JP2003309743A - Digital camera and image transmission method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a digital camera whereby other client can simply browse photographed image data and to provide an image transmission method. <P>SOLUTION: The digital camera is provided with: a digital image imaging section 102 for photographing an image to obtain digital image data; an html file generating section 107 for generating a structured document to display the digital image data; and a WWW server 104 for transmitting the structured document in response to a request of a client, and the html file generating section 107 the structured document to display the digital image data photographed by the digital image imaging section 102 and the WWW server 104 transmits the generated structured document in response to a request from a PC 114 acting like the client. <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 digital camera, and more particularly to a digital camera including a WWW server and a LAN controller and an image transmitting method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a technique has been developed in which image data taken by a digital camera is displayed on a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as "PC") and viewed by other users. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 10-224676 discloses an example of a digital camera capable of transmitting and receiving image data taken by the digital camera between a digital camera and a PC at a remote place by operating a WWW browser. .

A WWW (World Wide W)
eb) is an information search system used on the Internet. A WWW browser is software that searches for a WWW server on the Internet.

[0004]

However, the above-mentioned digital camera has a function of transmitting and receiving image data to and from a remote PC, but has a function of converting photographed image data into an html format. I haven't. Therefore, it cannot be converted into an html format document including photographed image data and displayed on the home page. Therefore, there is a problem that other clients cannot easily view the image data taken by the digital camera.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a digital camera and an image transmission method by which other clients can easily view captured image data.

[0006]

According to the present invention, a structured document for displaying digital image data photographed by a digital image photographing means is created by a structured document creating means, and structured according to a request of a client. The structured document created by the document creating means is transmitted.

[0007]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION A digital camera according to a first aspect of the present invention is a digital image photographing means for photographing an image to obtain digital image data, and a structured document for displaying the digital image data. And a WWW server for transmitting the structured document in response to a request from the client.

According to this structure, a structured document for displaying the photographed digital image data is created, and the structured document is transmitted to the client in response to the request from the client. Therefore, the client can easily browse the digital image data captured by the digital camera by activating the WWW browser.

In a digital camera according to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the structured document for displaying the digital image data is reduced image data as an item for requesting the digital image data. Take a configuration that includes.

According to this structure, the reduced image data is displayed in correspondence with the digital image data taken by the present digital camera. Therefore, when selecting the digital image data, the client can select it while viewing the reduced image data, and thus can more easily select and browse the desired digital image data.

In a digital camera according to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the structured document for displaying the digital image data includes a button for requesting an image display of the digital image data and the digital display. A configuration including a description for displaying a digital image data selection screen including a button for requesting a list display of image data is adopted.

According to this structure, the digital image data selection screen including the button for requesting the image display of the digital image data and the button for requesting the list display of the digital image data is displayed. Therefore, the client can select the display format desired by the client when selecting the digital image data captured by the digital camera.

A digital camera according to a fourth aspect of the present invention is the digital camera according to the third aspect, wherein the button for requesting image display includes a digital image data request including an item for requesting display for each of the digital image data. Take the configuration that is linked to the screen.

According to this structure, when the client selects this image display button, an item for requesting display for each digital image data is displayed. Therefore, the client can select each desired digital image data.

In the digital camera according to the fifth aspect of the present invention, in the fourth aspect, the item for requesting the display for each digital image data is a reduced image data of the digital image data. .

According to this structure, the reduced image data is displayed in correspondence with the digital image data taken by the digital camera. Therefore, when selecting the digital image data, the client can select the digital image data more easily because the client can select the digital image data while looking at the reduced image data.

In the digital camera according to the sixth aspect of the present invention, the button for requesting the list display displays an item for requesting display for each digital image data and an image display of the digital image data for each shooting date. The configuration is linked to a digital image data request screen including items for requesting.

According to this structure, when the client selects this list display button, the item for requesting the display of each digital image data and the item for requesting the image display of the digital image data for each photographing date. And are displayed. Therefore, the client can select desired digital image data for each digital image data and also select digital image data for each shooting date.

An image transmitting method according to a seventh aspect of the present invention includes a step of photographing an image to obtain digital image data,
The method further includes the steps of creating a structured document for displaying the digital image data and transmitting the structured document in response to a client request.

According to this method, a structured document for displaying the photographed digital image data is created, and the structured document is transmitted to the client in response to the request from the client. Therefore, the client can easily browse the digital image data captured by the digital camera by activating the WWW browser.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a digital camera according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the present digital camera 10
0 includes a lens 101 and a digital image capturing unit 102. The digital image capturing unit 102 includes the lens 10
The image formed through 1 is imaged to obtain digital image data (hereinafter referred to as “image data”).

