JP2008294643A - Camera and image transmission method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a camera and an image transmission method which quickly transmits a still image especially desired by a person viewing the image. <P>SOLUTION: In imaging for securing communication, the camera calculates time required for transmitting the plurality of images according to a data amount and a total quantity acquired through imaging elements 107. When the time is a prescribed time or more to adversely affect real time transmission of an image finally acquired in the imaging for securing communication, images except for the image finally acquired are resized to be transmitted to a server 300, and the image finally obtained is transmitted to the server 300 without resizing. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a camera and an image transmission method capable of transmitting an image using a communication line.

  In recent years, digital cameras having a function of transmitting captured images to a server or the like using an Internet line or a mobile phone line have become common.

  If you use a digital camera that has such an image transmission function, you can post your own photos on a blog so that many people can appreciate them, or you can send them to a mobile phone and quickly show them to a specific person. It is possible to

In addition, as a proposal for efficiently transmitting an image via a communication line, for example, in Patent Document 1, when the transmission capacity of a communication line is reduced, transmission of a frame that was to be transmitted at that time is interrupted. Transmission is performed after increasing the frame compression rate. In Patent Document 2, the frame rate at the time of moving image transmission is adjusted by predicting the time required for transmission and the amount of data at that time. Further, in Patent Document 3, the amount of transfer data is adjusted according to the congestion state of the communication line at the time of moving image transmission. Further, in Patent Document 4, when an image to be transmitted is specified at the time of transmitting an image, the image transmission is interrupted at that time and only the specified image is transmitted.
JP 2000-278661 A JP-A-8-63412 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-42185 JP-A-10-214241

  In recent years, there are various types of people, such as those who place importance on the real-time nature of the image and those who place importance on the image quality of the image, so that it is possible to transmit images suitable for each type of person. There is a need for a device that can handle the above. For example, in a highly newsful scene, etc. that happened to be present, a plurality of images including an image that best represents the scene may be shot. Whether one wants to see everything or wants to see only the image that best represents the scene will depend on the interest of the person viewing the image.

  Here, all of Patent Documents 1 to 3 assume transmission of moving images for performing smooth moving image display. Although a slight degradation in image quality is allowed for moving images, it is not preferable to degrade the image quality for still images in which the decisive moment is important. It is difficult to apply.

  In addition, the technique of Patent Document 4 allows efficient image transmission by preferentially transmitting only specific images, but transmitting only specific images may disturb the time series of images. In addition, it may be difficult to concentrate on shooting because an operation is required during image transmission.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a camera and an image transmission method that can quickly transmit a still image particularly required by an image viewer.

  In order to achieve the above object, the camera according to the first aspect of the present invention includes the imaging unit that acquires a plurality of images, the plurality of images according to the data amount of the acquired plurality of images and the total number of images. A calculation unit that calculates the time required to transmit the image of the image, and when the time is equal to or longer than a predetermined time, the image other than the image acquired last among the plurality of images is resized and transmitted. And a transmission unit that transmits the acquired image without resizing.

  In order to achieve the above object, the camera according to the second aspect of the present invention includes an imaging unit that acquires a plurality of images and a communication that acquires a communication speed in a communication line for transmitting the plurality of images. The size of the image for transmitting the plurality of images within a predetermined time according to the total number of the plurality of images acquired by the speed acquisition unit, the imaging unit, and the communication speed acquired by the communication speed acquisition unit And a transmission unit that resizes the plurality of images according to the obtained size and transmits the images.

  In order to achieve the above object, the image transmission method according to the third aspect of the present invention is the time required for transmitting the plurality of images according to the acquired data amount of the plurality of images and the total number of images. To determine whether or not the time is equal to or longer than a predetermined time, and when the time is equal to or longer than the predetermined time as a result of the determination, resize the image other than the last acquired image among the plurality of images. And transmitting the last acquired image without resizing.

