JP2006229772A - Digital image synthesizer, method and program therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a digital image synthesizer which reduces time and effort in a case that two images registered through a network are synthesized, and can easily synthesize images photographed by different imaging devices whose specifications are different each other. <P>SOLUTION: The digital image synthesizer registers photographed images photographed by a digital camera 101 through the Internet 110. Further, the synthesizer registers photographed image photographed by a portable telephone 103 with a camera through the Internet 110, and the registered two photographed images are automatically synthesized. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a digital image composition apparatus, method, and program, and in particular, automatically edits and synthesizes an image photographed by an imaging apparatus and an image photographed by an imaging apparatus of a different type from the imaging apparatus. The present invention relates to a digital image composition apparatus and method, and a program.

  Conventionally, when printing an image taken by a user with a digital camera, the shot image is directly transmitted from the digital camera to a personal computer (PC), and the image is edited and combined on application software installed on the PC, and then printed. It is carried out. In addition, a photographed image is registered via a network to an information processing apparatus such as a server that can perform image registration, storage, generation, composition, etc. from a PC, and a print or print order is made for the registered photographed image. There may be.

  In such a system, for example, a user captures digital image data together with shooting information attached to the digital image data into a personal computer and designates a printing format such as whether printing of the shooting information is necessary and a printing position on a print designation screen. A technique has been proposed in which designated content is added to digital image data as print information, passed to a photographic printer via, for example, the recording medium 4, and shooting information is printed on the print based on the print information. (See Patent Document 1).

In addition, the conventional print ordering system includes a database server that can be connected to a network and can register personal information, and a print ordering terminal device that can order prints via the network and download personal information data from the database. A technique for creating print order information based on personal information data downloaded from a database server by a data print ordering terminal device has been proposed (see Patent Document 2).
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-191021 JP 2002-149793 A

  However, in the above-described conventional method, when an image is directly captured and printed on a PC, it is necessary for the user himself to perform image editing and layout design, which is very troublesome.

  On the other hand, when an image is registered and printed on a server via a network, it is a very difficult task unless the user is familiar with the image editing function of the server. Further, even if editing is performed, only an operation of adding a frame to the image can be performed, and it is difficult to combine a plurality of images into one.

  In particular, with the advent of recent digital cameras and camera-equipped mobile phones, images that were shot with a digital camera and images taken with a camera-equipped mobile phone are automatically combined to create a photo print environment that better matches customer needs. Need to provide.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and reduces the time and effort required to combine two images registered via a network, and images taken by imaging devices having different specifications from each other. It is an object of the present invention to provide a digital image composition apparatus and method, and a program that can be easily synthesized.

  In order to achieve the above object, a digital image synthesizing apparatus according to claim 1 is different from the digital camera, and first image registration means for registering an image photographed by a digital camera as a first image via the Internet. Second image registration means for registering an image photographed by the imaging device as a second image via the Internet, and composition means for synthesizing the registered first image and the registered second image. It is characterized by providing.

  In order to achieve the above object, an image composition method for a digital image composition apparatus according to claim 5 is an image composition method for a digital image composition apparatus connected to a plurality of types of imaging devices via a network, and is photographed with a digital camera. A first image registration step of registering the obtained image as a first image via the Internet, and a second image registration for registering an image taken by an imaging device different from the digital camera as a second image via the Internet And a synthesis step of synthesizing the registered first image and the registered second image.

  According to the present invention, an image photographed by a digital camera is registered as a first image via the Internet, and an image photographed by an imaging device different from the digital camera is registered and registered as a second image via the Internet. Since the first image and the registered second image are combined, the trouble of combining the two images registered via the network is reduced, and the images are taken by imaging devices having different specifications. Images can be easily combined.

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

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of an image composition system including a digital image composition apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  In FIG. 1, the present image composition system is connected to a digital camera 101 as an imaging device and the digital camera 101, and images captured by the digital camera 101 can be uploaded to an image composition server 104 on the Internet 110. Personal computer (PC) 102, a mobile phone 103 with a camera that can be connected to the Internet 110 and uploaded to the image composition server 104, and a captured image uploaded by the PC 102 and the mobile phone 103 with a camera The image composition server 104 is a digital image composition apparatus that performs image composition by receiving the image and the PC 106 that can receive the composition image synthesized by the image composition server 104 and print it by the printer 107.

  A database (DB) 105 is connected to the image composition server 104 and temporarily stores captured images uploaded to the image composition server 104. The DB 105 includes a storage device such as a hard disk and is configured separately from the image composition server 104 in the drawing, but may be integrated.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of the image composition server 104 in FIG.

  2, in the image composition server 104, a CPU 201, a RAM 202, a ROM 203, a keyboard 204, a communication interface 205, a hard disk (HD) 206, a CRT 207 as a display device, and a pointing device 208 such as a mouse are connected via a system bus 210. They are communicably connected to each other.

  The ROM 203 or HD 206 stores a control program in advance. The CPU 201 reads out the control program from the ROM 203 or the HD 206 onto the RAM 202 as necessary, and executes processing to be described later. The CPU 201 displays various information via the CRT 207 and accepts user instructions from the keyboard 204 and the pointing device 208. Further, the communication with the PC 106 on the Internet 110 is performed via the communication interface 205. Note that the PCs 101 and 106 have the same configuration as the image composition server 104. The camera-equipped mobile phone 103 has the same configuration as a general camera-equipped mobile phone, and a description thereof will be omitted.

  Next, image composition processing in the image composition system of FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart of image composition processing in the image composition system of FIG.