The digital camera 100 is a LAN
Control unit 103, WWW server unit 104, image processing unit 10
5, an operation unit 106, an html file creation unit 107, a storage unit 108, and a control unit 109.

The LAN control unit 103 controls the LAN device and controls transmission / reception of predetermined data to / from an external network. The WWW server unit 104 communicates with the WWW browser according to the HTTP protocol, and delivers the html file. Image processing unit 1
Reference numeral 05 performs compression / expansion of image data captured by the digital camera 100. The image processing unit 105 uses, for example, JF for image data captured by the digital camera 100.
Compression and decompression are performed according to the IF method. The JFIF method is a standard format for adding image information and the like to image data compressed by the JPEG method and storing it in a file. Here, a thumbnail image is added as image information. The operation unit 106 is used when the user operates the digital camera 100, and includes a pointing device such as a shutter button and an image data delete button. html file creation unit 10
Reference numeral 7 creates an html file that can be browsed on the home page and includes image data taken by the digital camera 100. The storage unit 108 stores the captured image storage area 11
0, an html file storage area 111 and a compressed image storage area 112. Captured image storage area 1
Image data (hereinafter referred to as “captured image data”) captured by the digital image capturing unit 102 is stored in the storage unit 10. The html file storage area 111 contains html files.
The html file created by the file creation unit 107 is stored, and the html file created in advance such as the main screen of the home page of the digital camera 100 is also stored. In the compressed image storage area 112, image data compressed by the image processing unit 105 (hereinafter,
"Compressed image data") is stored. Since the image processing unit 105 performs a predetermined compression process based on the JFIF method, the compressed image data includes thumbnail image data in which the size of the image data is reduced. Control unit 109
Controls the entire digital camera 100 including these components.

The external network 113 for which the LAN control unit 103 controls transmission / reception of predetermined data corresponds to, for example, the Internet. The PC 114 is connected to the external network 113 such as the Internet.

Next, an html for displaying image data photographed by the digital camera 100 having the above-mentioned configuration.
The operation up to creating the file is explained.

First, the captured image data captured by the digital image capturing unit 102 is stored in the captured image storage area 110 of the storage unit 108.

The captured image data is stored in the captured image storage area 11
When it is stored in 0, the image processing unit 105 performs a predetermined compression process based on the JFIF method on the captured image data. The compressed image data compressed by the image processing unit 105 is stored in the compressed image storage area 112.

When a predetermined number or more of compressed image data are stored in the compressed image storage area 112, the html file creating section 107 creates an html file containing the compressed image data. The html file created by the html file creating unit 107 is stored in the html file storage area 111.

In this way, the present digital camera 100
An html file for displaying the image data photographed in 3. is created.

Next, the image data taken by the digital camera 100 is connected to the external network 113 by a PC.
The operation up to the display at 114 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. Here, it is assumed that the digital camera 100 is connected to a LAN such as Ethernet (R) by the LAN control unit 103. Also,
It is assumed that the digital camera 100 has an IP address set. As a result, the digital camera 10
0 can provide a server function to the external network 113.

The digital camera 100 is in a standby state until the home page is accessed by designating the IP address (URL address).

PC connected to the external network 113
The client 114 activates a WWW browser to specify the IP address of the digital camera 100 to access the home page (ST201). W of PC114
When the WW browser accesses the home page, it means that the file on the main screen of the home page of the digital camera 100 is requested. The IP address can be specified by, for example, I.
There is also a method in which the user directly specifies the P address, but DH
A server application such as CP may be used.

This digital camera 100 that has been accessed
Is a WWW server unit 104 through the LAN control unit 103.
Starts processing. The WWW server unit 104 is the PC 11
In response to the command for requesting the file (index.html) of the main screen of the home page received from 4, the html file storage area 111 of the storage unit 108 is received.
From index. Read the html file and PC1
It is sent to 14 WWW browsers (ST202). Figure 3
9 shows a file association table of html files stored in the html file storage area 111 of the storage unit 108.
File (index.h) of main screen of homepage
The files required to display the home page are associated with the.

The WWW browser of the PC 114 is a file (index.html) on the main screen of the home page.
When it receives, the content is analyzed and a command requesting a file necessary for displaying the home page is sent to the WWW server section 104 (ST203). For example, in FIG.
If the main screen of the homepage as shown in is displayed, the WWW browser of the PC 114 displays the files (img0.html, list shown in FIG. 3) required for displaying the icons of “image display” and “list display”.
0. WWW server section 1
It sends to 04.

When the WWW server section 104 receives a file request necessary to display the main screen of the home page, the html file storage area 111 of the storage section 108 is displayed.
Read the corresponding file from WWW of PC114
It is sent to the browser (ST204). This allows the PC
The main screen of the home page of the digital camera 100 is displayed on the screen 114 (ST205).

