JP2008092576A - Image data processing system, image data processing apparatus, and image data processing method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To correct an image quality of image data only by uploading image data prepared by a user to a server of a provider, and to suitably charge for correcting the image quality of the image data. <P>SOLUTION: An image data processing system comprises an information processing apparatus for transmitting image data, and an image processing apparatus for receiving the image data. The image processing apparatus comprises an image data receiving means for receiving the image data, a first storing means for storing the image data, an identifying means for identifying the image data to be subjected to image quality correction among image data stored in the first storing means, an image quality correction processing means for applying the image quality correction to the identified image data, and charging means for charging for the image quality correction. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image data processing system, an image data processing apparatus, and an image data processing method that perform image quality correction processing of image data placed on, for example, a web server of an Internet provider.

  In general, image data can be subjected to image quality correction in hardware used at the time of photographing or in a personal computer incorporating the image data. This is because the image quality correction processing can be performed by the function installed in the hardware used at the time of photographing or by software installed in the personal computer.

  On the other hand, when shooting with a silver halide camera, development and printing are usually requested from a DPE shop. At this time, the DPE shop corrects the image quality, and the user does not have to think about anything. I was able to receive a corrected print.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-228561 discloses an image printing system including a first processing device that is a client that transmits image data and a second processing device that is a server that receives the image data. This processing apparatus describes an image printing system including a communication processing unit that receives the image data, and a data conversion unit that sequentially executes conversion processing on the received image data based on settings.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-73488

  However, the user does not always use hardware equipped with an image quality correction function for shooting, and does not always use a personal computer in which software for image quality correction processing is installed. For example, if you have multiple digital still cameras and you have to shoot with a camera that does not have the desired function, you can of course benefit from the image quality correction function that is built into a high-function digital still camera. If you want to upload image data taken with a camera attached to a mobile device outdoors to a web server on the Internet as it is, even if image correction software is installed on your personal computer, I can't use this.

  In general, this image quality correction function has a disadvantage of paying an expensive amount at the time of purchase, regardless of whether it is used or not, regardless of whether it is implemented in hardware or software. Furthermore, if the user forgets to use this image quality correction function or uses it by a user who cannot sufficiently use the function, there is a disadvantage that the function cannot be fully utilized.

  On the other hand, when viewing image data captured with a digital still camera by uploading it to a web server, there is no room for image quality correction, as was done with silver halide photography. No corrections were made unless

  Further, Patent Document 1 does not disclose anything about charging for the image quality correction processing of the image data.

  In view of the above, the present invention eliminates the need for hardware that is specially equipped with an image quality correction function, and does not require purchasing and using image quality correction processing software. The image quality correction processing of this image data is performed by uploading the image data prepared by the user to the provider's server without thinking about it, as in the case of a photograph. The purpose is to be able to charge well.

  The image data processing system of the present invention is an image data processing system including an information processing apparatus that transmits image data and an image processing apparatus that receives the image data. The image processing apparatus receives the image data. Image data receiving means, first storage means for storing the image data, identification means for identifying image data to be subjected to image quality correction processing among the image data stored in the first storage means, and the identification Image quality correction processing means for performing image quality correction processing of the image data, and billing means for charging the image quality correction processing.

  According to the present invention, the image quality correction of the image data is performed simply by uploading the image data prepared by the user, who is the client, to the server of the provider. Therefore, the user can obtain almost appropriate image data without thinking about anything. It can be placed on the web page of the server and charged well for this image quality correction process.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of an image data processing system, an image data processing apparatus, and an image data processing method of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 2 shows the overall configuration of the image data processing apparatus according to this example. Reference numeral 1 denotes a provider server, 2a, 2b, 2c,... Each request a service from the server 1, and the server 1 provides the service. A personal computer of a client (user) connected to the server 1 by a communication circuit such as a public line dedicated line.

  The number of client personal computers 2a, 2b, 2c,... Viewed from the server 1 side is an arbitrary number set from the memory on the server 1 side and the computing power of the central control unit (CPU).

  The client personal computers 2a, 2b, 2c,... Are each composed of a central control unit (CPU), a memory, etc., as is well known, and in this memory, as shown in FIG. A file transfer program, for example, a browser program, which is software used to transfer data, is prepared. The personal computers 2a, 2b, 2c,... Of the client arbitrarily start the file transfer program and transfer image data. It can be arbitrarily transferred (uploaded) to the server 1 of the provider.

