KR100452895B1 - Method of servicing composition, transmission and output of photograph through internet - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for providing a service for synthesizing, transmitting, and outputting pictures on a server system interconnected with an input terminal and a receiving terminal having a shockwave flash file (SWF) player through the Internet. The method comprises the steps of (a) allowing the input terminal to select a desired picture and a composition object to be synthesized with the picture; and (b) when the picture selected by the input terminal and the object to be synthesized are image files that do not support the SWF file standard. Converting a photo and the selected composition object into a SWF file format and transmitting the converted picture to an input terminal, (c) receiving synthesis information about the synthesized photo from the input terminal, and (d) outputting the photo from the receiving terminal. In response to the request, by sending the SWF player activation information and the synthesis information about the synthesized picture to the receiving terminal, the receiving terminal starts the SWF player based on the SWF player activation information and displays the synthesized picture based on the synthesized information. Reconstructing.

Description

SERVICE PROVIDING METHOD FOR THE COMPOSITION, TRANSFER AND PRINTING OF PHOTOS ON THE INTERNET {METHOD OF SERVICING COMPOSITION, TRANSMISSION AND OUTPUT OF PHOTOGRAPH THROUGH INTERNET}

The present invention provides a service for synthesizing, transmitting, and outputting pictures using the Internet, and in particular, a player supporting a SWF file (Shockwave Flash file) standard for a transmitting / receiving side terminal (hereinafter referred to as "SWF player"). The present invention relates to a service providing method for synthesizing, transmitting, and outputting pictures using the Internet that can simultaneously handle various types of multimedia contents such as images and audio files.

An example of the prior art relating to the synthesis, transmission, etc. of pictures using the Internet is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-24685 (published May 6, 2000). In this document, there is disclosed a photo-synthesizing E-mail card system using the Internet, which makes it possible to produce a photo-synthesized E-mail card on the Internet and send it. However, as shown in Fig. 7, the system only generates an E-mail card in the server at the request of the transmitting terminal and transmits it to the receiving terminal. That is, the sender terminal or the receiver terminal does not use a separate graphic program, but the server processes the request contents of the sender and sends the synthesized result to the receiver terminal.

In this technology, a separate graphic program is not required for the sending / receiving terminal. However, in order to actually implement, a program for synthesizing the photo is additionally required for the sending terminal. Done. In addition, when a large number of users make requests at the same time, there is a disadvantage in that a lot of load is put on the server for the production of an E-mail card including image processing for photo compositing, and as a result, an efficient service is hampered.

On the other hand, as shown in Fig. 8, in the technique using a conventional SWF player, as already operated in many websites (for example, http://www.greetings.yahoo.com/, etc.), a card prepared in advance is used. When the content is created and sent from the server to the terminal after viewing and selecting, the contents and the identification code of the card are transmitted, and the receiving terminal reconstructs the card with the contents and the identification code.

In this technology, there is a drawback that it is not possible to make various choices, to synthesize various objects, and to synthesize a picture of yourself by simply selecting a pre-made card provided by a service operator and sending a message. . In other words, this technology is merely a service of what the designer has already produced in the SWF file format.

In addition, as shown in Fig. 9, in a conventional photo card system, when a message body is written and transmitted from a server or a picture in a sending terminal, the server stores the picture and sends a card mail to the receiving side. Then, the receiving terminal requests a message from the message body and the server to reconstruct the photo card mail.

This technology merely attaches a picture to a message and sends it in the form of a card mail, and there is a problem in that various characters, audio files, and the like cannot be synthesized and transmitted.

Therefore, in order to solve this problem of the prior art, unlike the prior art, a SWF player (typically, "Flash Player" of "Macromedia") is mounted on the transmitting and receiving side terminal, and the transmitting side is provided. The terminal combines several objects (for example, a photo, a character, an audio file, etc., which satisfy the SWF file standard) and the photos to be synthesized from the server-side database, and receives the synthesis information that is the result of the synthesis. To pass on.