  In order to achieve the above object, an image transmission method according to a fourth aspect of the present invention acquires a communication speed in a communication line for transmitting a plurality of acquired images, and The size of the image for transmitting the plurality of images within a predetermined time is determined according to the total number of images and the communication speed, and the plurality of images are resized according to the determined size before being transmitted. Features.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a camera and an image transmission method capable of quickly transmitting a still image particularly required by an image viewer.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[First Embodiment]
First, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a digital camera 100 as an example of a camera according to the first embodiment of the present invention. A digital camera 100 shown in FIG. 1 includes a microprocessing unit (MPU) 101, an operation unit 102, a photographing lens 103, an autofocus (AF) circuit 104, an aperture mechanism 105, an aperture control circuit 106, and an image sensor. 107, analog front end (AFE) circuit 108, image processing circuit 109, display control circuit 110, display panel 111, focus determination circuit 112, compression / expansion circuit 113, recording control circuit 114, recording The medium 115, the communication circuit 116, the transmission status acquisition circuit 117, and the auxiliary light emission circuit 118 are configured. The digital camera 100 is connected to an external device such as a server 300, a personal computer (PC) 400 owned by a user 700, and a mobile phone 500 via a communication line 600 so as to be communicable. Note that the communication line 600 shown in FIG. 1 differs depending on the type of external device. Actually, for example, the communication line 600 when the external device is the server 300 is a line that can be connected to the Internet line together with wireless communication such as a wireless LAN, and the communication line 600 when the external device is the PC 400 is USB or the like. Further, when the external device is the mobile phone 500, the communication line 600 is a mobile phone line.

  The MPU 101 sequentially controls each block constituting the digital camera 100 according to the operation of the operation unit 102 from the user. An operation unit 102 is an operation unit (release button) for executing shooting by the digital camera 100, an operation unit (reproduction button) for executing image reproduction by the digital camera 100, and a reproduction image selection at the time of image reproduction. And an operation unit for performing various transmission settings. Further, in the present embodiment, an operation unit (communication ensuring shooting button) for executing real-time transmission of an image being shot, which will be described later, is included. Here, the MPU 101 has the function of a calculation unit, and also has the functions of a transmission unit and a retransmission unit together with the communication circuit 116.

  The MPU 101 also has a timer for measuring the time when the user took a picture. Thereby, the photographing time is associated with the image data obtained by photographing.

  The taking lens 103 forms an image from the subject 200 on the image sensor 107. The photographing lens 103 includes a lens for autofocus (focusing). During autofocus, the MPU 101 controls the AF circuit 104 while switching the lens position of the focusing lens while monitoring the lens position of the focusing lens, and performs focusing of the photographing lens 103. The diaphragm mechanism 105 is a mechanism that is provided in or near the photographing lens 103 and produces the effects of a shutter and a diaphragm. The aperture mechanism 105 is opened to a predetermined aperture by the aperture control circuit 106 at the start of shooting and closed at the end of shooting. By changing the aperture of the aperture mechanism 105 at the time of shooting, the depth of field of the shooting lens 103 changes. Thereby, it is possible to switch the expression such as adjusting the degree of blurring of the background subject to make the main subject appear at the time of shooting, or depict the background subject firmly.

  The image sensor 107 has a light receiving surface configured by arranging a large number of pixels, and converts an image from the subject 200 received through the photographing lens 103 into an electrical signal. In the present embodiment, the image sensor 107 may use either a CCD system or a CMOS system.

  The AFE circuit 108 includes a CDS circuit, a gain adjustment circuit, an AD conversion circuit, and the like, and is obtained by performing analog processing such as correlated double sampling processing and gain adjustment processing on the analog electric signal obtained in the image sensor 107. The obtained image signal is converted into digital data and input to the image processing circuit 109. The AFE circuit 108 is also provided with a function of reading signals from a plurality of pixels constituting the image sensor 107 at a time. For example, the SFE can be improved by collectively reading out signals of 4 pixels (2 × 2 pixels) and 9 pixels (3 × 3 pixels) by the AFE circuit 108 and adding the read electrical signals. . By such processing, the apparent sensitivity of the image sensor 107 can be increased.

  Further, the AFE circuit 108 also has a function of selecting an output signal from the image sensor 107, and can extract only signals from a limited range of pixels among all effective pixels of the image sensor 107. In general, the image sensor 107 can read signals at high speed by performing thinning. Using this function, if an image obtained for composition confirmation by the image sensor 107 is read at high speed and processed by the image processing circuit 109 and then displayed on the display panel 111, the user is displayed on the display panel 111. It is possible to perform framing using an image.

  The image processing circuit 109 corrects the color, gradation, sharpness, etc. in the image data input from the AFE circuit 108, or amplifies the level of the image data to a predetermined level to adjust it to the correct shading and the correct gray level. Various image processing is performed.

  In addition, in order to display various images such as the framing image as described above, the image processing circuit 109 displays the image data input from the AFE circuit 108 on the display panel 111 or image transmission described later. It also has a function of resizing (reducing) in order to change the data amount of the image data at the time. The resizing can be performed by thinning out image data, for example.

