JP2003319034A - Portable terminal equipment, image processing method therein image processing parameter generation equipment and method therefor, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the amount of data to be transmitted and received when image processing is applied to image data obtained in a portable telephone set with a camera. <P>SOLUTION: In the portable telephone set 1 with a camera, low resolution image data SL0 are formed which show a low resolution image of image data S0 obtained by imaging, and the image data SL are transmitted to an image server 2. In the image server 2, an image processing parameter generation means 22 generates an image processing parameter P on the basis of the image data SL0. The parameter P is transmitted to the portable telephone set 1 with a camera. In the portable telephone set 1, an image processing means 13 applies image processing to the image data S0, on the basis of the image processing parameter P, and generates image data S1 wherein the processing is finished. <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 having a function of performing image processing on image data acquired by imaging, an image processing method in the mobile terminal device, and an image processing parameter for image processing. The present invention relates to an image processing parameter generation device and method, and a program for causing a computer to execute the image processing method and the image processing parameter generation method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Although the spread of mobile phones is remarkable, in recent years, mobile phones with a camera having a photographing means for acquiring image data by photographing have become widespread (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-2333020). 9-322114, 10-150523, and 2000-2.
53290 publication). By using such a mobile phone with a camera, the user's favorite image data acquired by photographing can be set on the standby screen of the mobile phone. Also, since you can attach the image data acquired by shooting to an email and send it to a friend, when you have to cancel your appointment or when you are likely to be late for the meeting time, This is useful for communicating with friends because it can inform their friends of their current situation, such as taking a photo of their apologetic expression and sending it to a friend.

Further, there has been proposed an image server equipped with an image processing device that performs various image processes on image data acquired by a camera-equipped mobile phone to obtain processed image data. Such an image server receives the image data transmitted from the camera-equipped mobile phone, applies the image processing instructed by the user in the camera-equipped mobile phone to the image data, and obtains the processed image obtained by the image processing. The data is transmitted to the transmission destination designated by the user in the camera-equipped mobile phone. By performing image processing on image data in such an image server, a high-quality image can be set on the standby screen or transmitted to a friend.

[0004]

By the way, the number of pixels of an image acquired by image pickup has increased as the function of the camera has become higher, and as a result, the image data has a large capacity. However, the communication charge of a mobile phone is a packet system in which a charge is added according to the amount of data communicated or a time-based system in which a charge is added according to the communication time. There is a problem that the price will be high.

For example, assuming that the average capacity of image data required to obtain an L size print is about 600 KB when compressed by the JPEG format and the packet communication charge is 0.2 yen per 128 bytes, one image A fee of 937 yen is required to send data.

In addition, the data transfer rate of the mobile telephone communication network is usually 9600 bps, and even the faster one is 6400 of PHS.
Since it is 0 bps, the time required to transmit the image data of about 600 KB is 5 at the normal data transfer rate.
00 seconds, even fast ones need 75 seconds.

For this reason, in order to transmit the image data acquired by the image pickup to the external device, it is unavoidable to reduce the capacity of the image data, for example, to make the resolution low. However,
If the capacity of the image data is reduced, there is a problem in that even if the image processing device of the image server performs the image processing on the image data, the image quality cannot be so high.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is possible to efficiently transmit and receive image data and display a high-quality image on a mobile terminal device such as a camera-equipped mobile phone. With the goal.

[0009]

A portable terminal device according to the present invention comprises an image pickup means for obtaining image data by image pickup, and a small capacity image generation means for generating small capacity image data having a smaller capacity than the image data. The small-capacity image data is transmitted to an external device that generates image processing parameters for performing image processing on the image data based on the small-capacity image data, and the image data transmitted from the external device. A communication means for receiving image processing parameters for performing image processing, and image processing means for performing image processing on the image data based on the image processing parameters to obtain processed image data. It is a feature.

