JP4883355B2 - Mobile terminal with camera and image data transmission method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a portable terminal and an image data transmission method with a camera, in particular, it relates to a camera-equipped mobile terminal, and an image data transmission method for automatically transmitting the image data captured by the camera to a pre-specified destination.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, mobile phones have been used by many people as phones that can be carried by users, and have become widespread throughout the world.

  In recent years, the main purpose of use of mobile phones has been changing from voice calls through calls to data communication, particularly as a communication terminal for sending and receiving e-mail.

  Digital cameras are also becoming popular with mobile phones, and along with the popularization of digital cameras, mobile phones with cameras that incorporate some functions of digital cameras into mobile phones are becoming common products.

  However, the local memory capacity provided in the mobile phone is limited, and the image data taken by the camera has a particularly large capacity, so that the number of images that can be stored is limited. In addition, when there is no free space in the local memory provided in the mobile phone, at that time, unnecessary image data in the local memory can be searched for and deleted by key operation on the mobile phone, or necessary image data can be deleted. It is necessary to transfer the image data to a PC or the like, and it is very complicated to manage image data with a mobile phone.

  On the other hand, in recent years, mobile phone operators have been improving services such as flat-rate services for data communications as well as improving communication speed, and sending and receiving e-mails with large-capacity image data has become more familiar. It's getting on.

Therefore, Patent Documents 1 to 3 describe a portable terminal device with a camera that can take an image with a camera and transmit the image data.
JP 2003-125451 A JP 2003-163924 A JP 2003-169287 A

  By the way, the portable terminal device described in Patent Document 1 is capable of performing wireless communication in parallel, and is a means for automatically generating communication data for a call partner when in a voice call state and instructed to transmit. And a portable terminal device including transmission means for transmitting the generated communication data to the other party.

  However, the portable terminal device described in Patent Document 1 needs to be in a call state with a call partner, and communication data cannot be automatically generated or transmitted when there is no call. There was a problem.

  Moreover, the mobile terminal device described in Patent Document 2 describes a mobile terminal device including a control unit that controls the shooting operation of the camera according to the shooting operation time information.

  However, since the mobile terminal device described in Patent Document 2 requires shooting operation time information, the mobile terminal device is installed at a shooting target point, and a shooting time and a shooting time interval for automatically shooting the shooting target. There is a problem that it has to be received as shooting request information.

  In addition, the method of recording a captured image described in Patent Document 3 captures an image with a capturing unit built in a portable terminal, and stores the position information of the captured location and the captured image on the Internet. Describes a method for recording captured images to be transmitted and recorded.

  However, in the method of recording a captured image described in Patent Document 3, there is a problem that an input to the registration form is necessary to acquire the position information, and a transmission request for the registration form must be made. .

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and uses a captured image taken with a mobile terminal in a local memory provided in the mobile terminal, creation of an e-mail, transmission operation, or the like. It is an object of the present invention to provide a camera-equipped mobile terminal and an image data transmission method that can provide a comfortable shooting environment without causing a person to perform the operation.

A mobile terminal with a camera according to the present invention is a mobile terminal that includes a camera and transmits / receives image data captured by the camera attached to an e-mail. A fixed format is prepared for a predetermined event, and a plurality of items indicating scenes when shooting with the camera are written in advance in the fixed format, and the portable terminal is connected to the camera. Means for transmitting image data captured by the camera to a server for creating a predetermined electronic album by attaching the image data to the electronic mail, and the image data captured by the camera from the portable terminal to the server. When sending an e-mail attached as an e-mail, the e-mail text is selected according to the scene taken by the camera. By specifying the standard format item prepared, the image data captured by the camera corresponds to the item specified according to the scene to be captured among the items written in the standard format. It is attached and transmitted to the server.