In the delivery, the identification code is assigned to each piece of composite information, the identification code and the composite information are stored in the server, the information on the identification code and the main background screen, and information for starting the SWF player are sent to the receiving terminal. To pass. The receiving terminal requests the composition information from the server with the identification code transmitted as the SWF player starts up, receives the contents, and the SWF player receives the photos and the background information necessary for the composition from the server to create the composition. It has the same characteristics as the one reproduced.

As a result, the server only plays the same role as forwarding mail and does not perform image processing such as separate photo composition, so that the server can cope without load even when a large number of requests come in at the same time. Therefore, it is possible to simultaneously handle various types of multimedia contents such as images and audio files supported by this standard, and in the case of an image, the shape of the composition can be changed in various ways.

1A is a flowchart illustrating a process of synthesizing a photo to be edited and a synthesis target to be synthesized with the photo.

1B is a flowchart illustrating a process of printing a synthesized picture.

1C is a flowchart showing a reproduction process of a transmitted picture.

1D is a flow diagram that specifically illustrates steps for a server to provide a SWF player in a SWF file format with material requested by the SWF player.

Fig. 1E is a flowchart specifically illustrating processing for a service after storing data sent to a server.

2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a service start screen;

3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a synthesis service screen.

4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen in which a mail is transmitted after completing a compositing operation on a screen compositing screen;

5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen received by an e-mail from a receiving terminal.

6 is a view showing a photograph selectively outputting only a work area that is a result of combining a photograph with a composition target;

7 is an explanatory diagram showing a photo collage e-mail card system using the Internet of the prior art;

8 is a conceptual diagram of an email card system using a SWF player of the related art.

9 is a conceptual diagram of a photo card system of the prior art.

According to an embodiment of the present invention for a service providing method relating to the synthesis, transmission and output of photos on the Internet for achieving the above object,

Selecting, at an input terminal equipped with a SWF player, a photo to be edited by connecting to a server and a composition target to be synthesized with the photo;

If the photo and the composition object are not an image file supported by the SWF file standard, the server converting the photo and the composition object into a SWF file format;

Placing the synthesized object at a desired position of the photo, and changing the attributes of the synthesized object to synthesize the synthesized object;

The server assigning an identification code to the composite information of the photograph and the composition object;

Transmitting, by the server, SWF player activation information and the identification code information to a receiving terminal having a SWF player;

Activating a SWF player using the SWF player activation information at the receiving terminal so that the SWF player connects to the server and retrieves the composite information using the identification code information;

The SWF player fetching photo information and composition target information from the composition information;

And reconstructing, by the SWF player, a synthesized picture by using the composition information, the picture information, and the composition object information.

According to another embodiment of the present invention for a service providing method for synthesizing, transmitting, and outputting pictures on the Internet,

Selecting, at an input terminal equipped with a SWF player, a photo to be edited by connecting to a server and a composition target to be synthesized with the photo;

If the photo and the composition object are not an image file supported by the SWF file standard, the server converting the photo and the composition object into a SWF file format;

Placing the synthesized object at a desired position of the photo, and changing the attributes of the synthesized object to synthesize the synthesized object;

Transmitting the synthesized screen to a portable terminal;

And reproducing the synthesized screen in the portable terminal.

In addition, according to the service providing method for the synthesis and output of photos on the Internet,

Selecting, at an input terminal equipped with a SWF player, a photo to be edited by connecting to a server and a composition target to be synthesized with the photo;

If the photo and the composition object are not an image file supported by the SWF file standard, the server converting the photo and the composition object into a SWF file format;

Placing the synthesized object at a desired position of the photo, and changing the attributes of the synthesized object to synthesize the synthesized object;

Requesting a print job from the server;

Approving the print job through a predetermined authentication process;

And selectively outputting only a work area that is a result of combining the photo and the synthesis object.

Here, the synthesis target may be an image file including a name, a size, a position, a height, an alpha value, a scale and a rotation degree, and other necessary information including a picture, a character, a character string, and the like.

In addition, the synthesizing by changing the attribute of the synthesis object may include synthesizing an audio file supported by the SWF standard.

The meanings of the terms used in the present specification are as follows.

