JP2003248561A - Portable terminal image printer and its method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a portable terminal image printer and its method by which an image data of a photograph photographed by a portable terminal can be printed from an arbitrary printer without providing a special interface. <P>SOLUTION: In the portable terminal image printer and its method, a mail control part carrying out sending and receiving of e-mail between the portable terminal such as a cell phone or PDA, an image managing part recording the image data to which an image ID identifying the image data as unique and an image outputting part printing the image data based on the image ID are provided and the image data of the photograph photographed by a portable terminal can be printed by the arbitrary printer by carrying out communication between the image managing part and an image outputting part when the image ID is inputted. <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 printing apparatus and method for printing image data of a photograph taken by a mobile terminal.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, mobile phones and PDAs (Persons)
A mobile terminal such as an al Digital Assistant) is a W that browses Web pages on the Internet.
Equipped with functions such as an eb browser and electronic mail, the Internet has come to be used as a standard.

It is also possible to take a picture with a mobile phone equipped with a digital camera or a PDA connected to the digital camera, display the taken image data on the display of the mobile terminal, or attach it to an e-mail and send it. It is being appreciated.

However, there are the following problems in the prior art. That is, there is a problem in that a captured image data cannot be printed because a mobile terminal normally does not have an interface for connecting to a printer.

Further, even if some kind of special interface can be prepared and connectable to the printer, both the mobile terminal and the printer must be equipped with the interface, and the models of the mobile terminal and the printer are largely limited. It

In a mobile terminal such as a PDA, it is possible to transfer image data to a personal computer via a removable information recording medium and print the image data using the software of the personal computer, but it is installed at home. The environment in which printing is possible is limited, such as a personal computer to which the specified information recording medium is connected.

[0007] In general, a mobile phone is not provided with a means for moving image data to a personal computer through an information recording medium.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a portable terminal image printing apparatus and method capable of printing image data of a photograph taken by a portable terminal with an arbitrary printer without preparing a special interface. The purpose is to

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, a first aspect of the present invention is a printing apparatus for printing image data of a photograph taken by a mobile terminal, wherein an electronic mail is sent to and from the mobile terminal. A mail control unit for sending and receiving the image data, an image management unit for recording the image data to which an image ID uniquely identifying the image data is recorded, and an image output unit for printing the image data based on the image ID. It is provided.

A second aspect of the present invention is, in the portable terminal image printing apparatus according to the above-mentioned first aspect, a mail for receiving a first electronic mail with image data attached to the mail control section from the portable terminal. A receiving unit and the received first
A data acquisition unit for acquiring a sender and an attached image from the electronic mail of the above, and the image I added to the acquired image data.
And a mail sending unit for sending a second electronic mail in which D is described to the sender.

A third aspect of the present invention is the portable terminal image printing apparatus according to the first or second aspect,
An image ID generation unit that assigns the image ID to the acquired image data, an image recording unit that records the image ID and the acquired image data in association with each other in the image management unit, and based on the image ID, An image search unit for searching image data is provided.

A fourth aspect of the present invention is based on the above first to third aspects.
In the portable terminal image printing device according to the aspect, the image output unit is provided with an input unit for inputting the image ID and a printer for printing the image data searched by the image searching unit.

A fifth aspect of the present invention is the above first to fourth aspects.
In the portable terminal image printing apparatus according to the aspect, a communication unit that transfers the image data to be printed is provided to each of the image management unit and the image output unit.

A sixth aspect of the present invention is a method for printing image data of a photograph taken by a portable terminal, wherein the image data of the photograph taken by the portable terminal is attached to an electronic mail and transmitted to a portable terminal image printing apparatus. And a step of receiving the e-mail, extracting a sender and attached image data from the received mail, and providing the extracted image data with an image ID capable of uniquely identifying image data Recording the ID and the image data in association with each other, notifying the image ID to the sender of the image data by e-mail, and inputting the image ID notified by the e-mail to the mobile terminal image printing apparatus. Performing steps, searching for the image based on the input image ID, and printing the searched image data. Those were.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the portable terminal image printing method according to the sixth aspect, the image data retrieved from the image management unit is installed at a remote place via the communication unit. The step of transmitting to the image output unit is performed.

