 34 via a communication cord 33. At this time, both devices are in an operable state by being supplied with power from a power source (not shown).

Next, in FIG. 2, the digital camera 3
A method of acquiring the display size of the display device 7 of the receiving mobile phone 5 acquired by the transmitting mobile phone 2, changing the size of the image data captured by itself according to the acquired display size information, and transmitting explain. It is assumed that the image to be transmitted has already been acquired and stored in the recording device 14 of the digital camera 1. However, the present invention is not limited to this example, and it is possible to store it in the memory 18 even when communication is performed at the same time as image capturing, and to perform subsequent transmission by similar processing.

First, the digital camera 1 issues a connection command to the destination. The command can be issued by the user interface 15. The drive means 2 in the external device connection unit 20 for the issued command
When it recognizes that 3 is a connection command to the destination, it drives the currently connected mobile phone 24 to open a communication path to the destination. At this time, it is possible to connect by inputting the telephone number or the mail address of the communication destination from the dial operation unit 26 of the mobile phone 24. In this embodiment, the communication destination is the receiving side mobile phone 7 shown in FIG.

After the connection with the communication destination is established, this time, the information acquisition means 37 in the digital camera 1 requests the mobile phone 24 to acquire the image size of the display device of the transmission destination mobile phone. At this time, the mobile phone 24 is assumed to be able to acquire the device information held by the mobile phone of the transmission destination by the program existing in the memory 36 not shown in FIG. 1, and the mobile phone of the transmission destination also includes the image size of the display device. It is assumed that the device information is stored as data. Since the acquisition of device information between communication devices is already known,
The method is not mentioned in the text, and it is assumed that the mobile phone 24 can acquire desired device information according to the request of the information acquisition means in the digital camera 1. The acquired device information data is stored in the memory 36 in the control circuit 25 via the antenna 32 and the receiving device 29.

The information acquisition means 37 acquires the device information of the mobile phone of the transmission destination, which is received by the memory 36 of the mobile phone 24, following the acquisition command issued by itself. For data transfer, each external connection I / F2 via the communication court 33
1 and 25 are used. The information acquisition unit 37 displays the image size of the display device of the mobile phone of the transmission destination on the digital camera 1.
Stored in the memory 18 of

In the description of the present embodiment, the assumed digital camera has the following recording size of the image to be captured: VGA (640 * 480 * 8 bits) SVGA (800 * 600 * 8 bits) XGA (1024 * 768 *) 8 bits) (assuming that a data amount of 8 bits per 1 pixel is assumed) can be selected, and the image to be transferred is assumed to be VGA size. On the other hand, the mobile phone 24
The image display size of the display device acquired as the device information of the destination mobile phone is QVGA (320 * 240 * 8 b
It is assumed that the device information data of “its” is stored in the memory 18 of the digital camera 1.

Then, the size A (bits) of the image to be transferred next by the process selecting means 38 and the acquired image display size B (bits) stored in the memory 18 are compared and determined as follows.

(1) When A <B: The size of the image is transferred as A (bits).

(2) When A> = B: The image size is B
Reduced to (bits) and transferred.

That is, even if the image data having a size larger than the image size of the display device of the destination mobile phone is transmitted, it cannot be displayed as it is and only a part of the transmitted image can be seen. This is because it may be necessary to newly perform processing for changing the image size before display. This not only burdens the destination mobile phone with processing,
This results in wasteful consumption of memory and wasteful communication load due to the use of a communication path for an excessive amount of data.

Here, as shown above, the image size to be transferred = VGA, the display image size of the transfer destination mobile phone = QV
Since it is GA, the processing selection means 38 reduces the transferred image size to VGA / QVGA = 1/4 and changes it to a necessary and sufficient image size.

The transmission program issued by the digital camera 1 recognizing that this processing has been completed generates an image required for transfer, transfers the image to the mobile phone 24 via the communication code 33, and transfers it to the mobile phone of the transmission destination. Issue a send request. In response to this request, the driving means 23 recognizes the content of the command and drives the mobile phone 24 in the same manner as the connection command to the destination. The image to be transferred is once stored in the memory 36 on the mobile phone 24 and then transmitted to the destination by wireless communication. The transmission method is as described above.