An image processing method in a portable terminal device according to the present invention acquires image data by imaging, generates small-capacity image data having a smaller capacity than the image data, and outputs the small-capacity image data to the small-capacity image. An image processing parameter for performing image processing on the image data based on data is transmitted to an external device, and an image processing parameter for performing image processing on the image data transmitted from the external device is transmitted. It is characterized in that the image data is received and image processing is performed on the image data based on the image processing parameter to obtain processed image data.

The "small-capacity image data" can be created, for example, by thinning out the pixels of the image represented by the image data, reducing the number of colors, increasing the compression rate, or the like.

An image processing parameter generation device according to the present invention is an image pickup means for obtaining image data by image pickup, a small capacity image generation means for generating small capacity image data having a capacity smaller than the image data, and the small capacity image. The small-capacity image transmitted from a mobile terminal device including a communication unit that transmits data and receives various information, and an image processing unit that performs image processing on the image data to obtain processed image data. Image processing parameter generation means for generating image processing parameters for performing image processing on the image data based on the data, and receiving the small-capacity image data and transmitting the image processing parameters to the mobile terminal device. And a communication means for transmitting.

An image processing parameter generation method according to the present invention is an image pickup means for obtaining image data by image pickup, a small capacity image generation means for generating small capacity image data having a smaller capacity than the image data, and the small capacity image. The small-capacity image transmitted from a mobile terminal device including a communication unit that transmits data and receives various information, and an image processing unit that performs image processing on the image data to obtain processed image data. An image processing parameter for performing image processing on the image data is generated based on the data, and the image processing parameter is transmitted to the mobile terminal device.

The image processing method and the image parameter generating method according to the present invention may be provided as a program for causing a computer to execute.

[0015]

According to the present invention, small-capacity image data is generated from image data acquired by image pickup, and image processing parameters for performing image processing on the image data based on the small-capacity image data are generated. The small-capacity image data is transmitted to the external device. In the external device, image processing parameters are generated based on the small volume image data.
Then, the image processing parameter generated by the external device is received by the mobile terminal device, and image processing is performed on the image data based on the image processing parameter to obtain processed image data.

Therefore, compared with the case where the image data is directly transmitted to the external device and the processed image data obtained by performing the image processing on the image data in the external device is received, the data to be transmitted / received is The capacity can be reduced, and as a result, the communication time can be shortened and the communication charge can be reduced.

On the other hand, it is conceivable to calculate the image processing parameter in the portable terminal device and apply the image processing to the image data. However, if the portable terminal device also performs the image processing, data communication will be performed at all. Since there is no such thing, the profits of the telecommunications carrier are completely lost. According to the present invention, small-capacity image data and image processing parameters are transmitted and received even though the amount of data is small, so that the communication carrier can also make a profit by data communication.

[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 schematic block diagram showing the configuration of an image processing system including a mobile terminal device and an image processing parameter generation device according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the image processing system according to the present embodiment includes a camera-equipped mobile phone 1 and a camera-equipped mobile phone 1.
The data is exchanged with the image server 2 including the image processing parameter generation device for generating the image processing parameter P necessary for performing the image processing on the image data S0 acquired in (1).

The camera-equipped mobile phone 1 communicates wirelessly with the camera 11 which acquires the image data S0 by photographing, and the communication means 12 which transmits and receives the image data S0 and the like, and the image processing for the image data S0. Image processing means 13 for obtaining the processed image data S1 and low resolution image data SL0 representing an image having a lower resolution than the image represented by the image data S0 by thinning out pixels of the image represented by the image data S0. , A memory 15 for storing various kinds of information such as image data S0, a liquid crystal monitor 16 for displaying various kinds of images and telephone numbers, and a controller 17 for controlling the camera-equipped mobile phone 1. With.

The operation of photographing by the camera 11, the communication of the image data S0 and the like are performed by the key 18 provided on the camera-equipped mobile phone 1.

The image processing means 13 performs image processing such as gradation conversion processing, color correction processing and sharpness processing on the image data S.
0 to generate processed image data S1.
The taking lens used in the camera 11 of the camera-equipped mobile phone 1 is not so high in performance, and the obtained image data S0 will have color misregistration or image distortion. For this reason, it is preferable that the image processing means 13 performs, as image processing, processing for correcting color shift and image distortion on the image data S0.