[0016]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, the present invention will be described based on illustrated embodiments. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a mobile terminal image printing apparatus 1 of the present invention. The mobile terminal image printing apparatus 1 includes a mail control unit 3 that sends and receives electronic mail to and from the mobile terminal 2, an image management unit 4 that records image data, an image output unit 5 that prints image data, and a print. The communication unit 6 for transferring the image data to be transmitted is provided.

Further, the mail control unit 3 receives from the portable terminal 2 the first electronic mail 7 to which the image data is attached, the mail receiving unit 8, and the received first electronic mail 7 from which the sender address 9 is attached. The data acquisition unit 11 for acquiring the image data 10 being displayed, and the mail transmission unit 14 for transmitting the second electronic mail 13 in which the image ID 12 assigned to the image data 10 is transmitted to the transmission source address 9.

The image management unit 4 uses the acquired image data 10
An image ID generation unit 15 that gives an image ID 12 that can uniquely identify the image data, an image recording unit 16 that records the image ID 12 and the image data 10 in association with each other, and an image ID
An image retrieval unit 17 that retrieves the corresponding image data 10 based on 12 and a communication unit 6 that transmits the image data 10 to the image output unit 5 are provided.

The image output unit 5 includes an input unit 18 for inputting the image ID 12, a communication unit 6 for receiving the image data 10 from the image management unit 4, and a printer 19 for printing the image data 10. Actually, a personal computer owned by the user or a dedicated terminal installed on the street or in a store is used.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the operation of the portable terminal image printing apparatus 1 of the present invention. The operation of the mobile terminal image printing apparatus 1 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. First, the user sends the mobile terminal 2 to the predetermined e-mail address used by the mobile terminal image printing apparatus 1.
The first e-mail 7 attached with the image of the digital camera taken in step 1 is transmitted.

The first e-mail 7 is composed of a predetermined e-mail address which is a destination, an e-mail address of the portable terminal 2, that is, a sender address 9, a title, a text and attached image data 10.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the first electronic mail. The designated e-mail address is "printer @ dn
p ”, the sender address 9 is“ taro @ dnp ”, the title and the text are blank, and the image data 10 is“ photograph ”.

In the present specification, the title and the text are not particularly required, but "what kind of photograph" is added to the title or the text.
It is also possible to input a description of the image data such as "where was the image taken", and record or print it.

The mail receiving unit 8 receives the first electronic mail 7 and receives the received first electronic mail 7 from the data acquisition unit 1
1, the data acquisition unit 11 receives the image data 10 attached with the sender address 9 from the first electronic mail 7.
And requests the image management unit 4 to register the image data 10.

The image management unit 4 causes the image ID generation unit 15 to generate an image ID 12 that can uniquely identify the image data with respect to the image data 10, and passes the image ID 12 to the image recording unit 16.

The image recording section 16 records the image ID 12 and the image data 10 in association with each other. Using the image ID 12 as a key item, the recording location of the image data 10, the source address 9, the registration time, etc. are recorded. It is also possible to record items such as passwords and image attributes.

FIG. 4 shows the structure of information for managing the image recorded by the image management unit 4. For example,
In the first record of FIG. 4, the image data “photograph” is extracted from the first electronic mail 7 shown in FIG. 3, “02011” is added as the image ID to “photograph”, and the sender's email address is added. It is recorded in association with "taro @ dnp".

As for the image data 10, as shown in FIG. 4, the image data 10 is recorded on a file system, and a full path for referring to the image data 10, for example, "/ images /
02011. jpg ”in the management information. It is also possible to record the image data 10 directly in the database.

The mail sending unit 14 receives the image ID 12 and the sender address 9 added to the image data 10 from the image recording unit 16, and sends the second electronic mail 13 as shown in FIG. Send. Also in the second electronic mail 13, if the image ID 12 is described, the title and the content of the text are arbitrary.

The user receives the second electronic mail 13 received.
The input unit 1 of the image output unit 5 with reference to the contents described in
The image ID 12 is input by 8 and the image management unit 4 is requested to transmit the image data 10.

The input image ID 12 is transmitted to the image search unit 17 of the image management unit 4 via the communication unit 6, and the image search unit 17 searches for the corresponding image data 10 based on the image ID 12.

