JP2003067312A - Image server, portable communication device and control method therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To display a photographed image on cellphones a large number of reading users process. SOLUTION: Electronic mail addresses of the large number of reading users are previously registered in an image database (step 41). Data showing the image photographed by a photographing user are transmitted to an image server (step 31). Electronic mail showing a storage place of the image data is transmitted to the electronic mail addresses of the reading users (step 43). When the reading user who has read the electronic mail accesses the storage place of the image data (steps 53, 54), the photographed image is displayed on a display screen of the cellphone of the reading user (step 55).

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an image server, a portable communication device (such as a mobile phone), and a control method thereof.

[0002]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In order for many people to see an image displayed on a display screen provided in a portable communication device such as a mobile phone, it is necessary to turn the portable communication device in order. is there. In such cases, many people cannot see the same image at the same time.

Further, by accessing the image server using the portable communication device, the image data can be downloaded from the image server and the image represented by the image data can be displayed on the display screen of the portable communication device. it can. A user who has a portable communication device can see the same image at the same time. However, since the user usually does not know the access destination, the user who has uploaded to the image server hears the access destination and then accesses the image server. Therefore, the image represented by the image data uploaded to the image server cannot be uploaded and viewed immediately. Therefore, many people cannot see the captured image at the same time.

[0004]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to allow many people to immediately see images taken by many people.

The image server according to the first aspect of the present invention represents an image data storage means for storing image data and a destination of the image data stored in the image data storage means. Electronic mail address storing means for storing address data, and an electronic mail including an image storage address indicating a storage location of the image data stored in the image data storing means, stored in the electronic mail address storing means It is characterized in that it is provided with an electronic mail transmitting means for transmitting to a designated electronic mail address.

The first invention also provides a control method suitable for the image server. That is, the method stores the image data and the destination of the image data, stores the e-mail address data of the portable communication device, and stores the image storage address indicating the location of the stored image data. The email containing the email is represented by the stored email address data.
It is sent to the address.

According to the first invention, the image data is stored in the image server. Further, the image server stores the e-mail address data of the portable communication device indicating the destination of the image data. For example, the image data and the e-mail address data are stored in the image server by being transmitted from the user using a portable communication device or the like.

An electronic mail including an image storage address indicating a storage location of image data is stored in the electronic mail.
Sent to the email address represented by the address data.

An electronic mail is received at the portable communication device. The received e-mail address includes the image storage address, so by accessing the image storage address, the image represented by the image data is displayed on the display screen provided in the portable communication device. Can be displayed and viewed.

The electronic mail sending means is responsive to the storage of the image data in the image data storage means to send the electronic mail by the electronic mail address data stored in the client electronic mail address storage means. It is preferably sent to the email address represented.

By uploading (storing) the image data representing the captured image in the image data storage means of the image server, an electronic mail including the image storage address of the image data is transmitted to the portable communication device. By accessing the image storage address of the e-mail, the photographed image can be viewed immediately.

The electronic mail sending means may send an electronic mail in which the image storage address is hot text. By clicking the hot text, it is possible to access the storage location where the image data is stored, and save the trouble of inputting the image storage address in the portable communication device.

A second aspect of the present invention relates to a portable communication device for accessing the image server. The portable communication device according to the second aspect of the invention represents a destination of the image data stored in the image server, and is an electronic mail for transmitting the electronic mail address data of the portable communication device to the image server. Address sending means, electronic mail receiving means for receiving an electronic mail including an image storage address representing a storage location of the image data stored in the image server, and displaying contents of the electronic mail received by the electronic mail receiving means And a request transmission for transmitting to the image server a transmission request for the image data stored in the storage location of the image server specified by the image storage address included in the content of the electronic mail displayed on the display device. It is characterized by comprising means.

The second aspect of the present invention also provides a control method suitable for the portable communication device. That is, this method represents the destination of the image data stored in the image server, and transmits the electronic mail address data of the portable communication device to the image server, and in response to this transmission, the image Receives an e-mail including an image storage address indicating a storage location of image data transmitted from the server, displays the content of the received e-mail, and is specified by the image storage address included in the content of the displayed e-mail The transmission request for the image data stored in the storage location of the image server is transmitted to the image server.

According to the second invention, the electronic mail address data can be transmitted to the image server, and the electronic mail transmitted from the image server can be received. Therefore, the image storage address of the image data representing the image to be displayed on the display screen of the portable communication device is known, and the image server is requested to transmit the image data stored in the storage location specified by the image storage address. be able to. By receiving the image data sent from the image server in response to the request,
The image represented by the image data can be displayed on the display screen.

[0016]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention and shows an outline of a communication system.

