JP2007201579A - Electronic camera - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electronic camera properly transferring an image to another apparatus. <P>SOLUTION: The electronic camera includes: an imaging means 10 for imaging an object to generate image data; a recording means 60 for recording the image data; a transfer means 51 for transferring the image data recorded in the recording means 60 to a data server 7 connected to a network 6; a transmission history information storage means 60 for recording transmission history information denoting that the image data are transferred to the data server; an electronic mail transmission means 51 for transmitting electronic mail whose a transmission destination has been designated to a mail server 8 connected to the network 6; and an electronic mail generating means 21 for reading the transmission history information when the image data are transmitted to the transmission destination and for describing information in the electronic mail, the information denoting a storage place of the image data in the data server 7 when the transfer history information denoting that the image data are transferred to the data server 7 exists. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an electronic camera connectable to a network.

It is considered that a wireless communication function is added to the electronic camera, the electronic camera can be directly connected to a network, and an image captured by the electronic camera is transferred to a server connected to the network (for example, Patent Document 1). .
JP 2004-303147 A

  In an electronic camera connected to a network, it is conceivable to transmit an e-mail from the electronic camera and transfer image data to another device. However, in the case of high-definition images, the volume of image data is large, it takes time to transfer data, and the burden on the network also increases.

  An object of the present invention is to provide an electronic camera that can appropriately transfer an image from the electronic camera to another device.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention
Imaging means for imaging a subject and generating image data;
Recording means for recording the image data;
Network connection means for connecting to the network;
Transfer means for transferring the image data recorded in the recording means to a data server connected to the network via the network connection means;
Transmission history storage means for storing transmission history information indicating that the image data has been transferred to the data server;
E-mail transmitting means for transmitting an e-mail designating a destination to a mail server connected to the network via the network connecting means;
When transmitting the image data to the transmission destination, the transmission history information is read, and if there is transmission history information indicating that the image data has been transferred to the data server, the e-mail An e-mail generation unit that describes information indicating the storage location of the image data is provided.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to efficiently transmit image data by electronic mail.

  FIG. 1 is a system diagram for explaining an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, an electronic camera 1a and an electronic camera 1b are equipped with a wireless LAN function. The access points 5a and 5c are access points in a hot spot provided in a coffee shop or an airport so that the wireless LAN can be accessed on the go. Users of the electronic camera 1a and the electronic camera 1b can connect to the Internet network 6 through the access points 5a and 5c, respectively, by going to such hot spots.

  A personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a PC) 4 is installed in the home of the user of the electronic camera 1a, and an access point 5b is an access point installed in the home. The PC 4 has a LAN interface and can be connected to the Internet line network 6 via the access point 5b. A data server 7, an SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server 8 (that is, a mail transmission server), and a POP (Post Office Protocol) server 9 (that is, a mail reception server) are connected to the Internet network 6. . The electronic cameras 1a and 1b and the PC 4 can access these servers via access points, respectively.

  The user of the electronic camera 1a connects the home PC 4 and the electronic camera 1a with the cable 3 via the USB interface, thereby transferring the photograph image taken by the electronic camera 1a to the PC 4 and storing it in the PC 4. Can do.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the electronic camera 1a. Here, the electronic camera 1a will be described, but the electronic camera 1b has the same configuration. In FIG. 2, an electronic camera 1a includes an image capturing unit 10 that captures an image to generate image data, an image processing unit 20 that performs predetermined processing on the image data, and an image playback that reproduces the image data and displays an image. The unit 30 is connected to the USB cable 3 via the connection terminal 2a, and is wirelessly connected to the access point 5a, the USB interface 40 that converts the format of the image data into a format that allows communication with the PC 4, and the Internet line network 6 A wireless LAN interface 51 for establishing a connection to the camera, an operation unit 50 on which operation buttons such as a shutter button for photographing, an edit button for editing, and a display switching button for switching display are arranged, and image data is recorded. And a hard disk 60.

  In the present embodiment, the electronic camera 1a shoots a subject to generate image data, a shooting mode for recording the generated image data on the hard disk 60, and a playback mode for displaying the shot image data on the display monitor 31. The four operation modes are switched between a PC transfer mode for transferring image data recorded on the hard disk 60 to the PC 4 and a server transfer mode for transferring image data recorded on the hard disk 60 to the data server 7 or the SMTP server 8. It is configured to be possible.

