JPH08204886A - Electrical transmission system of job site condition recording video - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To obtain an electrical transmission system of job site condition recording video which is capable of instantly showing the job site video photographed at a job site to the interested person existing at a remote place even if a special exclusive device is not installed and an operator is not installed on a reception side. CONSTITUTION: This system is composed of the portable computer terminal A equipped with an image pickup means, the mobile telephone system B provided with the input means of the still image data that the portable computer terminal A outputs, the public telephone line network C including the partial radio line electrically transmitting the signals that the mobile telephone system B outputs to a remote place and a facsimile equipment D receiving still image data via the the public telephone line network C and performing the image output of still images to recording paper.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electric field transmission system for recording on-site situation images, which allows an image taken on site to be instantly shown to a person concerned at a remote place without installing a special device on the receiving side. Regarding

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There are many situations in which it is necessary for a person involved in a distant place to show an image showing a scene of a work site at work, and the field is extremely diverse. For example, the following aspects are given as examples. When the main contractor notifies the subcontractor of the defective parts found in the verification after construction in new construction or renovation work of various buildings. When the plant equipment manager informs the engineer or manager in charge of the Headquarters Engineering Department about the state of the equipment trouble point and asks for instructions on what to do. In maintenance work on rivers and railroad tracks, when maintenance personnel report defective areas to the headquarters and ask for countermeasures. When a researcher at a non-life insurance company informs the company of the situation at the accident site and asks for instructions or requests a research. When a police officer informs the police headquarters of the situation at the scene of an accident and asks for instructions or requests an investigation. When a fire department member reports the situation at the fire site to the fire department headquarters and asks for instructions on what to do.

[0003] In many cases, it is necessary to show a scene image to a person involved in a remote place as described above. However, in order to meet such a demand, the conventional technique develops and sends a scene photograph taken by a camera. Or, I had no choice but to send the video footage recorded with a video tape recorder with a camera in the form of a video cassette tape. Further, in recent years, a so-called digital camera capable of writing captured still image data on an IC card or a floppy disk (hereinafter referred to as FD) has appeared, but in this case, an IC card recording this still image data is also available. And FD had to be sent to the other party, and both of them had to send the recording medium itself on which the video of the scene was recorded. However, the method of sending the recording medium requires a lot of time and effort to convey the scene image to the other party, and cannot deal with it particularly when urgency is required.

[0004]

In order to solve such a problem, it is necessary to convert a captured still image into electronic data and transfer the data to a computer installed in the headquarters via a communication line. Good things are easy to think of, but such an approach leaves the following problems. That is, if the data is transferred to the company's own computer, it is relatively easy to maintain the equipment on the receiving side, but if the destination is another company, it is difficult to have the receiving equipment that is compatible with the sender. is there. Further, even if it is in-house, installing data reception computers at each sales office is a significant cost burden, assuming data transfer to each sales office other than the head office. Further, since it is impossible to predict when the still image data will be sent, it is necessary to keep the receiving computer in a standby state in a powered state at all times. In addition, an operator who is familiar with computer operations is also required, and when the operator is absent, it may be impossible to see the received still image data, which is not suitable for urgent applications. The present invention has been made in view of such a current situation, and it is possible to immediately show a scene image to a person concerned at a remote place without installing a special dedicated device on the receiving side or arranging an operator. The purpose is to provide a transmission system for recorded images.

[0005]

As a result of extensive studies by the inventors of the present invention in order to solve such a problem, a combination of a device for converting an imaged image into electronic data and a mobile telephone is used as a transmission side facility, while a facsimile is used. The present invention has been completed by finding that the above problems can be solved by constructing an entire system using the above as a receiving side equipment. The on-site situation recording video transmission system of the present invention completed based on such an idea has the following contents.

The present invention according to claim 1 comprises a portable computer terminal, a mobile telephone, a telephone line network, and a facsimile, and the details of the contents are as follows. Image pickup means for converting an image of a subject into an electric signal, still image storage means for temporarily storing a still image produced based on the electric signal output by the image pickup means, and image quality adjusting means for adjusting the image quality of the stored still image. A portable computer terminal comprising: a display unit for displaying the adjusted still image on a monitor; an external output unit for outputting the data of the adjusted still image to the outside; and a control unit for controlling the operation mode of each unit. ,
A mobile telephone having an input means for receiving still image data output from the portable computer terminal, a telephone network including a partial wireless circuit for transmitting a signal output by the mobile telephone to a remote place, and the telephone network. And a facsimile that receives still image data via the output and outputs a still image on a recording sheet. The telephone line network here includes not only a public telephone line network open to the general public but also a commercial wireless telephone line network whose use is limited to a specific person. The types of signals passing through the lines include analog telephone line networks and digital telephone line networks such as ISDN (Integrated Service Digital Network).

The control means for controlling the operation mode of each means constituting the portable computer terminal is composed of hardware represented by a logic circuit and a computer program. A computer program is written from the beginning into a ROM installed in a portable computer terminal, a RAM backed up by a battery, or a non-volatile RAM, and a removable IC card is provided in the portable computer terminal. There is a method of storing a part or all of the control program.

Mobile telephones include mobile radio telephones, simple mobile radio telephones (personal handyphones), in-vehicle telephones, and professional radio telephones. However, they can be carried to the shooting site and the reach of radio waves is wide in urban areas. It is preferable to use a portable wireless telephone that uses a public telephone line network because it can be used in any remote area and is excellent in versatility.

