JP4178162B2 - Communication terminal with camera - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a camera-equipped communication terminal having an electronic mail function and a camera photographing function, and more particularly to a technique related to a method for processing a moving image file attached to an electronic mail.

  FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional camera-equipped communication terminal, and a conventional camera-equipped communication terminal will be described with reference to FIG.

  In FIG. 6, 61 is a main processing unit for controlling each unit, 62 is a mail processing unit having a function of transmitting an e-mail, 63 is a camera processing unit having a function of capturing a moving image, and 64 is storing a moving image / mail. A memory 65 is an operation unit having a function as a user interface.

  In the configuration shown in FIG. 6, when a moving image imaged by the camera processing unit 63 is transmitted as an email attachment file, first, the camera processing unit 63 is activated from the main processing unit 61 to capture an image to be attached, Stored in the memory 64. Next, the mail processing unit 62 is activated from the main processing unit 61, and an arbitrary moving image is selected from the captured moving image list stored on the mail creation screen, thereby moving the moving image to the mail. Attachment is performed, thereby realizing transmission of an electronic mail with a moving image file attached.

  E-mail is basically sent through a network to a specified party, and information is stored and exchanged. Therefore, the e-mail system has the following features.

  (1) Since a load is applied to the server and the network, it is not desirable to send a large size mail at a time. (2) Since information is not exchanged in real time, information does not always arrive in the order of transmission, and only intermediate mail may be lost.

  Therefore, the mail server normally has an upper limit value for the data size of a file carried by electronic mail. In addition, since e-mails are sequentially delivered to the target e-mail address via a plurality of e-mail servers, the e-mail is sent by the e-mail server having the smallest upper limit of the data size among the mail servers constituting this route. The upper limit of data size is specified. For this reason, there is a problem that a moving image having a large file size cannot be attached to an e-mail and transmitted for reasons such as a high resolution, a large frame rate, and a long shooting time.

  Furthermore, when sending a moving image attached to an e-mail, in the past, the moving image previously shot is attached as it is to the e-mail and sent, so it is connected to a communication device with a slow communication speed, or the file size When trying to send with a large file attached, there was a problem that it took a long communication time unexpected by the user.

  There are also e-mail systems that divide an attached file and send it by attaching it to a plurality of e-mails. However, since these are simply divided according to size, any one e-mail may be lost or a different e-mail may be sent. At the destination using the mail system, the attached file cannot be restored and cannot be played back.

  Therefore, the technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and the object is to send an e-mail with a moving image attached. In other words, the transmission efficiency of the electronic mail system is not lowered.

  In one representative invention of a camera-equipped communication terminal according to the present application, a mail processing unit having a function of transmitting an e-mail, a camera processing unit having a function of capturing a moving image, a memory for storing a moving image / mail, and A communication time setting unit for setting a communication time, a moving image conversion unit for automatically converting a moving image attached according to the communication time, a conversion method selecting unit for selecting a conversion method by the moving image conversion unit, A main processing unit that controls each unit of the communication terminal is provided.

  As described above, according to the present invention, by setting the communication time required for the user to complete the mail transmission in advance, the mail with the moving image attached within the set time regardless of the communication speed of the connected communication device. Can be completed.

  Therefore, according to the present invention, when transmitting an e-mail with a moving image attached thereto, it is possible to suppress a reduction in transmission efficiency of the e-mail system as much as possible, and its value is great.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a camera-equipped communication terminal according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 11 is a main processing unit for controlling each part of the communication terminal, 12 is a mail processing unit having a function of transmitting an e-mail, 13 is a camera processing unit having a function of capturing a moving image, and 14 is a moving image A memory for storing e-mails, 15 an operation unit having a function as a user interface, 16 a file division unit for dividing a captured moving image, 17 a file size setting unit, 18 a file name generation unit, and 19 a storage / non-storage Save selection switch.

  The operation of the camera-equipped communication terminal having the above-described components according to this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing from moving image shooting to mail transmission in the present embodiment.

  Before sending a mail, the user sets an upper limit value of the file size of a moving image attached to one mail via the file size setting unit 17 in advance (step S1). Also, a transmission destination is selected (step S2).

  The moving image shooting is executed by the camera processing unit 13 activated by the main processing unit 11, and the shot moving image is stored in the memory 14 (steps S3 and S4).

  Next, by operating the operation unit 15, the mail processing unit 12 is activated by the main processing unit 11 (step S <b> 5), and a moving image to be attached is selected from a previously captured moving image list to select the selected moving image. An image is read from the memory 14.

