JP2002077885A - Observation camera system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To combine a widely spread portable telephone and an electronic camera so that individual consumer makes use of image information for management of individual life and property and a rich life. SOLUTION: Some of multiple portable telephones 1 are additionally provided with observation cameras 51 which can shoot a landscape changing with time to form image information providing stations 5. A relay station 3 possesses data and account information concerning the owners of the portable telephones 1 and data and remuneration information concerning managers of the image information providing stations 5. When a portable telephone 1 originates a call to a specified image information providing station 5, the image information providing station 5 receiving the call is automatically connected to the calling portable telephone 1. The observation camera 51 shoots a landscape at that time and produces image data, and the image data is transmitted to the portable telephone 1 via the relay station 3. The user of the portable telephone 1 makes the image data appear on a display 10 to see the desired image. At a later time, the relay station 3 charges fee to the portable telephone which has made a call on the basis of the image data and remunerates the image information providing station 5 which has produced the image data on the basis of the remuneration information at the same time.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an observation camera system, and more particularly, to an observation camera system using a portable telephone capable of transferring data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional observation camera is mainly installed and managed by a security department in a company, or is mainly used for security by a security assurance company. There are also security cameras at stations and security cameras at banks. On the other hand, mobile phones are owned by many consumers on the go,
It is widely used personally and on the move during work. Even if landlines provided to homes and the like during a disaster are destroyed, the survival of mobile phones plays a role as a major disaster relief product.

[0003]

[0005] Conventional observation cameras are only partially used exclusively by companies and public institutions with capital, and individual consumers can manage and enrich their personal life property. It was expensive to use for a comfortable life and had not been spread. The present invention combines the widespread use of mobile phones with electronic cameras that have been used for recording instead of film photos, and allows individual consumers to use personal cameras at a low price for managing personal wealth and enriching their lives. The purpose is to provide an observation camera system.

[0004]

Means for Solving the Problems The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems. According to the first aspect, a display unit which can be operated by a user to communicate with the outside by radio waves and displays an image. In a communication system consisting of a large number of mobile phones equipped with and a relay station for selectively connecting these mobile phones to each other by radio waves, it is possible to photograph a landscape that changes over time with some of the many mobile phones. A video information providing station by additionally providing an observation camera, the relay station holds data and billing information on the owner of the mobile phone and data and reward information on the manager of the video information providing station, The mobile phone makes a call to a specific video information providing station via the relay station, and the video information providing station that receives the call automatically connects to the calling mobile phone, and the observation camera is Image data is generated by photographing the scenery of the mobile phone, and the video data is sent to the calling mobile phone via the relay station, and the user of the mobile phone sees the video displayed on the display unit based on the video data. After that, the relay station charges the calling mobile phone based on the video data and the billing information, and pays a reward to the video information providing station that generated the video data based on the reward information.

[0005] In claim 2, the video information providing station is permanently installed at a specific position. 4. The video camera according to claim 3, wherein an observation camera of the video information providing station is mounted on a rotation drive unit, and the rotation drive unit is rotated by a command from the calling mobile phone to shoot the image from a different angle. Generate data. According to claim 4, the mobile phone is connectable to the Internet via a relay station, the video information providing station continuously posts the video data on its own homepage on the Internet, An image displayed on a display unit based on the image data is accessed by accessing a homepage of the image information providing station.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An observation camera system according to the present invention will be described below. Embodiment 1 FIG. FIG. 1 shows an overall configuration of a first embodiment for implementing an observation camera system of the present invention. In FIG. 1, the observation camera system includes a mobile phone 1 and a relay antenna 2.
, A control center 3, another relay antenna 4, and an observation camera 5. For example, millions of mobile phones 1 are owned by individuals nationwide and tens of millions are expected to spread in the future. The relay antennas 2 and 4 are installed in each area at a minimum distance of 300 to 400 m, and the control center 3 is 2 to 3
The observation cameras 5 are scattered nationwide at locations where observation is desired. The relay antennas 2 and 4 and the control center 3 constitute a relay station.

