JP2008104155A - Image pickup device and image pickup system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To deal with various purposes of use by properly photographing a relevant point when photographing a previously designated photographing point in an image pickup device, so as not to make erroneous photographing, and dealing with the photographing points at more precise levels as a specific part in a building. <P>SOLUTION: A digital camera 101 sets photographing conditions including whether photographing can be performed or not, using information acquired from a PDA 102 via a Bluetooth(R) communication means and performs a photographing operation in accordance with the set condition. The PDA transports to the digital camera identification information on a photographing point described on a recording medium of an RF ID tag 104 installed at the photographing point. A side of the digital camera has a list on which information on a point to be defined as an object to be photographed is predetermined, information from the tag is checked based on the list, and control is performed to perform photographing only when the information can be collated. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image pickup device that outputs a subject image as image data, and more specifically, an image pickup device that can acquire data for setting a shooting operation condition from an external device via communication means. In addition, the present invention relates to an image capturing system that includes the image capturing device and an external device as elements.

In recent years, image capturing devices such as digital cameras that store subject images as image data in recording media (storage media) have been used for various purposes, and there are many occasions where a digital camera is required for business.
For example, it is used in a variety of industries where it is required to keep track of the situation at the site, such as public works, real estate, architecture, medical care, and building maintenance. A problem when using a digital camera for such a purpose is that it takes time and effort to organize a large number of captured images stored in a recording medium.
In order to solve this problem, the digital camera automatically adds shooting position information and other shooting-related information to the header portion of the shot image at the time of shooting, and then uses this additional information on a PC (Personal Computer) A method is used such that image data collected and collected can be easily organized.

The following patent document 1 (Unexamined-Japanese-Patent No. 2004-357343) can be mentioned as a prior art example which proposed this method.
The electronic camera described in Patent Document 1 subtracts a place name dictionary from position information detected by position detection means such as GPS (Global Positioning System) at the time of photographing, and the place name of the obtained photographing point together with the photographing date and time of the photographed image data. It is shown that it is recorded in the header part at the time of saving. When a search is performed based on the place name / shooting date and time recorded in the header portion, the data can be used in an organized form by processing such as collecting images of the same place name together in the order of shooting.
JP 2004-367343 A

However, the above-described conventional method of automatically adding shooting position information to the header portion of a shot image at the time of shooting is convenient when organizing images after shooting. However, as described above, It does not provide an effective function for the following problems that occur when using a digital camera to capture changes.
Taking the case of using it for building maintenance work as an example, in this work, when checking a large number of the same parts periodically, the digital camera is used to photograph the inspection parts. At this time, the same inspection location should be re-photographed, and the location of the photo-taking was often mistaken. In this case, the inspector had to go to that location again and re-shoot. .

  In other words, even though there was position information shot before, there was no means for checking whether the place where the shooting is going to be done using this information is the previous shooting point, An error occurred in shooting. In addition, it is shown that the detection of the shooting position in Patent Document 1 is based on GPS or the like. With such means, the position of a shooting point such as a specific location in a building as shown in an example of building maintenance work It is unsuitable as a means for obtaining information and cannot be adapted to such fields of use.

  The present invention solves the above-described problems of the prior art, and its purpose is to capture the same location as the previously captured position in an image capturing device that outputs a subject image as image data. When shooting a pre-designated shooting point, a function is provided so that the corresponding shooting point can be properly shot so as not to cause an error in shooting. In addition, it is possible to respond to various uses by allowing shooting points to be dealt with at a finer level, for example, a specific part in a building.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an imaging means for photographing a subject and outputting image data, a recording means for recording image data output from the imaging means on a recording medium, and a communication means for communicating with an external device. An imaging apparatus comprising: an imaging control unit configured to set an imaging operation condition using information acquired from an external device via the communication unit, and to control an imaging operation according to the set condition. is there.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the image pickup device according to the first aspect, the photographing control means sets whether or not photographing can be performed as the photographing operation condition.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the image pickup apparatus according to the second aspect of the present invention, the shooting control unit is configured to set whether or not shooting can be performed in advance prepared in the database. The information acquired from the external device using the communication means is checked based on the data, and whether to execute shooting is set according to the result.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the image pickup device according to any one of the first to third aspects, the communication means has a short-range wireless communication function with low power consumption.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, an RF ID reader reads by connecting the external device having an RF ID reader function via the communication means to the image pickup device according to any one of the first to fourth aspects. This is an image pickup system that can acquire information for setting the shooting operation condition from the information.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the barcode scanner reads the image pickup device according to any one of the first to fourth aspects by connecting the external device having a barcode scanner function via the communication means. This is an image pickup system that can acquire information for setting the shooting operation condition from the information.