  Next, the main processing unit 11 sets the file size (A) of the moving image file (A) read out for attachment to the mail and the file size setting unit 17 in advance when actually sending the mail. The file size (B) is compared (step S6). If the file size (B) is larger, after confirming that the dividing process of the moving image file has not been performed once, one moving image file (the former) that has not been divided is left as it is (one). Attached to the e-mail and transmitted (steps S11 and S16).

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S6 that the file size (A) is larger, the file size of the moving image file attached to one mail is equal to or smaller than the file size (B), as will be described later. Thus, it is necessary to divide the moving image file (the former) and create n moving image files (the second).

  Here, the moving image file will be described. FIG. 3 shows a data format of a moving image file compliant with ASF (Advanced Streaming Format) recorded by the communication terminal with a camera according to the present embodiment. FIG. 3A shows a moving image file before division. FIG. 3B shows the divided moving image file.

  As shown in FIG. 3A, the moving image file has a header area 31 at the beginning, next time stamps 32, 34,..., Moving image frame data 33 to be displayed at the time after each time stamp, 35... Are provided. In the moving image file, the time stamp and the frame data are one set, so that the time stamp and the frame data cannot be divided.

  Next, a procedure for actually dividing a moving image file (A) will be described. The main processing unit 11 inputs the moving image file (E) to the file dividing unit 16 (Step S7), and the file dividing unit 16 sets the file size from the beginning of the moving image file (E) to a preset file size. (B) Division is performed at the following points (step S8).

  The first portion of the divided moving image file is temporarily stored in the memory 14 as an attached moving image file. At this time, the main processing unit 11 controls the file name generation unit 18 and stores it with a name that can be determined to be the first serial number, such as “original file name + (plus) 01”. (Step S9). In addition, a new header is added to the remaining part of the divided moving image file so that the divided moving image file can be reproduced independently (see the right part of FIG. 3B). As a moving image file (step A) (step S10), the process returns to step S6.

  Steps S6 to S10 are repeated until the file size (A) of the moving image file (A) is smaller than the file size (B). When the routine of step S6 to step S10 is repeated two times, three times,..., The file name generation unit 18 is controlled in the same manner as described above, and the remaining portion of the moving image file with the header is changed to “ Names such as “original file name +02”, “original file name +03”,... That can be determined to be the second, third,... Of the serial number are temporarily stored in the memory 14.

  If it is determined in step S6 that the file size (A) of the moving image file (A) is smaller than the file size (B), there is no need to divide any more. Proceeding to S12, in step S12, the final part of the divided moving image file is given a name that can be determined to be the nth serial number such as “original file name + 0n”, and is temporarily stored in the memory 14. To do.

  In step S13 subsequent to step S12, under the control of the main processing unit 11, the mail processing unit 12 stores n moving image files smaller than a preset file size (B) in the memory 14. Thus, the number of stored files is detected, and the same number of e-mails with the same address as the number of files are created. In the next step S14, the mail processing unit 12 attaches the divided moving image files to n mails one by one, and automatically transmits the mail. The determination of the number of mails to be created can also be achieved by counting the number of divided operations and adding “1” to the number of operations.

  Then, when the save / non-save selection switch 19 is turned on and the moving image file divided by the user is set not to remain in the memory 14, after the mail is transmitted, the divided n pieces are divided in step S15 following step S14. The moving image file is automatically deleted from the memory 14. When the save / non-save selection switch 19 is off, the n divided files are not deleted from the memory 14. In addition, the moving image file (the former) before the division is not deleted from the memory 14.

  Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a camera-equipped communication terminal according to the second embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 4, 41 is a main processing unit for controlling each part of the communication terminal, 42 is a mail processing unit having a function of transmitting an e-mail, 43 is a camera processing unit having a function of taking a moving image, 44 is a moving image / A memory for storing mail, 45 is an operation unit having a function as a user interface, 46 is a communication speed determination unit, 47 is a communication time setting unit, 48 is a moving image conversion unit, and 49 is a conversion method selection unit.

  The operation of the camera-equipped communication terminal having the above-described components will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing from moving image shooting to mail transmission in this embodiment.

  The user sets a communication time X until mail transmission is completed through the communication time setting unit 47 in advance before sending the mail. Furthermore, the conversion method selection unit 49 is used to select one of the three conversion methods for the moving image file, focusing on the number of frames, emphasizing resolution, and arbitrary (step S21). Further, the transmission destination is also selected (step S22).

