JP2004236264A - Image information providing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image information providing apparatus which distributes image information enabling a turning image of a three-dimensional object to be displayed on mobile communication devices of various specifications. <P>SOLUTION: An image information providing apparatus 30 for providing image information to a mobile communication device 20 via a communication network 10 is provided with an image data storage means 36 for storing image data, a viewer storage means 27 for storing a viewer, a specification recognizing means 33 for recognizing a specification of the connected mobile communication device 20, an image data acquiring means (image data extracting means 34) for acquiring image data corresponding to the specification of the connected mobile communication device 20, a viewer extracting means 35 for extracting a viewer corresponding to the specification of the connected mobile communication device 20, and a communication control means 31 for distributing image information containing the acquired image data and the extracted viewer. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an image information providing apparatus, and more particularly, to an image information providing apparatus that provides image information via a communication network to a mobile communication device including a display device that displays an image.
[0002]
[Prior art]
There is a method using computer graphics (hereinafter, referred to as “CG”) to enable a three-dimensional object to be displayed as an image from a different viewpoint. However, in the CG, a shape model of an object has to be created, and the work of creating the shape model requires a lot of labor and man-hours. Further, when the object has a complicated shape, the amount of data of the shape model becomes extremely large, so that it is necessary to use a large-capacity computer capable of high-speed processing to smoothly display an image. . Furthermore, when a three-dimensional object is represented by CG, the appearance of the object does not take on a realistic appearance. Cannot be performed ", and" degrading the viewing value when displaying an image of a person such as an idol or an article such as an arts and crafts and using it for viewing ".
[0003]
Therefore, the present inventors set a real object of a three-dimensional display object as a subject, image the subject from a plurality of directions to create image data, and display an image whose viewpoint is changed based on the image data. An image recognition processing device capable of performing the above has been devised earlier. It has also been devised that a still image of a subject captured from a plurality of directions is sequentially changed and displayed so that a turning image of a three-dimensionally shaped subject can be displayed.
[0004]
[Patent Document 1]
JP-A-2002-223457
By the way, in recent years, with the advancement of the technology of mobile communication devices and communication networks, mobile communication devices such as mobile phones equipped with a display device such as a liquid crystal display for displaying images are transmitted via a communication network such as the Internet. An information providing service for distributing information has been realized.
[0006]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, the above information providing service is limited to providing a flat image such as a photograph or an animation published on a communication network, and is suitably used for product design evaluation, person and article appreciation, and the like. It does not provide images that can.
[0007]
Therefore, image data obtained by capturing an image of a three-dimensional object from a plurality of directions is distributed via a communication network, and a swiveling image of the object is displayed on a mobile communication device including a display device. But simply conceivable. However, simply distributing captured image data of a subject via a communication network causes the following problems.
[0008]
In a mobile communication device, for example, a carrier that provides a communication service such as a mobile phone carrier, a so-called “carrier”, uses a different programming language, and also handles different types of data. In addition, a viewer for displaying an image on a display device is also different. In addition, in order to sequentially display still images of a subject from a plurality of directions and display a turning image of the subject, a dedicated image for displaying the turning image is provided. Since the mobile communication device does not have this dedicated viewer, even if the mobile communication device acquires image data, the mobile communication device cannot effectively utilize the image data. Furthermore, even in the case of mobile communication devices of the same carrier, the configuration of the display device such as the screen size, the number of colors, the number of pixels, and the like differs depending on the model, and the content of data that can be handled may differ depending on the model. .
[0009]
Therefore, simply by distributing image data obtained by imaging a subject from multiple directions to a mobile communication device connected via a communication network, the specifications of the distributed image data are different. It cannot be widely and widely used for various mobile communication devices.
[0010]
The present invention has been made in view of the above situation, and provides an image information providing apparatus capable of distributing image information capable of displaying a swirling image of a three-dimensional object by a mobile communication device having various specifications. Aim.