  Here, in the example where the client personal computers 2a, 2b, 2c,... Use the browser program, the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of the provider server 1 is opened and the description of the web page stored in the URL is made. The screen is displayed on a display connected to or integrated with the client personal computers 2a, 2b, 2c,.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the provider server 1 includes a central control unit (CPU) 1a, a work RAM 1b, a memory 1c, and the like, and the operating system of the server 1 is a client personal computer 2a. , 2b, 2c,..., A file transfer program, an image processing program, and a management program are prepared in the memory 1c, and these programs are activated in response to a request from an arbitrary client (user).

  The file transfer program of the provider's server 1 is a program that mainly accepts data upload from a client (user), and the image processing program is a program that corrects image quality of image data in the service of this example.

  This management program is a program that controls the execution of image quality correction. This management program receives image data transferred (uploaded) from a client (user) as a file, and a client ( This image data is stored in the original data storage area of the user storage area (processed list data storage area, original data storage area, processed data storage area, log data storage area).

  The data transferred (uploaded) from the client (user) personal computer 2a, 2b, 2c... Includes auxiliary data related to the image data in addition to the image data. This auxiliary data is information relating to image data and unique information assigned to, for example, an electronic still camera that created the image data. The image processing program on the server 1 side of the provider has transferred (uploaded) this unique information. When the image data is attached to the image data and based on the unique information, the optimum image processing is performed based on the unique information.

  This unique information is obtained, for example, by browser software running on the client personal computers 2a, 2b, 2c,... Reading out the unique data stored on the server 1 of the provider, and on the display screen of the client (user). By selecting the name of the electronic still camera displayed on the menu and used by the client (user), unique information corresponding to the electronic still camera can be selected.

  In this case, the file transfer program includes a file transfer program stored in the personal computers 2a, 2b, 2c,... And a program for transferring specific information data used by the client (user ) On the display screen of the personal computers 2a, 2b, 2c..., The name of the electronic still camera used by the client (user) can be selected, and the unique information can be selected. With this file transfer program, this unique information can be transferred together with the image data.

  In contrast to using this unique information, if the image processing program running on the server 1 side has an image processing optimization routine corresponding to the image data, this unique information need not be transferred.

  The image data transferred (uploaded) as described above is optimized by the image processing program by the unique information or the image processing optimization routine, stored and held on the server 1 as processed data, and registered in the processed list. The

  Image quality correction of image data by this management program will be described in more detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG. It is determined whether or not the following processing has been completed for all clients (users) (step S1). If all the clients (users) have been completed, the process ends. If not, the next (first time is the first) client (user). Then, the process is continued (step S2).

  Next, it is determined whether or not the following processing has been completed for all of the directories held by the client (user) (step S3), and if completed, the processing is transferred to the next client (user). Otherwise, the processing is continued for the next directory (first time for the first time) (step S4).

  Next, it is determined whether or not the processing has been completed for all the files in the directory (step S5). If the processing has been completed, the processing is transferred to the next directory. Processing continues for the first file (step S6).

  It is determined whether the target file is an image file. If the target file is an image file, the processed list data is referred to and it is determined whether the image quality of the file has already been corrected (step S7). If it is not an image file or an image file that has already been processed, the file is not processed, and if it has not been processed yet, the file is used as original data, for example, the original data as a subdirectory of the directory A directory to be saved is created, and the original data is saved by moving the file to the location (step S8).

  Next, an image processing program is started, image quality correction is performed on the image data (step S9), and processing data is generated and stored (step S10). In this case, the file name is the same as the original file name. The fact that the file has been processed is recorded in the processed list data, and the fact that the processing has been performed is also recorded in the log data (step S11).

  The above is performed for each file, each directory, and each client (user).

  The timing at which the management program performs the above processing is not limited to a predetermined time. For example, the processing may be performed for each file when upload is detected. In that case, in the flowchart of FIG. 4, only the client (user), the directory, and the file need to be targeted, and it is necessary to process all clients (users), all directories, and all files at once. Absent. Of course, instead of each file, each directory or client (user) may be processed.

  Note that the order of processing is not necessarily limited to that described above. You may change in the range which does not deviate from the intent of the above-mentioned description, such as changing in order or performing in parallel, not performing sequentially. Instead of the software on the server computer used for realizing the service, a dedicated device having the same function may be provided. Moreover, according to the function on the server 1, you may divide | segment and implement the content equivalent to the said system to a some server.

  Further, in the above description, correction is performed on all data for the sake of simplicity. However, the correction target may be limited for each client (user), for each directory, and the like. In this case, a step for specifying the limitation target in advance or explicitly specifying at the time of uploading is provided. The management program identifies this, and if it is not a correction target, it is sufficient not to perform correction.