  The display control circuit 110 converts the image data obtained by the image processing circuit 109 and the image data recorded on the recording medium 115 into a video signal and displays the video signal on the display panel 111. The display panel 111 is a display panel such as a liquid crystal display panel or an organic EL display panel. The display control circuit 110 also has a multi-screen display function for displaying a plurality of images superimposed on the display panel 111. With this multi-screen display function, it is also possible to superimpose a character display of mode setting and various warning displays on the captured image or the captured image. Further, when a plurality of images are displayed by the multi-screen display function, a display prompting the user to select an image to be transmitted is also performed.

  The focus determination circuit 112 detects the contrast of the image obtained by the image processing circuit 109. The contrast detected by the focus determination circuit 112 is used during autofocus. That is, while the AF circuit 104 changes the lens position of the focusing lens of the photographing lens 103, the focus determination circuit 112 sequentially detects the contrast of the image, and stops the focusing lens at the lens position where the detected contrast is maximized. By doing so, the photographing lens 103 can be focused.

  The compression / decompression circuit 113 compresses the image data processed by the image processing circuit 109 at the time of shooting. The compression / decompression circuit 113 includes a still image compression unit having a known still image compression function such as JPEG, MPEG4, H.264, and the like. And a moving image compression unit having a known moving image compression function such as H.264. The compression / expansion circuit 113 also has a function of expanding compressed still image data or moving image data.

  The recording control circuit 114 records the image data compressed by the compression / decompression circuit 113 on the recording medium 115 with accompanying data.

  The communication circuit 116 transmits image data recorded on the recording medium 115, image data obtained by photographing, and the like to various external devices via the communication line 600, and receives various information from various external devices. Communication control when Note that the communication circuit 116 can perform various types of communication control according to the external device that is the communication destination, such as image data. A transmission status acquisition circuit 117 having a function as a communication speed acquisition unit detects a communication speed at the time of image transmission and notifies the MPU 101 of the communication speed.

  The auxiliary light emitting circuit 118 irradiates the subject 200 with auxiliary light according to the situation at the time of shooting. This prevents insufficient brightness and unevenness during shooting.

  FIG. 2A is a diagram conceptually showing a flow from the start of image transmission by the digital camera 100 of FIG. 1 until the transmitted image is displayed on the display unit of various external devices. .

  The digital camera 100 according to the present embodiment has a communication line securing photographing mode in which a communication line is secured before photographing or simultaneously with photographing, and image data acquired at the end of photographing is transmitted. For example, when the operation unit (communication ensuring photographing button) 102a for instructing execution of the communication line provided on the back surface of the digital camera 100 shown in FIG. In this state, when a release button 102b provided on the upper surface of the digital camera 100 is pressed, an image is automatically transmitted after execution of shooting. Such communication secured shooting is used when it is desired to share image data with other people in real time, for example, when a sudden news situation is present. Further, when the release button 102b is pressed in a state where the communication ensuring shooting button 102a is not pressed, normal shooting is performed. In this case, automatic transmission of image data after shooting is not performed.

  The transmission destination of the image in the secure communication shooting mode is basically the server 300. Image data may be transmitted to the mobile phone 500. Here, since it is assumed that real-time image transmission is performed in the communication secured shooting mode, communication is basically performed by wireless communication.

  The server 300 includes a communication unit 301, a recording unit 302, a control unit 303, and a page display unit 304. The communication unit 301 performs communication control for the server 300 to communicate with the digital camera 100, the PC 400, the mobile phone 500, and the like. The recording unit 302 records various data such as image data received by the communication unit 301. The control unit 303 controls the operation of the server 300 such as selecting image data designated by the user 700 from the image data recorded in the recording unit 302. The page display unit 304 performs control so that the image data recorded in the recording unit 302 can be displayed on the PC 400.

  Here, even if the image has a high level of news, it is considered that a general user can be satisfied if only the image representing the situation at that time is viewed. Therefore, on the blog that can be browsed by the PC 400 from the server 300, an image that best represents the situation at that time selected by the photographer who has taken the image with the digital camera 100 (an image indicated by reference numeral 100a in FIG. 2A). Can be displayed. The display on the monitor in the PC 400 in such a case is, for example, indicated by reference numeral 400a.

