JPH0793369A - Communication system for image data - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the communication system for image data through which desired image data can surely and speedily be obtained by quickly and visually confirming the image data. CONSTITUTION:In the communication system for image data which consists of a center device 1 where image data can be stored and displayed and a terminal device 2 and can makes a two-way communication, the center device 1 displays a list of reduced picture data smaller in information quantity than the image data on the terminal device 2 as plural reduced pictures prior to the transmission of the image data and sends only image data corresponding to a reduced picture selected on the terminal device 2.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image data communication system, and more particularly to an image data communication search system using a digital communication network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when using images such as photographs,
If you can't get the desired image by shooting directly,
For example, I went to the photo library and manually searched for photos to obtain black and white or color positives and negatives, or obtained desired photos at the library and raised them to film if necessary and collected images. . Moreover, it took a great deal of effort to separately store the collected positives / negatives and photographic prints together with necessary character information, and sort and sort them so that they could be retrieved at any time.

In recent years, with the development of computer communication networks, various image data can be easily retrieved at any time from a large amount of image data stored in a photo library without going to the photo library.
This also reduced the need to separately store positives, negatives and photographic prints.

[0004]

However, when using image data in a general computer communication network, an increase in communication time and display time and an increase in image due to an extremely large capacity of image data compared to character information are required. There are many inconvenient points due to the fact that it cannot be visually selected. In other words, since it is difficult to accurately identify images using characters or numerical values, users often end up looking at a large number of images before they obtain them.For example, dozens of photographs are selected first, and then the desired image is selected. Considering the daily sorting work of extracting one image, even if the communication speed has improved considerably due to the development of image data compression technology, compressed image data is received and expanded. Considering the total time to display an image, it was not sufficiently quick.

In view of the above points, the present invention provides an image display when a plurality of users collectively obtain and store a large amount of image data registered and stored through a digital communication line. First, by visually confirming that desired image data can be surely obtained in a short time, the inconvenience in the use of the image as described above is solved.

[0006]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is capable of bidirectional communication of image data and capable of storing and displaying image data, respectively, a center device and a terminal device. In the image data communication system configured by, the center device stores image data and reduced image data in which the capacity of the image data is reduced, and prior to transmitting the image data to the terminal device, The corresponding reduced image data is displayed on the terminal device, and the image data is transmitted when a transmission request is made from the terminal device.

That is, the center device stores in advance reduced image data having a smaller data capacity than the image data and capable of displaying an image having substantially the same content as the image of the image data. The image data is transmitted before the normal image data is provided in order to notify the user of the image contents in advance, and does not necessarily mean that the display size is small. The reduction image data is generated by, for example, compression of conventionally known image data,
It may be electronically performed by reduction or thinning, or may be optically reduced and then read by a CCR (scanner) or the like. Further, the images indicated by the image data and the reduced image data may not be completely the same, for example, the image capacity may be reduced by trimming the top, bottom, left, and right of the image or the periphery within the range where the same can be confirmed. The data capacity may be reduced by reducing the number of colors and the number of pixels, or converting from color display to monochrome display. Note that, hereinafter, image data that has not been reduced for the sake of distinction from reduced image data is referred to as “standard image data”.

Further, the center device reduces the capacity of the image data before displaying the image data and causes the terminal device to display the image data, and transmits the image data when a transmission request is made from the terminal device. And That is, the reduced image data is not separately stored in the center device in advance, but is reduced each time before the image data is transmitted.

Further, the center device causes the terminal device to display a list of a plurality of reduced image data as reduced screens, and transmits only the image data corresponding to the reduced screen requested to be transmitted from the terminal device. did. There is no particular limitation on the form and number of images displayed in a list here, and it is possible to appropriately select them in accordance with the size of the reduced screen and the size of the display screen.

[0010]

According to the present invention, for example, when an image data is to be searched / extracted by the center device by a search command from the terminal device and the image data is to be transmitted, before transmitting the image data to be transmitted, First, since the reduced image data having a small amount of information is transmitted and displayed as a reduced screen on the terminal device, the content of the image can be confirmed in a shorter time than the case where the ordinary image data is transmitted and the image is displayed. Then, since the image data is received after that, unnecessary image data will not be obtained due to an error in selecting an image or the like. In addition, since the reduced image data is generated in advance and stored in the center device, the time from the user accessing the center device until viewing the image content can be short.

When the reduced image data is not generated and stored in advance, the storage capacity of the storage device of the center device can be saved. Furthermore, since a large number of image data can be displayed in a list as a large number of reduced screens at once, necessary image data can be easily narrowed down, and at the same time, similar images can be easily compared and examined.

Even when the image data providing fee or the like is charged, it becomes easy to set a fine fee system such as changing the fee setting between providing the reduced image data and providing the normal image data.