The portable telephone 1 communicates voice communication, character data and video data with the outside by radio waves, and is generally used mainly for voice communication such as PHS, i-mode, EZ web, J
-A mobile phone such as Sky. The relay antennas 2 and 4 are installed on a power pole or on the roof of a building, so that even if the mobile phone 1 moves with the owner, the relay antennas 2 and 4 are within the communication range of radio waves by any of the antennas.

The control center 3 may be provided at one place. However, if the number of portable telephones 1 to be communicated increases, it may become impossible to cope with exchange or connection operation. The observation camera 5 is a video information providing station, for example, is installed in a nursery school or the like, and has a room where a child can play as a photographable range. The observation camera 5 is remotely operated by radio waves, and the control center 3 connects the mobile phone 1 and the observation camera 5 to, for example, 2
Connection is made by radio waves in the GHz band, and communication data between them is collectively managed.

Hereinafter, each configuration and function of the mobile phone 1, the observation camera 5, and the control center 3 will be described in detail. In FIG. 2, a mobile phone 1 that is on the market is used,
Display unit 10, numeric keypad 11, selection key 12, and confirm button 1
3 and an antenna 14, a speaker 15, a microphone 16, a data key 17, and other basic functional units.
A display / sound control unit is provided. On the other hand, in FIG. 3, the observation camera 5 includes an electronic camera 50 and a communication unit 51. The communication unit 51 has almost the same functional configuration as the mobile phone 1 and also has a function of controlling the electronic camera 50.

The electronic camera 50 comprises a lens 53, a shutter 54, a light receiving element 55 in a matrix, a video data memory 56, and an interface 57. The lens 53 is an optical lens, and the shutter 54 is opened and closed by an opening and closing signal and a time signal sent from the interface 57. Although an exposure control unit and an automatic focus control unit are provided between the lens 53 and the shutter 54, the description is omitted. The light receiving element 55 is formed by arranging hundreds of thousands or more pixels in a matrix on a plane, and forms image data corresponding to image light incident from the lens 53.

An image data memory 56 stores the image data formed by the light receiving element 55 and sends out the image data to an external communication unit 51 via an interface 57. The communication unit 51 includes a CPU 60 of an arithmetic unit, a driving unit 61, a memory 62, and a timer 63.
, Number storage unit 64, counter 65, protocol unit 66, communication conversion unit 67, antenna 68, and interface 69.
It is composed of

The CPU 60 of the arithmetic unit controls the entire communication unit 51 and the electronic camera 50. The driving unit 61 receives a photographing command, sends a photographing signal to the shutter 54 via the interfaces 69 and 57, and executes photographing. . The memory 62 temporarily stores the video data received from the video data memory 56 via the interfaces 57 and 67,
The time at the time of shooting is recorded from the timer 63. Number storage unit 6
Reference numeral 4 denotes a telephone number of the observation camera 5, that is, an ID number such as 1
11-111 and the like are stored, and the counter 65 counts incoming calls received by the observation camera 5 from outside.

A protocol section 66 controls a communication procedure between the observation camera 5 and the external control center 3 and the mobile phone 1. The communication conversion unit 67 converts various data into predetermined radio waves and outputs them to the antenna 68, or converts various radio waves into predetermined data and sends them to the CPU 60. Next, the configuration of the control center 3 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. The control center 3 includes an exchange unit 47 for connecting an arbitrary mobile phone 1 and a designated observation camera 5 by radio waves, a mobile phone database 30, an observation camera database 40, a central processing unit CPU 100, and an antenna 101.

The switching unit 47 selectively connects the mobile phone 1 that has made a call as usual to the communication unit 51 of the designated observation camera 5. The mobile phone database 30 stores data relating to the mobile phone 1 registered in the control center 3 and its manager (owner) members in the observation camera database 4.
In the case of 0, data relating to the observation camera 5 and its manager (owner) member is input in advance.