Depending on the operation contents of the system of the present invention, a commercial radio telephone network such as a police radio or a fire radio may be used. Further, although the present invention basically uses a mobile telephone, it is within the scope of application of the present invention to use a fixed installation type wire telephone instead of the mobile telephone.

It is excellent in versatility to use an existing mobile radio telephone and to connect the mobile computer terminal and the mobile radio telephone via an external output means such as a cable derived from the mobile computer terminal. But,
The present invention can also adopt other forms. For example, it is assumed that a removable card-type portable wireless telephone device is configured in the portable computer terminal and the card-type portable wireless telephone device is attached to the portable computer terminal as needed. Further, it is also envisioned that a circuit having a mobile radiotelephone function is integrally incorporated in the mobile computer terminal.

As mentioned above, a part or all of the control program can be stored in the IC card mounted on the portable computer terminal. As an example of the program to be stored, the image characteristics of the captured still image are shown. And an image quality adjusting program capable of controlling the image quality adjusting means according to the device characteristics of the destination facsimile, a communication control program capable of controlling the communication procedure corresponding to the type of the destination facsimile, and further output from the destination facsimile. There is a program for controlling the output format by software so that the addressee, the sending date, and the sender's name are automatically entered on the recording paper in addition to the still image.

As the image quality adjusting program, as described in claim 8, the thinning rate of the information amount of the still image data is set in multiple stages to classify the still image into multiple hierarchies, and the ranking is performed. A program for selecting one of the still images is targeted.

An existing video tape recorder built-in video camera can be used as the image pickup means, but the charge coupled device and the image forming lens are the main components and are provided in the main body of the portable computer terminal. It is more preferable to use one that can be detachably coupled to the bus coupling terminal for connecting the peripheral device.

[0014]

The transmission system for recording the scene situation recording image thus constructed is used as follows. First, the portable computer terminal is operated to capture an image of the subject. The image of the subject may be a moving image or a still image depending on the image pickup means. When the image of the subject is a still image, the still image data is temporarily stored in the still image storage means as it is. When the image of the subject is a moving image, a still image is created from this moving image and this still image data is stored. The image is temporarily stored in the still image storage means. Next, while displaying the stored still image on the display means incorporated in the portable computer terminal on the monitor, the image quality adjusting means is operated to adjust the image quality of the still image. When the image quality adjustment is finished, the adjusted still image data is input to the mobile phone via the external output means via the modem (MODEM). The modulation / demodulation device may be configured as an independent device, may be built in the portable computer terminal side, or may be built in the mobile phone. A data compression function may be incorporated in the modulator / demodulator. The radio wave transmitted from the mobile phone is received by the radio base station, converted into a signal for wire, and transmitted to the facsimile of the other party through the wire path. Then, a still image is output as an image from the facsimile.

When the portable computer terminal is provided with a removable IC card and part or all of the control program is stored in the memory of the IC card as described in claim 2, it is read from the IC card. The specific operation of the portable computer terminal is controlled according to the control program. This specific operation varies. For example, when an image quality adjusting program capable of controlling the image quality adjusting means in accordance with the image characteristics of the captured still image and the device characteristics of the destination facsimile is written in the IC card, the still image taken in the storage means. Image quality control of is controlled by this program. The control is to add a new function for image quality adjustment or add an automatic adjustment function to an existing input key provided in the portable computer terminal. When the image quality adjustment function is assigned to an existing input key, the image quality is adjusted by manually operating this key.On the other hand, when the automatic adjustment function is added, the still image output from the destination facsimile has the clearest image. The gradation and resolution are automatically adjusted so that

According to the eighth aspect of the present invention, the thinning rate of the still image data is set in multiple stages to rank the still images into multiple layers, and one of the ranked still images is selected. When the data is stored in the IC card, the amount of information to be transmitted can be significantly reduced by lowering the hierarchy to be selected within the range in which the characteristic part of the still image data and the specific part to be transmitted can be recognized, and the transmission time and the transmission cost can be reduced. Reductions can be made.

When the communication control program for controlling the communication procedure corresponding to the type of the facsimile of the other party is stored in the IC card as in claim 9, the IC card is changed according to the model of the other party.

Further, as described in claim 10, on the recording paper output from the facsimile of the other side, in addition to the still image, the heading information such as the addressee of the transmission destination, the transmission date, the sender's name, etc. is automatically output. When a program for software controlling the format is stored in the IC card, the still image and heading information are combined inside the portable computer terminal,
The combined image data is output as an image from the facsimile of the other party. When an image pickup unit mainly composed of a charge-coupled device and an image forming lens is used as the image pickup means, the image pickup unit is directly connected to a bus coupling terminal for connecting a peripheral device provided in the main body of the portable computer terminal. .

[0019]

The details of the present invention will be described below with reference to the illustrated embodiments. FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing the overall configuration of an embodiment of a field situation recording video transmission system of the present invention. The system is a portable computer terminal A equipped with an image pickup means.
, A portable radio telephone B, a public telephone line network C including some radio lines, and a facsimile D installed in a remote place.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the internal structure of the portable computer terminal A in terms of function. As shown in the figure, the portable computer terminal A has an image pickup means 100 for converting an image of a subject into an electric signal, and a still image storage for temporarily storing data of a still image produced based on the electric signal output by the image pickup means 100. Means 101, image quality adjusting means 102 for adjusting the image quality of the stored still image, display means 103 for displaying the adjusted still image on a monitor, external output means 104 for outputting the adjusted still image data to the outside, and each of the above The control means 105 controls the operation mode of the means, and the removable IC card 106 stores some or all of the control contents of the control means 105. The IC card 106 is not necessarily required as long as the memory capacity such as RAM and ROM provided in the control means 105 is sufficiently large and all the control programs of the peripheral devices connectable to the portable computer terminal A can be stored. However, considering the possibility of connecting a newly developed peripheral device and the need to flexibly cope with the improvement of the peripheral device, the control program of the peripheral device may be stored in the IC card 106. preferable. The program stored in the IC card 106 may be transferred to the RAM in the control means of the portable computer terminal A and operated, or may be directly operated in the memory of the IC card 106 without being transferred.