  The moving image shooting is executed by the camera processing unit 43 activated by the main processing unit 41, and the manipulated moving image is stored in the memory 44 (steps S23 and S24).

  Next, an e-mail is generated by the e-mail processing unit 42 activated by the main processing unit 41, a moving image to be attached is selected from a pre-captured moving image list, and the selected moving image is read from the memory 44 (step S25). .

  Next, the main processing unit 41 recognizes the communication speed when the mail is actually transmitted via the communication speed determination unit 46 (step S26), and from the communication speed and the file size of the moving image attached to the mail. The communication time Y from the start of mail transmission to completion is calculated (step S27).

  Then, the result (communication time Y) calculated in step S27 is compared with the communication time X preset in step S21 (step S28). If the set communication time X is shorter, the moving image read from the memory 44 for attachment is input to the moving image conversion unit 48, and the moving image conversion is performed so that the transmission is completed within the set communication time X. And send it attached to the mail (step S29). When the moving image is converted, the original moving image is saved. If the set communication time X is longer, the moving image read from the memory 44 for attachment is attached as it is to the mail and transmitted (step S30).

  Next, an example of moving image conversion processing will be described. For example, assume that a moving image having a frame number of 30 fps, a resolution of 320 × 240 dots, and a file size of 1 Mbit is transmitted at a communication speed of 50 Kbps. In this case, the communication time Y is Y = 1000/50 = 20, and the communication time is 20 seconds.

  Here, if the communication time until the user completes the mail transmission is set to 10 seconds in advance, since the communication speed of 50 Kbps does not change, the moving image conversion unit 48 needs to reduce the file size to 500 Kbit, which is a half. The method of halving the file size is as follows (1) to (3).

  (1) When the user has selected “focus on the number of frames” as the moving image conversion method, it is necessary to change the resolution to reduce the file size to 500 Kbit, which is half. Specifically, by performing moving image conversion with a resolution of 220 × 160 dots, the file size can be set to 500 Kbits while maintaining the number of frames at 30 fps, and within the transmission time X preset by the user. Can complete the transmission.

  (2) When the user selects “resolution-oriented” as the moving image conversion method, it is necessary to change the number of frames to reduce the file size to 500 Kbit, which is a half. More specifically, by performing moving image conversion with the number of frames set to 15 fps, the file size can be set to 500 Kbit while the resolution is maintained at 320 × 240 dots, and the transmission time X is set in advance by the user. Can complete the transmission.

  (3) When the user has selected “arbitrary” as the method of the moving image conversion unit, the above two methods are combined to reduce the file size to half of 500 Kbit. Specifically, by converting a moving image with a frame count of 22 fps and a resolution of 260 × 200 dots, the file size can be set to 500 Kbit, and transmission is completed within a transmission time X preset by the user. can do.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the communication terminal with a camera which concerns on 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of a process from a moving image imaging | photography to mail transmission in the communication terminal with a camera which concerns on 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the data format of the moving image file before and after a division | segmentation used with the communication terminal with a camera which concerns on 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the communication terminal with a camera which concerns on 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of a process from a moving image imaging | photography to mail transmission in the communication terminal with a camera which concerns on 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the communication terminal with a camera by a prior art.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Main processing part 12 Mail processing part 13 Camera processing part 14 Memory 15 Operation part 16 File division part 17 File size setting part 18 File name generation part 19 Save / non-save selection switch 31 Header area 32, 34, 36, 38 Time stamp 33, 35, 37, 39 Frame data 41 Main processing unit 42 Mail processing unit 43 Camera processing unit 44 Memory 45 Operation unit 46 Communication speed determination unit 47 Communication time setting unit 48 Moving image conversion unit 49 Conversion method selection unit

Claims (3)

  A mail processing unit having a function of sending an e-mail, a camera processing unit having a function of capturing a moving image, a memory for storing moving images / mails, a communication time setting unit for setting a communication time, and a communication time And a moving image conversion unit that automatically converts a moving image to be attached, a conversion method selection unit that selects a conversion method by the moving image conversion unit, and a main processing unit that controls each unit of the communication terminal. A communication terminal with a camera. In the communication terminal with a camera according to claim 1,
The moving image conversion unit converts the number of frames or resolution of a moving image to be attached or the number of frames and the resolution so that mail transmission is completed within a communication time set by a user. Terminal. In the communication terminal with a camera according to claim 1,
The camera-equipped communication terminal, wherein the conversion method selection unit is capable of selecting any one of a conversion method that emphasizes the number of frames, a conversion method that emphasizes resolution, and an arbitrary conversion method.

Images