The mobile phone database 30 includes, for example, m mobile management cards 39 corresponding to the number of registered mobile phones 1, and the mobile management card 39 includes a telephone number 31, personal information 32, charging information 33, and usage information. 34. Further, the usage information 34 includes a time column 35, a destination column 36, a relay column 37, and a fee column 38. The telephone number 31 is a unique number of the mobile phone 1 such as 999-999, and the personal information 32
The address, name, home fixed telephone number, bank account name, account number, credit number, etc. of the registrant are recorded in advance, and the billing information 33 is recorded in advance in a contract charge table.

The CPU 49 of the central processing unit stores usage information 3
In the time column 35 of No. 4, the date and time when the mobile phone 1 was used, the destination column 36 shows the destination number specified by the mobile phone 1,
The fee to be charged is additionally recorded in the fee column 37, and the relay antenna number is additionally recorded in the relay column 38 for each occurrence.

On the other hand, the camera database 40 is composed of, for example, n camera management cards 49 (n << m) corresponding to the number of registered observation cameras 5 (n << m).
Reference numeral 9 includes a camera number 41, administrator information 42, billing information 43, and incoming information 44. Further, the incoming call information 44 includes a time column 45, a sender column 46, and a reward column 47. The camera number 41 is a unique number of the observation camera 5 and the administrator information 4
2 records in advance the address, name, fixed telephone number, bank account name, account number, credit number, etc. of the administrator, and the contract fee table to be paid, etc. in the billing information 43 in advance.

The CPU 100 of the central processing unit stores the date and time when the call arrived in the time column 45 of the incoming call information 44 of the observation camera database 40, the number of the mobile phone of the caller in the caller column 46, and the reward. In the gold column 47, a fee to be paid to the manager is additionally recorded for each occurrence.

Now, for example, the nursery school administrator needs the observation camera 5
The observation camera 5 is installed near the ceiling of the room where the children play. The observation room 5 captures the entire room into the field of view so that almost all the children are playing. The administrator of the observation camera 5 is the control center 3
A contract with the management company of
The required information including the unique number of the observation camera 5, for example, 111-111 is registered, and the camera management card 49 is created.

At that time, the video information provision fee is determined after discussion with the management company of the control center 3 and registered in the remuneration column 47. Next, the administrator of the observation camera 5 reads in the child's home that "the observation camera 5 has been installed near the ceiling of the room where the child plays," and that "a contract has been made with the management company of the control center 3 to provide information." The telephone number (the unique number 111-111 of the observation camera 5) and a predetermined browsing fee (for example, 5 yen / time) are notified.

The mother of the child who owns the mobile phone 1 presses the data mode key 18 at the platform at the station on the way home from work.
For example, from the mobile phone 1 with a phone number of 999-999, a reading phone number of a nursery school informed, for example, 111-111
Make a call to. The CPU 100 of the control center 3 that has received the browsing telephone number and the data mode signal sets the mobile phone 1 to the connection state in the data mode.

Radio waves from the mobile phone 1 reach the control center 3 via the relay antenna 2 in the station, and the control center 3 arrives at the observation camera 5 via the relay antenna 4 near the nursery school. When the observation camera 51 receives this outgoing (incoming) call, for example, three times, the telephone is hooked off (take-up operation), and the mobile phone 1 and the observation camera 5 are connected to each other by the control center 3.
This call may be made three or three times in order to confirm the intention to receive the pay video from the mobile phone 1.

The communication section 51 of the observation camera 5 is an electronic camera 5
The electronic camera 50 sends a photographing command to the communication unit 51 by taking a picture of the room where the child plays. The communication section 51 sends the kindergarten video data Q to the control center 3 to put the telephone into a hook-on (return to initial position) state. The control center 3 transfers the children's image data Q to the mobile phone 1 immediately.