  The imaging unit 10 includes a CCD imaging device 11, an analog signal processing unit 12, an A / D converter 13, and a timing generator 14. The CCD image sensor 11 includes a plurality of light receiving pixels arranged in a matrix, a light receiving unit (not shown) that accumulates charges generated by photoelectric conversion in each light receiving pixel, and charges that are accumulated in each light receiving pixel of the light receiving unit. A transfer unit (not shown) for transferring the light and an output unit (not shown) for converting the electric charge transferred by the transfer unit into an electrical signal and outputting the electric signal, according to the subject image formed on the light receiving unit Output the image signal.

  The analog signal processing unit 12 performs analog signal processing such as correlated double sampling processing (CDS) and automatic gain control processing (AGC) on the image signal output from the CCD imaging device 11, and repeats the signal level and the reset level. After extracting only the signal level from the image signal, a predetermined gain is given. The A / D converter 13 digitizes the image signal output from the analog signal processing unit 12 in units of one pixel in synchronization with the output timing of the image signal from the CCD image pickup device 11 to generate image data. The timing generator 14 controls the charge transfer timing and the image signal output timing in the CCD image sensor 11, and also synchronizes with the output timing of the image signal from the CCD image sensor 11, and the analog signal processing unit 12 and the A / The operation timing of the D converter 13 is controlled. The digital signal processing unit 20 includes a controller 21 made of a system LSI, a ROM 22, and a RAM 23.

  The controller 21 performs digital signal processing such as white balance processing and gamma correction processing on the image data output from the A / D converter 13. In addition, the controller 21 performs processing for generating or updating an image management database and a transmission history database, which will be described later. The image management database and the transmission history database are recorded in a predetermined storage area of the hard disk 60 of the electronic camera 1a independently of the image data.

  When the power switch of the electronic camera 1a is turned on, the controller 21 reads out and executes the control program recorded in the ROM 22, activates the electronic camera 1a, and operates the entire electronic camera 1a according to the control program. Control. The controller 21 has a built-in timer function, and is held while the current date is updated. When recording the image data of the photographed photograph, transferring the image data to the data server 7, or sending it attached to an e-mail, the date and time data at that time can be recorded. In addition, when the operation mode of the electronic camera 1 a is switched to the PC transfer mode and the electronic camera 1 a is connected to the PC 4, the controller 21 reads management data from the hard disk 60 and passes through the USB interface 40 and the USB cable 3. And function to transfer to the PC 4. Further, when the operation mode of the electronic camera 1a is switched to the server transfer mode, the controller 21 establishes a connection to the Internet network 6 via the access point 5a via the wireless LAN interface 51, and transmits and receives data. To function.

The RAM 23 temporarily stores the image data output from the photographing unit 10 and functions as a buffer memory for various image processing and image compression / decompression processing.
In FIG. 2, the image reproducing unit 30 includes a display monitor 31 configured by, for example, a liquid crystal display panel and a monitor controller 32 that drives the display monitor 31 based on image data. In the playback mode, the image playback unit 30 displays the display content of the display monitor 31 by using the display switching button of the operation unit 50, and the image corresponding to the image data selected by the user from the image data recorded on the hard disk 60. The display can be switched between a normal display to be displayed and a thumbnail display in which a plurality of images are displayed side by side with a reduced image size.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the PC 4. 3, the PC 4 includes a computer main body 70, a display unit 77 having a display monitor such as a liquid crystal display panel, and an input unit 78 such as a keyboard and a mouse.

  The computer main body 70 includes a CPU 71 that controls the overall operation of the PC 4 in accordance with the control program, a ROM 72 that stores the control program, a RAM 73 that temporarily stores image data, and program files and data files for image data and application programs. Is connected to the USB cable 3 via the connection terminal 4a and converts the format of the image data into a format communicable with the electronic camera 1a, a display unit 77, and an input unit. 78 and an input / output interface 76 for connecting the CPU 71. Further, a LAN interface 79 connected to the LAN cable 80 via the connection terminal 4b is provided. The other end of the LAN cable 80 is connected to the access point 5b and connected to the Internet line network 6 at the other end. The PC 4 is installed with an application program for generating and updating an image data database. The image management database and the transmission history database transferred from the electronic camera 1a are recorded in a predetermined storage area of the hard disk 74 independently of the image data.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the contents of the image management database generated on the hard disk 60 of the electronic camera 1a. As shown in FIG. 4, in the image management database, the file name and shooting date / time of each image data are recorded. This recording is performed by the controller 21, and when the image data is generated and recorded on the hard disk 60, the file name and the date and time (obtained by the timer function incorporated in the controller) are sequentially stored in the image management database file. I will add to it. In this way, the hard disk 60 of the electronic camera 1a stores an image management database in which captured image data and information related to the image data (image file name, shooting date and time) are recorded.