  In addition, this management program performs client (user) account management in response to login requests from the client (user) personal computers 2a, 2b, 2c,. Corresponding billing is performed.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the configuration on the server 1 side of the provider places the charging information management unit on a processing block different from the service area of the client (user) in order to handle the charging information. 2a, 2b, 2c,..., And a first block 1A composed of image processing units 1a, 1b, 1c and the like, and a second block 1B composed of a management and billing management unit. The second blocks 1A and 1B operate while authenticating each other via the interface 1e.

  The second block 1B comprising the management and billing management unit is composed of a central control unit (CPU) 1f, a work RAM 1g, a memory 1h, and the like, and 1i and 1j each indicate a bus line.

  This billing management is performed for processing such as image processing and uploading of browsing images for image information.

  Since this example is configured as described above, when the client (user) uploads image data to an arbitrary directory on the server 1 of the provider in the same manner as in the prior art, the management program on the server 1 has a predetermined time. The image quality correction process is executed, the image quality correction is performed on the uploaded image data, and the image quality correction process can be charged well.

  As a result, the image quality of the image data on the provider server 1 is corrected. After that, when the client or the personal computer 2a, 2b, 2c,... Of the client (user) browses the image data on the web page of the server 1 of the provider with a browser or the like, the image quality correction is performed. Image data can be viewed.

  Therefore, according to this example, the client (user) does not particularly need hardware (electronic still camera) equipped with an image quality correction function, and purchases expensive image quality correction processing software. There is no need to use it, and like uploading the image data prepared by the client (user) itself to the server 1 of the provider without thinking about it as in the case of conventional silver halide photography, Is used to obtain image data that has been subjected to image quality correction.

  Furthermore, the client (user) only needs to be aware of uploading image data to the server 1 and does not need to be aware of where and how the image quality correction is performed. There is no price for complications.

  Of course, the present invention is not limited to the above-described examples, and various other configurations can be adopted without departing from the gist of the present invention.

It is a diagram with which it uses for description of the example of embodiment of this invention image data processing apparatus. It is a diagram with which it uses for description of this invention. It is a block diagram with which the example of a server is provided. It is a flowchart with which it uses for description of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

  1 ... provider server, 2a, 2b, 2c ... client personal computer, 3 ... communication line

Claims (7)

In an image data processing system including an information processing apparatus that transmits image data and an image processing apparatus that receives the image data,
The image processing apparatus includes:
Image data receiving means for receiving the image data;
First storage means for storing the image data;
Identification means for identifying image data to be subjected to image quality correction processing among the image data stored in the first storage means;
Image quality correction processing means for performing image quality correction processing of the identified image data;
Charging means for charging the image quality correction processing;
An image data processing system comprising: The image data processing system according to claim 1,
The image data processing system characterized in that the image data to be subjected to the image quality correction processing is identified by the image data instructed by the information processing apparatus. The image data processing system according to claim 1,
The management unit determines whether the image data stored in the first storage unit has been subjected to image quality correction processing, and identifies image data that has been determined not to have undergone image quality correction processing. Data processing system. The image data processing system according to claim 1,
The image processing apparatus includes:
Second storage means for storing the image data after the correction processing;
The second storage means stores the image data after the image quality correction process with the same identifier as before the image quality correction process. In an image data processing apparatus configured to upload image data by an information processing apparatus,
Image data receiving means for receiving the image data;
First storage means for storing the image data;
Identification means for identifying image data to be subjected to image quality correction processing among the image data stored in the first storage means;
Image quality correction processing means for performing image quality correction processing of the identified image data;
Charging means for charging the image quality correction processing;
An image data processing apparatus comprising: An image data receiving step for receiving image data;
A first storage step for storing the image data;
An identification step for identifying image data to be subjected to image quality correction processing among the image data stored in the first storage step;
An image quality correction processing step for performing an image quality correction process of the identified image data;
A charging step of charging for the image quality correction processing;
An image data processing program comprising: In an image data processing method comprising an information processing device for transmitting image data and an image processing device for receiving the image data,
The image processing apparatus includes an image data receiving step for receiving the image data;
A first storage step for storing the image data;
An identification step for identifying image data to be subjected to image quality correction processing among the image data stored in the first storage step;
An image quality correction processing step for performing an image quality correction process of the identified image data;
A charging step of charging for the image quality correction processing;
An image data processing method comprising:

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