[0011]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The main means to solve the above problems are:
An image information providing apparatus for providing image information to a mobile communication device having a display device for displaying an image via a communication network,
Image data storage means for storing image data obtained by imaging a three-dimensional object from a plurality of directions,
A viewer for displaying, on a display device of a mobile communication device, a swirling image of a subject, which sequentially displays still images of the subject from a plurality of directions, and a plurality of types according to the specifications of various mobile communication devices. Viewer storage means for storing a viewer of
Specification recognition means for recognizing the specifications of the mobile communication device connected via the communication network,
Based on the recognition information of the specification recognition means, using image data stored in the image data storage means, image data obtaining means for obtaining image data according to the specification of the connected mobile communication device,
A viewer extracting unit that extracts a viewer corresponding to the specification of the connected mobile communication device from a plurality of types of viewers stored in the viewer storage unit based on the recognition information of the specification recognizing unit;
Along with controlling the transmission and reception of information to and from the communication network, the image data obtained by the image data obtaining means and the image information including the viewer extracted by the viewer extracting means are transmitted to the mobile communication device via the communication network. An image information providing device comprising communication control means for delivering "
It is.
[0012]
Here, the "specification recognizing means" can be used to change the specifications of the mobile communication device connected to the image information providing device via the communication network from the mobile communication device without the need for the user to separately input the specification type. May be recognized by automatically determining an input signal such as a connection signal, or by an input signal of a specification type from a mobile communication device transmitted by a separate input operation of a user. It may be recognized.
[0013]
Further, the “image data acquisition unit” extracts an appropriate image data from a plurality of types of image data stored in advance in the image data storage unit, thereby obtaining an image corresponding to the specification of the connected mobile communication device. Data may be acquired, or image data according to the specifications of the connected mobile communication device may be acquired by appropriately converting the basic image data stored in the image data storage unit. May be used.
[0014]
In this image information providing apparatus, the specification recognizing means recognizes the specifications such as the configuration of the carrier and the display device of the connected mobile communication device, and the image data obtaining means recognizes the image data according to the specification of the mobile communication device. Is acquired, and a viewer corresponding to the specifications of the mobile communication device is extracted by the viewer extracting means. Then, image information including the acquired image data and the extracted viewer is distributed to the mobile communication device through the communication control unit. Therefore, the image information accurately corresponds to the specifications of the mobile communication device connected via the communication network, and the mobile communication device that has acquired the image information can display the image on the display device regardless of the specification. Thus, it is possible to display a turning image of the subject. Therefore, according to the image information providing apparatus, it is possible to distribute image information capable of displaying a swirling image of a three-dimensional object using mobile communication devices of various specifications.
[0015]
Note that once the mobile communication device acquires and stores a viewer corresponding to the specification, it is not necessary to acquire the viewer again for subsequent use. Therefore, it is assumed that the specification recognizing means recognizes whether or not the connected mobile communication device has already acquired the viewer. In other words, it is assumed that the presence or absence of the viewer is recognized as one type of specification. If acquired, the distribution of the viewer may be omitted. By doing so, the amount of image information to be distributed can be reduced, and the image information can be distributed to the mobile communication device at high speed.
[0016]
The above image information providing device,
"The image data storage means stores a plurality of types of image data according to the specifications of various mobile communication devices,
The image data obtaining means, based on the recognition information of the specification recognition means, from among a plurality of types of image data stored in the image data storage means, image data according to the specification of the connected mobile communication device An image information providing apparatus characterized by being configured as an image data extracting means for extracting "
It may be.
[0017]
The “image data acquisition unit” may be configured to acquire image data according to the specifications of the connected mobile communication device by converting the basic image data stored in the image data storage unit. By doing so, it is not necessary to separately store image data for each specification in the image data storage means, and the amount of data stored in the image data storage means can be reduced. Is added or changed, it is only necessary to change tools such as software for converting the basic image data into image data corresponding to the specifications of the mobile communication device. There is no need to update the image data stored in the storage device. "
[0018]
However, on the other hand, every time image information is delivered to the mobile communication device, since image data conversion work is required, the image information cannot be delivered at a high speed. This causes a problem that image information cannot be quickly acquired. Here, the above-mentioned advantage is an advantage obtained on the manager side of the image information providing apparatus, and the above-mentioned problem is a problem occurring on the user side of the image information providing device. Therefore, when giving priority to satisfying the user, it is necessary to avoid the occurrence of the above problem.
[0019]
Therefore, in the above-described image information providing apparatus, the image data obtaining unit is configured as an image data extracting unit, and the image data extracting unit stores the image data according to the specification of the connected mobile communication device in the image data storing unit. Extracted from a plurality of types of image data stored in the. This makes it possible to quickly acquire image data according to the specifications of the connected mobile communication device. Therefore, high-speed distribution of image information can be realized, and the desire of a user who wants to quickly acquire image information can be satisfied.