  The PC 4 is set so that it can be connected to the Internet. Although it is necessary to make settings in order to connect the electronic camera 1a to the Internet, such network settings are performed by the PC 4, and the network information of the electronic camera 1a is set by transferring the set information to the electronic camera 1a. be able to. Network setting items performed on the PC 4 include the IP address of the electronic camera 1a, DNS server address, FTP transmission (transmission to the data server 7) settings (FTP server name, user ID, password, FTP server reception folder name). ), Setting of mail environment (sending to SMTP server) (mail address, mail server name, password, etc.), setting of mail destination (setting of the mail address of the other party to send mail), and the like. Here, FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is used as a data transfer protocol from the electronic camera 1 a to the data server 7. The data set above is sent from the PC 4 to the electronic camera 1a by connecting the PC 4 and the electronic camera 1a with the USB cable 3.

  As described above, the image data captured and generated by the electronic camera 1a is stored in the hard disk 60 of the electronic camera 1a. An operation for transferring these image data to the data server 7 will be described.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure in the controller 21 when transferring image data stored in the electronic camera 1 a to the data server 7. The user of the electronic camera 1a goes to a hot spot and connects the electronic camera 1a to the Internet by wirelessly connecting the electronic camera 1a and the access point 5a. Then, the connection between the electronic camera 1a and the data server 7 is established (step S601 in FIG. 6). In this state, the user operates the electronic camera 1a to select image data to be transferred to the data server 7. When an operation indicating the completion of the selection is performed (step S602 in FIG. 6), the selected image data is read from the hard disk 60 (step S603 in FIG. 6) and transferred to the data server 7 via the network 6. (Step S604 in FIG. 6). The transferred image data is stored in the data server 7. At this time, the electronic camera 1a records transmission history information in a transmission history database file generated on the hard disk 60 (step S605 in FIG. 6).

  FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the contents of a transmission history database in which transmission history information is recorded. The transmission history database file is stored in the hard disk 60 of the electronic camera 1a. In the electronic camera 1a, after the image data is transmitted to the outside, the file name, the transmission destination, and the transmission date and time of the transmitted image data are sequentially recorded in the transmission history database. As described above, when image data is transferred to the data server 7, the file name of the image data is displayed in the “image file name” section, and the image data of the image data at the transfer destination is stored in the “transmission destination” section. The date and time when the image data is transferred is recorded in the “transmission date and time” section of the URL. URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is a description method that indicates the location where information resources (here, image data) are stored on the Internet. The URL can be specified from setting information (server name, storage folder name in the server) for transmission to the data server 7 and a file name of the image data. When the transmission history database is updated in step S605 in FIG. 6, it is monitored whether or not an operation for continuing the transfer process is performed by the user (step S606 in FIG. 6). If no operation is performed, a connection termination process with the data server 7 is performed (step S607 in FIG. 6), and the series of processes is terminated. If an operation is performed, the process returns to step S602 in FIG. 6 to continue the processing.

In the electronic camera 1a, there are the following methods for selecting image data to be transferred to the data server 7.
Of the image data stored in the hard disk 60, the image data taken immediately before is displayed on the display monitor 31, and the transfer processing of the image data is instructed.
The image data stored in the hard disk 60 is displayed as a thumbnail on the display monitor 31, an image to be transferred is selected from the displayed images, and a transfer process of the selected image data is instructed.
Transfer all image data stored in the hard disk 60.
All of the image data stored in the hard disk 60 other than the image data that has already been transferred to the data server 7 (that is, image data that has not yet been transferred) is transferred.

  In the electronic camera 1a, the image data transferred to the data server 7 can be deleted from the hard disk 60 of the electronic camera 1a. When the deletion operation is performed, the image data is deleted, but the transmission history information (recorded in the transmission history database) of the image data is not deleted. Further, the image data on which the deletion operation has been performed can be set so as to create reduced image data having an appropriate size for display on the display monitor 31 of the electronic camera 1a. Even after the image data is deleted, the image data can be continuously stored in the hard disk 60 of the electronic camera 1a. Thereafter, when displaying thumbnails, the deleted images are displayed using reduced images. When there is no reduced image, it is blank. In any case, a display is made to show that the data has been transferred to the data server 7.