An image data transmission method according to the present invention is an image data transmission method for transmitting image data captured by the camera by attaching it to an e-mail from a portable terminal equipped with a camera. A standard format is prepared for a predetermined event as the body of the e-mail, and a plurality of items indicating scenes when shooting with the camera regarding the event are written in the standard format in advance. The portable terminal has means for attaching the image data photographed by the camera to the e-mail and transmitting it to a server that creates a predetermined electronic album, and is photographed by the camera from the portable terminal to the server. If the image data is sent as an attachment to the e-mail, it will By specifying the standard format item prepared as the e-mail body, the image data captured by the camera is specified according to the scene to be captured among the items written in the standard format. The information is transmitted to the server in association with the item.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to take a picture with a portable terminal equipped with a camera, compress the photographed image data, and send it to a preset e-mail destination. You can concentrate on shooting without worrying about. Thus, a camera-equipped mobile phone that provides a comfortable shooting environment without causing the user to temporarily store a captured image captured by the mobile terminal in a local memory inside the mobile terminal, or to create or send an e-mail. A terminal, an image data transmission method, and an image data transmission program can be realized.

  In the embodiment of the present invention, in a camera-equipped cellular phone having an e-mail transmission function, image data (still images and moving images) captured by the camera are stored in a local memory in the cellular phone as shown in a flowchart described later. Instead, it is characterized in that it is automatically transmitted by attaching it to an e-mail to a destination specified in advance after performing a predetermined compression process to be described later.

  As a result, without making the user aware of operations such as creating and sending e-mails, automatic transmission is performed by attaching captured images to e-mails as if they were stored in the local memory of the mobile phone. The purpose is to provide an environment where comfortable shooting can be continued without worrying about the free space in the local memory of the camera-equipped mobile phone.

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
(First embodiment)
(1) Configuration in First Embodiment (1-1) Overall Configuration of Network System 100 FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a network system 100 including a network to which a mobile phone 10 is connected. A network system 100 shown in FIG. 1 includes a mobile phone 10, a base station 20, a mobile phone network 30, a gateway server 40, the Internet 50, a company PC (personal computer) / server (a PC or server in a company). 60), a home PC 70, and a service company server 80.

  The cellular phone network 30 is connected to the Internet 50 via a gateway server 40 for protocol conversion. Accordingly, the e-mail sent from the mobile phone mobile 10 to the mobile phone base station 20 is delivered to the company PC / server 60 connected to the Internet 50, the home PC 70, or the server 80 of a certain service company. The

In the first embodiment, image data captured by the camera-equipped mobile phone 10 is captured by the network system 100 via the mobile phone network 30 and the gateway server 40 in the home PC 70 connected to the Internet 50 in real time. It can be stored and stored in the company PC / server 60.
(1-2) Configuration of Mobile Phone 10 FIG. 2 shows the configuration of a camera-equipped mobile phone 10 (hereinafter sometimes simply referred to as a mobile terminal 10) as the first embodiment. The mobile phone 10 shown in FIG. 2 includes an antenna 11, a wireless transmission / reception unit 12, a control unit 13, an operation memory 14, a holding memory 15, an ID memory 16, an operation unit 17, and a display unit 18. The camera module 19 is provided.

  The antenna 11 performs wireless communication with a base station 20 (FIG. 1) provided outside, and transmits and receives modulated radio waves.

  The radio transmission / reception unit 12 demodulates the radio wave received from the antenna 11, transmits it to the control unit 13, modulates the digital signal acquired from the control unit 13, and transmits it to the antenna 11.

  The control unit 13 is a part that controls each connected unit. For example, the control unit 13 detects the call number of the own device from the signal demodulated by the wireless transmission / reception unit 12 and performs an incoming call notification, or an audio signal or a digital signal. This process is performed to realize a voice call, an e-mail transmission / reception function, and a server connection function.

  Further, the control unit 13 controls the camera module 19 to set the brightness, color tone, angle of view size, designation of the shooting timing, etc. via the serial I / F or the like (not shown), and to store the image data. get.

  The image data acquired from the camera module 19 is subjected to predetermined size conversion and format conversion and displayed on the display unit 18 and is subjected to predetermined compression processing according to a user input operation from the operation unit 17. By storing the data in the holding memory 15, a camera photographing function is realized.