  In FIG. 3, first, when an image (first image) taken by the user with the digital camera 101 is transmitted to the PC 102, it is uploaded from the PC 102 to the image composition server 104 via the Internet 110 (step S301). .

  In the image composition server 104, predetermined image composition application software is activated, and the uploaded photographed image is temporarily stored (registered) in the DB 105 (step S302).

  Subsequently, in the image composition server 104, the image (second image) taken by the camera-equipped mobile phone 103 is uploaded to the image composition server 104 via the Internet 110 by the communication means provided in the camera-equipped mobile phone 103. (Step S303), when a captured image is uploaded from the camera-equipped mobile phone 103, the captured image captured by the digital camera 101 registered in the DB 105 is read (step S304). Those images are synthesized (step S305). An outline of the synthesized image is shown in FIG.

  In FIG. 4, an image 400 is obtained by combining an image 401 captured by the digital camera 101, an image 402 captured by the camera-equipped mobile phone 103, and character information 403 input by the user via the keyboard 204. It is a composite image.

  The image 401 and the image 402 are automatically synthesized based on a template (not shown) registered in advance in the image synthesis server 104. The template layout is created by an operator such as a designer on another PC (not shown) or the image composition server 104 and registered in the image composition server.

  If the image sizes and resolutions of the images 401 and 402 are different from each other, they are automatically converted by resolution conversion (for example, error diffusion method), and the converted images are fitted into a predetermined frame on the template. .

  Returning to FIG. 3, in step S <b> 306, the image 400 is transmitted from the image composition server 104 to the PC 106 via the Internet 110, and printed out by the printer 107 connected to the PC 106.

  According to the above-described embodiment, the captured image captured by the digital camera 101 is registered via the Internet 110, while the captured image captured by the mobile phone 103 with the camera is registered via the Internet 110, and the two registered Since the shot images are automatically combined, it is possible to reduce the trouble of combining two images registered via the network and to easily combine the images captured by the imaging devices having different specifications. it can.

  As another embodiment, when uploading a photographed image taken by the camera-equipped mobile phone 103 using a portable mail transmission / reception function, character information described by the user in the body of the mail is used as character information 403. By synthesizing the image 400, an image with higher added value can be synthesized.

  As another embodiment, it is also possible to print the synthesized image by connecting to a self-terminal such as a business print service base or a convenience store other than the printer 107 connected to the PC 106.

  An object of the present invention is to supply a storage medium storing software program codes for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or apparatus, and a computer (or CPU, MPU, or the like) of the system or apparatus as a storage medium. This can also be achieved by reading and executing the stored program code.

  In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiment, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

  Examples of the storage medium for supplying the program code include a floppy (registered trademark) disk, a hard disk, a magneto-optical disk, a CD-ROM, a CD-R, a CD-RW, a DVD-ROM, a DVD ± R, and a DVD. -RAM, DVD ± RW, magnetic tape, nonvolatile memory card, ROM, etc. can be used. Alternatively, the program code may be downloaded via the Internet 110 or a network.

  Further, by executing the program code read by the computer, not only the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized, but also an OS (operating system) running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. A case where part or all of the actual processing is performed and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing is also included.

  Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written in a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, the function expansion is performed based on the instruction of the program code. This includes the case where the CPU or the like provided in the board or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing. Further, by executing the program code read out by the computer, not only the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized, but also the OS running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code is actually Needless to say, the present invention also includes a case where the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by performing part or all of the processing, and the processing.

  In this case, the program is supplied by downloading directly from a storage medium storing the program or from another computer or database (not shown) connected to the Internet, a commercial network, a local area network, or the like.

1 is a diagram illustrating an overall configuration of an image composition system including a digital image composition apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram which shows the hardware constitutions of the image composition server 104 in FIG. It is a flowchart of the image composition process in the image composition system of FIG. FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram of an image created by the image composition processing of FIG. 3.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Digital camera 102, 106 Personal computer 103 Mobile phone with camera 104 Image composition server 105 Database 107 Printer 110 Internet 400, 401, 402 Image 403 Character information

Claims (8)

First image registration means for registering an image captured by a digital camera as a first image via the Internet;
Second image registration means for registering an image captured by an imaging device different from the digital camera as a second image via the Internet;
A digital image synthesizing apparatus comprising: a synthesizing unit that synthesizes the registered first image and the registered second image.   2. The digital image composition apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising input means for inputting character information, wherein the composition means synthesizes the inputted character information by adding it to the image to be synthesized.   3. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a mail transmission / reception unit, wherein the synthesis unit adds and synthesizes character information described in a body of the mail received by the mail transmission / reception unit in the image to be synthesized. The digital image composition apparatus described.   The digital image composition device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the imaging device includes at least a mobile phone with a camera, an internet camera, and a mobile terminal with a camera. In an image composition method of a digital image composition apparatus connected to a plurality of types of imaging devices via a network,
A first image registration step of registering an image captured by a digital camera as a first image via the Internet;
A second image registration step of registering an image taken by an imaging device different from the digital camera as a second image via the Internet;
An image composition method comprising: a composition step of compositing the registered first image and the registered second image.   6. The image synthesizing method according to claim 5, wherein in the synthesizing step, the input character information is added to the image to be synthesized and synthesized.   The digital image composition apparatus includes a mail transmission / reception means, and the composition step adds and synthesizes character information described in a body of an email received by the mail transmission / reception means into the composition image. Item 7. The image composition method according to Item 5 or 6.   A computer-readable program for causing a computer to execute the image composition method according to any one of claims 5 to 7.

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