[0013]

EXAMPLE A first example will be described. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an outline of a communication system for image data according to an embodiment of the present invention. The system is basically composed of a center device 1, and a terminal device 2 connected to the center device 1 through a digital communication network (ISDN). Further, the center device 1 serves as the image data generating means 3 such as a digital electronic still camera 3a, an external memory 3b, and an image reading device 3.
and a storage device 5a, a display device 5b, and a compression / expansion device 5c as the center side image data processing means 5.
And a control / processing device 5d for each device and each signal, and a center side transmitting / receiving means 6 for transmitting / receiving to / from the terminal device 2. An optical reader such as a general CCR may be used as the image data generating means 3.

The digital electronic still camera 3a is a CCD
The image of the subject converted as an analog image signal by the image sensor such as the above is converted into digitized image data. This digital electronic still camera 3
The image data generated in a is already compressed to a capacity of 48 KB per image, and has a very compact capacity of 48 KB per image (for the sake of clarity, "Compressed standard image data"
Called)). The external memory 3b is a rewritable card-type non-volatile memory that is detachably attached to the digital electronic still camera 3a in this example. The image reading device 3c reads the image data recorded in the external memory 3b and outputs it to the center-side image data processing means 5.

The storage device 5a of the center side image data processing means 5 stores the read compressed standard image data (48 KB for one image) of the digital electronic still camera 3a. At the same time, the compressed standard image data is decompressed by the compression / decompression device 5c described later to be standard image data (1 image is about 1 MB), and is then reduced to a size of 1/16 to be reduced image data (about 60 KB). After that, the image data is compressed again to be compressed and reduced image data (about 8 KB per image) and stored in the storage device 5a. The purpose of compressing the standard image data and the reduced image data into the compressed standard image data and the compressed reduced image data is to shorten the communication time and save the storage capacity, and is not related to the object of the present invention. There is no. Furthermore, the above-mentioned compressed standard image data and compressed reduced image data are stored in the storage device 5a together with character data for searching. The display device 5b displays standard image data, reduced image data, and character data for confirming images and transmission history information at the time of storing, updating, managing, etc. of image data in the center device. Compressor / expander 5
c is for compressing, decompressing, and reducing image data in accordance with commands from the control / processing unit 5d described later.

The control / processing section 5d controls the above-mentioned devices and the center side transmitting / receiving means 6 which will be described later, and stores character data for retrieval from an input device (not shown) in association with the image data. The image data is stored in the device 5b, the image data is searched / extracted based on this character data, and the processing such as copying / erasing is performed to classify / image the image data.
Performs processing as a so-called database such as organization and storage. As the center-side image data processing means 5, in this example, a workstation-class computer having a monitor, a large-capacity external storage device, and a compression / expansion board, and an existing database program are used.

The center side transmitting / receiving means 6 is provided with an interface converter with the center side image data processing apparatus 5 and a line terminal unit (DSU), and the image data stored / processed in the center side image data processing means 5 is ISND. The data is transmitted to the terminal device 2 via the line, and various request data (search condition, search execution command, transmission request, etc.) from the terminal device 2 is received.

The terminal device 2 includes a storage device 7a and a display device 7
b, a compressing / expanding device 7c, a terminal side image data processing means 7 having a control / processing device 7d, and a terminal side transmitting / receiving means 8 for transmitting / receiving to / from the center device 1. The terminal-side image data processing means 7 inputs a classification name for search to the center device 1, selects a desired image, expands / compresses the image data received from the center device 1, and displays a confirmation display.
The image data is stored, and if necessary, reproduced and output of image data (specifically, printing by a color printer or the like, not shown) and processing of image data. In this example, a personal computer having a monitor and a hard disk is used. Since the terminal side transmitting / receiving means 8 has the same configuration as the center side transmitting / receiving means 6, the description thereof will be omitted.

Next, an operation for obtaining image data of this system will be described based on the operation flow of FIG. First, the user accesses the center apparatus through the ISDN line and selects the classification name (search condition) of his / her desired image by using the input means (not shown) of the terminal side image data processing means 7 to set it. To do. This classification name is an item such as a large classification, a middle classification, a small classification, a detailed classification, and an image designation number in advance when the system administrator stores image data in the center side image data processing means 5 using the digital electronic still camera 3a. Is set and input corresponding to each image data, and is set as appropriate for the convenience of the user.
After the access by the user, the information is transmitted from the center device to the terminal device side and displayed.

The center side image data processing means 5 performs a search operation according to the classification name from the terminal device 2, transmits compressed and reduced image data belonging to this classification to the terminal device 2, and the terminal side image data processing means 7 receives it. The compressed / reduced image data thus obtained is displayed on the display unit 7b via the compression / expansion device 7c as six reduced screens at a time (this screen is shown in FIG. 3). In the case of this embodiment, the transmission time for the six reduced screens is about 1
If there is no desired image in the first 6 sheets at 0 seconds, specify the "next page" shown in Fig. 3 with the mouse or keyboard to display 6 reduced screens after 10 seconds. It has become. In addition, "Do you want the original picture? "Yes, No" is to send a delivery request for the original image to the system administrator side when the transmission request is transferred.