As the image pickup means 100, a simple image pickup unit having a CCD (charge coupled device) and an image forming lens as main components can be used. Details of this imaging unit will be described later. Further, as the image pickup means 100, a video camera with a built-in video tape recorder can be used. Although a video camera with a built-in video tape recorder can obtain a moving image, the present invention is intended for transmitting a still image, and therefore, when a video camera is used, a step of producing a still image from a moving image is required. The still image can be produced by using the pause button of the video camera or by providing the portable computer terminal A side with a mechanism capable of manually operating the timing of capturing the still image.

The still image storage means 101 is the image pickup means 1 described above.
A temporary image captured by 00 is temporarily stored, and a dynamic RAM, a static RAM, or a flash memory can be used. The still image may be stored as it is, or may be stored after being compressed.

The image quality adjusting means 102 is composed of a combination of hardware and software configurations. The image quality adjusting means 102 is provided in consideration of the fact that the receiving side equipment of this system is a facsimile, and its main purpose is to shorten the transmission time. Various types of image quality adjusting methods including publicly known techniques can be adopted. For example, it is conceivable to thin out dots forming image data as shown in FIG. In the example shown in the figure, dots are thinned out every other row, but other thinning-out modes can be adopted. It is preferable to provide steps in the thinning rate,
It is preferable that the thinning rate can be selected according to the property of the original still image. Although not shown, instead of thinning out dots over the entire still image, an area to be thinned out may be designated, or the thinning rate may be changed depending on the area. For example, it is conceivable that the data is not thinned out for the characteristic portion or the important portion of the image, and the thinning processing is performed for the other less important portions.
By thinning out the image data in this way, it is possible to avoid the problem peculiar to the facsimile, "it takes a long time to transmit because of a large amount of data to be transmitted". Further, depending on the nature of the still image, it may be possible to highlight the features by thinning out the image data. Further, such image quality adjustment is configured so that it can be performed while observing the still image displayed on the monitor of the display unit 103.

A liquid crystal display, a plasma display or the like can be used as the display means 103, but a liquid crystal display is preferable from the viewpoint of low power consumption. As the external output means 104, a cable having a connection terminal to the portable wireless telephone B at its tip can be used. This cable should be removable when not needed.

The appearance of the portable computer terminal A constructed by combining the above-mentioned means is shown, for example, in FIG. 4, and its more specific system configuration diagram is shown in FIG. While the block diagram shown in FIG. 2 described above looks at the portable computer terminal A from a functional point of view, FIG. 5 focuses on the shared transmission path (bus). Regarding the portable computer terminal A described here, the applicant of the present invention has a Japanese Patent Application No. 6-3849.
It has basically the same configuration as the mobile computer terminal proposed in No. In the figure, 1 is a portable computer terminal main body, 20 is a digital camera adapter for portable computer terminals (hereinafter referred to as digital camera adapter 20), and 30 is a GPS adapter.

The main body 1 of the portable computer terminal has a main body case 2 that is small enough to be carried around with one hand and has all the basic functions of a computer. The main body case 2 has a microprocessor 3, a memory 4, and various control circuits. In addition, a portable internal power source 5 such as a dry battery or a rechargeable battery is built in, and on the other hand, on the outer surface of the main body case 2, a display that is thin and low in power consumption represented by a liquid crystal display or a plasma display and that can display graphics by dots A device 6 and a keyboard 7 as an input operation means are provided. The keyboard 7 is provided with a function key 7a, a cursor movement key 7b and the like. Although not shown, a pen input method can be adopted as the input operation means instead of the keyboard input, and the keyboard input and the pen input can be used together.

A bus coupling terminal 8 directly connected to the microprocessor 3 is provided on the upper end surface of the main body case 2. Various peripheral devices such as a GPS adapter 30, a digital camera adapter 20, a printer 40 or a modem (not shown) can be connected to the bus coupling terminal 8. Although the bus coupling terminal 8 in the illustrated example is a female type, a male type may be adopted. An IC as a kind of external storage means is provided on the side surface of the body case 2.
An IC card interface 9 for mounting the card 50 is provided, and a floppy disk drive (F
DD), hard disk drive (HDD), CD-R
A peripheral device extension interface 10 for adding peripheral devices such as an OM and a rewritable magneto-optical disk drive (MO) is provided. As the IC card 50, either a CPU built-in type or a memory card not having a built-in CPU can be used, and either a contact type or a non-contact type is adopted as a coupling method with the portable computer terminal body 1. However, it is preferable to use a non-contact type that utilizes electromagnetic coupling or the like from the viewpoints of dustproofness, earthquake resistance, and ease of handling. IC card interface 9 and peripheral device expansion interface 1
0 may not be provided, or only one of them may be provided. Further, an RS232C interface or a bar code reader interface may be provided. Further, in the example shown in the figure, the modulation / demodulation device 17 is built in the portable computer terminal main body 1.

