JP2003281010A - Portable terminal equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide portable terminal equipment with improved convenience in utilizing an Internet connection service by organically combining a built-in camera with an input operation of a URL desired by a user. <P>SOLUTION: Code information being a two-dimensional code including URL information is printed on advertisement goods such as a poster. The code information is photographed by the built-in camera 10. An image processing part 10 identifies the code information photographed by the camera 10, generates a byte string with black as 1 and white as 0 from the identified code information, decodes the byte string into, for example, text data and acquires the code information. A URL extraction part 12 extracts URL information from the decoded code information and inputs the extracted URL information to a communication/speech communication control part 2. The communication/speech communication control part 2 connects to a web site designated with the inputted URL to acquire a web page and displays the web page on a display part 8. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a mobile terminal device, and more particularly, to a mobile terminal device capable of automatically extracting and connecting a URL.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, a system using a two-dimensional bar code has been provided. This system requires a dedicated bar code scanner for reading a two-dimensional bar code, and further requires a separate computer to perform this reading process.

On the other hand, recent mobile phones having a built-in camera are rapidly becoming widespread, and the movement of mounting a camera on a mobile information terminal such as a PDA is rapidly increasing.

In a mobile phone having such a built-in camera, an image taken on the spot can be attached to another mobile phone by e-mail and transmitted.

In addition, recent mobile phones and portable information terminals (hereinafter referred to as mobile phones, etc.) are also equipped with a function for connecting to the Internet, and by inputting various URLs, it is possible to connect to a desired Web page. It is like this.

[0006] In the case of using the Internet connection service using a mobile phone or the like, conventionally, it is general that a desired URL is key-input by itself to connect. In addition, register the URL that you often connect to in the memory of the device itself,
By reading the URL from this memory and connecting to the Internet, it is possible to save the trouble of inputting the URL. Furthermore, a memory card or the like in which a specific URL is written is also provided, and by connecting the memory card to the main body of the device, it is possible to easily connect to the written URL.

[0007]

As described above, as the Internet connection service using a mobile phone or the like, various services have been provided in consideration of user's convenience.

However, even if the URL is registered in the memory in the device body, it is necessary to once enter the URL by itself, and the number of URLs that can be registered in the memory is limited by the memory capacity. There was a problem such as not.

Although a memory card in which a specific URL is written is also provided, there is a problem that the URL desired by the user is not always written.

On the other hand, in a mobile phone or the like having a built-in camera, an image taken on the spot can be displayed on one's own mobile phone or the like, or can be attached to another mobile phone or the like by e-mail and transmitted. However, as for the usage form of the camera, no more is proposed so far.

The present invention was devised with this point in mind, and its purpose is to provide an Internet connection service by organically combining a built-in camera and a user's desired URL input operation. It is to provide a mobile terminal device with improved convenience.

[0012]

A portable terminal device of the present invention stores an image pickup means for picking up code information including URL information, an identifying means for identifying the imaged code information, and an identified code information. It is characterized by comprising a decryption means for decryption, an extraction means for extracting URL information from the decrypted code information, and a connection control means for connecting to a website designated by the extracted URL. In this case, a two-dimensional code can be used as the code information. Further, the code information is used by being printed in a corner of a printed matter such as a poster.

According to the present invention having such characteristics,
For example, when the user is interested in a poster seen at a street corner or the like, the user captures the code information printed on the poster with a camera, which is a built-in image capturing unit, and captures it inside. Since the captured image data is two-dimensional code information, the identifying means identifies the two-dimensional code information.

A conventionally known method can be used as an identification method. For example, a distortion correction is performed to correct the entire read two-dimensional code information (hereinafter, also referred to as a symbol), and then the distortion correction is performed. , A finder pattern included in the symbol (which will be described later) is detected, and rotation processing is performed to correct the positional relationship of the symbol vertically and horizontally. Next, a byte string in which, for example, black is 1 and white is 0 is generated from the light / dark state of each cell in the symbol, and finally this byte string is decoded into, for example, text data to obtain code information get.

The extraction means extracts URL information from the code information decrypted into text data. As a method of extracting the URL information, the URL includes at least a character string representing the communication protocol at the beginning and a character string representing the host name after the URL, so at least the extracting unit uses this character string. It is determined whether the character string of the communication protocol and the character string of the host name are included. Then, when the character string of the communication protocol and the character string of the host name are included, it is determined that the information is a URL, and the port number and the absolute path of the resource that are added as necessary thereafter. , The query character string, the partial identifier, etc. are extracted, and finally the URL is extracted. However, this is one method. For example, in the code information, a symbol indicating the start of the URL and a symbol indicating the end of the URL are written in advance at the beginning and the end of the URL, and the extraction means uses the symbol. The information written between the symbols may be identified as the URL by identifying the.

The connection control means activates a built-in Web browser, accesses the Web site designated by the extracted URL, acquires a desired Web page, and displays it on the display unit.

