JP2001224009A - Information processing unit and method, and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information processing unit that can immediately inform a mobile unit about a monitored state of home whose residents are out. SOLUTION: A control section 24 receives user information from a customer sent via the Internet 2 and stores the information to a database 24. The control section 24 receives image data and attached information sent from the customer, collates them with a database 23 and extracts adaptive user information therefrom. The control section 24 gives the image data and the attached information to any of corresponding processing sections 25-1-25-4 on the basis of an image notice method included in the user information and allows the selected processing section to process the image data and the attached information to have a form that can be received and displayed by an image notice destination. Each of the processing sections 25-1-25-4 respectively informs a corresponding mobile unit about the processed data via the Internet 2.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and method, and a recording medium, and more particularly to transmitting information recorded at an answering machine to a portable device owned by a user via the Internet. The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and method, and a recording medium that can immediately notify a previous user of a monitoring status of an absence house.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional security monitoring system, a CCTV (Closed Circuit Television) system is generally used. In this CCTV system, analog cameras, switchers, and VTRs (Video Tape Recorders)
r), and the VTR uses a time-plus VTR (recording for about one month with a single videotape), which records for a long time with dropped frames, and triggers such as opening and closing doors at entrances and exits. Event recording for recording for a predetermined time is performed as a trigger.

[0003]

However, in the conventional surveillance system, since the video is recorded on the analog video tape, the following problems occur. (1) At least one or more managers are required for operations such as exchanging video tapes. (2) When searching for a desired image (video), a user (searcher) plays a video tape from the beginning to the end and finds a desired image from the video tape, which requires a great amount of search time. (3) It is difficult to manage the recorded surveillance video tape. (4) Since the recorded video is analog data, it is difficult to check the video from outside (going away). (5) It is difficult to own a surveillance system.

The present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and transmits an image recorded by a surveillance system to a portable device owned by the user via the Internet so that the user can be away from home. It is intended to notify the monitoring status of the house.

[0005]

An information processing apparatus according to the present invention comprises: acquiring means for acquiring user information transmitted from a first apparatus; storage means for storing user information acquired by the acquiring means; Extraction means for receiving the image data and the additional information transmitted from the first device and extracting the user ID included in the additional information, and accumulating in the accumulation means based on the user ID extracted by the extraction means. Detecting means for detecting user information, and processing means for processing image data and additional information based on an image notification method included in the user information detected by the detecting means;
Transmitting means for transmitting the data processed by the processing means to the second device.

[0006] An information processing method according to the present invention comprises: an obtaining step of obtaining user information transmitted from a first device;
A storage control step of controlling the storage of the user information obtained by the processing of the obtaining step, and an extraction step of receiving image data and additional information transmitted from the first device and extracting a user ID included in the additional information A detection step of detecting user information whose storage is controlled by the storage control step based on the user ID extracted by the extraction step processing; and an image included in the user information detected by the detection step processing. The method includes a processing step of processing image data and additional information based on the notification method, and a transmitting step of transmitting data processed by the processing of the processing step to the second device.

[0007] The program recorded on the recording medium of the present invention includes an acquisition step for acquiring user information transmitted from the first device, and a storage for controlling storage of the user information acquired by the processing of the acquisition step. A control step, an image data and additional information transmitted from the first device, an extraction step of extracting a user ID included in the additional information, and a user ID extracted by the extraction step. A detection step of detecting user information whose storage is controlled by the processing of the storage control step; and a processing step of processing image data and additional information based on an image notification method included in the user information detected by the processing of the detection step. And transmitting the data processed by the processing of the processing step to the second device. The features.

[0008] In the information processing apparatus, the information processing method, and the program recorded on the recording medium of the present invention,
User information transmitted from the first device is obtained,
The acquired user information is stored, image data and additional information transmitted from the first device are received, a user ID included in the additional information is extracted, and stored based on the extracted user ID. The detected user information is detected, the image data and the additional information are processed based on the image notification method included in the detected user information, and the processed data is transmitted to the second device.

[0009]

FIG. 1 shows a configuration example of a network system to which the present invention is applied. In this configuration example, when the service provider 1 does not need to individually distinguish the customers (customer systems) 3-1 to 3-4 (hereinafter, these customers 3-1 to 3-4) via the Internet 2 , And is simply referred to as a customer 3), and via the Internet 2 and a wireless network (for example, a base station) 4.
1, a pager (trademark) 12, a telephone 13 with a TV (television receiver), and a portable personal computer 14.