According to the present invention, a shooting operation condition including whether or not to execute shooting is set using shooting point information (point identification information or the like) acquired from an external device via a communication unit at a shooting point, and shooting operation is performed according to the set condition. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the photographing from being performed erroneously under the photographing condition such as a wrong photographing point.
In addition, because it has a database for setting shooting conditions and the shooting conditions are set by checking the information acquired from the external device, an operation suitable for each device and for each user is performed. It becomes possible.
In addition, by using an external device equipped with an RF ID reader function or barcode scanner function, by embedding an RF ID tag or barcode describing the information of the imaging point in a predetermined location, localized imaging points Since it becomes possible to execute shooting with a finer level of condition setting according to the conditions, it is possible to meet various applications.

Embodiments relating to an image capturing device and an image capturing system of the present invention will be described below.
In the following, an embodiment in which a digital camera is used as an apparatus for implementing an image capturing device according to the present invention will be described. The digital camera according to this embodiment includes communication means. This communication means connects the digital camera to an external device having an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) reader function or a barcode scanner function, and constitutes an implementation system of the image capturing system according to the present invention.

For communication between a digital camera and an external device, a short-distance wireless communication means with low power consumption is used. Here, a communication unit conforming to the Bluetooth (registered trademark) standard (hereinafter referred to as “Bluetooth (registered trademark) communication unit”) is used as the communication unit. The transmission range of the communication means of this standard is usually within 10 m, and can be extended to 100 m by using an amplifier.
Note that the external device employed in the image capturing system of the present embodiment is such that the user can easily carry it to the shooting point, reads information recorded on a recording medium installed locally at the shooting point, and captures the image. Since it is considered on the condition that it is transmitted to the device, an RF ID reader and a barcode scanner are shown as preferred embodiments. However, in addition to these, implementation by means having the same conditions is possible.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of an image capturing system according to an embodiment in which an external device has an RFID reader function.
As shown in FIG. 1, the image capturing system of the present embodiment includes a digital camera 101 and a PDA (Personal Digital Assistants: portable information terminal) 102 having an RF ID reader 103 that reads an RF ID tag 104 as an external device. As a system element, the digital camera 101 and the PDA 102 are connected by Bluetooth (registered trademark) communication means 111 to constitute a system. In addition to the above, as a wireless communication unit 111 for connecting the digital camera 101 and the PDA 102, a communication unit using infrared or wireless LAN as a medium can be used. Here, a PDA capable of processing / communication of information other than the purpose of the present embodiment is adopted as an external device. However, any device that can perform wireless communication with the digital camera 101 and is portable can be used. For example, it is not limited to this.

The RF ID reader 103 included in the PDA 102 may be built in the PDA, or functions in an external manner such as inserting an RF ID compact flash (registered trademark) card or an RF ID-SD (Secure Digital) IO card into the slot of the PDA. May be installed.
The RF ID tag 104 is composed of an IC chip and an antenna, and is one of what is called an IC tag. Information stored in the IC chip can be read from a tag reader wirelessly. The RF ID reader 103 performs via the RF ID wireless communication means 112.

The RFID tag 104 is installed at a shooting point, and information corresponding to the shooting point is stored in each tag. For example, when used in a building maintenance system (see the description in the above [Problems to be Solved by the Invention] section), the RF ID tag 104 is embedded in walls around the building, and each shooting point can be identified. Information such as the rank and direction of the point can be read from the tag.
As the wireless communication means 111 that connects between the tag reader provided in the PDA 102 and the IC tag, in addition to the above-described RFID communication means, for example, a communication means using infrared or wireless LAN as a medium can be used.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic configuration of an image capturing system according to an embodiment in which an external device has a barcode scanner function.
The image capturing system shown in FIG. 2 includes a digital camera 101 having wireless communication means with an external device, and a barcode scanner 105 that reads a barcode 106 as system elements as external devices. The scanner 105 is connected by Bluetooth (registered trademark) communication means 111 to constitute a system.

  The barcode scanner 105 optically reads the code pattern of the barcode 106 by a scanning method. There is an existing system that constitutes a portable means by this reading method, and detects the barcode 106 from a proximity position or a position slightly apart by a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) and wirelessly transmits the detected data. This can be implemented by applying Bluetooth (registered trademark) communication means 111 to this method. In addition, since a PDA having Bluetooth (registered trademark) communication means has been developed, the PDA may be implemented by mounting a barcode scanner function using a CCD.