  Further, for an active user who needs to view a real-time image including the image 100a, a web page for displaying all images transmitted from the digital camera 100 is also created in the server 300. A user who needs to check a real-time image can check the image in real time by sequentially accessing the corresponding page of the server 300 from the PC 400 and checking the image. The display on the monitor in the PC 400 in such a case is, for example, as indicated by reference numeral 400b. In this case, all the results of continuous shooting by the digital camera 100 are displayed. Here, in order to confirm the image in real time, it is better to recognize the update of the image immediately. Therefore, every time the web page is updated, the PC 400 sends an RSS (RDF site summary: summary of the updated content of the web page). File) information may be transmitted. However, in this case, the PC 400 needs to have a function of reading RSS information. By doing so, the user 700 can recognize the update of the web page and can check the image in real time.

  Further, if the image data obtained in the digital camera 100 is simply uploaded to the server 300, an image cannot be viewed unless the server 300 is accessed. The image data may also be transmitted to 500. That is, the photographer transmits image data as an attached file of e-mail, for example, to a person who wants to show it immediately. The display on the monitor in the mobile phone 500 in such a case is, for example, indicated by reference numeral 500a. In this example, only the image data 100a selected by the photographer is transmitted. When the communication line is not congested, a plurality of images may be transmitted. Further, only the message that prompts the user to see the image recorded in the server 300 as indicated by the reference numeral 500b may be transmitted to reduce the transmission data.

  Here, in order to realize real-time image confirmation, it is important that image data can be transmitted without delay. For this reason, in this embodiment, prior to the transmission of the image by the digital camera 100, the time taken until all the image data is transmitted from the digital camera 100 is estimated from the data amount and the number of image data to be transmitted. When this time is not less than a predetermined time that hinders real-time transmission of important image data (image data 100a shown in FIG. 2), resize processing is performed to reduce the amount of less important image data. After that, send the image data.

  FIG. 2B is a diagram illustrating a state in which image data is transmitted to the server 300 by the digital camera 100 at the time of capturing communication. For example, when there are five untransmitted image data A to E at the timing of T0 when the most important image F representing the situation at that time has been taken, the transmission of the important image data F is completed. It is assumed that such time is T1. In the present embodiment, when the time T1 is equal to or longer than the predetermined time and it is determined that real-time transmission of important image data F is difficult, transmission is attempted before the image data F in order to shorten the time T1. The image data A to E are reduced to reduce the amount of data and then transmitted to the server 300, and only the last image data F is transmitted to the server 300 in a normal size. As a result, it is possible to transmit the image data F in a time T2 shorter than T1 while maintaining the image quality. That is, in the present embodiment, the image data F designated by the photographer is considered to be the most important image data representing the situation at that time, and the image data F can be transmitted to the server 300 as quickly as possible with high image quality. To do. The data other than the image data F is transmitted without being reduced only when a re-transmission request is made from the server 300.

  The image transmission method according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating control of the digital camera 100 according to the first embodiment.

  First, the MPU 101 determines whether a communication ensuring shooting instruction (a pressing operation of the communication ensuring shooting button 102a) is performed by an operation of the operation unit 102 by a photographer (step S1). If it is determined in step S <b> 1 that no secure communication imaging instruction has been issued, the MPU 101 performs normal imaging control. In this case, the MPU 101 determines whether or not a shooting instruction is given by the operation of the operation unit 102 by the photographer (step S2). In the determination in step S2, when a shooting instruction is given, the MPU 101 executes a shooting operation (step S3). Then, the image data obtained by the photographing operation is recorded on the recording medium 115 (step S4). Thereafter, the MPU 101 ends the process of FIG.

  Also, in the determination in step S2, if no shooting instruction has been issued, the MPU 101 determines whether an instruction to reproduce image data has been issued by the operation of the operation unit 102 by the photographer (step S5). In the determination in step S5, when a reproduction instruction is given, the MPU 101 waits for selection of image data by the photographer. After the image data is selected by the operation of the operation unit 102 by the photographer, the MPU 101 reads the selected image data from the recording medium 115 and reproduces and displays it on the display panel 111 (step S6). Thereafter, the MPU 101 determines whether an instruction to transmit image data is given by the operation of the operation unit 102 by the photographer (step S7). If it is determined in step S7 that an instruction to transmit image data has not been given, the MPU 101 ends the process in FIG. On the other hand, in the determination in step S7, when an instruction to transmit image data is given, the setting of the transmission destination by the photographer is awaited. After the transmission destination is set by the operation of the operation unit 102 by the photographer, the MPU 101 transmits the image data being reproduced to the designated transmission destination through the communication circuit 116 (step S8). Here, when transmitting image data to the server 300 in step S8, for example, image data to be transmitted so that the image data can be viewed on a blog or the like as indicated by reference numeral 400a in FIG. A predetermined flag is set in. Prior to the transmission in step S8, it may be possible to designate where the image is to be displayed on a page such as a blog. If the layout of the image displayed on the blog or the like can be devised in this way, the display method can be enjoyed by more people. Furthermore, a comment to be displayed on a page such as a blog may be added to the image data to be transmitted.