In the present invention, the manager (user) of the customer 3-1 is the owner of the mobile phone 11, the manager of the customer 3-2 is the owner of the pager 12, and the customer 3-3. Is the owner of the TV telephone 13, and the manager of the customer 3-4 is the manager of the personal computer 14.

The service provider 1 stores user information such as a user ID transmitted from the customer 3 via the Internet 2 in the database 23 (FIG. 2).
The service provider 1 also receives the image data transmitted from the customer 3 and the additional information of the image data, extracts the user ID included in the additional information, inquires the database 23, and corresponding data (user information) To get. Then, the service provider 1 performs a predetermined processing based on the image notification method included in the acquired data, and then converts the processed data based on the image notification method into the corresponding mobile phone 11. Or to at least one of the personal computers 14.

The customer 3 is, for example, a video camera 31
The image (video) data captured in (FIG. 3) and the additional information of the image data are transmitted to the service provider 1 via the Internet 2. The mobile phones 11 to 14 receive data transmitted from the service provider 1 via the Internet 2 and the wireless network 4 and display images or characters on a display screen such as a display (not shown).

The service provider 1 is configured, for example, as shown in FIG. The control unit 24 receives the user information (user ID, image notification method, and the like) from the customer 3 transmitted via the Internet 2 and the Internet interface 22, and
(FIG. 4). Then, the control unit 24 receives the image data transmitted from the customer 3 and the additional information of the image data, refers to the database 23, and extracts suitable user information. The control unit 24 also supplies the received image data and additional information to any of the corresponding processing units 25-1 to 25-4 based on the image notification method included in the user information. At this time, the control unit 24
Notifies the charging unit 21 of charging information (what kind of processing is performed).

Further, the control unit 24 sends an image notification to the customer 3 via the Internet interface 22 and the Internet 2 at predetermined intervals (for example, once a month) based on the accounting data from the accounting unit 21. Charge a fee.

The billing unit 21 performs billing data processing based on the billing information supplied from the control unit 24, and
4 The processing unit 25 performs a predetermined processing on the image data and the additional information supplied from the control unit 24. For example, as the processing, there is a method as shown below. (1) In order to be able to send to the E-mail address specified by Customer 3, a format that can be attached to E-mail (for example,
Convert to JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group). (2) In order to enable transmission to the mobile phone 11 or pager 12 having a character display function, information such as date and time included in the additional information is extracted and converted into character data. (3) The resolution of the image data is converted to the resolution of the TV telephone 13 or the personal computer 14 so that the resolution can be transmitted to the TV telephone 13 or the personal computer 14 having the image display function.

That is, the processing unit 25 converts (processes) the image data and the additional information into a format that can be received and displayed by the portable device (mobile phone 11 to personal computer 14) to which the image is notified (transmitted). For example, in the processing unit 25-1, the mobile phone 11 can receive and display data. In the processing unit 25-2, the pager 12 can receive and display data. 13 is processed so as to be able to receive and display data, and the processing unit 25-4 is processed so that the personal computer 14 is able to receive and display data.

After the processing unit 25 performs a predetermined processing, the corresponding portable device (mobile phone 11 to personal computer 14) is output via the output interface 26, the Internet 2, and the wireless network 4.
Notify (send) each.

The customer 3 is configured, for example, as shown in FIG. The external trigger interface 34 includes, for example, a video camera 31, an image compression processing unit 32, and an additional information generation unit 33 when a suspicious person enters or smoke is detected while the security system is operating, and an external trigger is applied. , And the Internet interface 35, respectively.

The video camera 31 captures (records) an image in response to a trigger from the external trigger interface 34.
Then, the image data is supplied to the image compression processing unit 32. The additional information generation unit 33 generates additional information such as date and time by a trigger from the external trigger interface 34 and supplies the additional information to the image compression processing unit 32. The image compression processing unit 32 superimposes the additional information supplied from the additional information generation unit 33 on the image data supplied from the video camera 31, performs predetermined compression processing, and performs, via the Internet interface 35 and the Internet 2, Send to service provider 1.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the user information stored in the database 23. In this example, the first entry contains the user ID 000001 and the E-mail address
The data of abc@defg.hi.jp, the videophone number of 03-1234-5678, and the method A are stored. The second entry has a user ID of 000002 and a mobile or pager number of 09
0-1234-5678, the method is PDC (Personal Digital Cellula
The data of r) is accumulated. In the third entry, the user ID is 000003, the mobile phone number or the pager number is 090-8765-4321, and the method is CDMA (Code Division M).
ultiple Access) data.