[0020]
Any of the above image information providing devices,
"The image data acquisition device is characterized in that the image data is image data adjusted according to the screen size, the number of tones, and the number of pixels in the display device of the mobile communication device."
It may be.
[0021]
Even with mobile communication devices of the same carrier, the configuration of the display device may differ depending on the model, and depending on the configuration of the display device, the contents of image data that can be handled may be restricted. Therefore, in the above-described image information providing device, the image data acquired by the image data acquiring unit is image data adjusted according to the screen size, the number of tones, and the number of pixels in the display device of the mobile communication device. This makes it possible to distribute image information corresponding to the configuration of the display device, which is one type of specification, and to display an optimal image on the display device of the mobile communication device.
[0022]
Any of the above image information providing devices,
"The image data obtained by the image data obtaining means sequentially displays still image data for displaying a still image of the subject and a thinned image obtained by performing a thinning process on the still image to display a turning image of the subject. Image information providing apparatus characterized by comprising turning image data for
It may be.
[0023]
When displaying still images of a subject sequentially taken from a plurality of directions and displaying a turning image of the subject, when the data amount of each still image is large, it becomes difficult to sequentially display a plurality of still images at high speed, The turning image of the subject cannot be displayed smoothly.
[0024]
In view of the above, the image information providing apparatus distributes image data including still image data for displaying a still image and turning image data for displaying a turning image. When a turning image of a subject is displayed on the device, the turning image of the subject can be displayed by sequentially displaying thinned images obtained by thinning out still images using the turning image data. Here, a thinned image obtained by thinning out still images naturally has a smaller data amount than a still image. Therefore, the mobile communication device can sequentially display a plurality of thinned images at high speed, and can smoothly display a turning image of the subject.
[0025]
On the other hand, when a still image of the subject is displayed by stopping the turning image or the like, an image that is not thinned out is displayed based on the still image data. Therefore, the still image of the subject becomes a detailed and clear image, and the design and appreciation of the subject can be suitably performed using the still image.
[0026]
Note that, in order to form image data of a thinned image obtained by thinning out still images, the image data of the individual still images obtained by imaging the subject from a plurality of directions is selected from among the total pixels constituting the still image. For example, data corresponding to pixels at predetermined intervals in an appropriate direction such as every two pixels in the horizontal and vertical directions is extracted based on the address, and the image data of the thinned image corresponding to each still image is extracted based on this data. Just create it. The turning image data may be formed by image data of a plurality of thinned images formed as described above.
[0027]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Next, an example of an embodiment of an image information providing apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
[0028]
As shown in FIG. 1, the image information providing device 30 is configured by a Web server or the like, and is always connected to a communication network 10 such as the Internet. Various mobile communication devices 20 such as a mobile phone having a display device 21 such as a liquid crystal display, a portable personal computer such as a notebook personal computer, a car navigation system, etc. In response to a request for image information from the user, image information having appropriate contents is distributed.
[0029]
Here, the image information includes image data obtained by taking the actual object to be displayed as a subject and imaging the subject from a plurality of directions at appropriate angular intervals around a horizontal circumference, a vertical circumference, or the like. The display device 21 of the mobile communication device 20 is for displaying a swivel image of the subject. In addition, the turning image of the subject may be an image representing a state in which the subject itself turns, with individual persons or articles as subjects, or the subject may be a scene, a room in a building, or the like as a subject. The viewing viewpoint itself may represent a state of turning.
[0030]
Although not shown, the image information providing device 30 has, as hardware configurations, an arithmetic unit including a ROM, a RAM, a CPU, and the like, and a storage device such as a hard disk that stores various data, like a general-purpose computer. And an input device such as a keyboard and a mouse for directly inputting information, a display device such as a display for displaying processing information, and a connection device such as a modem connected to the communication network 10.
[0031]
Further, a program for providing image information is installed in the image information providing apparatus 30, and by executing this program, the communication control unit 31 and the display object recognizing unit 32 have a functional configuration. , A specification recognition unit 33, an image data extraction unit 34, a viewer extraction unit 35, an image data storage unit 36, and a viewer storage unit 35. Here, each of the above means specifically functions as follows.
[0032]
The communication control unit 31 controls transmission and reception of information to and from the communication network 10, inputs information from the mobile communication device 20 connected via the communication network 10, and outputs information to the mobile communication communication device 20. Is performed. The communication control means 31 is configured using a connection device such as the above-described modem.