First, a composition object to be synthesized with a picture is an image file such as another picture, a character (including static and dynamic), a character string, or the like, which is converted into a SWF file format and then synthesized with the picture. This composite object has properties such as name, width (height), position (x, y), depth, alpha value, alpha, scale, angle of rotation, and so on.

The name refers to the role of distinguishing between the photograph and the object to be synthesized, and the position refers to the position occupied by the object to be placed on the picture to be synthesized, and the size refers to the width of the object to be synthesized, and the height to the image to be synthesized. It refers to the relative height of the placed composite object. The higher the height is, the more it appears in front of the screen. In addition, the alpha value indicates the degree of color density, the scale indicates the degree of expansion and contraction from the original size of the synthesis object copied for synthesis, and the degree of rotation indicates how much the object is rotated in the initial state. to be.

The synthesized information is information representing a result of synthesizing a photo including attributes such as photo information, synthesis target information, and names, sizes, and positions of the synthesis targets.

The identification code in the present invention refers to the address of the synthesis information. When information on this job is stored in a database after a job such as photo synthesis is completed, the job is performed at the user's sending terminal, but the job result is stored in the database of the server. Subsequent work with the results of the work includes, for example, i) when the user wants to see the results of his previous work, ii) the results of the work on another terminal by sending the result of the work to another terminal by mail or other protocol. Iii) when the service operator analyzes the user's work, in which case it is convenient to store, withdraw or analyze the user's work in the database with this identification code. can do. For example, if such an identification code is not used in the database, all parameters must be stored in the database as a key, which requires a lot of time to find in the database upon request of a specific work result.

In the synthesis process performed in the transmitting terminal according to the present invention, the result is stored in the server according to the user's request. At this time, the server generates an identification code corresponding to the individual result and stores the result using the key as a key. . In one embodiment of the present invention, the identification code consists of a 32-bit integer, in which case it is possible to distinguish about 200 million or more work results. If you use characters, you can distinguish and save almost infinite work results.

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

1A-1E are flowcharts of a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Here, the server refers to a system operated by a service provider.

First, a process of synthesizing a photo to be edited and a synthesis target to be synthesized with the photo will be described with reference to FIG. 1A.

In step S100, a server is accessed through a network.

In step S110, a screen for providing a service according to an embodiment of the present invention is accessed, and FIG. 2 shows an example of such a screen.

In step S120, a work target is selected, where the work target is a collage target (http: // www. See openswf.org/spec.html). Here, the photo to be edited and the synthesis target to be synthesized therein may be classified into free and paid. Free of charge includes paying for you. In the case of a fee, the price of each synthesis target is predetermined and price information is given at the time of selection.

In step S130, it is determined whether the pay target is, and if the pay target, proceeds to step S140. That is, only registered users can use the paid service. In step S150, it is determined whether the user is a registered user, and the unregistered user is sent to the registration screen of step S160 to start again after registration. The user registered in step S150 receives the payment approval in step S170, and the user who does not approve the paid service payment is guided to the guide screen of step S180 to start again.

In step S190, the synthesis initial screen is displayed. That is, this screen is displayed using information constituting the screen and information for starting the SWF player (hereinafter referred to as "SWF player start information"). An example of this screen is shown in FIG. Here, the information constituting the screen includes a navigation area, an advertisement area, a SWF player activation area, a message area, and the like, and the information is information for configuring a web screen. In addition, SWF player start information means SWF or SWT file name containing the information which makes SWF player operate | move.

In step S200, the SWF player is started in the screen of step S190 using the SWF player activation information, and the SWF player requests data from the server with the given picture and the name of the composition target.

In step S210, the server provides the SWF player with the material requested by the SWF player in the SWF file format, which will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 1D.

In operation S220, a desired synthesis target is selected from the synthesis target region (region A of FIG. 3) and placed at a desired position of the photo to be edited. All the work of compositing is done on the SWF player. The composition target contains the name, size, position, height, alpha value, scale and other necessary information. At the moment of selecting the synthesis target, the synthesis target information of the synthesis target region is copied onto the memory, and the copied synthesis information is placed in a desired position of the picture to be edited, thereby completing the primary synthesis target movement.