The display device 6 is capable of reproducing and displaying the real image data captured in the memory 3, or the drawing and map information read through the IC card D, FDD or cable, and the image from the CCD 21. The output signal can be directly displayed, and the current shooting condition can be monitored. Since the current photographing condition can be confirmed on the display device 6 of the portable computer terminal main body 1, the photographing range adjustment, the image density adjustment, and the image quality adjustment such as the resolution adjustment can be performed while observing the display screen. You can capture images in the state.

The image density adjustment and the resolution adjustment may be performed by hardware by separately providing an adjustment circuit, but it is preferable that they are processed by software in terms of versatility and common use of the microprocessor 3. As the image density adjustment, a method of thinning out the blinking of dots at predetermined intervals can be adopted. Further, the image data may be compressed by software. The image quality adjustment is made on the basis that the recipient can recognize the characteristic portion of the still image output by the facsimile D of the other party on the recording paper. As described above, if the amount of still image data to be transmitted is small within the range that the recipient can understand, it is advantageous that the transmission time and the transmission cost can be kept low. It is also preferable to configure the image quality adjustment program on the side of the portable computer terminal main body 1 so that the image quality mode corresponding to the “photo mode” or the like installed in the facsimile D can be selected. These image quality adjustment programs can be written in the ROM in the portable computer terminal body 1 in advance. However, in order to support the version upgrade of the processing programs and various image processing, these image quality adjustment programs are IC cards. It is preferable to write in 50.

The screen display can be switched between the information read from the IC card 50 or FDD in the memory 4 and the real image data currently picked up by the image pickup unit, or can be divided into a plurality of screens and displayed simultaneously. Is configured.

The image processing program is made resident in the memory 4 or read from the IC card 50, FDD or the like as needed. To make the program resident in the memory 4, write the program in the ROM or write it in the flash memory, which is a type of non-volatile memory, and make the program read from the outside resident in the RAM. Can be adopted. In this embodiment, a part of the memory 4 is made non-volatile by using a flash memory,
In this non-volatile portion, a business program for a specific purpose is stored together with the image adjustment program. Since the resident program in the flash memory can be read from the IC card 50 or FDD and rewritten as necessary, it is possible to provide a dedicated portable computer terminal for a specific purpose while using a general-purpose portable computer terminal. Moreover, it is possible to flexibly deal with program version upgrades.

The digital camera adapter 20 is directly attached to the head of the portable computer terminal body 1 or G
The PS adapter 30 is interposed so that it can be detachably attached. Digital camera adapter 20
6 has a configuration in which an image pickup unit mainly including a CCD 21 and a lens 22 for forming an image on the CCD 21 is housed in an adapter case 23 as shown in FIG. An opening 24 serving as an optical path to the optical path 22 is provided, and a male bus coupling terminal 25 corresponding to the bus coupling terminal 8 provided on the portable computer terminal body 1 is provided on the lower surface of the adapter case 23.

A transparent resin plate and a lens are attached to the opening 24, and when combined with the lens 22 housed in the adapter case 23, an optical path to the CCD 21 is formed. The lens attached to the lens 22 or the opening 24 may be either a glass lens or a resin lens. A resin lens is preferable from the viewpoint of weight saving and cost reduction. The lens may be provided with a structure capable of moving back and forth to realize the focus function. Also,
It is also possible to reduce the number of parts by providing only one lens directly attached to the opening 24. In addition, CCD21
It is also possible to use a single imaging component in which the lens 22 and the lens 22 are integrated from the beginning. The position where the opening 24 is formed is not limited to that shown in the figure, and may be the upper surface or the back surface of the adapter case 23.

The CCD 21, lens 22, and some element groups 26 are directly mounted on a single substrate 27.
The optical axis connecting D21 and the lens 22 is arranged so as to be located on the path of the light incident from the opening 24 of the adapter case. A multi-core flat cable 28 is led out from one side of the board 27, and the other end of the cable is connected to the male bus coupling terminal 25 (not shown). Since all the main parts of the optical system and the electrical system are mounted on the single board 27 in this way, the digital camera adapter 20 can be assembled very easily and the assembly cost can be reduced.

Although some elements 26 are mounted on the substrate 27, these elements 26 are limited to the minimum elements required to match the output signal from the CCD 21 with the bus line. It has no microprocessor or memory. The video output signal from the CCD 21 is directly sent to the microprocessor 3 in the portable computer terminal main body 1 via the bus, processed in the portable computer terminal main body 1 and displayed on the display device 6. Power supply to the digital camera adapter 20 is also supplied from the portable computer terminal main body 1 through the bus line. In this way, since the digital camera adapter 20 uses only the minimum necessary parts, the digital camera adapter 20 can be provided at low cost.

FIG. 7 shows another embodiment of the internal structure of the digital camera adapter 20. In this embodiment, an image pickup component 21 in which a CCD and a lens are integrated on a substrate 27a having a connection terminal portion directly patterned by etching or the like on one side surface.
a is mounted, the board 27a is set upright in the adapter case 23a, the connection terminal portion of the board 27a is exposed to the outside of the case, and the exposed portion is directly used as the male bus coupling terminal 25a. There is. By doing so, it is not necessary to separately provide an adapter-side bus coupling terminal and it is not necessary to use a multi-core flat cable, so that the number of assembling steps can be further reduced. In the illustrated example, the image pickup component 21a in which the CCD and the lens are integrated is used, but it goes without saying that the CCD and the lens may be separate components.