As the wireless communication means 111 that connects the digital camera 101 and the barcode scanner 105, in addition to the Bluetooth (registered trademark) standard, a communication means that uses infrared or wireless LAN as a medium can be used.
The barcode scanner 105 scans the barcode 106, reads data used to set the shooting operation condition expressed by the barcode, and transmits the data to the digital camera 101 via the Bluetooth (registered trademark) communication unit 111. To do.

  The barcode 106 is installed at a shooting point, and information corresponding to the shooting point is represented by each barcode information. For example, when used in a building maintenance system (refer to the description in the above [Problems to be Solved by the Invention] section), barcodes 106 are installed at various shooting points in the building by pasting each shooting point. Can be identified, and information such as the rank and direction of the point can be read from the bar code.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration related to the control unit of the digital camera 101 in the above-described image pickup system (FIGS. 1 and 2).
In FIG. 3, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 201 functions as a main control unit that controls the entire digital camera. The main control unit controls the operation unit of the digital camera 101 in accordance with a user instruction, performs an operation of capturing a subject, processes the captured image data, and performs an operation of storing the captured image data. Also, the control data for processing to perform the operation related to the photographing is processed and operated.

The digital camera 101 according to the present embodiment performs a shooting operation using the function of the image capturing system (FIGS. 1 and 2), that is, information acquired from an external device by wireless communication means (hereinafter also referred to as “external information”). An operation using a function described in detail later is performed. This operation is also included in a part of the control operation of the CPU 201.
A ROM (Read Only Memory) 202 is a memory for storing a program and the like used by the CPU 201 for operation.
A RAM (Random Access Memory) 203 is used as a work memory when the CPU 201 operates a program to save data generated in the process. Normally, the stored data is lost when the job ends or the power is turned off. An external information storage unit 208 that stores external information acquired from an external device by wireless communication means, which will be described in detail later, is created here.

An SD (Secure Digital) memory card 204 is a removable recording medium that can be used externally from a slot. The captured image storage unit 209 is an area for storing an image captured by the digital camera 101. The information list storage unit 210 as an area for storing various information brought in from the outside when customizing the operating conditions is created here. In this embodiment, the information list storage unit 210 is used to store a “photographing point information list” to be described later.
The flash memory (non-volatile memory) 205 is used for storing setup information and the like of a digital camera that is stored in such a manner that no data is lost even when the power is turned off.
The Bluetooth (registered trademark) circuit 206 is a circuit that enables wireless transmission and reception with an external device by a communication method compliant with the Bluetooth (registered trademark) standard. In the present embodiment, as a communication I / F (interface) for acquiring information from the PDA 102 or the barcode scanner 105 when using a function to control a photographing operation using external information, which will be described in detail later, use.

The user interface 207 is a means for transmitting a user instruction to the CPU 201 functioning as a main control unit and notifying the user of the state of the device. Has an operation unit.
The digital camera function unit 220 is a function unit of the digital camera 101 that photographs a subject through a lens in accordance with an operation condition instructed by the CPU 201 functioning as a main control unit. In this embodiment, the digital camera function unit 220 is a subject of shooting operation control. However, the mechanism in the function unit itself is not directly related to the problem of the present invention, and the mechanism of the existing function unit. Therefore, detailed description is omitted here.

Embodiments relating to the control operation of the digital camera 101 in the above-described image pickup system (FIGS. 1 and 2) will be described below.
In the image capturing system of the present embodiment, the digital camera 101 sets shooting operation conditions including whether or not shooting can be performed using information acquired from an external device via communication means, and performs shooting operations according to the set conditions. Like that.
The external device is the PDA 102 or the barcode scanner 105, which reads information recorded on the recording medium of the RF ID tag 104 or the barcode 106 installed at the shooting point to set the shooting point identification information and shooting operation condition setting. Information is obtained and the obtained information is transmitted to the digital camera 101.
On the digital camera 101 side, the CPU 201 functioning as the main control unit is suitable for the shooting point conditions set in advance based on the acquired shooting point identification information and shooting operation condition setting information. Whether or not to perform shooting is set, and shooting operation conditions including whether or not shooting can be performed are set.

Hereinafter, taking the building maintenance system cited above as an example, the shooting operation of the present embodiment in which whether or not shooting of a shooting point can be controlled will be described in detail.
In the building maintenance system, a shooting point to be a maintenance point (inspection point) is determined in advance, and by periodically shooting this point and taking a history, it is possible to detect a change occurring in the image taken of the maintenance point. Use the technique. When a large number of points in a building are to be subjected to maintenance by this method, it is required to definitely photograph these predetermined points.