As described above, in the data communication system in which the digital camera and the mobile phone are connected, when the image data captured by the digital camera is transmitted to the mobile phone of the communication destination via the mobile phone, It is possible to change the display size of the display device of the mobile phone on the receiving side, which is acquired by the mobile phone, and transmit.

In this embodiment, a mobile phone is taken as an example of the data processing device, but the data processing device is not specialized for this, and the same applies to a data processing device having a communication function. The data processing device at the communication destination is not limited to the mobile phone. Further, in the present embodiment, the process selection means is a method of reducing the transfer image at a reduction rate that matches the size of the display device of the transfer destination. A threshold value may be set for the processing to be performed and the size of the display device, and a method of reducing the size of the display device or less may be similarly applied.

(Second Embodiment) In the present embodiment, in a data communication system in which a digital camera and a mobile phone are connected, when the image data picked up by the digital camera is transmitted to the communication destination mobile phone via the mobile phone. A method of reducing the image size according to the remaining amount of the memory of the mobile phone of the receiving side, which is acquired by the mobile phone of the transmitting side, and then transmitting will be described. The configuration of this embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment.
As shown in the figure, the operation of the system is almost the same, but the difference is the transfer image data creation process in the process selection means 38. The subsequent processing method will be described.

In the first embodiment, the processing selection means 38
Acquires the display size of the display device of the transfer destination device acquired by the connected mobile phone 24 and reduces the image size according to the size, but in the present embodiment, the remaining amount of the memory of the transfer destination device is acquired. . This value is now A (bits). On the other hand, the processing selection means 3 of the digital camera 1 on the transmission side
In 8, the threshold for determining the transfer image size is held in advance. Let this be B (bits). Therefore, assuming that the size of the imaged data stored in the memory 18 of the digital camera 1 is C (bits), the process selection unit 38 compares the values of both and determines the transfer image size as follows.

(1) When A> B: C (bits)
Transfer as is.

(2) When A <= B: If A> C * (1/4) (bits), then C *
The image is reduced and transferred so that it becomes (1/4) (bit). If A <= C * (1/4) (bits), the image is reduced so that it becomes A and transferred.

After the transfer image size is determined as described above, the image is changed to a desired size and transferred. The operation of the system regarding the transfer processing is the same as that of the first embodiment. The method of determining the transfer image size included in the above-described processing selection unit 38 is not limited to the method of this embodiment.

(Third Embodiment) In this embodiment, in a system in which a digital camera and a mobile phone are connected, if the mobile phone is equipped with position information measuring means, it is recognized and the position information measuring means measures the position information. A method of acquiring the current position information and including it in the attribute information of the image captured by the digital camera will be described.

The structure of this embodiment is shown in FIG. 3, but the same members as those in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals. The operation of this system is almost the same as the operation shown in the first and second embodiments, except that the information acquired by the information acquisition means 37 of the digital camera 1 is displayed on the transfer destination data processing device. It is not the image size or the remaining memory capacity, but the position information measuring means mounting information and the current position information measured by the position information measuring means. Further, in this embodiment, the mobile phone 24 is equipped with the position information measuring means 39.

First, when an image pickup command is issued to take an image with the digital camera 1, the image pickup program in the memory 18 starts the image pickup and at the same time the information acquisition means 37.
The drive request of the data processing device connected to the device and the device information of the data processing device are acquired. The image capturing process and the driving method of the data processing device to be connected are the same as the operations shown in the first and second embodiments. The information acquisition unit 37 can recognize that the present device recognizes the mobile phone 24 as the acquired device information of the data processing device, and further that the mobile phone 24 is equipped with the position information measurement unit 39. Therefore, according to this determination, a position information transfer request for measuring and driving the current position information is issued to the position information measuring function. According to this request, the position information measuring means 39 in the mobile phone 24 transfers the current position information acquired by itself to the memory 18 of the digital camera 1.