The image retrieval unit 17 transmits the image data 10 retrieved via the communication unit 6 to the image output unit 5 using a communication protocol capable of file transfer. The image output unit 5
The printer 19 actually prints the received image data 10.

Since the image management unit 4 and the image output unit 5 are provided with the communication unit 6, it is possible to install the image management unit 4 and the image output unit 5 at different places, and the image data can be printed by the arbitrary printer 19. It becomes possible to print 10.

The above-mentioned image data printing will be described more specifically by using an example of printing the image attached to the first electronic mail 7 shown in FIG. First shown in FIG.
In the image data “photograph” extracted from the e-mail 7 of
Since the image ID “02011” is added, “02
E-mail that describes "011" is "taro @ dnp"
Send to.

The user can select the image I described in the electronic mail.
D “02011” is input to the input unit 18 to request transmission of the corresponding image. The image search unit 17 displays “02011”.
The management information shown in FIG. 4 is searched on the basis of the image ID of No. 1, and the image data “02011.jpg” is acquired and transmitted to the image output unit 5.

The image output unit 5 receives the image data “02011.jpg” through the communication unit 6, and the printer 19
To print.

Although the present invention has been described in detail based on the embodiments, the portable terminal image printing apparatus and method according to the present invention are not limited to the above-described embodiments, and the present invention is not limited thereto. It goes without saying that various changes can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention.

[0038]

As described above, according to the portable terminal image printing apparatus and method of the present invention, the image data taken by the portable terminal can be attached to an e-mail without preparing a special interface. Just send
It is possible to output to any printer.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing details of the operation of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a first electronic mail according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an example of data for managing an image of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a second electronic mail according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Mobile terminal image printing device 2 mobile terminals 3 Mail control unit 4 Image management section 5 Image output section 6 Communication unit 7 First Email 8 Email receiver 9 sender address 10 image data 11 Data acquisition section 12 Image ID 13 Second Email 14 Email sending section 15 Image ID generator 16 Image recording section 17 Image search section 18 Input section 19 Printer

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) H04B 7/26 B41J 29/00 EF term (reference) 2C061 AP01 CG15 HJ06 HK11 2C187 AD13 BF53 CC10 GD02 5B021 AA30 BB00 5K067 AA34 BB04 BB41 DD17 DD52 EE02 KK13

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A printing device for printing image data of a photograph taken by a mobile terminal, including a mail control unit for sending and receiving an electronic mail with the mobile terminal, and an image ID capable of uniquely identifying the image data. A mobile terminal image printing apparatus, comprising: an image management unit that records the image data to which the above is added; and an image output unit that prints the image data based on the image ID. 2. The mobile terminal image printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the mail control unit receives a first electronic mail with image data attached from the mobile terminal, and the received electronic mail. A data acquisition unit that acquires the image data of the sender and the attached image from the mail, and a mail transmission unit that sends the second electronic mail describing the image ID added to the acquired image data to the sender. An image printing apparatus for a mobile terminal, comprising: 3. The mobile terminal image printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image management unit assigns the image ID to the acquired image data, and the image ID. A portable terminal image printing apparatus, comprising: an image recording unit that records the acquired image data in association with each other; and an image search unit that searches the image data based on the image ID. 4. The mobile terminal image printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image output unit is searched by an input unit for inputting the image ID and the image search unit. And a printer for printing the image data, and a portable terminal image printing apparatus. 5. The portable terminal image printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each of the image management unit and the image output unit transfers the image data to be printed. An image printing apparatus for a mobile terminal, comprising: 6. A method of printing image data of a photograph taken by a mobile terminal, the method comprising: attaching image data of a photograph taken by the mobile terminal to an e-mail and transmitting the email to a mobile terminal image printing apparatus. A step of receiving an e-mail and extracting a sender and attached image data from the received mail; and giving an image ID capable of uniquely identifying the image data to the extracted image data, the image ID and the image Recording the data in association with each other, and the image ID
Is sent to the sender of the image data by e-mail, the image ID notified by the e-mail is input to the mobile terminal image printing apparatus, and the image is searched based on the input image ID. A mobile terminal image printing method comprising: a step of printing the searched image data. 7. The mobile terminal image printing method according to claim 6, wherein the image data retrieved from the image management unit is transmitted to the image output unit installed at a remote location via the communication unit. A method for printing an image of a mobile terminal, which is provided with.