[0033]
The display object recognizing means 32 is for specifying a display object requested by the user from various display objects such as a car, a jewel, an idol, and a work of art prepared in advance. When the user designates a display target by an input operation on the communication device 20, the requested display target is recognized based on an input signal from the mobile communication device 20.
[0034]
The specification recognizing means 33 is for specifying specifications such as a carrier and a model of the connected mobile communication device 20. When the mobile communication device 20 is connected via the communication network 10, Automatically recognizes the specifications of the mobile communication device 20 according to the connection signal. The present invention is not limited to this, and when a user specifies a specification by an input operation on the mobile communication device 20, the specification of the mobile communication device 20 is recognized based on an input signal from the mobile communication device 20. There may be.
[0035]
The image data extraction unit 34 is an example of an image data acquisition unit that acquires image data according to the specifications of the connected mobile communication device 20. Specifically, the image data extracting unit 34 is configured to select, based on each piece of recognition information of the display object recognizing unit 32 and the specification recognizing unit 33, from various types of image data stored in an image data storing unit The image data of the display object requested by the user, which can be used by the connected mobile communication device 20, is extracted.
[0036]
The viewer extracting unit 35 extracts a viewer that can be used by the connected mobile communication device 20 based on the recognition information of the specification recognizing unit 33 from various viewers stored in a viewer storage unit 37 described later. Is what you do.
[0037]
The display object recognizing unit 32, the specification recognizing unit 33, the image data extracting unit 34, and the viewer extracting unit 35 are configured as functions of an arithmetic unit that executes the installed program.
[0038]
Image information is configured by the image data extracted by the image data extraction unit 34 and the viewer extracted by the viewer extraction unit 35, and the image information is transmitted to the communication network 10 via the communication control unit 31, It is distributed to the connected mobile communication device 20. Then, the distributed image information is downloaded to the storage device of the mobile communication device 20, and the user of the mobile communication device 20 uses the downloaded image information on the display device 21 of the mobile communication device 20, A turning image of the display object can be displayed, and the turning image can be used for various purposes such as business negotiations and entertainment.
[0039]
By the way, an image data storage unit 36 for storing image data corresponding to various display objects and various specifications of the mobile communication device 20, and a viewer for storing viewers corresponding to various specifications of the mobile communication device 20 The storage unit 37 is configured using a storage device such as a hard disk, and various data stored in the storage device is used in accordance with addition of a display object, a change in specifications of the mobile communication device 20, and the like. Updated as needed.
[0040]
Further, the image data storage means 36 stores, as image data, various display objects such as cars and jewels (see the display objects {1}, {2},... In FIG. 1). , Image data according to specification corresponding to the specification of the mobile communication device 20 (image data according to specification [1] a, image data according to specification [1] b, image data according to specification [1] c,... And specification-specific image data (2a), specification-specific image data (2) b, and specification-specific image data (2c),...). Here, the specifications of the mobile communication device 20 are set as requirements including the configuration of the display device 21 such as the screen size, the number of tones, and the number of pixels, and the specification-specific image data corresponds to the configuration of the display device 21. The image data is adjusted so that it can be adjusted. In such a configuration, the image data extracting unit 34 can immediately extract and distribute image data appropriately corresponding to the display object requested by the user and the specifications of the mobile communication device 20.
[0041]
Further, the viewer storage means 37 serves as a viewer for displaying the turning image on the display device of the mobile communication device 20 as a viewer for each specification corresponding to each specification of the mobile communication device 20 (a viewer A for each specification in FIG. 1). , Specification-specific viewer B, specification-specific viewer C,...). In such a configuration, the viewer corresponding to the specification of the mobile communication device 20 can be immediately extracted and distributed by the viewer extracting unit 35.
[0042]
Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the image data is configured to include still image data for displaying a still image of the subject and turning image data for displaying a turning image of the subject. The turning image data is image data for displaying a thinned image obtained by thinning out individual still images obtained by imaging a subject from a plurality of directions, and has a smaller data amount than the still image data. . Therefore, when displaying the turning image of the subject on the display device 21 of the mobile communication device 20, it is possible to display each of the thinned images at high speed, and by sequentially displaying a plurality of thinned images at high speed, the subject can be displayed. Can be smoothly displayed. On the other hand, when a turning image is temporarily stopped to display a still image of a subject, or when a still image of a subject whose viewpoint has been changed by a user input operation is displayed, a still image that has not been thinned is used. Since the still image is displayed, the still image is a detailed and clear image.