For this reason, the RF ID tag 104 or the barcode 106 is installed by a method such as embedding in a predetermined maintenance point wall or the like, so that the digital camera 101 can capture the RF ID tag 104 or the The shooting point identification information and the shooting operation condition setting information written on the barcode 106 are acquired, and the maintenance point is confirmed based on the acquired information.
In order to confirm the maintenance point, the digital camera 101 side prepares shooting point information to be maintained in a database in advance. This imaging point information represents all imaging points in an expression that can be understood by the inspector, and each point is associated with data in a format that can be understood on the system side and stored in an internal storage location.

5 and 6 show specific examples of shooting point information to be maintained.
FIG. 5 shows the maintenance points on the layout of the building to be maintained. In this case, the respective installation locations are indicated by the TAG NO of the RF ID tag 104.
FIG. 6 shows shooting point information used in the digital camera 101. Here, the TAG NOs of the RF ID tags 104 installed at all the maintenance points shown in FIG. 5 are represented in a list format, and the camera memo information is written as metadata corresponding to each TAG NO and used as a database. The camera memo information is expressed by information indicating the floor number and direction of the shooting point to be maintained, which can be understood by the inspector. In the example of FIG. 6, the shooting point is designated as “Room 101 / East Wall”, “ “Room 101 / door”, ..., “Room 103 / window”.

In the present embodiment, this shooting point information list is stored in the information list storage unit 210 of the SD memory card 204.
At the time of shooting, the digital camera 101 confirms the shooting point indicated in the shooting point information list by TAG NO that is information acquired from the RF ID tag 104. In this embodiment, the tag ID is only recorded as information in the RF ID tag 104. In addition to this tag identification information, for example, the shooting conditions previously used for shooting this point are shot. The recording conditions can be reproduced by recording the information as operating condition setting information and using this information.
In this embodiment, the TAG NO acquired from the RFID tag 104 is checked from the shooting point information list, and if the TAG NO is on the list, it can be confirmed that the shooting point is a maintenance inspection target.

In addition, by setting the control condition so that the photographing can be executed only when the photographing point can be confirmed, the target photographing control operation can be performed. In other words, when shooting point confirmation cannot be obtained, control is performed so that shooting cannot be performed, thereby preventing erroneous shooting under the shooting operation conditions such as mistakes in shooting points that have occurred in the past. be able to.
In addition, the installation of the RF ID tag 104 allows you to specify the shooting point of interest at a finer level, such as a specific location in a building, so it can meet a variety of uses. become.

Next, the digital camera according to the present embodiment, which can perform photographing only at a predetermined photographing point by the method of checking the RFID tag 104 in the photographing point information list described above, relates to a control operation performed at the time of photographing. An embodiment is shown.
FIG. 4 shows the control flow of this embodiment. This control flow is executed by the CPU 201 that functions as the main control unit of the digital camera 101.
The control operation will be described below according to the control flow shown in FIG.

When the digital camera 101 is turned on by the user (inspector) via the user interface 207 (step S101), the CPU 201 operates the Bluetooth (registered trademark) circuit 206, and the PDA 102 and the Bluetooth (registered trademark) communication means. A wireless connection is established via 111, communication is started to obtain external information from the PDA 102 (step S102), and a state in which the sent external information can be received is maintained.
While maintaining the connection with the digital camera 101, the PDA 102 reads information recorded in the RFID tag 104 installed at the maintenance point and transmits this information to the camera. Therefore, the reading is performed by the user holding the PDA's RF ID reader 103 toward the RF ID tag 104 embedded in a wall or the like to a predetermined position. The digital camera 101 receives the tag information read by the PDA 102 via the Bluetooth (registered trademark) communication means (step S103).

Next, the digital camera 101 that receives the tag information checks whether or not the tag information has been successfully acquired (step S104).
As a result of this check, if it is confirmed that the tag information has been received normally (step S104-YES), the received tag information is temporarily stored in the external information storage unit 208 of the built-in RAM 203, and this tag information is stored. Using the shooting point information list (refer to the above description regarding FIG. 6) stored in the information list storage unit 210 of the SD memory card 204, it is checked that the shooting point is a maintenance inspection target (step S105). ).
This check collates the tag information stored in the external information storage unit 208 with the tag information recorded in the shooting point information list stored in the information list storage unit 210 of the SD memory card 204, and the same tag information is displayed in the list. Determine whether it exists or not. In this case, the tag information is checked by checking the TAG NO assigned to each tag.