The image server 2 uses the low resolution image data SL.
Communication means 21 for wirelessly transmitting and receiving various data such as 0, image processing parameter generation means 22 for generating image processing parameter P for performing image processing on image data S0, and various information are stored. A memory 23 and a controller 24 that controls the image server 2 are provided.

The image parameter generating means 22 corresponds to the image processing parameter generating device according to the present invention, and includes gradation conversion processing, color correction processing, sharpness processing, etc.
An image processing parameter P for performing image processing on the image data S0 is generated. Specifically, a lookup table can be used as the image processing parameter P.

Depending on the manufacturer and model number of the camera-equipped mobile phone 1, the type, resolution, and displayable color number of the liquid crystal monitor 16 provided in the camera-equipped mobile phone 1, and the camera 11 are used. Aberrations such as color shift and image distortion of the taking lens are different. For this reason, the memory 23 stores information about the type of the liquid crystal monitor 16, the resolution, the number of colors that can be displayed, the aberration of the taking lens of the camera 11 and the like according to the manufacturer and model number of the camera-equipped mobile phone 1, and the user's information is stored. The image processing parameter P for performing image processing according to the manufacturer and model number of the camera-equipped mobile phone 1 on the image data S0 may be generated.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of this embodiment. First, in the camera-equipped mobile phone 1, the camera 11
Is used to capture the image data S0 (step S1). The acquired image data S0 is stored in the memory 15 (step S2). On the other hand, the low resolution image generation means 14 generates low resolution image data SL0 representing the low resolution image of the image data S0 (step S3). The low resolution image data SL0 is transmitted to the image server 2 by the communication means 12 (step S4).

The transmitted low resolution image data SL0 is received by the communication means 21 of the image server 2 (step S5). Then, the image processing parameter generation means 22 generates an image processing parameter P for image processing to be applied to the image data S0 based on the low resolution image data SL0 (step S6). The image processing parameter P is transmitted to the camera-equipped mobile phone 1 by the communication means 21 (step S7).

In the mobile phone 1 with camera, the image processing parameter P is received by the communication means 12 (step S8). Then, the image processing means 13 performs image processing on the image data S0 based on the image processing parameter P to generate processed image data S1 (step S9). The processed image data S1 is stored in the memory 15 (step S10), further displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 16 (step S11), and the process ends.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the low resolution image data SL0 of the image data S0 is transmitted from the camera-equipped mobile phone 1 to the image server 2, and the image processing parameter generating means 22 of the image server 2 transmits the low resolution image. Since the image processing parameter P for performing the image processing on the image data S0 is generated based on the data SL0 and the image processing parameter P is transmitted to the camera-equipped mobile phone 1, the image data S0 is transmitted to the image server 2 as it is. Then
Compared with the case where the image server 2 performs image processing on the image data S0 to obtain the processed image data S1 and transmits the processed image data S1 to the camera-equipped mobile phone 1, both the camera-equipped mobile phone 1 and the image server 2 In the above, the amount of data to be transmitted and received can be reduced, and as a result, the communication time can be shortened and the communication charge can be reduced.

On the other hand, it is conceivable to calculate the image processing parameter P in the camera-equipped mobile phone 1 and perform image processing on the image data. However, if the camera-equipped mobile phone 1 also performs image processing, Since no communication is carried out at all, the profits of the communication carrier are completely lost. According to the present embodiment, since the low resolution image data SL0 and the image processing parameter P are transmitted and received even though the data amount is small, the communication carrier can also make a profit by data communication.

Although the low resolution image data SL0 of the image data S0 is generated and transmitted from the camera-equipped mobile phone 1 to the image server 2 in the above embodiment, the data capacity of the image data S0 is small. Any image data may be used as long as it is the image data. For example, color number reduced image data in which the number of colors of the image data S0 is reduced, high compression rate image data in which the compression rate is increased, and the like may be used instead of the low resolution image data SL0.