Then, after repeating this operation, when the user selects a desired reduced screen by operating the mouse or the keyboard, a transmission request is issued to the center device 1 and the center side image processing means 5 displays the selected reduced screen. After sending the corresponding compressed standard image data (the sending time at this time is 8 seconds per image), and letting it be downloaded to the storage device 7a of the terminal side image data processing means 7, after creating / updating the charge / charge data. , End. The compressed standard image data transmitted to the user in this manner is displayed on the display unit 7b via the compression / expansion unit 7c of the terminal side image data processing means 7 or is printed out by a color printer arbitrarily connected. Used.

Next, a second embodiment will be described. The configuration is the same as that of the first embodiment described above, but in the second embodiment, when the compressed standard image data from the digital electronic still camera 3a is stored in the storage device 5a of the center side image data processing means 5, , Storage device 5 for generating compressed and reduced image data
Do not save in a. Then, in the center apparatus 1, after the access from the user, the corresponding compressed standard image data is extracted according to the received classification name, and then the compressed standard image data is compressed by the compression / expansion unit 5c as in the first embodiment. Compressed and reduced image data is generated from the image data and transmitted to the terminal device 2. Then, when the "next page" shown in FIG. 3 is designated, the compressed reduced image data is further generated from the compressed standard image data and the reduced screen is displayed.
It should be noted that, after the reduced screen desired by the user is selected and the transmission request is received, the same process as in the first embodiment is performed. In the case of the second embodiment, it takes more time to display the reduced screen than in the first embodiment, but the storage capacity of the storage device 5a can be saved.

Further, in both of the above-described embodiments, the reduced screens are displayed in a list of 6 sheets each, but of course, it may be displayed one sheet at a time. Furthermore, by taking into consideration the communication time, the object to be displayed, or the fee charging system, the reduction rate of the image data, the layout of the reduced screen, etc. are appropriately adjusted to display, for example, 20 images in a list on one screen. You may do it. Further, the number of displayed images, the display arrangement, and the size of the display are stepwise linked with the classification type, such as displaying a list of 20 when extracting by the search condition of the large classification and displaying a list of 10 when the medium classification. It is also possible to change.

In this example, for simplification of the communication steps, the image data is transmitted and then automatically downloaded. However, of course, once the image is once displayed on the display section 7b, a further transmission request is made. You may download it if there is. Needless to say, it is easy to set various charges such as charging only the downloaded image data without charging the user for the image data providing charge at the stage of displaying the reduced screen.

[0025]

According to the present invention, since the image data can be acquired visually on the communication system, it is possible to reliably receive the desired image and prevent the acquisition of unnecessary image data. The effect is that you can do it.

In particular, since the transmission time of the reduced image data is shorter than the transmission time of the normal screen data, the entire communication time becomes shorter than displaying all the normal image data and confirming them one by one. The communication system can be used efficiently, and the access rate can be improved and the usage fee can be reduced.

Further, since many images are displayed in a list at a time, it is easy to compare and examine similar images, and it is possible to narrow down necessary images more quickly.

Further, even in the case of charging a fee for providing image data, it is easy to charge in a stepwise manner by changing the fee setting between providing reduced image data and providing ordinary image data. There is.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a communication system to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an operation flow relating to image data transmission of the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a state in which a list of reduced screens is displayed on the terminal side image data processing means of the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 center device 2 terminal device 3 image data generating means 3a digital electronic still camera 3b external memory 3c image reading device 5 center side image data processing means 5a, 7a storage device 5b, 7b display device 5c, 7c compression / expansion device 5d, 7d Control / processing device 6 Center side transmitting / receiving means 7 Terminal side image data processing means 8 Terminal side transmitting / receiving means

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A communication system for image data, comprising a center device capable of bidirectional communication of image data, capable of storing and displaying image data, and a terminal device. The reduced image data in which the capacity of the image data is reduced is stored, and prior to transmitting the image data to the terminal device, the corresponding reduced image data is displayed on the terminal device and a transmission request is issued from the terminal device. An image data communication system, wherein image data is transmitted when there is a problem. 2. The center device reduces the capacity of the image data before displaying the image data and causes the terminal device to display the image data, and transmits the image data when a transmission request is issued from the terminal device. 1. A communication system for image data according to 1. 3. The center device causes the terminal device to list a plurality of reduced image data as reduced screens and transmits only the image data corresponding to the reduced screen requested to be transmitted from the terminal device. Alternatively, the image data communication system according to claim 2.