The GPS adapter 30 incorporates a GPS 31, which is a so-called global positioning system, which is an absolute position measuring device using a communication satellite. A male bus coupling terminal 33 and a female bus coupling terminal 34 are provided on the outer surface of the case 32 of the GPS adapter 30, and the male bus coupling terminal 33 can be attached to the bus coupling terminal 8 of the portable computer terminal body 1, while the other. The digital bus adapter 20 and the printer 40 can be attached to the female bus coupling terminal 34. GPS31
Can receive the position signal from the communication satellite and measure the current position of the observer within an error range of about several meters. By sending this position data to the portable computer terminal body 1, the observer, That is, it becomes easy for the photographer to specify the current position on the drawing or the map information. Therefore, when the portable computer terminal handles map information, it is particularly preferable to equip the GPS adapter 30. When the portable computer terminal handles information such as architectural design drawings and floor plans, the GPS adapter 30 is not necessary. In this case, the bus coupling terminal 8 of the portable computer terminal body 1 has the digital camera adapter 20 and the printer. 40 is attached.

Such a portable computer terminal A is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 5, the still image data is sent to the wireless base station C1 by connecting the wireless image data to the wireless base station C1, and the still image data is transmitted from the wireless base station C1 to the other party's facsimile D via the wired line. It is to be transmitted. A public telephone line network is used as a communication line, and the public telephone line network here includes ISDN. As the mobile wireless phone B, either an analog method or a digital method can be adopted. A modulator / demodulator is interposed between the portable computer terminal A and the portable wireless telephone B. The modulator / demodulator is built in the portable computer terminal A,
Alternatively, it may be incorporated in the mobile radio telephone B. A data compression function may be added to the modulation / demodulation device. The mobile wireless phone B is provided with a jack for taking in still image data output from the mobile computer terminal A. Here, although a subscriber telephone using a public line is targeted as the mobile radio telephone B, a business radio device such as a police radio or a fire radio can be used instead of the subscriber telephone. In this case, a commercial wireless telephone network is used instead of the public telephone network.

As the facsimile D, a generally popular one can be used as it is, but it is more preferable that the facsimile D is equipped with a "photo mode".

Inside the portable computer terminal having such a hardware configuration, each means capable of realizing the processing contents shown in FIG. 8 is constructed by software or hardware. Here, a case where a “floor plan of an apartment” is stored in the memory 4 of the portable computer terminal will be described as an example. Then, the procedure for inspecting the condominium delivered by the contractor and informing the contractor of the defective portion will be described. Here, the procedure for recording the on-site situation based on the floor plan will be described, but as the drawing information stored in the memory 4,
It may be a more complicated architectural design drawing or map information.

First, a storage means 11 for storing the peripheral drawing information <a> including the verification planned site is provided. Although it is preferable that the memory capacity of the storage means 11 is sufficient to store the floor plans for a plurality of houses at the same time, it is assumed here that the floor plan for one house is stored in the storage means 11. Proceed. The storage means 11 is usually composed of a part of the memory 4. The drawing information <a> may be vector data or image data.

Next, the drawing information <a> of the entire surroundings stored in the storage means 11 (that is, the drawing information of the wide area <a>
>) Drawing information of narrow area including specific verification points <
There is provided a selection display means 12 for selectively calling a1> on the display device 6 and displaying it graphically. In order to extract the drawing information <a1> of the small area from the drawing information <a> of the entire surroundings, the drawing information <a> of the entire surroundings is first displayed on the display device 6, and the cursor movement key is displayed on this display screen. Operate 7b to move the cursor to a position near the verification point on the display screen and then press the area switching function key (not shown), or use the pen input device It may be considered to do so by directly indicating the nearby position. It is also considered that a pressure-sensitive touch panel capable of directly indicating coordinates on the display screen is laminated on the front surface of the display screen and the corresponding portion is pressed with a finger.

Further, there is provided a verification point specifying instruction means 13 for specifying, on the display means, the verification target point to be verified from the drawing information <a1> of the narrow area displayed graphically on the display device 6. Has been. For example, if the verification location is the glass window on the balcony side, in the drawing information <a1> of the narrow area displayed on the screen, the cursor 1 is displayed on the glass window on the balcony side.
Move 4 and press the "Enter key" or the like. The pen input device and the pressure-sensitive touch panel can be used here as well, as described above.

Further, there is provided a position data calculating means 15 for calculating the position data X, Y on the corresponding drawing at the location specified and designated on the display means in this way. This actual work is carried out by the microprocessor 3.

Further, there is provided an associated storage processing means 16 for storing the photographed image data <b> of the verification portion obtained by the image pickup unit and the position data X and Y in association with each other, and the photographed image data <b> The position data X and Y are stored in association with each other. Live-action video data <b>
The position data X and Y may be stored together, but may be stored in separate memory areas and associated with each other. Since the position data X and Y correspond to the live-action image data <b> in this manner, it is always managed to which part of the drawing information <a> each real-image image data <b> corresponds to. For example, there is a damage on the "glass window on the balcony" and this "glass window on the balcony"
X and Y coordinates on the drawing information <a> of (1024, 61
In the case of 1), the position data (1024, 611) is added to the photographed image data of the damaged glass window and these are stored in the memory.

In this way, the photographed image data <b>, which is still image data stored in the memory, is adjusted in image quality and input to the portable radio telephone together with the drawing information <a> to be transmitted through the public telephone line network. It is transmitted to a facsimile. As shown in FIG. 9, it is preferable to send the real image data <b> and the drawing information <a> together with a title and related information. By doing so, it becomes possible to accurately convey the contents of the complaint to the contractor who has received the still image and the drawing information. A program for converting the format of the paper output from the facsimile into such a format is stored in the IC card 50. For example, in the IC card 50, as shown in FIG.
A format 80 having blank fields 81 and 82 for inserting the live-action video data <b> and the drawing information <a> is stored in advance, and the real-time video data <b> is stored in the blank fields 81 and 82 at the time of transmission. For example, it is possible to create a "defect report 83" in a predetermined format by superimposing the drawing information <a>. All the related information may be registered in advance in the format stored in the IC card 50, or the related information may be input from the keyboard 7 as necessary.