  In FIG. 1, image data can be transmitted from the electronic camera 1a to the electronic camera 1b. This transmission may be performed using two mail servers (SMTP server 8 and POP server 9) or may further use the data server 7. Hereinafter, an operation when image data stored in the hard disk 60 of the electronic camera 1a is transmitted to the electronic camera 1b will be described. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure in the electronic camera 1a in this case.

  The user selects image data to be transmitted with the electronic camera 1a, and then selects a transmission destination. The controller 21 of the electronic camera 1a monitors whether or not this selection operation has been completed (step S701 in FIG. 7). When the selection operation is completed, the Internet connection through the access point 5a is established (step S702 in FIG. 7). Next, the transmission history information of the selected image data is read from the transmission history database stored in the hard disk 60 (step S703 in FIG. 7). At this time, if there is no transmission history information of the image data, an e-mail attached with the selected image data is created with the transmission destination as the destination (step S709 in FIG. 7). Then, the electronic mail is transmitted to the SMTP server 8 via the access point 5a (step S706 in FIG. 7). Then, similarly to the transfer to the data server 7, the image file name, the transmission destination, and the transmission date and time are recorded in the transmission history database of FIG. 5 (step S707 in FIG. 7). In this case, the “image file name” field contains the file name of the image data attached to the e-mail, the “destination” field contains the e-mail address of the e-mail destination, and the “send date” field. Records the transmission date and time of the e-mail. Thereafter, the Internet connection is canceled (step S708 in FIG. 7), and the processing in the electronic camera 1a is terminated. The SMTP server 8 sends the e-mail to the destination POP server 9 based on the header information of the e-mail (including “destination”, “sender”, “title”, etc.). The POP server that has received the e-mail stores the e-mail in the mailbox of the user (user of the electronic camera 1b).

  The user of the electronic camera 1b transmits a request for receiving an electronic mail from the electronic camera 1b to the POP server 9 via the access point 5c. Upon receiving the request, the POP server 9 transmits an e-mail stored in the user's mailbox to the user's terminal device (electronic camera 1b). The user of the electronic camera 1b can view the image based on the image data attached to the electronic mail received by the electronic camera 1b.

  In step S704 in FIG. 7, if there is transmission history information of the selected image data to the data server 7, the following processing is performed. First, an e-mail in which the URL of the image data known from the transmission destination recorded in the transmission history database and the image file name is written is created with the selected transmission destination as the destination (step S705 in FIG. 7). Then, the electronic mail is transmitted to the SMTP server 8 via the access point 5a (step S706 in FIG. 7), and the processes of steps S707 and S708 are performed in the same manner as described above. The operation until the electronic camera 1b receives the electronic mail is the same as described above. In the electronic camera 1b, after receiving the e-mail, the image data can be downloaded from the data server 7 by the URL written in the e-mail. That is, it is possible to access the data server 7 based on the URL, transfer the image data of the corresponding URL from the data server 7 to the electronic camera 1b, and display the image on the electronic camera 1b.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, when the image data is transmitted from the electronic camera 1a by e-mail, the image data has already been transmitted to the data server 7 (that is, the image data has already been transmitted to the data server 7). Since the image data is not attached to e-mail, the amount of data to be transmitted when sending e-mail can be greatly reduced, and the transmission time can be shortened, and the load on the network is also reduced. Can be reduced. Also, in the electronic camera 1b that receives, the reception time at the time of receiving the electronic mail can be shortened. The image data can be downloaded later at any time, and if the image data does not need to be viewed, the image data need not be downloaded, so the burden on the network can be reduced.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing another example of the operation procedure in the electronic camera 1a when the image data of the electronic camera 1a is transmitted to the electronic camera 1b. In FIG. 8, steps S801 to S804 are the same as steps S701 to S704 in FIG. Further, in step S804, the subsequent processing when there is transmission history information of the image data selected in step S801 (the processing from step S805 to step S808 is the same as the processing from step S705 to step S708 in FIG. 7). 7 is the subsequent processing when there is no transmission history information of the selected image data in step S804.If there is no transmission history information of the selected image data in step S804, there is a difference. The controller 21 of the camera 1a performs processing for establishing a connection with the data server 7 (step S809 in FIG. 8), and reads out the selected image data from the hard disk and transfers it to the data server 7 (step S810 in FIG. 8). The transmission history information is added to the image management database (see FIG. 8). These processes are the same as those in steps S601 and S603 to S605 in Fig. 6. Hereinafter, the URL (transmission history information) of the transfer destination of the selected image data with the selected transmission destination as the destination. ) Is written (step S805 in FIG. 8), and the email is transmitted to the SMTP server 8 via the access point 5a (step S806 in FIG. 8). Steps S807 and S808 are performed, and the electronic camera 1b can receive the electronic mail and view the image data in the same manner as described above.