When the main screen of the home page shown in FIG. 4 is displayed, the digital camera 100 remains on standby until the client selects the desired icon on the PC 114.

First, the case where the "image display" icon is selected from the main screen of the home page will be described. When the "image display" icon is selected, a file request for the image display linked to the icon display position is generated (ST206).

Upon receiving the image display file request, the WWW server unit 104 reads the image display html file from the html file storage area 111 of the storage unit 108 and sends it to the WWW browser of the PC 114 (ST207).

The "image display" screen (image display document screen) is displayed in accordance with the image display html file received from the WWW server section 104 by the WWW browser of the PC 114.
Is displayed (ST208).

FIG. 5 shows an example of the structure of the image display document screen.
As shown in the figure, thumbnail image data obtained by reducing the size of the image data captured by the digital camera 100 is displayed on the image display document screen. FIG. 6 shows a part of the source file of this image display document screen.
“ImgN.jpg” indicates the file name of captured image data, and “imgN_s.jpg” indicates the file name of thumbnail image data. Here, it is described that the captured image data is displayed when the thumbnail image data is selected.

Here, it is assumed that the thumbnail image data of image number 4 (img4_s.jpg shown in FIG. 5) is selected. When the thumbnail image data of image number 4 is selected, a request for captured image data is generated (ST209).

When the WWW server unit 104 receives the photographed image data request for the thumbnail image data of the image number 4, it reads the photographed image data of the image number 4 from the photographed image storage area 110 of the storage unit 108 and displays it on the WWW browser of the PC 114. It is sent (ST210).

The WWW browser of the PC 114 receives the photographed image data and displays the photographed image data of image number 4 on the PC 114 (ST211). At this time, the displayed captured image data is as shown in FIG. 7. In this way, the image data captured by the digital camera 100 is connected to the external network 113 of the PC 1
14 is displayed.

Next, the case where the "list display" icon is selected from the main screen of the home page will be described. Also in this case, as in the case where the "image display" icon is selected, a file request for the list display linked to the icon display position of "list display" is generated.

When the WWW server unit 104 receives the file request for displaying the list, the WWW server unit 104 stores html in the storage unit 108.
The html file of the list display is read from the file storage area 111 and sent to the WWW browser of the PC 114. WWW browser of PC114 is WWW server section 1
A list display screen (list display document screen) is displayed according to the list display html file received from 04.

FIG. 8 shows an example of the structure of the list display document screen. As shown in the figure, on the list display document screen, the "shooting date" icon and the digital camera 1
A list of image data captured at 00 is displayed.

The digital camera 100 stands by until the list of image data desired by the client or the "shooting date" icon is selected on the PC 114 on which the list display document screen shown in FIG. 8 is displayed.

Here, for example, of the list of image data, the list of the image number 4 (img4_s.
jpg) is selected, similarly to the case of the above-mentioned image display document screen, a captured image data request for the image number 4 is generated, and the WWW server unit 104 responds to the request, and the WWW server unit 104 displays it on the PC 114 as shown in FIG. The captured image data of image number 4 as shown in is displayed.

On the other hand, when the "shooting date" icon is selected, the "shooting date" linked to the display position of the icon is selected.
A file request corresponding to is generated. That is, when the "shooting date (June 8th)" icon is selected, the file (im
g1_s. jpg, img2_s. jpg, img3_
s. jpg) request occurs.

When the WWW server unit 104 receives this file request, it reads the corresponding file from the html file storage area 111 of the storage unit 108 and PC1.
Send to 14. WWW browser of PC114 is WWW
Ht of the shooting date (June 8) received from the server unit 104
According to the ml file, a "shooting date" screen (shooting date document screen) including thumbnail image data of image data shot on the shooting date is displayed. At this time, the displayed shooting date document screen is as shown in FIG. Then, when the thumbnail image data desired by the client is selected from the shooting date document screen, the WWW server unit 104 accordingly displays the shot image data corresponding to the thumbnail image data on the PC 114.

As described above, according to the digital camera 100 of the present embodiment, the html file creating section 107
H that includes thumbnail image data of image data taken by the digital camera 100 and can be browsed on the website.
Create a tml file. This allows the client of the PC 114 connected to the external network 113 to access the home page of the digital camera 100 to easily browse the image data taken by the digital camera 100.

