JP2003274103A - Photograph delivery system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To deliver photographic images photographed by a digital camera in a photostudio or the like through the Internet to easily download them to a mobile phone or a personal computer. <P>SOLUTION: Image data photographed by the digital camera is converted to a language for image transmission corresponding to various mobile phones and is preserved in a database together with customer information including an ID number. The image data of a customer who has accessed the database is called on the basis of the ID number of the customer, and its directory is delivered to a mail address designated by the customer through the Internet in a language corresponding to the machine type of a transmission destination discriminated by the mail address, so that a customer on the destination side having the designated mail address can download the image to a mobile phone or the like. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a system for easily downloading a photographic image taken by a digital camera to a mobile phone or distributing it to a personal computer via the Internet.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a photograph such as a commemorative photograph taken in a studio of a photo shop is printed at the photo shop and handed to a visiting customer or delivered to the customer by mail or the like. This method is convenient for customers to store and decorate the photos, but to send them to relatives and acquaintances, the number of prints should be increased by that amount, and the obtained photos should be mailed to individual destinations. Since it had to be shipped in, it was troublesome and expensive. In particular, when taking a picture of multiple poses, the number of pictures increases, and it is troublesome to handle.

[0003]

With the recent spread of communication via the Internet, it has become more common to send images such as photographs by mail. However, sending photos by e-mail using the Internet requires a great deal of skill and effort because each person must capture the images with a scanner and send them to the intended e-mail address. There was a problem that was. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to make it possible to easily deliver an image taken at a photo shop to an acquaintance or the like.

[0004]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention employs the following configurations. That is, the distribution system according to the present invention stores image data captured by a digital camera in a database together with customer information including an ID number, and stores image data of a customer who has accessed the database based on the ID number of the customer. It is characterized in that it is configured to call and deliver or download to the mail address designated by the customer through the Internet.

For image transmission of mobile phones, different languages (PNG, JPG, GIF) are used depending on the types of mobile phones.
Etc. are used, in order to send the image data to the mobile phone, it is necessary to convert the data into the language used in the mobile phone and send the data. For this reason, the image data is converted into a plurality of languages corresponding to the type of mobile phone and classified for each customer (same ID number), and when the customer makes an access, the customer who makes the access specifies the data. Identify the type of mobile phone from the email address, automatically select the language used for the mobile phone,
The image data is preferably configured to be provided to the customer. When delivering to a personal computer, it is necessary to translate the image data into the language for the personal computer, but since the personal computer contains various software, it can generally be opened in any language. Target.

According to this photo distribution system, the customer does not need to take in the photographic image with the scanner, and the image data taken at the photo shop can be easily transmitted to the mail address designated by the customer. It's a convenient way to deliver information to relatives, etc.

[0007]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, description will be given on the basis of embodiments of the present invention shown in the drawings. 1 and the following figures specifically illustrate the system of the present invention. In this example, image data taken by the studio 7 in the photo shop S is printed at the processing site W and stored in the database. It is designed to accumulate. The camera used for shooting is a digital camera.

Reference numeral 1 in FIG. 2 is a store server of a photo store,
The reservation device 2 and the reception device of the same-day photography reception unit 3 are connected to the store server 1, and necessary customer data such as names of reserved customers, telephone numbers, and zip codes are stored in a database. . The reservation device, the same-day shooting acceptance device, and the like are configured by a personal computer (PC). On the day of shooting, necessary data is called from the database, and the missing item is added to the shooting reception unit 3.

In the studio 7, a picture is taken by a digital camera. The image data photographed here is corrected by the color manager 10, sorted into various language thumbnails for printing and mail transmission, and stored in the database. Since the customer may change his / her mind and request another image later, all the images are also stored for a predetermined period (for example, three months).

The image data once taken in the database is selected by the customer by the select (file manager) of the computer 13 provided in the studio. The image selected here contains the I for each customer.
The D number is added. On the other hand, the image for printing selected here is sent to the image server 16 of the processing factory W via the Internet, processed by software such as [TQS2], and printed by the printing device 17.

After the printing is completed, the photograph is subjected to finishing processing, delivery note issuing, packing, etc. according to the customer data stored in the database server 20, and then shipped. At this time, if there are pictures to be displayed in the store (studio), they are selected here, sent to the store, and displayed.