  Further, when it is determined in step S5 that an instruction to reproduce image data has not been given, the MPU 101 determines whether a request for retransmission of image data from the server 300 has been made (step S9). Here, the image data retransmission request from the server 300 is made in response to an image data retransmission request instruction from the user 700 who has confirmed the image uploaded to the server 300. If it is determined in step S9 that a request for retransmitting image data has not been made, the MPU 101 ends the processing in FIG. On the other hand, when a request for retransmission of image data is made in the determination in step S9, the MPU 101 retransmits the image data requested from the server 300 through the communication circuit 116 (step S10).

  If it is determined in step S1 that an instruction to ensure communication has been issued, the MPU 101 waits for setting of the transmission destination by the photographer, and sets the transmission destination of the image data according to the operation of the operation unit 102 by the photographer (step S1). S11). Thus, since the transmission destination is determined in advance, the photographer can concentrate on photographing at a good timing.

  After setting the transmission destination, the MPU 101 determines whether a photographing instruction has been given by the operation of the operation unit 102 by the photographer (step S12), and waits until the photographing instruction is given. In the determination in step S12, when a shooting instruction is given, the MPU 101 executes a shooting operation, and temporarily stores image data obtained by the shooting operation in a storage unit (not shown) in the MPU 101 (step S13). Thereafter, the MPU 101 determines whether or not a communication ensuring shooting instruction is performed by operating the operation unit 102 by the photographer (step S14). If it is determined in step S14 that a secure communication imaging instruction has been issued, the MPU 101 returns to step S12 and determines again whether the imaging instruction has been issued. That is, in the determination in step S14, while the communication ensuring shooting instruction is being performed, a repeated shooting operation is executed in accordance with the shooting instruction from the photographer, and a plurality of image data obtained by repeated shooting is stored in the MPU 101 (not shown). Are temporarily stored in the unit.

  Further, in the determination of step S14, when the communication ensuring shooting instruction is canceled, the shooting is terminated, and processing for transmitting the image data obtained up to that point to the server 300 is performed. For this reason, the MPU 101 determines the time taken for the communication circuit 116 to complete the transmission of the image data temporarily stored in the storage unit from the data amount and the total number of image data temporarily stored in the storage unit. From this time, it is determined whether transmission of the image data stored in the storage unit can be completed within a predetermined time (step S15). If the transmission of the image data cannot be completed within the predetermined time in the determination of step S15, the MPU 101 sets the image data other than the last stored image data among the image data temporarily stored in the storage unit (not shown). Is resized (reduced) by the image processing circuit 109 (step S16). Then, the MPU 101 transmits the resized image data to the server 300 through the communication circuit 116 (step S17). Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S19. On the other hand, when the transmission of the image data can be completed within the predetermined time in the determination of step S15, the MPU 101 selects an image other than the image data stored last in the image data stored in the storage unit (not shown). The data is not resized and transmitted to the server 300 by the communication circuit 116 (step S18).

  After transmitting image data other than the last image data to the server 300, the MPU 101 transmits the last image data to the server 300 through the communication circuit 116 without resizing (step S19). That is, in the present embodiment, when a plurality of image shootings are performed, it is considered that there is some dissatisfaction with images other than the last image, and those images are resized, and with respect to the last image Since it is important, resizing is not performed and image quality is not reduced.

  In step S18 and S19, when image data is transmitted to the server 300, for example, the image data is displayed so that the image data can be viewed in the form of a full image display as indicated by reference numeral 400b in FIG. A predetermined flag is set in. The image data to be transmitted last may be set so that it can be posted on a blog or the like.