In the example shown in FIG. 4, a circle indicates a selectable image notification method, and a cross indicates an unselectable image notification method. That is, the user ID of 000001
Can notify the data to the E-mail or the TV-equipped telephone, and the users having the user ID of 000002 and 000003 can notify the data to the mobile phone (or the pager), respectively.

Next, referring to the flowchart of FIG.
The image notification process executed by the service provider 1 will be described. It is assumed that the user information of the customer 3 is already stored in the database 23.

In step S1, the control unit 24 determines whether or not image data and additional information of the image data have been input (transmitted) from the customer 3 via the Internet 2 and the Internet interface 22. If it is determined that the image data and the additional information of the image data have not been input, the process waits in step S1 until it is determined that the image data and the additional information of the image data have been input. Then, when the image data and the additional information of the image data are input, the process proceeds to step S2, and the control unit 24 extracts the user ID included in the additional information input from the customer 3.

In step S3, the control unit 24 queries the database 23 for the user ID extracted in the processing in step S2. In step S4, the control unit 24
Extracts data matching the user ID extracted in the process of step S2 from the user information stored in the database 23.

In step S5, the control section 24 acquires an image notification method included in the user information extracted in the processing in step S4. In step S6, the control unit 24 notifies the charging unit 21 of charging information (what kind of processing is performed) based on the image notification method obtained in the processing of step S5. In step S7, the control unit 24 selects at least one of the corresponding processing units 25-1 to 25-4 based on the image notification method acquired in the processing in step S5.

For example, if the image notification method is a mobile phone number, the processing unit 25-1 is selected. If the image notification method is a pager number, the processing unit 25-2 is selected, and the image notification method is TV. If the telephone number is an attached telephone number, the processing unit 25-3 is selected. If the image notification method is an E-mail address, the processing unit 25-4 is selected.

In step S8, the control unit 24 operates the processing units 25-1 to 25-25 selected in the processing in step S7.
-4, the image data and additional information of the image data are supplied. In step S9, the processing unit 2
Reference numeral 5 processes the image data supplied from the control unit 24 and the additional information of the image data.

In step S10, the processing section 25
Data processed in step S9 based on the image notification destination (eg, mobile phone number, pager number, TV phone number, or E-mail address) included in the user information extracted in step S4 (Such as characters, characters, or images) via output interface 26, Internet 2, and wireless network 4,
Corresponding mobile phone 11 to personal computer 1
4 and the process ends.

As described above, when each home (customers 3-1 to 3-4) having the security monitoring system has a contract with the service provider 1, the user information of the customer 3 is stored in the database 23 of the service provider 1. Is sequentially accumulated. When the image data captured by the monitoring camera (video camera 31) of the customer 3 and the additional information of the image data are transmitted to the service provider 1 via the Internet 2, the user ID included in the additional information is stored in the database. 23, the corresponding user information is extracted, and the image notification method is obtained. Appropriate processing is performed based on the image notification method, and the image is notified (transmitted) to the portable device (mobile phone 11 to personal computer 14) of the user who is away from home.

Therefore, the following effects can be obtained by utilizing the present invention. (1) The service provider 1 can collect profit from the customer 3 by collecting an image notification fee, a device rental fee (a rental fee for a monitoring system), and the like. (2) Further, the service provider 1 can perform the service by integrating a plurality of customers 3 or a plurality of sites of the same customer 3, thereby improving the overall cost efficiency, and as a result, 3, the service cost to be paid to the service provider 1 can be reduced. (3) The customer 3 does not need to store media (video tape) for recording recorded data, and as a result, can reduce capital investment. (4) In addition, the customer 3 can immediately know the monitoring status of the answering machine even when going out.

The above-mentioned service provider 1 and customer 3 are all or partly constituted by a computer. For example, when the service provider 1 is configured by a computer, it is configured as shown in FIG.

The CPU (Central Processing Unit) 41
Various processes are executed according to programs stored in a ROM (Read Only Memory) 42 and a storage unit 48. RA
The M (Random Access Memory) 43 appropriately stores programs and data necessary for the CPU 41 to execute various processes. CPU 41, ROM 42, and RAM 43
Are connected to each other via a bus 44,
It is also connected to the input / output interface 45. The input / output interface 45 includes an input unit 46 including a keyboard and a mouse, an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), and a CRT.
(Cathode Ray Tube), output unit 47 composed of a speaker, etc., and storage unit 4 composed of a hard disk, etc.
8. A communication unit 49 for communicating with the Internet 2 is connected.

The input / output interface 45 includes:
A drive 50 for installing a program is connected, and a magnetic disk 61, an optical disk 62, a magneto-optical disk 63, a semiconductor memory 64, and the like are mounted. The various processes described above are based on the CP
U41 executes according to a program (software).