In step S230, by dragging the synthesis target on the screen with a mouse, attributes for editing such as size, position, rotation degree, height, etc. of the copied synthesis target are changed.

Here, step S220 and step S230 are repeated as necessary.

In step S240, the synthesized information is transmitted by e-mail with a message or transmitted to another place connected with the Internet, such as a PCS terminal, a sticker printer, or printed, stored in a server, or inputted for later services. do.

In step S250, it is checked whether payment is approved in the case of a paid service such as transmission to the PCS terminal or printing, and whether input information is written in the case of a free service such as free mail transmission. Here, if the approval is disallowed, the guide screen of step S260 is guided.

In step S270, the data is sent to the server or printed to the user's computer. The data to be sent includes information about the photo to be edited, information about the composition of the synthesized picture such as the name, position, converted size, rotated angle, and alpha value of the synthesized object, and information for sending a mail as necessary. And the like. The printing process will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 1B.

In step S280, an identification code is assigned to the data transmitted to the server, and the transmitted data and the identification code are stored in a database of the server.

In step S290, i) information constituting the screen, ii) SWF player starting information, iii) identification code information, iv) for transmission to an e-mail or another place linked with the Internet, such as a wired or wireless terminal, for each protocol. Send data such as other messages entered by the sender. That is, in case of mail, the information and other information are transmitted by converting the mail according to the mail protocol and WML (Wireless Markup Language) in accordance with the WML protocol.

When the receiving side is a terminal without a SWF player, for example, when transmitting to a PCS terminal or the like, image processing is directly performed by the server with the synthesis information and the synthesized result is transmitted.

Step S290 will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 1E.

In step S300, a case where the work is normally performed is shown, and the synthesis work is finished at this time.

Hereinafter, a process of printing the synthesized picture will be described with reference to FIG. 1B.

In step S271, the print job is requested to the server after the synthesis job is completed.

In step S272, it is checked whether the user who requested the print job is a user who satisfies the conditions necessary for printing. That is, the execution of the job is operated in the user's terminal, but whether or not to execute the print is authenticated by the server and executed. In other words, it is impossible to prevent the user from capturing the entire screen to selectively print the work area by the graphic tool, but printing only the work area by pressing the button is performed after the approval of the server. will be.

In step S273, if the condition is not satisfied, the screen is moved to the guide screen.

In step S274, if the condition is satisfied, printing is performed, where the printing may be a user's print or a service operator's dedicated print.

Hereinafter, referring to FIG. 1C, a reproduction process of the transmitted picture will be described.

Step S310 indicates the start of the reproduction operation of the transmitted picture.

In step S320, the service server is connected through various protocols such as a mail client, a web browser, a PCS terminal, a sticker photo printer, and the like.

In step S330, the service screen is accessed, i.e., in the case of e-mail, the access information (identification code) of the service screen is embedded in the content of the mail message to automatically access the screen, or to access the screen by the user's approval. The web service, the other terminal, and the sticker photo printer are connected to a separate service screen selected by the user. When constructing the service screen, the server assigns an identification code to each result of the work performed by the sender, and forms the service screen with this identification code.

In step S340, the playback of the synthesized screen is started, and the service screen already includes an identification code to work on this service. That is, when the service screen is sent down from the server to the receiving terminal, the identification code is embedded.

In step S350, the SWF player in the playback screen first requests composition information to the server with the identification code in the service screen.

In step S360, the composition information downloaded from the server is requested, and the server requests a picture for recombination and data of the composition object. Then, the server transmits the photo and the composition object in the SWF file format to the receiving terminal according to the user's request. At this time, when the photos and collage targets are stored on the server, they may be converted to SWF file format and stored. Otherwise, they are stored in the form of raw data such as JPG, GIF, and MP3, and then the data is requested. The file is converted to the SWF file format and transmitted to the receiving terminal.

In step S370, the screen is reproduced using the SWF player with the composition information, the picture, and the data of the composition object.

In step S380, the reproduction of the transferred picture is terminated by outputting the synthesis screen, or when resynthesis is desired, the process proceeds to step S390 and the process proceeds to step S130 again.