  According to the embodiment as described above, as in the case of the operation of FIG. 7, in the electronic camera 1 b that receives it, it is possible to shorten the reception time when the electronic mail is received. Then, the image data can be downloaded at any time later, and if it is not necessary to view the image data, the image data need not be downloaded, so the burden on the network can be reduced. In the electronic camera 1a, the image data is transferred to the data server 7 before the e-mail is transmitted. Therefore, the image data is continuously stored in the data server 7 even after the e-mail is transmitted. Therefore, when the image data is transmitted again by e-mail, the image data is not attached to the e-mail as in the operation of FIG. 7, so that the amount of data to be transmitted at the time of e-mail transmission can be greatly reduced. The transmission time can be shortened and the burden on the network can be reduced.

  Next, data transfer from the electronic camera 1a to the PC 4 will be described. FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing an operation in the PC 4 when data is transferred between the electronic camera 1a and the PC 4. First, when the electronic camera 1a and the PC 4 are connected by the USB cable 3, the PC 4 establishes a connection with the electronic camera 1a and is ready for data transfer (step S901 in FIG. 9). First, the image management database file stored in the hard disk 60 of the electronic camera 1a is transferred to the PC 4 (step S902 in FIG. 9). Then, the contents are compared with the image management database file stored in the hard disk 74 of the PC 4 (this is transferred and stored from the electronic camera 1a at the previous connection) (step S903 in FIG. 9). Then, the image management database file stored in the PC 4 is updated (step S904 in FIG. 9). In this process, the image database stored at the previous transfer may be overwritten with the image management database file transferred from the electronic camera 1a this time. Next, as a result of the comparison in step S903, the image data added to the image management database this time compared to the previous time is read from the hard disk 60 of the electronic camera 1a, transferred to the PC 4, and stored in the hard disk 74 of the PC 4 ( FIG. 9 step S905). Next, the transmission history database file stored in the hard disk 60 of the electronic camera 1a is transferred to the PC 4 (step S906 in FIG. 9). Then, the contents of the transmission history database file stored in the hard disk 74 of the PC 4 are compared (step S907 in FIG. 9).

  Here, the transmission history database file stored in the hard disk 74 of the PC 4 will be described. The image data transferred and stored from the electronic camera 1a to the PC 4 can be transmitted from the PC 4 to the outside. That is, the PC 4 connects to the Internet via the access point 5b, transfers the image data to the data server 7 connected to the Internet network 6, or uses the SMTP server 8 to attach the image data to the e-mail. Can send. These transmissions can be performed by performing the same processing as in the case of transmission from the electronic camera 1a described above on the PC 4. When these transmission processes are performed, the transmission history database similar to that shown in FIG. 5 is created in the hard disk 74 of the PC 4 and the transmission history information is recorded, as is the case with the electronic camera 1a. Therefore, a transmission history database in which transmission history information different from the electronic camera 1a is recorded is created in the PC 4.

  When comparing the transmission history database transferred from the electronic camera 1a with the transmission history database of the PC 4 in step S907 in FIG. 9, the recorded transmission history information includes the transmission history information recorded in both transmission history databases, the electronic history There are transmission history information recorded only in the transmission history database of the camera 1a and transmission history information recorded only in the transmission history database of the PC 4. In the PC 4, transmission history information recorded only in the transmission history database of the electronic camera 1 a is added to the transmission history database file stored in the PC 4 and recorded. As a result, all transmission history information recorded in both transmission history databases is recorded in the transmission history database of the PC 4. In this way, the transmission history database of the PC 4 is updated (step S908 in FIG. 9). Then, the transmission history database file of the electronic camera 1a is also updated by transferring the updated transmission history database file to the electronic camera 1a and overwriting the transmission history database file stored in the hard disk 60 of the electronic camera 1a. To do.