Next, another example of use of this system will be described for each processing step. Here, we will take up an example of providing real estate agent with property information of a house for sale. This procedure is shown in FIGS.
As shown in FIG. 5, it is composed of <process A> to <process F>. Each process has the following contents.

<Process A> (FIG. 9) From the library of the drawing database 71 built in the computer 70 installed in the fixed base such as the office, the portable computer terminal 60 receives the drawing information of the wide area including the planned shooting site. Pass to. As drawing information, architectural drawings such as design drawings and floor plans, general maps, topographic maps, river maps, maps for various purposes such as road maps, etc. are excluded, but drawings and maps other than these are excluded. is not. The computer 70 is connected to a communication network, and is configured to exchange information with, for example, a large-scale computer at the head office, computers at other business offices, and computers of other companies in the same business. Passing drawing information from the computer 70 to the portable computer terminal 60
There are a method of performing it via a portable storage medium and a method of directly connecting the computer 70 and the portable computer terminal 60 with a cable. IC as a portable storage medium
Cards, floppy disks, MOs, CD-ROMs, etc. can be used. From the viewpoint of easy handling, it is most preferable to use a non-contact coupling type IC card. CD-
If a ROM is used, writing on this medium is not possible, so the drawing database 71 itself of the computer 70 is stored on a large number of CDs without taking the form of data copying.
-ROM, and the corresponding CD from here
-ROM is selected and read by a CD-ROM drive attached to the portable computer terminal 60. Since a CD-ROM can store a large amount of data, it can accommodate a large number of drawings at once, and since a CD-ROM containing general-purpose map data has already been developed, these are Can be used. However, when using the CD-ROM, the portable computer terminal 60
The live-action image data and position data from the computer 70
It goes without saying that a rewritable medium such as an IC card or a floppy disk is required to restore the above.

<Process B> (FIG. 11) The portable computer terminal 60 in which the surrounding map information (wide area map information) including the planned shooting site is stored is brought to the planned shooting site, and a specific shooting is performed on the display screen. Selectively call up narrow area map information including locations. The narrow area map information is called by operating the cursor movement key 7b to move the cursor on the screen where the wide area map information is displayed and then pressing the enter key, or using the pen input device. Direct instructions. Further, when the portable computer terminal 60 is equipped with the GPS adapter 30, it is easier to call the narrow area map information. That is, the current position is automatically measured by receiving radio waves from a plurality of communication satellites only by activating the GPS after arriving at the site, and the corresponding coordinates in the wide area map information are calculated from the obtained absolute position. Narrow area map information including the shooting site is automatically displayed on the display screen.

<Step C> (FIG. 12) In the narrow area map information displayed on the screen, a specific photographing site is specified on the display means. Similar to the previous step B, the specific instruction is performed by operating the cursor movement key 7b, the pen input device, or the like. Then, the microprocessor calculates the position data X, Y corresponding to the specified point. When the accuracy of the GPS adapter is extremely high and the position can be measured within the error range of 2 to 3 m, the wide area map information is displayed and the manual operation for the specific instruction of the specific verification site on the narrow area map information is performed. Alternatively, all of these operations can be left to GPS.

<Step D> (FIG. 13) The attitude of the portable computer terminal 60 is adjusted so that a specific photographing location can be captured within the visual field of the image pickup unit.
Image the target property. In the example shown in the figure, a single-family house is the imaging target, and an image of the house is displayed on the display screen. Since the image currently captured by the imaging unit can be monitored by the display device 6, a specific key on the keyboard 7 is operated to make an adjustment so as to obtain an optimum image. Then, after confirming that the image is in the optimum state, the enter key is pressed. It is not necessary to adjust the image every time, and if the shooting is performed in the same environment, it is sufficient to follow the adjustment state immediately before.

<Step E> (FIG. 14) The real image data sent from the imaging unit to the microprocessor via the bus and the position data X and Y are stored in association with each other. This manages which part of the map information the live-action image data of the house corresponds to.

<Step F> (FIG. 15) When the photographing of the object is completed, the photographed image data and the position data stored in the storage means of the portable computer terminal body 1 are transferred to the other party using the portable wireless telephone B. The data is transmitted to the side facsimile D. A “real estate article guide 90” as shown in FIG. 16 is output as an image to the facsimile D. On the recording paper, an image of the appearance 91 of the property and the surrounding area 92, the title of the “Real Estate Property Guide” and related information are output as an image. In addition, a mark such as an arrow is added to the peripheral view 92 to indicate the location of the target property. In this “real estate property guide 90”, a live-action image of the real property and a peripheral diagram showing its location are simultaneously posted, so that the real estate agent who received this guide can accurately grasp the target property. And since the live-action video is the latest, the information is fresh. In addition, since the relevant information is also posted in this "Real Estate Property Guide", detailed information about the target property can be obtained. The time and effort required to create this “Real Estate Property Guide” is extremely simple, since it is only necessary to visit the site and photograph the target property. Also, since the transmission can be transmitted in almost real time, the latest information can be provided immediately.

The data in the memory of the portable computer terminal A can be erased after the transmission of the data to the facsimile D on the other side is completed, but the data in the memory of the portable computer terminal A can be transferred to and saved in the computer 70 installed in the fixed base of the company without erasing. It is preferable to set it from the viewpoint of management. The same method as that in the step A can be adopted for the data transfer from the portable computer terminal A to the computer 70.

