JP2006163994A - Personal digital assistant - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a personal digital assistant capable of reflecting intention of a producer and a distributor regarding the propriety of external output of image information when the image information is externally outputted. <P>SOLUTION: The portable telephone 1 is composed of a storage part 15 for storing the image information, an external output part 18 for externally outputting the image information, a flag determination means 10a for determining on/off of an external output inhibition flag added to the image information, and an output conversion processing part 17 for executing conversion processing corresponding to the flag determination result to the image information prior to the external output of the image information. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a portable information terminal (including portable electronic devices such as a cellular phone, a palmtop PC, and a PDA [Personal Digital / Data Assistant]).

  Conventionally, many portable information terminals have a display unit (such as a liquid crystal display) of several inches as means for visually outputting image information. In recent years, various portable information terminals having interface means for sending image information to an external display device (such as a television receiver) have been disclosed and proposed (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2). .

Image information output to a display unit or an external display device of a portable information terminal includes a digital element (a still image or a moving image represented by digital data) as a main element, and a window as a sub element. These pieces of image information are combined to form a single display screen. Note that the “window” mentioned here is an icon image indicating the operating state of the portable information terminal (such as the remaining battery level and radio wave reception status), an operation menu image, and a pop-up image for explaining how to operate various buttons. , And a generic term for a frame image in which a message to the user is displayed.
JP 2001-251449 A JP 2004-214766 A

  Certainly, if it is a portable information terminal equipped with an interface means for sending image information to an external display device, it is possible to improve the visibility and presence of display contents without impairing the portability of the main body. Become.

  However, conventional portable information terminals are configured to allow digital contents and external output of windows unconditionally, and have no means of reflecting the intentions of producers and distributors regarding the appropriateness of external output. It was. Therefore, in the conventional portable information terminal, there is a possibility that contents and windows are used in a usage form contrary to the intentions of the creator and the distributor. For example, for digital content and windows that have copyrights, the producer or distributor has the intention to limit the usage to personal use on a portable information terminal. When a copyrighted work is output to an external display device (such as a large display), in the worst case, there is a risk that the problem may develop to copyright infringement (screening infringement) of digital contents and windows.

  In view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a portable information terminal capable of reflecting the intentions of a producer and a distributor as to whether or not image information is externally output.

  In order to achieve the above object, a portable information terminal according to the present invention comprises storage means for storing image information; interface means for externally outputting the image information; prohibition of external output added to the image information A flag determining unit that determines whether the flag is on or off; and an output conversion processing unit that performs a conversion process on the image information according to a flag determination result prior to external output of the image information. It is said. With such a configuration, when the image information is output to the outside, it is possible to reflect the intentions of the producer and the distributor as to whether or not the image information is output.

  In the portable information terminal configured as described above, the output conversion processing means may be configured to perform any one of normal conversion processing, non-display processing, and replacement processing for each input image information. With this configuration, even when a plurality of pieces of image information are combined to form a single display screen, external output can be limited for each piece of image information. Therefore, image information for which external output is not prohibited can be output externally without any influence even if external output of other image information is prohibited.

  The portable information terminal having the above-described configuration includes an imaging unit that acquires video information by converting video into an electrical signal, and the external output prohibition flag is added to the image information acquired by the imaging unit. It is good to have a structure stored in the storage means. With such a configuration, it is possible to appropriately limit external output of image information without forcing the user to perform unnecessary operations.

  The portable information terminal having the above-described configuration includes a display unit that visually outputs the image information, and the display unit stops its operation while the image information is output to the outside. It is good to. With such a configuration, the power consumption of the mobile phone can be reduced by using such a configuration.

  As described above, the portable information terminal according to the present invention can reflect the intentions of the producer and distributor regarding whether or not to output digital contents and windows externally. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the possibility that the content and window are used in a usage form contrary to the intentions of the creator and distributor, and to prevent problems such as copyright infringement.

  In the following, a detailed description will be given by taking the case where the present invention is applied to a mobile phone as an example.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of a mobile phone according to the present invention. As shown in the figure, the mobile phone 1 according to the present invention includes a control unit 10, a transmission / reception unit 11, a sound unit 12, an operation unit 13, an imaging unit 14, a storage unit 15, and a display unit 16. The output conversion processing unit 17 and the external output unit 18 are provided.

  The control unit 10 includes a CPU [Central Processing Unit] and the like, and functions as an overall control unit for the entire apparatus including the above-described units 11 to 18 and also has a function as a flag determination unit 10a described later. In order to facilitate understanding of the description, in FIG. 1, the flag determination unit 10 a is represented as an independent block, but the signal processing in the flag determination unit 10 a is executed in software in the control unit 10. It is.