The portable telephone 1 displays this kindergarten video data Q on the display unit 10. In a short spare time, the child's mother can easily get a picture of the nursery school to be picked up. Since the display unit 10 is small, it is not possible to identify the child's own child or to grasp his / her expression, but it is easy to understand the outline of what kind of state the nursery school is currently playing or whether or not the child has been cleared.

Once the child's image is displayed on the display unit 10 in front, the exchange unit 47 disconnects the communication between the mobile phone 1 and the control center 3, but the child image data Q is stored in the screen memory of the mobile phone 1. Since it is temporarily stored, you can observe it slowly even on a train or while walking.

At the end of the month, the control center 3 checks each mobile management card 39 in the mobile phone database 30 and issues a bill to the owner of 999-999 based on the fee column 38. This bill naturally includes other general call charges according to 999-999. Further, the control center 3 checks the individual camera management cards 49 in the camera database 40, sums up the rewards stored in the rewards column 47 to the owners of 111-111, and pays them by a predetermined method.

If 50 children are enrolled in the nursery school, the number of parents of the children will be 100, and if 30% of them own the mobile phone 1, the number will be 30. If each parent calls 6 times a month, 180 images will be obtained. Is provided from one observation camera 5. Then, in the nursery school, the income is 5 yen x 180 = 900 yen every month. When the installation place of the observation camera 5, that is, the image information providing place is not desired to be known outside for security assurance, but is desired to be known only to the concerned persons, the dedicated control center 3 controls the connection and the number of the observation camera 5 Informs only interested parties.

The places to be known only to the parties concerned include the front of a factory of a company, the front of a school, the entrance of a private house, the front of a building, the fishing port, the entrance of a farm, and the entrance of a closed race track. An observation camera 5 is installed at a position looking down, and related parties use the mobile phone 1 to confirm safety.
Get video information. The places that we want to open to everyone widely include the major stations in the city, the main confluence on the expressway network, fashion street corners (Ginza 4-chome, Omotesando), public tourist attractions, sea, boat port, There are a stadium, a trailhead, etc., and the observation camera 5 is installed at a position overlooking these, and the user can freely use the mobile phone 1 to obtain desired image information.

The portable control center 3 according to the embodiment
Corresponds to data centers such as PHS, i-mode, EZ Web, and J-Sky. Still further, the observation camera 5 can be installed on a rotatable base, and the rotatable base can be rotated by a command from the mobile phone 1 to send a photographic image having a changed viewing angle to the mobile phone 1. .

Embodiment 2 FIG. If the place where the observation camera 5 is installed, that is, the place where the video information is provided, is public, the Internet system shown in FIG. 6 can be used. The mobile phone 1 accesses the control center 3 to obtain pay video information, and the observation camera database 40 of the control center 3 includes a plurality of video information provider cards 80. The control center 3 has a menu program 81, and when a request is received from the mobile phone 1, displays a list of the video information provider cards 80 on the display unit 10 of the mobile phone 1. At the same time, the fact that the video information is charged and the fee are specified.

When, for example, the stadium Q is selected from the list on the display unit 10, the control center 3 accesses the homepage of the observation camera 5 installed in front of the stadium Q on the Internet 70 instead of the other mobile phone 1. Observation camera 5
Is a dedicated provider 71 via ISDN or optical fiber
And the observation camera 5 is always connected to the Internet 70. Therefore, the observation camera 5 automatically shoots the vicinity of the stadium Q main gate every few seconds, and sends the still picture to its own homepage in the dedicated provider 71. The observation camera 5 may be a video camera.

The control center 3 sends the video data received from the homepage of the observation camera 5 to the mobile phone 1. The control center 3 recognizes the video information provider selected by the mobile phone 1 and stores the information in the mobile phone database 3.
In the portable management card 39 of No. 0, a browsing record such as a use date and time and a charge is additionally stored. It is assumed that a contract is made between the control center 3 and the stadium Q side of the video information provider in advance. The general owner (consumer) of the mobile phone 1 can freely obtain desired video information from the list of the video information provider card 80 in real time at any time.