Next, the imaging program finishes the acquisition of the imaging data and the information acquisition by the information acquisition means 37, and the recording operation to the recording device 14 is started. At this time, the processing selection means 38
Then, the following attribute information of the image is determined. (1) When the connected data processing device is equipped with the position information measuring means: The acquired current position information is included in the image attribute information. (2) When the connected data processing device is not equipped with the positional information measuring means, the current positional information is not included in the attribute information of the image.

Since the connected mobile phone is equipped with the position information measuring means 39, the current position information acquired by the mobile phone is one of the attribute information in the image taken by the digital camera 1. It is added and recorded in the recording device 14.

As described above, in the present embodiment, in the system in which the digital camera and the mobile phone are connected, when the mobile phone is equipped with the position information measuring means, it is recognized and the position information measuring means measures it. The current position information can be acquired and added to the attribute information of the image captured by the digital camera and recorded.

In this embodiment, the mobile phone is taken as an example of the data processing device, but the data processing device is not specialized for this, and the same applies to other data processing devices. Further, the device information to be acquired is not limited to whether the position information measuring unit is installed, and as a result, the attribute information of the image acquired by the data processing device and added to the image captured by the digital camera is It is not limited to the current position information. The same can be applied to other measurement functions and their measurement data.

[0052]

In the image communication system in which the digital camera and the data processing device are connected, the digital camera acquires the information acquired by the data processing device, and by performing processing according to the information, it is comfortable for the connected device. Provide the processing environment. In addition, the digital camera itself can add value to the imaging and recording functions by changing the processing according to the acquired information.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an image processing system according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an image processing system according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of an image processing system in a third embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 digital camera 2 Imaging optical system 3 lenses 4 CCD 5 CDS / AGC 6 A / D converter 7 Signal processing device A 8 V drive 9 Timing generator 10 Signal processing device B 11 data bus 12 CPU bus 13 CPU 14 Recording device 15 User interface 16 display controller 17 VRAM 18 memory 19 LCD monitor 20 External device connection 21 External connection I / F 22 Communication means 23 Drive means 24 mobile phones 25 Control circuit 26 Dial operation part 27 monitors 28 speakers 29 Receiver 30 transmitter 31 microphone 32 antenna 33 Communication code 34 External connection I / F 35 Communication means 36 memory

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A digital camera capable of transferring an acquired image to another data processing device by connecting to a data communication system, and an information acquiring means for acquiring information acquired by a connected device, and information acquired in the previous period. A digital camera including a processing selection unit that selects a processing method based on the above, and processes the acquired image data based on the selected processing method. 2. A digital camera which is connected to a data communication system and is capable of transferring an acquired image to another data processing device, and an information acquisition means for acquiring information acquired by a connected device, and information acquired in the previous period. A software having an algorithm having a processing selection means for selecting a processing method based on the above, and processing the image data acquired based on the selected processing method, and a medium having the software recorded therein. 3. The data communication system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the data communication system is a mobile phone. 4. The information acquisition means according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that it acquires device information of a communication destination acquired by the data communication system. 5. The processing selection means according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the size of an image to be transferred is changed according to device information of a communication destination acquired by the data communication system. 6. In a digital camera connectable to a data communication system, an information acquisition means for acquiring information acquired by a connected device and a processing method selected based on the information acquired in the previous period, and the selected processing. A digital camera including a processing selection unit that processes image data acquired based on a method. 7. In a digital camera connectable to a data communication system, an information acquisition means for acquiring information acquired by a connected device and a processing method selected based on the information acquired in the previous period, and the selected processing. A software having an algorithm having a processing selection means for processing image data acquired based on a method, and a medium recording the software. 8. The data communication system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the data communication system is a position information measuring device. 9. The information acquisition means according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the information regarding whether or not the data communication system is equipped with a position information measuring device, and when the position information measuring device is installed, It is characterized by acquiring the position information of. 10. The processing selection means according to claim 1 or 2, when there is a position information measuring device according to whether or not the data communication system is a position information measuring device,
It is characterized in that the current position information that can be acquired is included in the attribute information of the image captured by the digital camera.