Through the above steps, information in which the live-action image data of the house and the position data on the map of the site of the house are integrated can be obtained. This is extremely useful as real estate information, because the location of the house becomes clear by the position data on the map, and the appearance of the house and the environment near the site become clear by the live-action image data of the house. In this description, the image data is output from the facsimile D in association with the map, but the image data may be output only from the facsimile D.

As described above, the position data on the floor plan and the live-action image data of the damaged portion are associated with each other to inspect the construction state, and the position data on the map and the live-action image data of the house are associated with each other. Although the example of creating the property information has been described, the present invention can be widely applied to other fields. For example, maintenance of a building based on architectural drawings,
Perform road maintenance based on road maps, perform river maintenance based on river maps, perform track maintenance based on railway track maps, and verify civil engineering and road construction conditions based on general maps and road maps. It is also possible to use it to perform accidents and verify the accident site based on the map.
Also, as a somewhat unusual application, it can also be applied to parking violation enforcement records. When it is used to record the enforcement of parking violations, the number of the vehicle, the type of vehicle, the parking time and time, the parking location, etc. are input from the keyboard, and then the scene showing the parking state most accurately is imaged. In addition, in the case where a part of the production equipment is damaged, such as when requesting repair parts based on the site image, or by sending the site image to the command headquarters to ask for appropriate countermeasures It can be applied to cases. Examples of the latter case include police services, fire fighting services, and disaster relief services. In addition to this, there are many cases in which it is possible to dramatically improve communication between parties involved in a long distance by instantly showing the scene image, and it goes without saying that this system can be applied to these cases as well. . Also, it is possible to transfer images from overseas by using the international telephone line.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, the portable computer terminal A and the portable wireless telephone B are separately constructed.
As shown in FIG. 18, the portable radio telephone function is incorporated into an IC card, and this card type portable radio telephone 95 is detachably attached to the portable computer terminal A ′. As shown in FIG. 18, the electronic circuit itself having the portable radio telephone function is provided. It is also possible to configure a portable computer terminal A ″ incorporating the above. In such a case, the portable computer terminal is provided with the antenna 96.

[0058]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, it is possible to immediately output the image of the scene taken by the image pickup means mounted on the portable computer terminal to the facsimile of the other party. Therefore, it is possible to explain the situation of the site to the remote parties based on the still image of the site,
It is possible to dramatically improve communication with stakeholders in remote areas. Moreover, since the equipment on the transmitting side is composed of the portable computer terminal and the mobile telephone, it is possible to easily bring it to anywhere. Also, since the existing facsimile is used as the receiving side equipment,
There is no need to install new reception equipment. Moreover, since the penetration rate of facsimiles is extremely high, it is possible to send on-site video to almost all offices and sales offices. 2 for fax
Since it is in a standby state for 4 hours, there is no need to worry about the transmission time, and since the facsimile can be easily handled by anyone without an operator, this system can be installed at a small cost.

When a removable IC card is provided in the portable computer terminal and a part or all of the control program is stored in the memory of the IC card as described in claim 2, various IC cards can be replaced by replacing the IC card. It is possible to realize various operations and flexibly adapt to newly developed peripheral devices.

When a portable radio telephone is used as the mobile telephone as described in claim 3, the site image is immediately transmitted to the facsimile of the other party even in a place where the car telephone cannot be used because the vehicle entry is prohibited. Can be sent.

When a business-use wireless telephone is used as the mobile telephone as described in claim 4, the possibility that the transmitted contents are leaked to a third party is reduced, so that it can be used for special purposes such as police or fire service. It is suitable for applying this system.

Instead of using an independent mobile telephone as described in claim 5, a card type portable radio telephone is attached to a portable computer terminal, or a circuit having a portable radio telephone function is provided as in claim 6. When integrated in a portable computer terminal, it is not necessary to bring a mobile phone to the site.

When an image quality adjusting program capable of controlling the image quality adjusting means in accordance with the image characteristics of the captured still image and the apparatus characteristics of the destination facsimile is written in the IC card, the IC card should be replaced. Thus, it is possible to adjust the contrast and resolution so that the still image output from the destination facsimile becomes clear.

As in claim 8, the thinning rate of the information amount of the still image data is set in multiple stages to rank the still images into multiple layers, and one of the ranked still images is selected. When the procedure to select is stored in the IC card, the hierarchical level is lowered within the range in which the characteristic part of the still image data and the specific part to be transmitted can be recognized, and the transmission information amount can be significantly reduced. Costs can be reduced.

When the IC card stores the communication control program capable of controlling the communication procedure corresponding to the type of the facsimile of the other party as in claim 9, the IC card can be adapted to the model of the other party only by changing. You can

According to the tenth aspect of the present invention, the output format is set so that the heading such as the addressee of the destination, the origination date, the originator's name, etc. is automatically entered on the recording paper output from the facsimile of the other party in addition to the still image. When the software-controlled program is stored in the IC card, the sender and the sending date can be notified to the receiver together with the scene image, which facilitates the arrangement. Since the output format can be changed by changing the IC card, it is possible to select an output format suitable for the purpose of transmitting the still image and the destination.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing the overall configuration of the system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a mobile computer terminal in terms of functionality.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a method of thinning out still image data.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the appearance of a portable computer terminal.

FIG. 5 is a system configuration diagram of the portable computer terminal.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of an internal mechanism of the digital camera adapter.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory view showing another embodiment of the internal mechanism of the digital camera adapter.

