JP2008042556A - Imaging device, control method for the imaging device, program, and storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To protect image files recorded in a recording medium, when there is access for deleting or altering the file, and so on, from external device. <P>SOLUTION: An imaging device files a photographed image, together with predetermined additional information and records the image file in the recording medium. When there is access to the image file recorded in the recording medium (steps S602 and S603), the right to access the image file is changed (step S606 or S607), based on the added information (steps S604 and S605). <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an imaging device that can be accessed from an external device connected to a network, a method for controlling the imaging device, a program, and a storage medium, for example.

  2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, there is a type of imaging apparatus such as a digital camera that can be connected to an external recording medium such as an external hard disk drive (HDD) that can record a large amount of data via a wired or wireless communication line.

  By connecting the imaging device to the external recording medium via the communication line in this way, it becomes possible for the photographer to shoot without worrying about the remaining recording capacity of the internal recording medium. Further, by recording the captured image on the external recording medium simultaneously with the internal recording medium, it is possible to capture the image while backing up the captured image on the external recording medium.

In addition, a technique has been proposed in which image data captured by its own digital camera is compressed and transferred to an external device in accordance with the free capacity of a recording medium of the external device that is communicably connected (for example, Patent Document 1). reference).
JP 2004-193784 A

  In the above conventional imaging device, even when the recording medium is full, the photographer does not need to temporarily stop shooting and transfer the shooting data to an external device. Editing work can be performed.

  However, when an external device such as a PC or digital camera connected to a network accesses a captured image file in its own imaging device, it is recorded in the imaging device due to an operation error of the operator of the external device. There is a risk that the captured image will be deleted and changed by mistake.

  There is also a possibility that a malicious operator may intentionally delete / change a captured image in the imaging apparatus from an external apparatus via a network.

  Therefore, the present invention provides an imaging apparatus, an imaging apparatus control method, a program, and a storage medium that can protect an image file recorded on a recording medium when a file is deleted or changed from an external apparatus The purpose is to provide.

  In order to achieve the above object, the imaging apparatus according to claim 1 is an imaging apparatus that can be connected to an external apparatus via a communication line, and forms a file of the captured image together with predetermined additional information. And a recording means for recording the image file filed by the filing means on a recording medium, and when the external device accesses the image file recorded on the recording medium, the additional information And changing means for changing the access authority to the image file based on the above.

  The imaging apparatus control method according to claim 6 is an imaging apparatus control method connectable to an external apparatus via a communication line, and a filed step of filing a captured image together with predetermined additional information; A recording step of recording the image file filed in the file forming step on a recording medium, and when the external device accesses the image file recorded on the recording medium, based on the additional information And a changing step of changing the access authority for the image file.

  The program according to claim 11 is a program for controlling an imaging device connectable to an external device via a communication line, and a filed module for filed a captured image together with predetermined additional information; A recording module for recording an image file filed by the module on a recording medium, and the image based on the additional information when the image file recorded on the recording medium is accessed from the external device. A change module for changing an access right to a file is executed by a computer.

  A computer-readable storage medium according to a twelfth aspect stores the program according to the eleventh aspect.

  According to the present invention, a captured image is filed together with predetermined additional information and recorded on a recording medium. When an image file recorded on the recording medium is accessed from an external device, based on the additional information. Change access rights to image files. As a result, the image file recorded on the recording medium can be protected when there is an access such as deletion or modification of the file from the external device.

  Hereinafter, an example of an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example in which a digital camera which is an example of an embodiment of the present invention is connected to an external PC via a communication line, and FIG. 2 is a control block of the digital camera which is an example of an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 and FIG. 3 are diagrams showing the data structure of the image file. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a file access management table, FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining a processing procedure for creating a file access management table, and FIG. 6 is a digital camera as an example of an embodiment of the present invention. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the operation example of.

  As shown in FIG. 1, a digital camera (imaging device) 101 that is an example of an embodiment of the present invention is connected to an external PC (external device) 103 via a LAN cable (communication line) 102. Identification information such as a unique IP address is assigned to the digital camera 101. With this identification information, the captured image recorded on the recording medium of the digital camera 101 can be accessed from the external PC 103 via the LAN cable 102. The communication line is not particularly limited, and a wireless LAN, for example, may be used instead of the LAN cable.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the digital camera 101 includes a camera unit 201, an image processing unit 202, a recording unit (recording unit) 203, an I / F 204, a control unit 205, and an operation unit 206.

  Although not illustrated in the camera unit 201, a lens for forming light from the subject, an image sensor for photoelectrically converting the subject image formed by the lens, a circuit for driving the image sensor, An A / D converter that converts an analog image signal output from the image sensor into a digital image signal is included. The image processing unit 202 is an image processing circuit that performs image processing on the digital image signal output from the camera unit 201, and performs image processing such as JPEG compression.

  The recording unit 203 is for recording a digital image signal subjected to image processing by the image processing unit 202 on a recording medium (not shown). In this embodiment, a memory card that is removable from the digital camera 101 is used as a recording medium. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a built-in memory that is not removable from the digital camera 101 is used. There may be. The I / F 204 is an interface unit for communicating with the external PC 103 via the LAN cable 102. In this embodiment, an Ethernet (registered trademark) controller is employed.