Hereinafter, referring to FIG. 1D, step S210 of providing a material requested by the SWF player to the SWF player in the SWF file format will be described in more detail.

In step S211, the server receives a request for the photo and the synthesis target data from the SWF player of the synthesis screen.

In step S212, the data is checked in a cache memory or a database.

In step S213, it is checked whether the request data in the cache memory or the database is in the SWF file format that can be used by the terminal.

In step S214, if the stored request data is not in the SWF file format, the data is converted into the SWF file format.

In step S215, the converted contents are stored in a cache memory or a database in preparation for requesting the same data next time.

After the above step S215, or when the request data is in the SWF file format, the process proceeds directly to step S216 in step S213 to transmit data to the terminal.

Hereinafter, the step S290 of processing the service after storing the data transmitted to the server will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 1E.

In step S291, the sending user ends the job and then transmits the data for service.

In step S292, identification codes are assigned to all requests, and the transmitted data is stored in a database.

In step S293, the type of the requested service is checked.

In step S294, in the case of the mail service, the flow advances to step S295 to configure the full text of the mail; in the case of the delivery service to another terminal, the flow goes to step S297.

In step S295, a mail message including information constituting the screen, SWF player start information, identification code information, and the sender's message is constructed.

In step S296, the created mail is sent.

In step S297, the flow advances to step S298 to store the identification information in the user account so that the user can save the work result in his account and later retrieve it.

In step S299, the transmission data is created and transmitted in accordance with each protocol in a wireless terminal or the like, and in the case of a PCS terminal or the like in which the SWF player is not supported in the receiving terminal, the image is synthesized and transmitted from the server using the transmitted composite data. Fill out the data and send it.

2 shows an example of a service start screen. For example, this example shows a list of pictures registered in an Internet photo album and a list of characters to be combined with the pictures and transmitted together. For example, if one of the character lists is selected, a page for synthesizing the photograph and the selected character is displayed.

3 shows an example of the synthesis service screen. This screen consists of a player within the web screen that meets the SWF specification.

Area A is the place to list the various characters of the selected character, or the names of the audio files, from the database and list them.

Area B is for recording the information needed to do secondary work with the synthesized results, such as mailing the synthesized results after registering or registering them in your web account.

Region C is where synthesis takes place. As implemented in this example, one of the characters in the area A can be selected and dragged with the mouse to be placed at the appropriate position in the area C, and the buttons can be adjusted by appropriately dragging the buttons on the top, bottom, left, and right sides of the placed character with the mouse. . You can also rotate the buttons at the four corners by dragging them appropriately with the mouse.

Button D is for requesting a secondary job, such as when you're done, by pressing it to send an email, print it, or save it to a web account.

4 illustrates an example of a screen in which a mail is transmitted after completing a compositing operation on a screen compositing screen.

Various shapes of the selected character can be selected in the composition target area, and two synthesis objects are selected in the photo area, placed in the appropriate positions, and then synthesized by changing the size and rotation information of the synthesis object. This screen is an example of the present patent, and the processing of the service screen and the character to be synthesized is not yet completed, and in reality, the background of each character can be transparently processed.

5 is an example of reproducing a screen created by a sender by receiving an "Outlook Express" mail, which is a mail client of MS, and reproduces the contents implemented by the above sender in the same manner. Of course, the same result can be obtained by implementing contents received by a web mail service of a portal company such as Daum or Yahoo.

FIG. 6 illustrates a photograph in which only a work area that is a result of combining a photograph and a composition object is selectively output. This picture is made by synthesizing, requesting a print job from the server, and approving the print job through a predetermined authentication procedure.

Although the present invention has been described in terms of specific embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that other variations and modifications are possible. For example, the flowcharts presented in the specification and the drawings are only one example for providing the functions of the service providing method of the present invention. Accordingly, all changes and modifications included in the spirit of the present invention should be understood as belonging to the appended claims.