As a result of this determination, if the same TAG NO exists (step S106-YES), it can be confirmed that the shooting point is the subject of maintenance, so the matching shooting point information is set as camera memo information, and the shooting enabled flag is set. Is turned on (step S107).
The camera memo information is information added as information attached to captured image data when shooting is performed. If the data format for saving an image taken with a digital camera as a file is an EXif (Exchangeable Image File Format) image, camera memo information can be added to the header portion of the taken image data.

  FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram showing an image data storage format (EXif) of a captured image having a camera memo information area in the header area. Since a storage part of bibliographic information such as camera memo information can be provided in the header area of the image data shown in FIG. 7, shooting point information as a shooting condition is inserted here. As a procedure for inserting this additional information, this setting is performed in step S107 as described above. In this embodiment, the captured image data is stored in the captured image storage unit 209 of the SD memory card 204. Therefore, when storing the captured image data, stored data is created in accordance with the setting in step S107.

After the shooting enable flag is turned “ON” in step S107, the user is notified via the user interface 207 that the camera is ready for shooting (step S108).
In response to this notification, the user starts a shooting operation, and therefore receives an operation of a key button, a shutter button, and the like for setting shooting conditions performed by the user via the user interface 207 (step S109).
At the end of shooting, the shooting enable flag is turned “OFF” to correspond to the shooting routine at the next shooting point (step S110), and the process returns to step S103 to prepare for the next shooting starting from reception of new RFID tag information.

On the other hand, if it is confirmed in step S104 that the tag information has been successfully received and it is not confirmed that the tag information has been successfully acquired (step S104-NO), shooting can be performed. When this is instructed, the photographing enable flag that is “ON” is “OFF” (step S111).
Next, the user is notified via the user interface 207 that the photographing is not possible, and it is confirmed whether or not this state is accepted (step S112). In this embodiment, as described in step S111, when the tag information cannot be normally acquired, the photographing possible flag is turned “off” to make the photographing impossible state. Alternatively, the user's intention is confirmed, and the user can return to a state in which shooting can be performed.

Specifically, the display screen for notifying the user that the photographing is not possible indicates that the photographing impossible state can be canceled and the operation can be changed to continue photographing, and the input operation is accepted.
Here, when the user's intention to cancel the shooting disabled state and continue shooting is indicated (step S113-YES), the shooting enabled flag once turned off is turned on (step S114). .
After this, since the user starts the shooting operation, the operation of the key button for setting the shooting condition and the operation of the shutter button performed by the user who sets the shooting condition is received via the user interface 207, and the shot image is also taken. The data is stored in the captured image storage unit 209 of the SD memory card 204 (step S115).

When saving the captured image data, bibliographic information such as camera memo information is added to the header portion of the captured image data, and it is confirmed that this information is a predetermined shooting point through a shooting point check. Although it is not confirmed whether the image is taken or a predetermined shooting point, information for discriminating whether the shooting is executed is inserted.
FIG. 8 is a conceptual diagram showing an image data storage format (EXif) of a captured image having a camera memo information area in the header area. In the header area of the image data shown in FIG. 8, in addition to the camera memo information, there is provided a storage portion for the information described above that enables distinction between “predetermined photographing point or outside predetermined photographing point”, and this indicates the difference in photographing point. This is an area for inserting bibliographic information.
In step S115, data to be stored in the captured image storage unit 209 of the SD (Secure Digital) memory card 204 is created through a procedure for inserting these bibliographic information.
At the end of shooting, the shooting enable flag is turned “OFF” to correspond to the shooting routine at the next shooting point (step S110), and the process returns to step S103 to prepare for the next shooting starting from reception of new RFID tag information.

If it is determined in step S106 whether or not the same TAG NO exists in the tag information and the shooting point information list and there is no shooting point information that matches the acquired tag information (NO in step S106), shooting is executed. When it is instructed that the shooting is possible, the shooting enable flag that is turned “ON” is turned “OFF” (step S111).
Next, the user is notified via the user interface 207 that the photographing is not possible, and it is confirmed whether or not this state is accepted (step S112). In this embodiment, as was done in step S111, when it is not possible to confirm that the TAG NO obtained from the tag information exists in the shooting point information list, the shooting is disabled by turning off the shooting enabled flag. However, the user's intention is confirmed whether this state is accepted or not, and it is possible to return to a state where photographing can be performed at the user's discretion.