  The transmission / reception unit 11 includes a transmission circuit and a reception circuit, and performs bidirectional communication with a base station (not shown) by transmitting and receiving radio waves via the antenna 11a. As the antenna 11a, a rod antenna excellent in portability and storage property may be used.

  The audio unit 12 is an audio input / output unit that controls the microphone 12a and the speaker 12b.

  The operation unit 13 is an input device including dial keys, browser operation keys, and the like.

  The imaging unit 14 is an image capturing unit that converts a video image into an electrical signal by using a semiconductor element (CCD [Charge Coupled Devices], CMOS [Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor], etc.) that reacts with light, and acquires image information.

  The storage unit 15 is a storage unit for image information (digital contents and windows), and includes a ROM [Read Only Memory] and a RAM [Random Access Memory].

  The display unit 16 is a display unit that visually outputs image information, and includes a liquid crystal display of several inches.

  The output conversion processing unit 17 is a unit that performs conversion processing according to a flag determination result described later on the image information prior to external output of the image information.

  The external output unit 18 is an interface unit for outputting image information to the outside, establishes a connection with the external display device 2, and adapts the image information input from the output conversion processing unit 17 to the external display device 2. It is converted into a signal format (for example, a video signal format) and transmitted.

  Next, the external output prohibition flag added to the image information will be described in detail with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a data table showing a setting example of the external output prohibition flag.

  As shown in the figure, the image information stored in the storage unit 15 includes digital contents (still images PIC1, PIC2, moving images MOV1, MOV2, etc. expressed by digital data) as main elements, and sub-elements. (Icon images ICO1, ICO2, etc.) are included, and an external output prohibition flag indicating prohibition / permission of the external output is added to the digital contents and windows as individual management information. In the case of this figure, the external output prohibition flags added to the still image PIC1, the moving image MOV1, and the icon image ICO1 all have an on attribute, and the external output thereof is prohibited. On the other hand, the external output prohibition flags added to the still image PIC2, the moving image MOV2, and the icon image ICO2 are all set to the off attribute, and the external output is permitted.

  The external output prohibition flag described above may be added as appropriate by the producer or distributor of the digital content or window. For example, if there is an intention to limit the usage form of a digital content or window for which copyright exists to personal use on the mobile phone 1, the creator or distributor can set the digital content or window to an external attribute with an on attribute. An output prohibition flag may be added.

  In the mobile phone 1 of the present embodiment, the image information acquired by the imaging unit 14 is automatically added with an external output prohibition flag and stored in the storage unit 15. Note that the attribute of the external output prohibition flag is configured to automatically add an off attribute as a default in view of the fact that the image information is acquired by the user himself and there are few reasons for prohibiting the external output. ing. With such a configuration, it is possible to appropriately limit external output of image information without forcing the user to perform unnecessary operations.

  Next, the characteristic operation (image output operation control to the display unit 16 or the external display device 2 by the control unit 10) of the mobile phone 1 having the above configuration will be described in detail with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation example of image output. As described above, the image information output to the display unit 16 or the external display device 2 includes a plurality of digital contents and windows, and these are combined to form a single display screen. ing.

  In the flowchart of this figure, in step S5, it is first determined whether or not an external output of image information is instructed. If it is determined that an external output is instructed, the flow proceeds to step S10. On the other hand, if it is determined that the external output is not instructed, the flow proceeds to step S30, the image information is externally output to the display unit 16, and the series of control flows is completed. Note that the control unit 10 performs input monitoring control of the operation unit 13 and operation control of the display unit 16 and the external output unit 18, so whether or not an external output of image information is instructed. It can be easily determined.

  If it is determined in step S5 that external output of image information is instructed, in step S10, on / off determination of the external output prohibition flag is performed for each image information constituting the display screen. Here, if it is determined that the external output prohibition flag has the ON attribute, the flow proceeds to step S15. On the other hand, if it is determined that the external output prohibition flag does not have the ON attribute, the flow is skipped to step S20.

  If it is determined in step S10 that the external output prohibition flag has the ON attribute, in step S15, the output conversion processing unit 17 that has received an instruction from the control unit 10 performs a predetermined conversion process on the image information. Applied. More specifically, for image information for which the external output prohibition flag is determined to have the on attribute, a non-display process (a process for deleting the corresponding part and reconstructing the display screen) or a replacement process ( Processing for replacing the corresponding part with another image and reconstructing the display screen is performed.

  If it is determined in step S10 that the external output prohibition flag is not the on attribute, the flow is skipped to step S20 as described above. That is, the image information for which the external output prohibition flag is determined not to have the ON attribute is not subjected to any conversion processing by the output conversion processing unit 17 (in other words, no conversion processing is performed by the output conversion processing unit 17). ) And sent to the external output unit 18.