  The control unit 205 is a control circuit for controlling the entire digital camera 101, performs file access control, file management by a file management application, and file access management by a file system. Is included. In this embodiment, FAT (File Allocation Table) 16 is adopted as the file system, but it is not particularly limited as long as it is a file system that provides basic file access management. The operation unit 206 includes buttons and the like for the user to operate the digital camera 101.

  Next, a storage format of image data captured by the digital camera 101 in a recording medium will be described with reference to FIG.

  An image photographed by the digital camera 101 is stored in a recording medium as an image file in an Exif (Exchangeable image file format for digital still cameras) format. Exif format includes JPEG image data and thumbnail image data plus ExifTAG data, and tags and shooting-specific information such as exposure time, shutter speed, aperture value, and lens focal length are set here. There is a private tab that can be.

  The additional information other than the image data of the digital camera 101 is recorded as a file together with the image data by the method according to the Exif standard when the image data is recorded on the recording medium as JPEG image data (file forming means). ). Further, by using a method according to the private tag of the Exif standard, it can be handled as a general-purpose image data file without depending on a specific device or application.

  In this embodiment, when recording a captured image on a recording medium, the image data is JPEG compressed, and thumbnail image data and ExifTAG data are added to form a file. At this time, the unique serial number for the digital camera 101 is written in the private tag data area of the ExifTAG data, which is an area that can be used uniquely. Based on this data, the image file photographed by the digital camera 101 is distinguished from other files. When a file recorded on the storage medium of the digital camera 101 is accessed from the external PC 103, file access control is performed according to the tag information.

  Next, a sequence related to file access control of the digital camera 101 as an example of the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

  First, when the power of the digital camera 101 is turned on in step S501, the process proceeds to step S502, and the file management application on the control unit 205 uses the file system API to display all image files existing on the recording medium. Read private tag information.

  Next, in step S503, the file management application compares the private tag information obtained from each file with the serial number held by the digital camera 101. An access management table (see FIG. 4) is created.

  The file management application performs access management for file access of the external PC 103 using the file access management table. That is, referring to FIG. 4, when “Product Flag” is 1, it is defined as an image file captured by the digital camera 101, and the file is deleted and the file is changed for the access from the external PC 103. Is prohibited. On the other hand, when “Product Flag” is 0, deletion of files other than image files photographed by the digital camera 101 and change of the files are permitted (changing means).

  When the shutter of the digital camera 101 is pressed in step S504, captured image information is sent from the camera unit 201 to the image processing unit 202, and the image processing unit 202 performs image processing such as JPEG compression.

  Next, in step S505, when the image processed by the image processing unit 202 is converted into a file, a serial number unique to this model is written to the private tag in the Exif format by the file management application operating on the control unit 205. .

  In step S506, using the API of the file system FAT16, the recording unit 203 writes the file data and records it on the recording medium. As a result, a serial number unique to the device is assigned to the private tag in the Exif format only for the image file photographed with the digital camera 101, and the image file photographed with the digital camera 101 and other image files are assigned by this tag information. Can be distinguished.

  In step S507, the file management application adds the photographed image file to the file access management table with “Product Flag” set to 1. As a result, the file management application creates a file access management table used for file access management from the external PC 103 for the existing image file on the recording medium and the image file shot using the digital camera 101.

  Next, an operation example of the digital camera 101 which is an example of the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In this example, communication between the external PC 103 and the digital camera 101 via the LAN cable 102 uses a TCP / IP protocol. Further, for the communication related to file access between the external PC 103 and the digital camera 101, an HTTP protocol is used, but there is no particular limitation as long as it is a protocol that can communicate with the file management application on the digital camera 101.

  First, in step S601, the file management application of the digital camera 101 transmits a file list to the external PC 103 using an HTTP command based on the file access management table that the digital camera 101 has. The external PC 103 can designate, delete, change and refer to a file from an application that browses the file list.

  For example, when a file is specified and deleted from an application on the external PC 103, the application of the external PC 103 transmits a file deletion command via the LAN (TCP / IP) using the HTTP protocol. In this case, the command is transmitted in a command form such as “http: // FILE_NAME / DELETE”.

  Next, in step S602, when the file management application of the digital camera 101 receives an HTTP command transmitted from the external PC 103, the process proceeds to step S603 to determine the file access type of the received command.

  If the received command is file deletion / change in step S603, the process proceeds to step S604. If the received command is not file deletion / change, the process proceeds to step S608.

  In step S604, referring to the file access management table of the corresponding file owned by itself, in step S605, it is determined whether or not the file can be deleted / changed (file other than the image file recorded on the recording medium). Whether “Product Flag” shown in FIG. 4 is 0 or 1 is determined.

  If “Product Flag” is 1 in step S605, file deletion / change is prohibited, so the process proceeds to step S606, an access error response is transmitted to the external PC 103, and the process ends. If “Product Flag” is 0 in step S 605, the process proceeds to step S 607, the corresponding file is deleted / changed using an API function related to the delete of the file system, and the process ends.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S603 that the file is not deleted / changed and the process proceeds to step S608, it is determined that the file access from the external PC 103 is a file reference. Then, the file information is immediately transmitted to the external PC 103 without using the file access management table, and the process ends.