[0043]
In the above example, an example in which the image data obtaining means for obtaining the image data according to the specification of the mobile communication device 20 is configured by using the image data extracting means is shown. The configuration as shown may be adopted.
[0044]
In the configuration shown in FIG. 3, the image data storage unit 43 stores basic image data (basic image data of the display object (1) in FIG. 2; (Refer to the basic image data of the display object {circle around (2)},...). In this configuration, first, based on the recognition information of the display object recognizing unit 32, the image data extracting unit 41 uses the basic image data of various display objects stored in the image data storage unit 43. The basic image data of the display object requested by the user is extracted. Next, based on the recognition information of the specification recognition unit 33, the extracted basic image data is converted by the image data conversion unit 42 into image data corresponding to the specification of the mobile communication device 20. Here, the image data conversion means 42 is for acquiring image data according to the specification of the mobile communication device 20, and constitutes the image data acquisition means. Then, the image data converted by the image data conversion means 42 and the viewer extracted by a separate viewer extraction 35 (not shown) are combined into image information, and this image information is transmitted from the communication control means 31 to the communication control means 31. The data is distributed to the mobile communication device 20 via the network 10.
[0045]
In the above configuration, since it is not necessary to store various image data corresponding to the specifications of the mobile communication device 20 in the image data storage unit 43, the amount of data stored in the image data storage unit 43 is reduced. be able to. Further, since it is possible to cope with the addition or change of the specification of the mobile communication device 20 only by changing a tool such as software for operating the image data conversion unit 42 without updating the image data, The provision device 30 can be easily maintained and managed.
[0046]
【The invention's effect】
According to the present invention described in detail above, it is possible to provide an image information providing apparatus capable of distributing image information capable of displaying a swirling image of a three-dimensional object by mobile communication devices of various specifications.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of an image information providing apparatus according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing image data.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a part of a functional configuration in another example of the image information providing apparatus according to the present invention.
[Explanation of symbols]
Reference Signs List 10 communication network 20 mobile communication device 21 display device 30 image information providing device 31 communication control means 32 display object recognition means 33 specification recognition means 34 image data extraction means (image data acquisition means)
35 viewer extraction means 36 image data storage means 37 viewer storage means 41 image data extraction means 42 image data conversion means (image data acquisition means)
43 image data storage means

Claims (4)

An image information providing apparatus for providing image information to a mobile communication device having a display device for displaying an image via a communication network,
Image data storage means for storing image data obtained by imaging a three-dimensional object from a plurality of directions,
A viewer for displaying, on a display device of a mobile communication device, a swirling image of a subject, which sequentially displays still images of the subject from a plurality of directions, and a plurality of types according to the specifications of various mobile communication devices. Viewer storage means for storing a viewer of
A specification recognizing means for recognizing a specification of a mobile communication device connected via a communication network;
Based on the recognition information of the specification recognition means, using image data stored in the image data storage means, image data obtaining means for obtaining image data according to the specification of the connected mobile communication device,
A viewer extracting unit that extracts a viewer corresponding to the specification of the connected mobile communication device from a plurality of types of viewers stored in the viewer storage unit based on the recognition information of the specification recognizing unit;
Along with controlling the transmission and reception of information to and from the communication network, the image data obtained by the image data obtaining means and the image information including the viewer extracted by the viewer extracting means are transmitted to the mobile communication device via the communication network. An image information providing apparatus, comprising: a communication control unit for delivering. The image data storage means is for storing a plurality of types of image data according to the specifications of various mobile communication devices,
The image data obtaining means, based on the recognition information of the specification recognition means, from among a plurality of types of image data stored in the image data storage means, image data according to the specification of the connected mobile communication device 2. The image information providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus is configured as image data extracting means for extracting. The image data obtained by the image data obtaining means is image data adjusted according to a screen size, a number of tones, and a number of pixels on a display device of a mobile communication device. 3. The image information providing device according to 2. The image data obtained by the image data obtaining means is for displaying still image data for displaying a still image of the subject and a thinned image obtained by thinning the still image in order to display a turning image of the subject. The image information providing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the image information providing apparatus includes:

Images