  After the transmission of the last image data, the MPU 101 transmits an e-mail indicating that the image data has been transmitted to the server 300 to the mobile phone 500 (step S20). Note that the e-mail transmission destination and the like are set by the photographer in the process of step S11. If this setting has not been made, the processing in step S20 may be omitted. Through the processing in step S20, the other party who has received the e-mail recognizes that the image data has been uploaded to the server 300, for example, by looking at the screen shown by the reference numeral 500b in FIG. I can do it. The last image data may be attached to the e-mail.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the image data finally satisfied by the photographer is also considered necessary by the viewer of the image, and this image data is transmitted when it takes time. Since other image data is resized (reduced) in order to shorten the data transmission time, it is possible to share a highly news image in real time.

  Further, since the resized image is retransmitted when a request is made by the user who feels that the image is necessary, the image required by the viewer of the image can be transmitted without fail.

[Second Embodiment]
Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the above-described first embodiment, it is determined only in the situation on the digital camera 100 side whether image data can be transmitted within a predetermined time at the time of capturing communication. However, even if the digital camera 100 can actually transmit image data at high speed, if the communication line 600 is congested, the transmission time will be delayed as a result. In the second embodiment, image data is transmitted in consideration of not only the situation on the digital camera 100 side but also the situation of the communication line 600. The configuration of the digital camera 100 is the same as that in FIG. 1, and the configuration of the server 300 is the same as that in FIG. However, the second embodiment is different in that the transmission status acquisition circuit 117 of the digital camera 100 acquires communication line congestion information (for example, communication speed) from the server 300.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating control of the digital camera 100 according to the second embodiment.

  Steps S31 to S34 shown in FIG. 4 are the same as steps S1 to S4 in FIG. If it is determined in step S32 that no shooting instruction has been issued, the MPU 101 determines whether an instruction to reproduce image data has been issued by the operation of the operation unit 102 by the photographer (step S35). In the determination in step S <b> 35, when a reproduction instruction is given, the MPU 101 reproduces the image data in the recording medium 115 by the operation of the operation unit 102 by the photographer or the image data transmitted to the server 300. Is determined (step S36). In the determination of step S36, when reproducing the image data in the recording medium 115, the MPU 101 waits for selection of the image data by the photographer. After the image data is selected by the operation of the operation unit 102 by the photographer, the MPU 101 reads the selected image data from the recording medium 115 and reproduces and displays it on the display panel 111 (step S37). Thereafter, the MPU 101 determines whether an instruction to transmit image data is given by the operation of the operation unit 102 by the photographer (step S38). If it is determined in step S38 that an instruction to transmit image data has not been given, the MPU 101 ends the process in FIG. On the other hand, when an instruction to transmit image data is given in the determination in step S38, the setting of the transmission destination by the photographer is awaited. After the transmission destination is designated by the operation of the operation unit 102 by the photographer, the MPU 101 transmits the image data being reproduced to the designated transmission destination through the communication circuit 116, and posts the transmitted image data on a blog or the like. Is instructed to do so (step S39).

  On the other hand, in the determination in step S38, when reproduction is performed from an image that has already been transmitted, the MPU 101 receives transmitted image data from the server 300 by the communication circuit 116 (step S40). After receiving the transmitted image data, the MPU 101 displays a list of transmitted images on the display panel 111 (step S41). Thereafter, the MPU 101 transmits the image data designated by the photographer's operation of the operation unit 102 to the server 300 and instructs the server 300 to post the transmitted image data on a blog or the like (step S42). Thereafter, the MPU 101 ends the process of FIG. Here, in step S42, the image designated for posting on the blog or the like is an image that the photographer has determined to be most representative of the situation during photographing. Therefore, this image can be displayed on a blog or the like by resending it to the server 300 without being resized so that an image can be displayed with high image quality. Note that the image data received from the server 300 may have been resized by the processing described later. If the image data has been resized, the image data is full-sized by interpolation or the like, and then transmitted to the server 300. Of course, if the resized image data does not affect viewing, there is no need to perform full-size processing.

  Further, when it is determined in step S35 that an instruction to reproduce image data has not been given, the MPU 101 determines whether a request for retransmission of image data from the server 300 has been made (step S43). If it is determined in step S43 that a request for retransmission of image data has not been made, the MPU 101 terminates the processing in FIG. On the other hand, when a request for retransmission of image data is made in the determination in step S43, the MPU 101 retransmits the image data requested from the server 300 by the communication circuit 116, and transmits the transmitted image data to a blog or the like. Instruction is given to post (step S44).

  Also, in the determination of step S31, when a communication securing shooting instruction is given, the MPU 101 waits for the setting of the transmission destination by the photographer, and the transmission status acquisition circuit 117 causes the congestion status information on the communication line 600 from the server 300 (currently). (Communication speed) is acquired (step S45).