In the communication system according to this embodiment, a user (photographing user) uses the digital still camera 1 to photograph an object. The image data obtained by the image pickup is transmitted to the image server 20 using the transmission mobile phone 2A.
Sent to.

The image data transmitted from the mobile phone 2A is received by the image server 20 and stored in the image database 21 connected to the image server 20 (not stored in the database but stored in a simple hard disk or the like). But it may be). An e-mail database 22 is connected to the image server 20.
E-mail of the mobile phone (browsing mobile phone) owned by the user (browsing user) who views the image represented by the image data transmitted from the photographing user in the database 22.
The address is stored (not necessarily stored in the database). The URL (uniform (URL) representing the storage location of the image data sent from the camera user is added to the email address stored in the email database 22.
resource locator) An email containing the data is sent.

When the e-mail transmitted from the image server 20 is received by the photographing user's browsing mobile phone 2B, the content of the e-mail is displayed on the display screen of the browsing mobile phone 2B. The URL represented by the URL data is displayed in hot text in the electronic mail. By clicking the displayed URL,
A transmission request for the image data stored in the image database 21 is transmitted to the image server 20.

When the transmission request from the browsing mobile phone 2B is received by the image server 20, the image database 21
The image data stored in is read and transmitted to the browsing mobile phone 2B.

The image photographed by the photographing user is immediately displayed on the display screen of the browsing mobile phone 2B.

Although only one browsing mobile phone 2B (browsing user) is shown in FIG. 1, it goes without saying that there are many browsing mobile phones 2B (there are many browsing users). More details will be made clear by the following explanation.

FIG. 2 shows an e-mail address table of the browsing mobile phone 2B stored in the e-mail database 22.

The user who wants to see the image photographed by the photographing user sends the electronic mail address of his or her browsing mobile phone 2B to the image server 20 by electronic mail, for example. Then, the image server 20 stores the e-mail address of the mobile phone 2B of the browsing user in the e-mail database 22.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the electrical configuration of the transmitting mobile phone 2A. The browsing mobile phone 2B has the same configuration as the transmission mobile phone 2A.

The overall configuration of the mobile phone 2A is controlled by the CPU 6.

A signal indicating an operation command from the operation device 4 including various buttons such as a ten-key pad and an enter button is input to the CPU 6. The mobile phone 2A also includes a display device 5 for displaying images, characters and the like.

Further, the mobile phone 2A includes a memory 7 for storing operation programs, browsers and other data.

The voice input from the microphone 13 is converted into an analog voice signal. The analog audio signal is modulated by the modulation circuit 12 and transmitted from the antenna 8 via the transmission / reception circuit 9.

A voice signal transmitted from another mobile phone or the like is given to the transmitting / receiving circuit 9 via the antenna 8. The audio signal is demodulated in the demodulation circuit 10 and given to the speaker 11. Audio will be output from the speaker 11.

The mobile phone 2A can communicate with the digital still camera 1 as described above. For this communication, the communication interface 3 is included in the mobile phone 2A. The image data transmitted from the digital still camera 1 is received by the communication interface 3 and temporarily stored in the memory 7. The image data is read from the memory 7 and given to the display device 5 via the CPU 6. The image taken by the digital still camera 1 is displayed on the display screen of the display device 5.

The mobile phone 2A can also send image data to the image server 20 as described above. The image data received as described above is transmitted from the antenna 8 to the image server 20 via the transmission / reception circuit 9.
It goes without saying that the destination is designated by the operation circuit 4.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of the communication system. 5 and 6 show examples of images (characters) displayed on the display screen 5 (using the same reference numerals as those of the display device) of the browsing mobile phone 2B.

The browsing user who wants to view the image photographed by the photographing user transmits the e-mail address of his / her browsing mobile phone 2B to the image server 20 in advance (step 51).

The electronic mail address transmitted from the browsing mobile phone 2B is received by the image server 20 and stored in the electronic mail database 22 as shown in FIG. 2 (step 41).

Subsequently, the photographing user 1 photographs the subject with the digital still camera 1, and the image data representing the subject image is transmitted to the transmitting portable telephone 2A. The image data is transmitted to the image server 20 by the transmission mobile phone 2A (step 31).

When the image data is received by the image server 20, it is stored in the image database 21 (step 4
2). Sent from the camera user (sending mobile phone 2A
When the image data (transmitted from the) is stored in the image database 21, an electronic mail including the URL data indicating the storage location (storage location) of the image data stored in the image database 22 is generated. The email address stored in the image database 22 is read. The generated electronic mail is transmitted by the image server 20 to the read electronic mail address (step 43).

Display screen 5 of all browsing mobile phones 2B
As shown in FIG. 5, the content of the received electronic mail is displayed (step 52). On the display screen 5, a URL indicating the storage location of the image is displayed in hot text in addition to the sentence indicating that there is an image that the browsing user wants to show. However, URL15 does not necessarily have to be in the form of hot text.