The series of processes described above can be executed by hardware, but can also be executed by software. When a series of processing is executed by software, a program constituting the software executes various functions by installing a computer built in dedicated hardware or installing various programs. For example, it is installed from a recording medium to a general-purpose personal computer or the like.

As shown in FIG. 6, the recording medium is a magnetic disk 61 (including a floppy disk) on which the program is recorded and an optical disk 62 which are distributed separately from a computer to provide the user with the program.
(CD-ROM (Compact Disk-Read Only Memory), DVD (Digita
l Versatile Disk), magneto-optical disk 63 (MD
(Including a Mini-Disk), or a package medium such as a semiconductor memory 64, a ROM 42 storing a program, which is provided to a user in a state of being incorporated in a computer in advance,
The storage unit 48 includes a hard disk and the like.

In this specification, the step of describing a program recorded on a recording medium may be performed not only in a time-series manner but also in a time-series manner in the order described. This also includes processing executed in parallel or individually.

In this specification, the system is defined as:
It represents the entire device composed of a plurality of devices.

[0038]

As described above, the information processing apparatus of the present invention
According to the information processing method and the program recorded on the recording medium, the user information transmitted from the first device is acquired, the acquired user information is stored, and the acquired user information is transmitted from the first device. Receiving image data and additional information, extracting a user ID included in the additional information, detecting accumulated user information based on the extracted user ID, and an image notification method included in the detected user information. , The image data and the additional information are processed, and the processed data is transmitted to the second device.
It is possible to immediately notify the out-of-home user of the monitoring status of the answering machine.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a network system to which the present invention has been applied.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a service provider in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a customer in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the database of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a selection process performed by a service provider.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of hardware of a service provider.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 service provider, 2 internet, 3
-1 to 3-4 customers, 4 wireless networks,
11 Cellular Phone, 12 Pager, 13 Telephone with TV, 14 Personal Computer, 21 Billing Unit, 22 Internet Interface, 23
Database, 24 control units, 25-1 to 25-4
Processing unit, 26-1 to 26-4 output interface, 31 camera, 32 image compression processing unit, 33
Additional information generator, 34 external trigger interface,
35 Internet interface, 41 CPU,
42 ROM, 43 RAM, 44 bus, 45 input / output interface, 46 input section, 47 output section,
48 storage unit, 49 communication unit, 50 drives,
61 magnetic disk, 62 optical disk, 63
Magneto-optical disk, 64 semiconductor memory

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme Court ゛ (Reference) 9A001 (72) Inventor Shigehiro Toriyama 6-7-35 Kita Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo Inside Sony Corporation ( 72) Inventor Fumio Namo 6-35, Kita-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo Sony Corporation (72) Inventor Toshiya Oji 6-35, Kita-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo F-Term in Sony Corporation (Ref.) RR11 9A001 BB03 BB04 BB06 CC02 CC05 DZ15 HH23 JJ12 JJ25 JJ75 LL03

Claims (3)

[Claims] An acquisition unit that acquires user information transmitted from a first device; a storage unit that stores the user information acquired by the acquisition device; and an acquisition unit that transmits the user information. Extracting means for receiving image data and additional information and extracting a user ID included in the additional information; and extracting the user information stored in the storage means based on the user ID extracted by the extracting means. Detecting means for detecting, processing means for processing the image data and the additional information based on an image notification method included in the user information detected by the detecting means, and data processed by the processing means An information processing apparatus comprising: a transmission unit that transmits the information to a second apparatus. 2. An acquisition step of acquiring user information transmitted from a first device, a storage control step of controlling storage of the user information acquired by the processing of the acquisition step, and the first device. Receiving the image data and the additional information transmitted from the CPU and extracting a user ID included in the additional information; and the user I extracted by the processing of the extracting step.
A detection step of detecting the user information whose storage has been controlled by the processing of the storage control step based on D, and an image notification method included in the user information detected by the processing of the detection step. A processing step of processing the image data and the additional information;
Transmitting to the other device. An acquisition step of acquiring user information transmitted from the first apparatus; a storage control step of controlling storage of the user information acquired by the processing of the acquisition step; Receiving the image data and the additional information transmitted from the CPU and extracting a user ID included in the additional information; and the user I extracted by the processing of the extracting step.
A detection step of detecting the user information whose storage has been controlled by the processing of the storage control step based on D, and an image notification method included in the user information detected by the processing of the detection step. A processing step of processing the image data and the additional information;
A transmission step of transmitting to a device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein a computer-readable program is recorded.