Specifically, the display screen for notifying the user that the photographing is not possible indicates that the photographing impossible state can be canceled and the operation can be changed to continue photographing, and the input operation is accepted.
Here, when the user's intention to cancel the shooting disabled state and continue shooting is indicated (step S113-YES), the shooting enabled flag once turned off is turned on (step S114). .
After this, since the user starts the shooting operation, the operation of the key button for setting the shooting condition and the operation of the shutter button performed by the user who sets the shooting condition is received via the user interface 207, and the shot image is also taken. The data is stored in the captured image storage unit 209 of the SD memory card 204 (step S115).

When the captured image data is stored in step S115, it is confirmed that it is a predetermined shooting point, as in the flow in the case where the tag information described above cannot be acquired normally (step S104-NO), or Although it is not confirmed that it is a predetermined shooting point, information for distinguishing whether or not shooting has been executed is inserted as bibliographic information in the header area (see FIG. 8) of the saved data of the shot image. Then, data to be stored in the captured image storage unit 209 of the SD memory card 204 is created.
At the end of shooting, the shooting enable flag is turned “OFF” to correspond to the shooting routine at the next shooting point (step S110), and the process returns to step S103 to prepare for the next shooting starting from reception of new RFID tag information.

As described above, according to this control flow, when the digital camera 101 can check the shooting point and confirm that it is the predetermined shooting point, the digital camera 101 can set the shooting enabled flag to “ON” and execute shooting. In this way, it is possible to shoot without mistakes of points to be executed.
In addition, when it is not possible to confirm that the point is a predetermined shooting point, the shooting ready flag is set to “off” so that shooting cannot be performed in a shooting disabled state, but the user's intention to continue shooting is indicated In this case, the shooting disabled state is canceled and shooting can be performed, and this process is recorded as bibliographic information of “predetermined shooting point or outside predetermined shooting point” in the saved data of the shot image, thereby improving convenience. Can do.

1 shows a schematic configuration of an image capturing system according to an embodiment in which an external device has an RF ID reader function. 1 shows a schematic configuration of an image capturing system according to an embodiment in which an external device has a barcode scanner function. A configuration related to a control unit of a digital camera in the image pickup system (FIGS. 1 and 2) is shown in a block diagram. The control flow at the time of imaging | photography which enables imaging | photography only of the predetermined imaging | photography point is shown. Indicates the location of the RFID tag installed at the maintenance point on the building layout. A shooting point information list used in the digital camera is shown. The image data storage format of the picked-up image which has a camera memo information area | region is shown with a conceptual diagram. An image data storage format of a photographed image having an information area “predetermined photographing point or outside predetermined photographing point” is shown in a conceptual diagram.

Explanation of symbols

101..Digital camera, 102..PDA (Personal Digital Assistants), 103..RF ID (Radio Frequency Identification) reader, 104..RF ID tag, 105..Barcode scanner, 106..Bar Code 111, Bluetooth (registered trademark) communication means 112, RFID communication means, 201 CPU (Central Processing Unit), 202 ROM (Read Only Memory), 203 RAM (Random Access Memory) 204, SD (Secure Digital) memory card, 205, Flash memory, 206, Bluetooth (registered trademark) circuit, 207, User interface, 208, External information storage unit, 209, Photographed image storage unit, 220 .. Digital camera function part.

Claims (6)

Imaging means for photographing a subject and outputting image data;
Recording means for recording image data output from the imaging means on a recording medium;
A communication means for communicating with an external device;
A shooting control unit that sets a shooting operation condition using information acquired from an external device via the communication unit, and controls a shooting operation according to the set condition;
An image pickup device comprising: In the imaging device according to claim 1,
The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the imaging control means sets whether or not to execute imaging as the imaging operation condition. The imaging apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a database for setting the shooting operation condition.
The imaging control unit checks information acquired from an external device using the communication unit based on data for setting whether or not to execute shooting prepared in advance in the database, and sets whether or not shooting can be performed according to the result. An imaging device characterized by that. In the imaging device according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The image capturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the communication means includes a short-range wireless communication function with low power consumption.   5. The imaging operation condition is set from information read by the RF ID reader by connecting the external device having an RF ID reader function to the image pickup device according to claim 1 through the communication unit. Imaging system that can acquire information for use.   5. A shooting operation condition setting from information read by a barcode scanner by connecting the external device having a barcode scanner function to the image pickup device according to claim 1 through the communication unit. Imaging system that can acquire information for use.

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