According to the present invention, since the server merely plays the same role as delivering mail and does not perform image processing such as a separate picture composition, the server can cope without load even when a large number of requests come in at the same time. Because it can be used to simultaneously handle various types of multimedia content such as images, audio files supported by this standard, and in the case of an image has the advantage that can be changed in various shapes on the composite screen.

Claims (7)

A method for providing a service for compositing, transmitting, and outputting photographs on a server system interconnected with a receiving computing device and an input computing device having a SWF (shockwave flash file) player through the Internet, (a) causing the input-side computing device to select a desired picture and a composite object to be composited with the photo, wherein the server stores the plurality of pictures and the plurality of composite objects in the form of an image file; (b) converting the selected photo and the selected composite object into a SWF file format and transmitting the selected photo and the composite object to a SWF file format when the photo and the composite object selected by the input side computing device are image files that do not support the SWF file standard. Wow, (c) receiving composite information from the input side computing device regarding the synthesized photo, wherein the composite information is generated on the input side computing device via the SWF player; (d) in response to the photo output request from the receiving computing device, transmitting SWF player activation information and the combining information for the synthesized photo to the receiving computing device so that the receiving computing device transmits the SWF player; Starting the SWF player based on the activation information and reconstructing the synthesized picture based on the composition information through the started SWF player; Method comprising a. The method of claim 1, The input-side computing device drives the SWF player to position the selected composite object on the selected photo, and generates the synthesized photo by changing an attribute of the selected composite object, The synthesis information includes size, position, height, color density, scale, degree of rotation data on the selected picture constituting the synthesized picture, the selected synthesized object, and the selected picture which is an attribute of the selected synthesized object; And the server assigns and manages an identification code to the composite information. A method for providing a service for compositing, transmitting, and outputting photographs on a server system interconnected with an input-side computing device and a portable computing device having a SWF player via the Internet, (a) causing the input-side computing device to select a desired picture and a composite object to be composited with the photo, wherein the server stores the plurality of pictures and the plurality of composite objects in the form of an image file; (b) converting the selected photo and the selected composite object into a SWF file format and transmitting the selected photo and the composite object to a SWF file format when the photo and the composite object selected by the input side computing device are image files that do not support the SWF file standard. Wow, (c) receiving composite information from the input side computing device regarding the synthesized photo, wherein the composite information is generated on the input side computing device via the SWF player; (d) in response to the photo output request from the portable computing device, transmitting SWF player startup information and the composite information for the synthesized photo to the portable computing device, the portable computing device based on the SWF startup information; Starting the SWF player and outputting the synthesized picture based on the composition information through the started SWF player. Method comprising a. The method of claim 3, wherein The input-side computing device drives the SWF player to position the selected composite object on the selected photo, and generates the synthesized photo by changing an attribute of the selected composite object, The synthesis information includes size, position, height, color density, scale, degree of rotation data on the selected picture constituting the synthesized picture, the selected synthesized object, and the selected picture which is an attribute of the selected synthesized object; And the server assigns and manages an identification code to the composite information. A method for providing a service for compositing and outputting pictures on a server system interconnected with a client having a SWF player via the Internet, the method comprising: (a) allowing the client to select a desired picture and a composition object to be synthesized with the picture, wherein the server stores the plurality of pictures and the plurality of composition objects in the form of an image file; and (b) converting the selected photo and the selected composite object into a SWF file format and transmitting them to the client when the photo and the composite object selected by the client are image files that do not support the SWF file standard; (c) receiving composite information from the client, the composite information regarding the selected photo and the composited object, wherein the composite information is generated on the client through the SWF player; (d) receiving an output request for the synthesized picture from the client; (f) reconstructing and outputting the synthesized picture based on the synthesis information in response to the picture output request Method comprising a. The method of claim 5, wherein The client drives the SWF player to position the selected composite object on the selected photo, and generates the synthesized photo by changing a property of the selected composite object, The synthesis information may include a file name of the selected picture constituting the synthesized picture, a file name of the selected synthesis object, size, position, height, color density, scale, and rotation degree data on the selected picture which is an attribute of the selected synthesis object. Including, And the server assigns and manages an identification code to the composite information. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, The composition information further comprises audio data conforming to a SWF standard.