  As described above, in this embodiment, when a file access is made to a captured image file recorded on the recording medium of the digital camera 101 from the external PC 103, deletion / change of the file is prohibited, Allow browsing only. When a file access is made to a file other than the captured image file recorded on the recording medium of the digital camera 101 from the external PC 103, file deletion / change and file reference are permitted.

  As a result, when there is an access such as deleting or changing a file from the external PC 103, the captured image file can be protected without deleting or changing the captured image file recorded on the recording medium of the digital camera 101. it can. Further, it is possible to suitably protect only the photographed image file without performing troublesome processing such as the photographer changing the setting of the file access attribute from the menu or the like.

  Note that the configurations of the external device, communication line, filing unit, recording medium, recording unit, changing unit, etc. of the present invention are not limited to those exemplified in the above embodiment, and depart from the gist of the present invention. It can be changed appropriately within the range not to be.

  Next, consider a case where a storage medium storing software program codes for realizing the functions of the above embodiments is supplied to a system or apparatus. Here, the object of the present invention can also be achieved by a computer (or CPU, MPU, etc.) of the system or apparatus reading and executing the program code stored in the storage medium.

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

  As a storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, a flexible disk, a hard disk, a magneto-optical disk, or the like can be used. Alternatively, optical disks such as CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, and DVD + RW, magnetic tape, nonvolatile memory card, ROM, and the like can be used. Alternatively, the program code may be downloaded via a network.

  In addition, the function of the above embodiment is not only realized by executing the program code read by the computer. This includes the case where an OS (operating system) or the like running on the computer performs part or all of the actual processing based on the instruction of the program code, and the functions of the above embodiments are realized by the processing. .

  Further, consider a case where the program code read from the storage medium is written in a memory provided in a function extension board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer. In this case, based on the instruction of the program code, a CPU or the like provided with the extension function in the extension board or the extension unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing. Cases are also included in the present invention.

It is a perspective view which shows the example which connected the digital camera which is an example of embodiment of this invention to external PC via the communication line. It is a control block diagram of a digital camera which is an example of an embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the data structure of an image file. It is a figure which shows the table for file access management. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the process sequence which produces the table for file access management. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the operation example of the digital camera which is an example of embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

101 Digital camera (imaging device)
102 LAN cable (communication line)
103 External PC (External device)
201 Camera unit 202 Image processing unit 203 Recording unit (recording unit)
204 Communication interface 205 Control unit (file creation means, change means)
206 Operation unit

Claims (12)

An imaging device that can be connected to an external device via a communication line,
Filing means for filing a captured image together with predetermined additional information;
Recording means for recording the image file filed by the filing means on a recording medium;
Changing means for changing an access authority for the image file based on the additional information when the image file recorded on the recording medium is accessed from the external device;
An imaging apparatus characterized by that. The additional information includes information indicating that the image is an image captured by a specific model.
The imaging apparatus according to claim 1. When the additional information of the image file accessed from the external device includes information indicating that the image is captured by a specific model, the changing unit is configured to access the image file accessed from the external device. Change the access permissions to to prevent file deletion and modification, and allow only file browsing,
The imaging apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein When the additional information of the image file accessed from the external device does not include information indicating that the image is captured by a specific model, the changing unit is configured to access the image accessed from the external device. Change file access permissions to allow file deletion, file modification and file browsing,
The imaging device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein The filing means writes the additional information in an Exif standard private tag.
The imaging device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein A method for controlling an imaging device connectable to an external device via a communication line,
A filing step of filing a captured image with predetermined additional information;
A recording step of recording the image file filed in the filing step on a recording medium;
A change step of changing an access right to the image file based on the additional information when the image file recorded on the recording medium is accessed from the external device;
And a method of controlling the imaging apparatus. The additional information includes information indicating that the image is an image captured by a specific model.
The method for controlling an imaging apparatus according to claim 6. When the additional information of the image file accessed from the external device includes information indicating an image captured by a specific model, the changing step includes the image file accessed from the external device. Change the access permissions to to prevent file deletion and modification, and allow only file browsing,
8. A method for controlling an imaging apparatus according to claim 6 or 7, wherein: If the additional information of the image file accessed from the external device does not include information indicating that the image is captured by a specific model, the change step includes the image accessed from the external device. Change file access permissions to allow file deletion, file modification and file browsing,
The method for controlling an imaging apparatus according to any one of claims 6 to 8. In the filing step, the additional information is written in an Exif standard private tag.
The method for controlling an imaging apparatus according to any one of claims 6 to 9. A program for controlling an imaging device that can be connected to an external device via a communication line,
A filing module for filing a captured image with predetermined additional information;
A recording module for recording the image file filed by the file conversion module on a recording medium;
Causing the computer to execute a change module that changes the access authority to the image file based on the additional information when the image file recorded on the recording medium is accessed from the external device.
A program characterized by that. A program according to claim 11 is stored.
A computer-readable storage medium.

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