As described above, according to the portable terminal device of the present invention, when the user is interested in a poster or the like seen at a street corner, for example, the code information printed on the poster or the like is incorporated. The user can connect to the URL included in the code information and acquire the desired Web page by simply capturing the image with the camera that is the image capturing unit and capturing it in the device. This makes it possible to provide a mobile terminal device that is extremely convenient for the user.

[0018]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of a mobile phone which is an example of the mobile terminal device of the present invention.

The mobile phone A according to the present embodiment has a wireless transmission / reception unit 1 for transmitting / receiving a voice signal, character information and image information.
The wireless transmission / reception unit 1 includes a mobile phone A
It is connected to the communication / call control unit 2 that controls various processing operations of. Since the mobile phone A has an Internet connection service function, the communication / call control unit 2 is
The eb browser 2a is installed.

The communication / call control unit 2 includes a microphone 3,
Earpiece 4, internal speaker 5, etc. are connected,
Further, a key input unit 6 provided on the main body of the telephone for receiving various button inputs (not shown) is connected. Further, the communication / call control unit 2 is connected to a memory unit 7 for storing a telephone number entered by a user, an e-mail address, etc., and a display unit for displaying various character information, image information, etc. 8 is connected.

The mobile phone A of the present embodiment has a camera 10 built therein, and the output of the camera 10 is connected to the communication / call control unit 2 via the image processing unit 11. Further, the output of the image processing unit 11 is the URL extraction unit 12
The output of the URL extraction unit 12 is
It is connected to the call control unit 2.

In the above-mentioned structure, the image processing unit 11 performs a normal image processing such as a person image taken by the camera 10, and a special process when the code information including the URL information is taken. Also run.

That is, the image processing section 11 is provided with the camera 10
The process of identifying the code information photographed in (1) and the process of decoding the identified code information are executed.

Further, the URL extraction unit 12 is the image processing unit 1.
A process for extracting URL information from the code information decrypted by 1 is executed.

On the other hand, when the URL information is input from the URL extraction unit 12, the communication / call control unit 2 receives the connection instruction (operation of the send button, etc.) from the user and activates the Web browser 2a. Then, the website specified by the extracted URL is accessed to obtain a desired Web page, and the display unit 8 is controlled to display the Web page. Here, as the code information, a two-dimensional code is used in the present embodiment. The two-dimensional code is printed on the corner of an advertisement such as a poster attached to a street corner.

Here, in this embodiment, a QR code (registered trademark of Nippon Denso Co., Ltd.) defined in Japanese Industrial Standard X0510 is used as a symbol of the two-dimensional code. Therefore, in the following processing, the processing will be described using the wording according to this standard.

FIG. 2 is an overall configuration diagram showing a usage pattern of the mobile phone A of the present embodiment.

The mobile phone A is connected to the public line network 22 via an arbitrary base station 21 installed at regular intervals, and is connected to a service center 23. The service center 23 is provided with a management server (Web server) that performs an Internet connection service, a mail service, etc., and the management server is an arbitrary We on the Internet 24.
b It is possible to connect to the site 25.

Next, a concrete example of using the Internet connection service by using the mobile phone A having the above configuration will be described.

When the user is interested in a poster seen at a street corner or the like, the user shoots the two-dimensional code printed on the poster with the built-in camera 10. The captured image data is processed by the image processing unit 11.

Here, to determine whether to perform normal image processing or image processing according to the present invention, for example, one of various buttons provided on the telephone body (not shown) is used as a selection button. When the selection button is pressed, the internal processing may be constructed so as to perform the image processing according to the present invention. In this case, the timing of pressing the selection button may be before or after the photographing by the camera 10. In addition, this selection button may also be used as another function, or may be provided as a dedicated button.

When the selection button is pressed, the image processing section 11 judges that the image photographed by the camera 10 is the two-dimensional code information, and starts the identification of this two-dimensional code. That is, the photographed two-dimensional code information is not always photographed with a constant shape, size, and inclination.

Therefore, first, as shown in FIG.
The distortion correction is performed so that the entire symbol 31 of the two-dimensional code becomes horizontal.

Next, as shown in FIG. 3B, there is a noise part (dirt etc.) 32 outside the symbol 31, but a position detection pattern of the two-dimensional code (QR code) (three QR code symbols). The range of the symbol 31 is determined based on the functional pattern 31a composed of the three position detection element patterns arranged in the corners, and the processing is performed so that the noise portion 32 is not read in the next processing.

Next, as shown in FIG. 6C, a rotation process for correcting the positional relationship of the symbols vertically and horizontally is performed. This correction detects the position detection pattern 31a of the two-dimensional code (QR code) as shown in FIG. 7C, and rotates the symbol so that these three position detection patterns 31a are at the lower left, upper left, and upper right. To do.