  After the image information conversion process is completed, in step S20, it is determined whether or not the check of the external output prohibition flag is completed for all the image information constituting the display screen. Here, if it is determined that all checks have been completed, the flow proceeds to step S25, and after external output of image information to the external display device 2, a series of control flows is completed. On the other hand, if it is determined that all checks have not been completed, the flow returns to step S10, and the check of the external output prohibition flag is repeated for other image information.

  FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a display example of image output. In addition, this figure (a) has shown the display screen of the display part 16, and this figure (b) has shown the display screen of the external display apparatus 2. FIG.

  Like the still image PIC1 (left penguin image) shown in the figure, image information to which an external output prohibition flag with an off attribute is added is output to the display unit 16 as well as to the external display device 2. Even when an image is output, there is no restriction on the image display.

  On the other hand, image information to which an on-attribute external output prohibition flag is added, such as the still image PIC2 (right landscape image) and various icon images shown in FIG. At that time, there is no restriction on the image display, but at the time of output to the external display device 2, the image display is restricted by the output conversion processing unit 17.

  As described above, the mobile phone 1 according to the present invention includes the storage unit 15 for storing image information, the external output unit 18 for outputting image information to the outside, and turning on the external output prohibition flag added to the image information. Flag determining means 10a for determining / off, and an output conversion processing unit 17 that performs conversion processing on the image information according to the flag determination result prior to external output of the image information. ing. By adopting such a configuration, it is possible to reflect the intentions of the producer and the distributor as to whether or not the image information is output to the outside.

  Further, in the mobile phone 1 according to the present embodiment, the output conversion processing unit 17 is one of a non-conversion process, a non-display process, or a replacement process for each piece of image information read out and input from the storage unit 15. It is configured to apply one. With this configuration, even when a plurality of pieces of image information are combined to form a single display screen, external output can be limited for each piece of image information. Therefore, image information for which external output is not prohibited can be output externally without any influence even if external output of other image information is prohibited.

  Although not explicitly shown in FIG. 3, in the mobile phone 1 of the present embodiment, the display unit 16 is instructed to output image information externally while image information is being output externally (that is, in step S5). After that, the operation is stopped. With this configuration, it is possible to reduce the power consumption of the mobile phone 1.

  In the above embodiment, a detailed description has been given by taking the case where the present invention is applied to a mobile phone as an example. However, the scope of application of the present invention is not limited to this, and a palmtop PC or PDA It can be widely applied to other portable information terminals.

  Further, in the above-described embodiment, description has been given by taking as an example a scene where external output of a still image or an icon image is limited, but the application target of the present invention is not limited to this, and other scenes Needless to say, the present invention can be applied.

  For example, it is assumed that the contents of the address book, e-mail, and the like are displayed on the external display device 2. For such relatively confidential image information, the on attribute is set in advance in order to prohibit the external output. The external output prohibition flag may be added.

  In addition, a scene where a videophone call is made using the external display device 2 (that is, a situation where a voice call is made with the call partner while outputting image information sent from the call partner to the external display device 2) is also assumed. In such a scene, the external output may be limited based on the external output prohibition flag added by the other party. Or, for such image information, considering that it is desirable to output on a large screen, an external output prohibition flag having an off attribute is automatically added to image information sent from the other party to permit external output. Then, the storage unit 15 may be temporarily stored.

  In addition, although it is assumed that the Web page being browsed is output to the external display device 2, in such a scene, the external output prohibition flag added by the Web page administrator or each digital content creator is used. Based on this, the external output may be limited.

  The configuration of the present invention can be variously modified within the scope of the present invention in addition to the above embodiment.

  The present invention is a technique useful as a means for preventing copyright infringement or the like when digital contents and windows are output using a portable information terminal.

These are block diagrams which show the principal part structure of the mobile telephone which concerns on this invention. These are data tables showing an example of setting an external output prohibition flag. These are flowcharts showing an operation example of image output. These are schematic diagrams showing a display example of image output.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Mobile phone 10 Control part 10a Flag determination means 11 Transmission / reception part 11a Antenna 12 Audio | voice part 12a Microphone 12b Speaker 13 Operation part 14 Imaging part 15 Storage part 16 Display part 17 Output conversion process part 18 External output part 2 External display apparatus

Claims (4)

  Storage means for storing image information; interface means for outputting the image information externally; flag determination means for determining on / off of an external output prohibition flag added to the image information; external of the image information An output conversion processing means for performing a conversion process on the image information according to a flag determination result prior to output.   The portable information terminal according to claim 1, wherein the output conversion processing means performs any one of non-conversion processing, non-display processing, or replacement processing for each input image information.   It comprises imaging means for acquiring video information by converting a video image into an electrical signal, and the image information acquired by the imaging means is added with the external output prohibition flag and stored in the storage means. The portable information terminal according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that   4. A display means for visually outputting the image information, wherein the display means stops its operation while the image information is output to the outside. The portable information terminal according to any one of the above.

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