On the other hand, the image data selected for Internet distribution by the selection (that is, the photograph purchased by the customer) is a small image data reduced for various mobile phones and personal computers, together with the ID number, and the store server 1
Sent to the database. The narrowed-down image (thumbnail image) data is sent to the database server 20 at night, and the web server 3 together with the customer information is used as a plurality of image processing languages corresponding to the types of mobile phones.
Stored in 0.

A customer who wants to distribute this image to relatives, acquaintances, etc., accesses the server 30 through the Internet, inputs necessary information such as an ID number (on a sheet issued at the time of selection), and designates a photograph. Ask to deliver the image to the specified email address. If the specified address is the email address of the mobile phone, the computer determines the type of the mobile phone of the receiving side from the specified address and automatically selects the image data translated into the language corresponding to the mobile phone. It has become. The other party (recipient) who has a designated email
Can download the photo image by clicking operation based on the received transmission contents, and can see the distribution image on the display of the mobile phone. When the designated mail address is a computer address, the mail is transmitted in a computer language, for example, JPG.

FIG. 3 exemplifies the procedure of this transmission. A customer who wants to transmit the photographed image to the other party opens the home page of the photo shop that manages this system and applies for the transmission. This application requires information for identifying the customer, such as home telephone number and ID number. When this information is presented and applied, the score of the photograph purchased by the customer and the photograph number for each photograph are displayed. Therefore, the customer designates a desired image and orders the transmission to a desired mail address. As a result, the URL for accessing the location where the designated image data is stored is transmitted to the designated mail address via the Internet. Then, when the other side (recipient) clicks the URL, the image is downloaded to the recipient.
Along with the transmission of this image, a sentence such as a message can be transmitted.

In this way, the images stored on the homepage of the photo shop can be selected and downloaded to the desired mail address from the outside by operating the mobile phone. Easy to send. The transmitted party receives the image data translated into the image processing language corresponding to his / her mobile phone, and therefore can see the image as it is on the display of the mobile phone. If you are using a computer, you can send it to the other party by attaching it to an e-mail from the home page, as the language is not chosen.

In the above description, the photographed image data is translated and stored in advance in the language for each mobile phone, and when the customer calls, the designated mail address corresponds to the model of the other party. I explained how to call and send the translation data of the language to be used, but in some cases, when there is a sending command without translating in advance,
The email address may be translated into a required language and transmitted. In this way, it is not necessary to translate into a plurality of languages (often including unnecessary ones) in advance, but translation time is required at the time of transmission.

On the other hand, since the photo shop can know the mail address of the destination, it is possible to store this mail address in the database as data for direct mail transmission and to send direct mail accordingly. There are advantages. As described above, since it is possible to cultivate a large number of customers from one customer, it is expected that the profit will be sufficiently paid even if the transmission cost of the image data is borne.

[0018]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, the customer can receive not only the photograph taken in the studio in a printed state but also the desired image to acquaintances and relatives. Since it can be delivered as it is through the Internet, it is possible to save the photo management of each customer and easily send any photo to the other party. Since this transmission is performed by the customer himself / herself based on the ID number, there is no risk of privacy problems.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an outline of a distribution system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a specific example thereof.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a transmission procedure.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 store server 2 Reservation device 3 Reception desk on the day 10 color manager 16 Image server 20 database server

Continued front page    F-term (reference) 5B050 AA08 BA15 CA07 CA08 FA02                       FA12 FA13 FA19                 5C062 AA11 AA14 AA29 AB38 AC41                       AC42 AC43 AF00 AF02 BA04                       BC01                 5C075 AB90 BB11 CA14                 5K067 BB04 DD17 DD52 HH22 HH23                       HH24

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. Image data captured by a digital camera is stored in a database together with customer information including an ID number, image data of a customer who has accessed the database is called based on the ID number of the customer, and the directory is stored. Is delivered to the mail address designated by the customer via the Internet, and the customer of the other party having the designated mail address can download the image. 2. The captured image data is converted into an image transmission language corresponding to various mobile phones or personal computers,
A configuration configured to automatically select a language corresponding to a recipient's destination model from a mail address specified by the customer and enable download of a customer of the partner side having the specified mail address. The photo distribution system described in 1. 3. The photo distribution system according to claim 1, wherein the photo distribution mail address designated by the customer is stored in a database as a destination for direct mail transmission.