Next, as shown in FIG. 7D, the sampling grid in the XY direction passing through all cells is calculated and set from the size, center position and pattern width of the three position detection patterns 31a. . Then, black or white is determined based on the light / dark state of the pixel data of the cell on the intersection of the sampling grid. Do this for all cells.

By reading only the inside of the symbol 31 in this way, a byte string in which black is 1 and white is 0 is generated from this two-dimensional code, as shown in FIG. The byte string is decoded into text data according to a decoding program to obtain code information.

The URL extraction unit 12 extracts URL information from the code information decrypted into text data.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram logically expressing the character strings forming the URL. That is, the URL is SchemaNode4 which is a character string representing the communication protocol.
Host, which is a character string representing a host name (including computer name, domain name, domain type, country name, etc.)
Node 42, Port which is a character string representing a port number
A Node 43, an AbsPathNode 44 that is a character string that represents an absolute path of a resource, a QueryNode 45 that is a character string that represents a query character string, and a FragmentNode 46 that is a character string that represents a partial identifier.

Of these, the URL includes the character string 41 representing the communication protocol at least at the beginning, and the character string 42 representing the host name after the character string 41.
The URL extracting unit 12 determines whether or not at least the character string 41 of the communication protocol and the character string 42 of the host name are included. Then, the communication protocol character string 4
If 1 and the host name character string 42 are included,
It is determined that the code information is a URL, and the port number 43, the absolute path 44 of the resource, the query character string 45, and the character string 46 such as the partial identifier, which are added thereafter as necessary, are extracted, and finally Extract the URL to.

However, this is one method. For example, in the code information, at the beginning and the end of the URL, the URL
The symbol indicating the start and the symbol indicating the end are written in advance, and the URL extracting unit 12 identifies the symbol so that the information written between the symbols is identified as the URL. Good.

Here, the extracted URL is once displayed on the display unit 8.
Is displayed in. After confirming this, the user operates, for example, a send button which is one of various buttons provided on the telephone body (not shown). This operation signal is input to the communication / call control unit 2 via the key input unit 6.

The communication / call control unit 2 activates the installed Web browser 2a based on this input signal, accesses the Web site designated by the extracted URL, and obtains the desired Web page, It is displayed on the display unit 8.

As described above, according to the portable terminal device of the present invention, when the user is interested in a poster or the like seen on a street corner, the user only needs to take the code information printed on the poster or the like with the camera 10. Then, the URL included in the code information is extracted, and the Web specified by the URL is extracted.
It is possible to access a site and acquire a desired Web page.

In this embodiment, the camera 10 captures the two-dimensional code to access the website designated by the URL included in the two-dimensional code and obtain a desired web page. However, in addition to this, for example, a two-dimensional code is printed on a product catalog such as a magazine, and the two-dimensional code is photographed by the camera 10 to automatically place an order for the product through the Internet. It is also possible to do so.

In this embodiment, a mobile phone is taken as an example of the mobile terminal device, but the present invention can be similarly applied to a mobile information terminal such as a PDA having a built-in camera.

Further, in the present embodiment, the QR code is used as the code information, but 2 other than the QR code is used.
Of course, dimension codes are also available. Also,
One-dimensional barcodes can be used as well.

[0049]

According to the portable terminal device of the present invention, the image pickup means for picking up the code information including the URL information, the identifying means for identifying the picked up code information, and the decoding means for decoding the identified code information. And from the decoded code information, U
When the user is interested in a poster or the like seen at a street corner, for example, since the configuration includes an extracting unit that extracts the RL information and a connection control unit that connects to the website specified by the extracted URL. By simply capturing the code information printed on the poster or the like with the built-in image capturing means and capturing it in the device, the user can access the website designated by the URL included in the code information to obtain the desired information. A web page can be acquired and displayed on the display unit. That is, since it is not necessary to enter a troublesome URL by itself and a user can directly access a website where information of interest is provided, it is possible to provide a mobile terminal device that is extremely convenient for the user. .

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of a mobile phone which is an example of a mobile terminal device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an overall configuration diagram showing a usage pattern of the mobile phone according to the present embodiment.

3A to 3E are explanatory diagrams showing a decoding procedure of a QR code which is a two-dimensional code.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram that logically represents a character string that constitutes a URL.

[Explanation of symbols]

A mobile phone 1 Wireless transceiver 2 Communication / call control section 2a Web browser 3 microphone 4 earpieces 5 Internal speaker 6 Key input section 7 Memory section 8 Display 10 cameras 11 Image processing unit 12 URL extractor

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An image pickup means for picking up code information including URL information, an identification means for identifying the picked-up code information, a decoding means for decoding the identified code information, and a decoding means for decoding the code information. A mobile terminal device, comprising: an extraction unit that extracts URL information; and a connection control unit that connects to a website specified by the extracted URL. 2. The mobile terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the code information is a two-dimensional code. 3. The mobile terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the code information is printed on a printed matter.