Further, the digital camera 10 of the present embodiment
According to 0, thumbnail image data of captured image data is displayed on the home page. Therefore, when the client selects the image data, the thumbnail image data can be used to select the image data.
The client can more easily browse the image data captured by the digital camera 100. further,
In the thumbnail image data displayed on the homepage,
For example, you may change so that additional information may be added to a shooting date or the like. In the case of such a change, it is possible to select the thumbnail image data and further select the date of photographing, so that the image data can be selected more easily.

In the digital camera 100 of the present embodiment, an html file containing thumbnail image data, which is obtained by the compression processing based on the JFIF system, is created. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and it may be modified to create an html file including compressed image data obtained by a compression process conforming to the JPEG method or the like. Even with such a change, the client of the PC 114 connected to the external network 113 can browse the image data captured by the digital camera 100, as in the digital camera 100 of the present embodiment.

Further, the digital camera 10 of the present embodiment
In the case of 0, when a predetermined number or more of compressed image data are stored in the compressed image storage area 112, the digital camera 10
An html file for displaying the image data taken at 0 is created. However, the present invention is not limited to the case where a predetermined number or more of compressed image data are stored in the compressed image storage area 112, and an html file for displaying image data captured by the digital camera 100 may be created at any timing. You may change it. Even in the case of such a change, the PC 114 connected to the external network 113 is similar to the digital camera 100 of the present embodiment.
The client can browse the image data taken by the digital camera 100.

Further, in this embodiment, the LAN control unit 1
A digital camera that has a built-in 03 and is connected to the external network 113 and can browse image data captured by the digital camera 100 on the home page is described. At this time, the connection with the external network 113 may be changed to be performed wirelessly. In the case of such a change, the image data taken by the digital camera 100 while freely moving can be viewed on the home page. This allows other clients to more quickly browse the image data taken by the digital camera 100.

Further, the present embodiment describes a digital camera capable of browsing image data of a still image on a home page. However, the present invention is not limited to still images, and the digital camera 100 may be applied to moving images. In this way, even when applied to a moving image, the same effect as this embodiment can be obtained.

Further, the present embodiment describes a digital camera in which the client can browse the image data taken by the digital camera 100 through the PC 114 connected to the external network 113. However, it is not limited to browsing image data. That is, the CGI processing program may be stored in the storage unit 108, and the processing may be changed to perform the processing instructed by the PC 114 connected to the external network 113. For example, the PC 114 connected to the external network 113 may be modified so that unnecessary image data is deleted or edited based on an instruction. When changed in this way, the image data taken by the digital camera 100 can be remotely operated.

[0060]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the html file that can be browsed on the home page including the image data shot by this digital camera is created, it is possible to provide the digital camera that other clients can easily browse the shot image data.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a digital camera according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart until image data taken by the digital camera according to the above embodiment is displayed on a PC.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a file association table of html files managed by the digital camera according to the above embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a home page main screen provided by the digital camera according to the above embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of an image display document screen provided by the digital camera according to the above embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of data of a source file of an image display document screen provided by the digital camera according to the above embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram of a captured image provided by the digital camera according to the above embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a configuration diagram of a list display document screen provided by the digital camera according to the above embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a configuration diagram of a shooting date document screen provided by the digital camera according to the above embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

100 digital camera 101 lens 102 Digital image capturing unit 103 LAN control unit 104 WWW server section 105 image processing unit 106 Operation part 107 html file creation section 108 storage 109 control unit 110 Captured image storage area 111 html file storage area 112 Compressed image storage area

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A digital image photographing means for photographing an image to obtain digital image data, a structured document generating means for generating a structured document for displaying the digital image data on a web browser, and an Internet connection. A digital camera comprising: connecting means; and WWW server means for transmitting the structured document to the client terminal in response to a request from the client terminal connected via the Internet. 2. The digital camera according to claim 1, wherein the structured document for displaying the digital image data includes reduced image data as an item for requesting the digital image data. 3. A structured image document for displaying the digital image data includes a digital image data selection screen including a button requesting an image display of the digital image data and a button requesting a list display of the digital image data. 3. A description for displaying a message is included.
The listed digital camera. 4. The digital image data requesting screen according to claim 3, wherein the button for requesting image display is linked to a digital image data request screen including an item for requesting display for each of the digital image data. camera. 5. The digital camera according to claim 4, wherein the item for requesting display for each digital image data is reduced image data of the digital image data. 6. The button for requesting the list display is digital image data including an item for requesting a display for each of the digital image data and an item for requesting an image display of the digital image data for each photographing date. The digital camera according to claim 3, wherein the digital camera is linked to a request screen. 7. A step of photographing an image to obtain digital image data, a step of creating a structured document for displaying the digital image data by a web browser, a step of connecting to the Internet, and a step of connecting via the Internet. And a step of transmitting the structured document to the client terminal in response to a request from the connected client terminal.