  Here, the predetermined compression processing may be performed by encoding image data, and generally includes redundancy suppression, quantization, variable length code allocation, buffer memory, and sampling clock generator. Thus, the image data is encoded.

  Further, compression processing may be performed using JPEG (joint photographic experts group) standard, MPEG (motion picture experts group) standard, or the like currently standardized.

  The calling number (calling number) of the own device is held in the ID memory 16, and the control unit 13 reads the calling number (calling number) of the own device and collates the data at a predetermined position of the demodulated signal.

  The operation memory 14 is a memory used for storing a CPU operation program and fixed data of the control unit 13 and for work during CPU operation.

  The holding memory 15 is a memory for holding user data such as an e-mail received by the e-mail transmission / reception function, an e-mail not sent after creation, or a sent e-mail, an address book, camera image data, and the like. .

  Note that a part of the operation memory 14, the holding memory 15, and the ID memory 16 is generally realized by dividing an area in the physically same device.

  The operation unit 17 is used for inputting a telephone number when making a call, inputting text such as address book registration and e-mail creation, and inputting various function settings. Accept.

The display unit 18 displays the telephone number at the time of outgoing / incoming calls, displays various input contents linked with the operation unit 17, or displays the contents of text mail received by the e-mail transmission / reception function. To be notified.
(2) Description of Operation of Image Data Transmission Processing Procedure Hereinafter, with respect to the operation of the mobile phone 10 in the first embodiment, the image data transmission processing procedure will be described using the network system of FIG. 1 and the flowchart of FIG.

  First, as shown in FIG. 3, in the camera-equipped mobile phone 10 having an e-mail transmission function, the user takes a picture (still image or moving image) using the camera provided in the mobile phone 10 (step ST1). .

  Next, the user selects whether or not to save the captured image data (that is, the captured image) (step ST2), and when saving, performs a predetermined compression process and designates in advance. The image data is transmitted in the form of being attached to the e-mail to the destination (step ST3).

  The e-mail transmitted here is automatically generated inside the mobile phone 10 without making the user aware of it. If the user does not save the photographed image or the above-described e-mail transmission is completed, the photographing mode is continued unless the user performs an operation for ending the photographing (step ST4).

  In step ST2, it may be realized that the user does not select whether to save or not, and saves it automatically. In step ST3, the number of destinations (mail addresses) designated in advance is not limited to one, and may be plural. Furthermore, not only the destination but also the content of the e-mail body may be designated in advance.

As described above, image data captured by the user (that is, a captured image) is subjected to a predetermined compression process and then transmitted from the mobile phone 10 to the company PC 60 or home PC 70 set in advance. The data is stored and stored in each PC or server via the base station 20, the mobile phone network 30, the gateway server 40, and the Internet 50.
(3) Effect In the conventional mobile phone, the local memory capacity provided in the mobile phone 10 is limited. Therefore, the number of image data that can be stored especially for large-capacity image data is limited. According to the embodiment of the invention, image data can be sent to a preset PC or server, so that the user can concentrate on shooting without worrying about the memory capacity of the mobile phone 10.

  In this embodiment, the focus is not simply on sending an e-mail with an image to someone other than the user, but it is easy to capture image data taken in an environment with a large-capacity memory. Since it is intended to be stored by operation, the user can provide a comfortable shooting environment without causing the user to temporarily store in the local memory of the mobile phone 10 or to create or send an e-mail. be able to.

  Further, in the conventional embodiment, it is usually very complicated to delete unnecessary image data in the mobile phone 10, categorize, edit, or the like on the mobile phone 10. Specifically, for example, when creating an electronic album or the like, it is necessary to copy the image data in the mobile phone 10 to a PC or the like.

  Therefore, according to the present embodiment, the image data that has already been shot is transmitted to the editing PC such as the company PC 60 or the home PC 70 shown in FIG. 1, so that the user can easily organize the shot image data. can do.