At the stadium Q of the video information provider, there is no need to know which mobile phone 1 has accessed its own homepage, and the number of accesses can be known from the amount remitted from the control center 3 every month. The control center 3 charges the general owner (consumer) of the mobile phone 1 every month as in the first embodiment. This Internet method is more effective for providing services in the case of a highly public homepage where the number of accesses is expected to be tens of thousands per day. In the stadium Q of the image information provider, the observation camera 5 is set on a rotatable table, and the camera is swung slowly so that the image whose angle is changed every several tens of seconds can be provided to the mobile phone 1. be able to.

[0034]

As described above, according to the present invention, a widely used portable telephone can be used by individual consumers at a low price for managing personal life property and enriching life. In addition, consumers can freely view current images in highly public places at a low price when needed. Further, the video provider can easily expand the sales market and the sales space nationwide simply by preparing the valuable specific information to be widely viewed by consumers.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a first embodiment of an observation camera system according to the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of the embodiment.

FIG. 2 is an external view of a mobile phone used in the observation camera system of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram on the electronic camera side of the observation camera system of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a database of a relay station of the observation camera system of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a second embodiment of the observation camera system of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Mobile Phone 2 Relay Antenna 3 Control Center 4 Relay Antenna 5 Observation Camera 10 Display Unit 11 Numeric Keypad 12 Selection Key 13 Confirmation Button 14 Antenna 15 Speaker 16 Microphone 10 Internet 12 Member Database 30 Mobile Phone Database 31 Phone Number 32 Personal Information 33 Billing Information 34 Usage information 35 Time field 36 Destination field 37 Charge field 38 Relay field 39 Mobile management card 40 Observation camera database 41 Camera number 42 Administrator information 43 Billing information 44 Incoming information 45 Time field 46 Sender field 47 Remuneration field 48 Exchange section 49 Camera management card 50 Electronic camera 51 Communication unit 52 Control program 53 Lens 54 Shutter 55 Light receiving element 56 Video data memory 57 Interface 60 CPU 61 Drive unit 62 Li 63 CPU timer 64 number storage unit 65 the counter 66 protocol unit 67 communication converter unit 68 antenna 69 interface 70 Internet 71 dedicated provider 80 video information providers card 81 menu program 100 central processing unit

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Claims (4)

[Claims] A mobile telephone having a display unit which can be operated by a user to communicate with the outside by radio waves and has a display for displaying an image, and a relay station which selectively connects these mobile phones to each other by radio waves. In a communication system, a video information providing station is provided by additionally providing an observation camera capable of photographing a landscape that changes over time to some of the plurality of mobile phones, and the relay station owns the mobile phone. The mobile phone makes a call to a specific video information providing station via the relay station, and receives a call. The receiving video information providing station automatically connects to the calling mobile phone, the observation camera takes a picture of the scene at that time and generates video data, and this video data is transmitted via the relay station to the calling mobile phone. Sent to the telephone, the user of the mobile phone looks at the video displayed on the display unit based on the video data, and the relay station later charges the called mobile phone based on the video data and charging information. An observation camera system, wherein a reward is paid to a video information providing station that has generated the video data based on reward information. 2. The observation camera system according to claim 1, wherein the video information providing station is permanently installed at a specific position. 3. An image captured from a different angle by rotating the rotation drive unit according to a command from the calling mobile phone, wherein an observation camera of the image information providing station is mounted on a rotation drive unit. Generating data.
Observation camera system according to 1. 4. The mobile phone is connectable to the Internet via a relay station, the video information providing station posts the video data continuously on its own homepage on the Internet, and the mobile phone displays the video data on the Internet. 2. The observation camera system according to claim 1, wherein an image displayed on a display unit based on the image data is viewed by accessing a homepage of the image information providing station.