  As described above, the transmission history database recorded by reflecting the transmission history information in each of the electronic cameras 1a and PC4 can be stored in both the electronic cameras 1a and PC4.

  In addition, the image data edited by the PC 4 and newly created can be transferred to the data server 7. Also in this case, the transmission history information is recorded in the transmission history database of the PC 4. This transmission history database is transferred to the electronic camera 1a and recorded, so that the electronic camera 1a accesses the URL in the data server of the transfer destination, thereby downloading the image data created by the PC 4 and the image. Can be viewed.

  As described above, according to this embodiment, the transmission history information in the electronic camera 1a and the transmission history information in the PC 4 can be shared by both, and the processing at the time of image data transmission in FIG. 7 is efficiently performed. be able to. That is, since the transmission history information of the image data transferred to the data server 7 by the PC 4 can be viewed also by the electronic camera 1a, it is not necessary to attach the image data to the email when transmitting the image data by email. The same applies to the case where image data is transmitted by e-mail from the PC 4.

  Since the transmission history data can be shared by both the electronic camera 1a and the PC 4, for example, the PC 4 (or the electronic camera 1a) searches the image data transmitted to a specific mail address using the transmission history database. Can be used to organize image data.

  Since the transmission history data can be shared by both the electronic camera 1a and the PC 4, for example, the PC 4 (or the electronic camera 1a) searches the image data transmitted to a specific mail address using the transmission history database. Can be used to organize image data.

  In this embodiment, the transmission history database file is created separately from the image data. However, the transmission history information of the image data may be recorded in the image data file. In this case, when transmitting image data, the transmission history can be confirmed by reading the transmission history information in the image data file, and the transmission process can be simplified.

  In the present embodiment, the image data, the image management database, and the transmission history database are stored in the hard disk 60 of the electronic camera 1a. However, they may be stored in separate recording media.

1 is a system diagram for explaining an image recording system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The block diagram of the electronic camera of embodiment of this invention. 1 is a configuration diagram of a PC used in an image recording system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The figure which shows the content of the image management database produced | generated with the electronic camera of embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the content of the transmission history database produced | generated with the electronic camera of embodiment of this invention. 6 is a flowchart showing an operation of the electronic camera when image data is transferred from the electronic camera of the embodiment of the present invention to the data server. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the electronic camera when image data is transmitted from the electronic camera according to the embodiment of the present invention to another electronic camera. 6 is another flowchart showing the operation of the electronic camera when image data is transmitted from the electronic camera according to the embodiment of the present invention to another electronic camera. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the PC when data is transferred from the electronic camera of the embodiment of the present invention to the PC.

Explanation of symbols

1a, 1b: electronic camera, 2a, 4a, 4b: connection terminal, 3: USB cable, 4: PC, 5a, 5b, 5c: access point, 6: Internet network, 7: data server, 8: SMTP server, 9: POP server, 10: imaging unit, 20: digital signal processing unit, 21 controller, 40: USB interface, 30: display unit, 50: operation unit, 51: wireless LAN interface, 60: hard disk, 71: CPU, 74: hard disk, 75: USB interface, 79: LAN interface, 80: LAN cable.

Claims (3)

Imaging means for imaging a subject and generating image data;
Recording means for recording the image data;
Network connection means for connecting to the network;
Transfer means for transferring the image data to a data server connected to the network via the network connection means;
Transmission history storage means for storing transmission history information indicating that the image data has been transferred to the data server;
E-mail transmitting means for transmitting an e-mail designating a destination to a mail server connected to the network via the network connecting means;
When transmitting the image data to the transmission destination, the transmission history information is read, and if there is transmission history information indicating that the image data has been transferred to the data server, the e-mail An electronic camera comprising: an e-mail generation unit that describes information indicating a storage location of the image data. The electronic camera according to claim 1,
The electronic camera is characterized in that the electronic mail generation means attaches the image data to the electronic mail when there is no transmission history information indicating that the image data has been transferred to the data server. The electronic camera according to claim 1,
When there is no transmission history information indicating that the image data has been transferred to the data server, the e-mail generation unit transfers the image data to the data server by the transfer unit, and An electronic camera characterized in that information indicating a storage location of image data is described in the electronic mail.