After setting the transmission destination and acquiring the communication speed, the MPU 101 determines whether a shooting instruction has been given by the operation of the operation unit 102 by the photographer (step S46), and waits until the shooting instruction is given. In the determination in step S46, when a shooting instruction is given, the MPU 101 executes a shooting operation (step S47) and records the image data obtained by the shooting operation on the recording medium 115 (step S48). Next, the MPU 101 determines the size of the image data such that the transmission time is a predetermined time or less from the number of untransmitted image data among the image data recorded on the recording medium 115 and the communication speed on the current communication line 600. Is determined (step S49). Here, the size of the image data can be obtained by the following equation.
Image size = (transmission time) / {(number of image data) × (communication speed)}
After obtaining the size of the image data in step S49, the MPU 101 uses the image processing circuit 109 to resize (reduce) the image data to be transmitted to the determined size (step S50). Thereafter, the MPU 101 transmits image data to the server 300 through the communication circuit 116 (step S51).

  Next, the MPU 101 determines whether or not a communication ensuring shooting instruction is given by an operation of the operation unit 102 by the photographer (step S52). If it is determined in step S52 that a secure communication imaging instruction has been issued, the MPU 101 returns to step S46 and determines again whether the imaging instruction has been issued. That is, in the determination in step S52, while the communication ensuring shooting instruction is being performed, the repeated shooting operation is executed in accordance with the shooting instruction from the photographer, and a plurality of image data obtained by repeated shooting is sequentially stored in the server 300. Sent to. If it is determined in step S52 that a continuous securing imaging instruction has not been issued, the process proceeds to step S41, and the MPU 101 displays a list of transmitted images on the display panel 111. Then, the MPU 101 transmits to the server 300 without resizing the image data designated for posting on the blog or the like of the server 300 by the operation of the operation unit 102 by the photographer. Thereafter, the MPU 101 ends the process of FIG. If the communication state is not good, only the image data with a small data size is transmitted, so the list of transmitted images can be displayed after the communication secured shooting is completed, and the images to be posted on the blog etc. can be selected from this list display I have to.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing control of the server 300 in the second embodiment. The control unit 303 of the server 300 determines whether image data has been received from the digital camera 100 via the communication unit 301 (step S61). If it is determined in step S61 that image data has been received, the control unit 303 causes the recording unit 302 to record the received image data (step S62). This is a process of recording image data sequentially in the recording area of the recording unit 302. After recording the image data, the control unit 303 ends the process of FIG.

  On the other hand, when it is determined in step S61 that image data has not been received, the control unit 303 determines whether a communication speed inquiry has been made from the digital camera 100 (step S63). If it is determined in step S63 that the communication speed has been inquired, the control unit 303 receives fixed-size data (not necessarily image data) from the digital camera 100, and the fixed-size data is transmitted from the digital camera 100. Then, the communication speed is calculated from the time difference from when it is received to the server 300 and the data amount of the fixed size data (step S64). After calculating the communication speed, the control unit 303 transmits the communication speed to the digital camera 100 via the communication unit 301 (step S65). Thereby, in the digital camera 100, it is possible to determine the transmission time in consideration of the congestion state of the communication line 600, and accordingly, it is possible to perform appropriate resizing.

  If it is determined in step S63 that the communication speed has not been inquired, the control unit 303 determines whether an instruction to post predetermined image data on a blog or the like has been issued from the digital camera 100 (step S66). In the determination in step S66, when an instruction to blog the predetermined image data is given, the control unit 303 copies the designated image data to the recording area for displaying the blog in the recording unit 302, etc. Processing is performed so that it can be displayed on the blog (step S67).

  If it is determined in step S66 that a blog posting instruction for predetermined image data has not been issued, the control unit 303 determines whether an image browsing instruction has been issued from the digital camera 100 or the PC 400 (step S68). In the determination in step S68, when an image browsing instruction is given, the control unit 303 reads all the image data recorded in the recording unit 302, and the digital camera 100 or the like as indicated by reference numeral 400b in FIG. It is displayed on the PC 400 (step S69). Thereafter, the control unit 303 determines whether image data has been selected by the photographer or the user 700 (step S70). If it is determined in step S70 that no image data has been selected, the control unit 303 ends the process in FIG. On the other hand, when the image data is selected in the determination in step S70, the control unit 303 determines whether the selected image data is resized (step S71). If it is determined in step S71 that the selected image data has not been resized, the process proceeds to step S67, and the control unit 303 copies the image data to the recording area for displaying the blog in the recording unit 302. , Process to display on the blog. On the other hand, if the selected image data has been resized in the determination in step S71, the control unit 303 requests the digital camera 100 to retransmit the selected image data without resizing (step S71). Step S72).