FIG. 8 is a processing system diagram realized by hardware or software inside the main body of the portable computer terminal.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a format of recording paper output from a facsimile.

FIG. 10: “Process A” in the method of using this system
Illustration of

FIG. 11: “Process B” in the usage method of this system
Illustration of

FIG. 12: “Process C” in the method of using this system
Illustration of

FIG. 13: “Process D” in the method of using this system
Illustration of

FIG. 14 “Process E” in the method of using this system
Illustration of

FIG. 15: “Process F” in the usage method of this system
Illustration of

FIG. 16 is an explanatory diagram showing another example of the format of the recording paper output from the facsimile.

FIG. 17 is an explanatory diagram showing a modification of the portable computer terminal.

FIG. 18 is an explanatory diagram showing a modification of the portable computer terminal.

[Explanation of symbols]

A, A ', A "Portable computer terminal B Portable wireless telephone C Public telephone line network C1 Wireless base station D Facsimile 1 Portable computer terminal main body 2 Main body case 3 Microprocessor 4 Memory 5 Portable internal power supply 6 Display device 7 Keyboard 7a Funk Shower key 7b Cursor movement key 8 Bus connection terminal 9 IC card interface 10 Peripheral equipment expansion interface 11 Storage means 12 Selection display means 13 Verification point specifying instruction means 14 Cursor 15 Position data calculation means 16 Related storage processing means 17 Modulator / demodulator 20 Digital Camera adapter 21 CCD 22 Lens 23 Adapter case 23a Adapter case 24 Opening 25 Male bus coupling terminal 25a Male bus coupling terminal 26 Element group 27 Board 27a Board 28 Multi-core flat cable 30 GPS adapter 31 GPS 32 Case 33 Male type bus coupling terminal 34 Female type bus coupling terminal 40 Printer 50 IC card 60 Portable computer terminal 70 Computer 71 Drawing database 80 Format 81, 82 Blank column 83 Defect contact form 90 Real estate property guide 91 Property Appearance 92 Peripheral View 95 Card-type Mobile Radio Phone 96 Antenna 100 Imaging Device 101 Still Image Storage Device 102 Image Quality Adjustment Device 103 Display Device 104 External Output Device 105 Control Device 106 IC Card

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. An image pickup means for converting an image of a subject into an electric signal, a still image storage means for temporarily storing a still image produced based on the electric signal output by the image pickup means, and an image quality of the stored still image. Image quality adjusting means for adjusting, display means for displaying the adjusted still image on a monitor, external output means for outputting the data of the adjusted still image to the outside, and control means for controlling the operation mode of each means. A mobile computer terminal, a mobile telephone having an input means for receiving still image data output by the mobile computer terminal, and a telephone network including a partial wireless line for transmitting a signal output by the mobile telephone to a remote place. , A facsimile that receives still image data via the telephone network and outputs a still image on recording paper, and System. 2. An image pickup means for converting an image of a subject into an electric signal, a still image storage means for temporarily storing a still image produced based on the electric signal output by the image pickup means, and an image quality of the stored still image. Image quality adjusting means for adjusting, display means for displaying the adjusted still image on a monitor, external output means for outputting data of the adjusted still image to the outside, control means for controlling the operation mode of each means, and the control A detachable IC card for storing a part or all of the control program of the means; a mobile phone having an input means for receiving still image data output by the mobile computer terminal; A telephone line network including a part of a wireless line for transmitting a signal output from a telephone to a remote place, and receiving still image data via the telephone line network, Electrical transmission system of the facsimile and, more composed scene situation recorded video still images to the paper to the image output. 3. The on-site situation recording video transmission system according to claim 1, wherein a mobile radio telephone is used as the mobile telephone, and a public telephone line network is used as the telephone line network. 4. The on-site situation recording video transmission system according to claim 1, wherein a business wireless telephone is used as the mobile telephone and a business wireless telephone network is used as the telephone network. 5. Instead of using a separate mobile telephone,
The electric field transmission system for recording a scene situation recording image according to claim 1 or 2, comprising a card-type portable radiotelephone device that can be detachably attached to a portable computer terminal. 6. Instead of using a separate mobile telephone,
3. The electric field transmission system for recording a scene situation recording image according to claim 1, wherein a circuit having a portable radiotelephone function is integrally incorporated in the portable computer terminal. 7. The IC card stores an image quality adjusting program for controlling the image quality adjusting means corresponding to the image characteristics of the captured still image and the apparatus characteristics of the destination facsimile. An electric transmission system for recording the scene situation recording video described in. 8. The thinning rate of still image data is set in multiple stages so that a plurality of types of still images can be created from the original still image, hierarchized according to the amount of data included in the image. 8. The electric field transmission system according to claim 7, wherein a procedure for selecting one of the hierarchized still images is stored in an IC card as one of the image quality adjusting programs. 9. A transmission system for a field situation recording image according to claim 2, wherein a communication control program capable of controlling a communication procedure corresponding to a destination facsimile type is stored in an IC card. . 10. A program for controlling the output format by software in an IC card so that the address, the sending date, and the sender's name of the destination are automatically entered in addition to the still image on the recording paper output from the destination facsimile. The transmission system for recording a scene situation recording image according to any one of claims 2 to 9, which is stored. 11. An image pickup means comprising a charge-coupled device and an imaging lens as main components and capable of being removably coupled to a bus coupling terminal for connecting peripheral equipment provided in a main body of a portable computer terminal. The on-site situation recording video transmission system according to any one of claims 1 to 10, which is used.