In the above embodiment, the user of the camera-equipped mobile phone 1 needs to pay the image server 2 a fee for calculating the image processing parameter P. In this case, although the user may directly pay the image server 2, the user pays the call charge for the camera-equipped mobile phone 1 to the communication carrier. Therefore, the telecommunications carrier and the operator of the image server 2 cooperate with each other to charge the user together with the call charge of the camera-equipped mobile phone 1 for the charge necessary for calculating the image processing parameter P. Good. As a result, the user does not have to pay the fee to two places, and thus the convenience of the user for the fee payment can be achieved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing the configuration of an image processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of this embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Camera-equipped mobile phone 2 Image server 11 cameras 12,21 Communication means 13 Image processing means 14 Low resolution image generation means 15,23 memory 16 LCD monitor 17, 24 controller 18 keys 22 Image Parameter Generating Means

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An image pickup unit for obtaining image data by image pickup, a small-capacity image generation unit for generating small-capacity image data having a smaller capacity than the image data, and the small-capacity image data for the small-capacity image data. While transmitting to an external device that generates image processing parameters for performing image processing on the image data based on
Communication means for receiving an image processing parameter for performing image processing on the image data transmitted from the external device; and image processing for performing image processing on the image data based on the image processing parameter to obtain processed image data. A mobile terminal device, comprising: an image processing unit for obtaining the image. 2. Image data is acquired by imaging, small-capacity image data having a smaller capacity than the image data is generated, and the small-capacity image data is compared with the image data based on the small-capacity image data. While transmitting to an external device that generates image processing parameters for performing image processing,
An image processing parameter for performing image processing on the image data transmitted from the external device is received, and image processing is performed on the image data based on the image processing parameter to obtain processed image data. An image processing method in a mobile terminal device characterized. 3. A procedure of acquiring image data by imaging, a procedure of generating small-capacity image data having a smaller capacity than the image data, and the small-capacity image data based on the small-capacity image data. While transmitting to an external device that generates image processing parameters for performing image processing on data,
A procedure of receiving an image processing parameter for performing image processing on the image data transmitted from the external device, and performing image processing on the image data based on the image processing parameter to obtain processed image data A program for causing a computer to execute an image processing method in a mobile terminal device having a procedure. 4. An image pickup means for obtaining image data by image pickup, a small-capacity image generation means for generating small-capacity image data having a smaller capacity than the image data, and transmitting the small-capacity image data and various information. The image data based on the small-capacity image data transmitted from the mobile terminal device including a communication unit that receives the image data and an image processing unit that performs image processing on the image data to obtain processed image data. Image processing parameter generation means for generating image processing parameters for performing image processing on the image data, and communication means for receiving the small-capacity image data and transmitting the image processing parameters to the mobile terminal device. An image processing parameter generation device characterized by the above. 5. An image pickup means for obtaining image data by image pickup, a small-capacity image generation means for generating small-capacity image data having a smaller capacity than the image data, and transmitting the small-capacity image data and various information. The image data based on the small-capacity image data transmitted from the mobile terminal device including a communication unit that receives the image data and an image processing unit that performs image processing on the image data to obtain processed image data. An image processing parameter generation method, comprising: generating an image processing parameter for performing image processing on the image processing apparatus, and transmitting the image processing parameter to the mobile terminal device. 6. An image pickup means for obtaining image data by image pickup, a small-capacity image generation means for generating small-capacity image data having a smaller capacity than the image data, and transmitting the small-capacity image data and various information. The image data based on the small-capacity image data transmitted from the mobile terminal device including a communication unit that receives the image data and an image processing unit that performs image processing on the image data to obtain processed image data. A program for causing a computer to execute an image processing parameter generation method including a procedure of generating an image processing parameter for performing image processing on the mobile terminal and a procedure of transmitting the image processing parameter to the mobile terminal device.