  If it is determined in step S68 that no image browsing instruction has been issued, the control unit 303 determines whether a blog browsing instruction has been issued from the digital camera 100 or the PC 400 (step S73). In the determination in step S73, when an instruction to browse the blog is given, the control unit 303 reads out the image data recorded in the recording area for displaying the blog of the recording unit 302 and pastes it on the web page for displaying the blog. The web page is displayed on the digital camera 100 or the PC 400 as indicated by reference numeral 400a in FIG. 2 (step S74). On the other hand, if it is determined in step S73 that no blog browsing instruction has been issued, the process returns to step S61.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, real-time image data transmission can be performed in consideration of the state of the communication line 600 using the interaction between the digital camera 100 and the server 300. In addition, a photographer or the like can freely select image data to be posted on a blog or the like. When the image data to be posted on the blog or the like has been resized, the image data that has not been resized is retransmitted, so that high-quality image display can be performed on the blog or the like.

  Although the present invention has been described above based on the embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications and applications are naturally possible within the scope of the gist of the present invention.

  Further, the above-described embodiments include various stages of the invention, and various inventions can be extracted by appropriately combining a plurality of disclosed constituent elements. For example, even if some configuration requirements are deleted from all the configuration requirements shown in the embodiment, the above-described problem can be solved, and this configuration requirement is deleted when the above-described effects can be obtained. The configuration can also be extracted as an invention.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a digital camera as an example of a camera according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2A is a diagram conceptually showing a flow from the start of image transmission by the digital camera until the transmitted image is displayed on the display unit of various external devices, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a state of image data transmission to a server by a digital camera at the time of photographing with communication secured. It is a flowchart which shows control of the digital camera in 1st Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows control of the digital camera in 2nd Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows control of the server in 2nd Embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 ... Digital camera, 101 ... Micro processing unit (MPU), 102a ... Communication ensuring imaging | photography button, 103 ... Shooting lens, 104 ... Autofocus (AF) circuit, 105 ... Aperture mechanism, 106 ... Aperture control circuit, 107 ... Image sensor , 108 ... Analog front end (AFE) circuit, 109 ... Image processing circuit, 110 ... Display control circuit, 111 ... Display panel, 112 ... Focus determination circuit, 113 ... Compression / decompression circuit, 114 ... Recording control circuit, 115 ... Recording Media 116, communication circuit, 117, transmission status acquisition circuit, 118, auxiliary light emitting circuit, 300, server, 301, communication unit, 302, recording unit, 303, control unit, 304, page display unit, 400, personal computer (PC), 500 ... mobile phone, 600 ... communication line

Claims (5)

An imaging unit for acquiring a plurality of images;
A calculation unit that calculates the time taken to transmit the plurality of images according to the data amount of the plurality of images acquired and the total number of images;
When the time is equal to or longer than a predetermined time, a transmitting unit that resizes the images other than the last acquired image and transmits the resized image without resizing the last acquired image. ,
A camera comprising: An imaging unit for acquiring a plurality of images;
A communication speed acquisition unit for acquiring a communication speed in a communication line for transmitting the plurality of images;
According to the total number of the plurality of images acquired by the imaging unit and the communication speed acquired by the communication speed acquisition unit, the size of the image for transmitting the plurality of images within a predetermined time is obtained and obtained. A transmission unit that resizes the plurality of images according to the size and then transmits the image;
A camera comprising:   The camera according to claim 2, further comprising a retransmission unit that retransmits an image selected from the transmitted images without resizing. Calculate the time taken to transmit the plurality of images according to the data amount of the plurality of images acquired and the total number of images,
Determine whether the time is equal to or longer than a predetermined time,
As a result of the determination, when the time is equal to or longer than a predetermined time, the image other than the image acquired last among the plurality of images is resized and transmitted, and the image acquired last is not resized. Send,
An image transmission method characterized by the above. Acquire the communication speed in the communication line for transmitting the acquired multiple images,
According to the total number of the plurality of acquired images and the communication speed, obtain the size of the image for transmitting the plurality of images within a predetermined time,
Resizing the multiple images according to the determined size
An image transmission method characterized by the above.

Images