A browsing user uses the operation device 4 to make a U
When RL15 is clicked (YES in step 53), a request for access to the storage location of the image server 20 indicated by URL15 is transmitted from the browsing mobile phone 2B to the image server 20 (step 54).

When the image server 20 receives the access request from the browsing mobile phone 2B, the image database
Image data representing an image photographed by the photographing user, which is stored in 21, is read. The read image data is transmitted to the browsing mobile phone 2B by the image server 20 (step 44).

An image server in the browsing mobile phone 2B
When the image data transmitted from 20 is received, the image represented by the received image data is displayed on the display screen 5 of the browsing mobile phone 2B as shown in FIG. 6 (step 55).

By storing the e-mail address of the browsing mobile phone 2B in the image server 20 (e-mail database 22) in advance, the electronic device for notifying the storage location of the image data representing the image transmitted from the photographing user The mail is transmitted from the image server 20 to the browsing mobile phone 2B. The browsing user can view the captured image by accessing the storage location notified by the email. The captured image can be immediately viewed on the mobile phones of a large number of browsing users.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, the electronic mail is sent to all the stored electronic mail addresses, but the address to which the electronic mail is sent is selected from the stored electronic mail addresses. You may do it.

For example, if a participant at a banquet or wedding reception has a mobile phone, the e-mail address is registered in advance in the mobile phone so that the image is taken at the banquet or wedding reception. The image can be displayed on the spot on the display screen of the mobile phone of all the participants on the spot.

Mobile phone for transmission 2A and mobile phone for browsing 2B
It goes without saying that and may be the same.

In addition, the mobile phone 2 for browsing from the image server 20
The image data sent to B is for each mobile phone 2B.
Will be converted into a format suitable for the format of each mobile phone 2B so that it can be received at.

Even if the mobile phone cannot view the image represented by the image file attached to the e-mail, the browsing mobile phone 2B has a browser stored therein, so that the image server 20 can be accessed. The obtained image can be displayed on the display screen 5. Further, since the image file is not attached to the e-mail, the amount of data received by the mobile phone is relatively small. It can be prevented in advance that the browsing mobile phone 2B cannot receive data.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the image taken by the digital still camera 1 is displayed on the display screen of the browsing mobile phone 2B, but not only the image taken by the camera is used. The image read by the scanner, the image generated by the user, or the like may be displayed on the display screen of the browsing mobile phone 2B.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 shows an outline of a communication system.

FIG. 2 shows an email address table.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of a mobile phone.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of the communication system.

FIG. 5 is an example of an image displayed on a mobile phone.

FIG. 6 is an example of an image displayed on a mobile phone.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Digital still camera 2A, 2B mobile phones 20 Image server 21 Image database 22 Email Database

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An image data storing means for storing image data, a destination of the image data stored in the image data storing means, and storing electronic mail address data of a portable communication device. An electronic mail address stored in the electronic mail address storage means and an electronic mail including an image storage address representing a storage location of the image data stored in the image data storage means An image server equipped with an electronic mail sending means for sending to an address. 2. The electronic mail sending means responds to the storage of the image data in the image data storage means by sending the electronic mail to an electronic mail address stored in the client electronic mail address storage means. The image server according to claim 1, which is to be sent to an electronic mail address represented by data. 3. The image server according to claim 1, wherein the electronic mail sending means sends an electronic mail in which the image storage address is hot text. 4. An electronic mail address transmitting means for transmitting the electronic mail address data of the portable communication device to the image server, which represents a destination of the image data stored in the image server. An electronic mail receiving means for receiving an electronic mail including an image storage address representing a storage location of image data stored in the image server, a display device for displaying the content of the electronic mail received by the electronic mail receiving means, and the above A mobile device provided with request transmission means for transmitting to the image server a transmission request for the image data stored in the storage location of the image server specified by the image storage address included in the content of the electronic mail displayed on the display device. Type communication device. 5. An e-mail of a portable communication device, which represents image data and a destination of the image data.
An image that stores address data and sends an e-mail including an image storage address that represents the location of stored image data to an e-mail address represented by the stored e-mail address data How to control the server. 6. An electronic mail address data of a portable communication device, which represents a destination of the image data stored in the image server, is transmitted to the image server, and the image server is transmitted in response to the transmission. An image received from an e-mail containing an image storage address representing the storage location of image data transmitted from the e-mail, the content of the e-mail received is displayed, and the image specified by the image storage address included in the e-mail content displayed A method for controlling a portable communication device, wherein a request for transmitting image data stored in a storage location of a server is transmitted to the image server.