  In addition, as shown in the present embodiment, necessary image data can be sent to a home or office PC connected to the Internet 50 at the time of shooting. It is also possible to deliver in real time.

  Furthermore, in cooperation with a service company that creates electronic albums on the website homepage, necessary information is entered in advance in a predetermined format as the e-mail body text of the mobile phone 10 to be transmitted, in accordance with the information. A categorized electronic album may be automatically created.

Specifically, for example, when attending a wedding and photographing a wedding reception for the bride and groom, a format related to the wedding was created in advance, and was photographed according to the type of wedding, reception, entertainment, cake sword, etc. Image data can be attached and transmitted.
(4) Other Embodiments Another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

  In addition, since the structure of the step in a flowchart is the same as that of FIG. 3, the difference part in a step is demonstrated and suppose that the number of steps is reassigned along the flow of a flow.

  4 determines whether or not the e-mail has been successfully transmitted after the e-mail transmission process by applying the predetermined compression process of step ST3 to the process flow of FIG. 3 (step ST4). If not successful, a process (step ST6) of saving image data subjected to a predetermined compression process in the local memory of the mobile phone 10 is added.

  In step ST3 shown in FIG. 4, it is desirable to implement a retry or the like until the transmission of the e-mail attached with the compressed image data is successful, but the user of the mobile phone 10 is out of service area In view of the above, the loss of image data can be dealt with by storing it in the local memory of the mobile phone 10 so as not to lose the photographed image.

  FIG. 5 shows the processing flow of FIG. 3 in which the user selects whether to save in the local memory of the mobile phone or to send an e-mail after confirming saving of the photographed image in step ST2 (step ST3). It is.

  In this case, if the user wants to save in the mobile phone 10, the user can save in the local memory of the mobile phone 10. If the user does not want to save in the mobile phone 10, the user performs a predetermined compression process, It can be sent to a predetermined e-mail destination.

  Naturally, after combining FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 and determining whether or not the captured image is to be stored in the memory (step ST3), the captured image is subjected to a predetermined compression process and attached to an e-mail for transmission. (Step ST4 in FIG. 4) If the transmission of the e-mail fails, it may be stored in the local memory of the mobile phone 10 (step ST6 in FIG. 4).

  Still another embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  6 confirms whether or not there is a free capacity for saving in the local memory of the mobile phone 10 after confirming the saving of the captured image in step ST2 in the processing flow of FIG. 3 (step ST3). If there is free space in the local memory of the telephone 10, it is stored in the local memory (step ST5). If there is no free space in the local memory of the mobile phone 10, a predetermined compression process is performed, and then sent as an e-mail attachment (step ST4). ).

In recent mobile phones, a memory card that has a built-in card slot and can store and read user data in a memory card that can be inserted into and removed from the card slot has become widespread. Therefore, the local memory may be a removable memory card as well as a memory built in the mobile phone 10.

1 is a schematic diagram of a network system according to a first embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a block diagram of a camera-equipped mobile phone according to a first embodiment of the present invention. It is a flowchart which shows the image data transmission procedure in 1st Embodiment based on this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure preserve | saved at a local memory, when electronic mail transmission is not successful in other embodiment which concerns on this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure which preserve | saves to the local memory, without transmitting the image data image | photographed in other embodiment which concerns on this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure which transmits the image | photographed image data by e-mail when there is no free space in the local memory in another embodiment according to the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Mobile terminal 11 Antenna 12 Wireless transmission / reception part 13 Control part 14 Operation | movement memory 15 Memory | storage memory 16 ID memory 17 Operation part 18 Display part 19 Camera module 20 Base station 30 Mobile telephone network 40 Gateway server 50 Internet 60 Company PC / server 70 Home PC
80 Service company server

Claims (2)

A portable terminal that includes a camera and transmits / receives image data captured by the camera attached to an email,
The portable terminal is provided with a standard format for a predetermined event as the body of the e-mail, and the standard format includes a plurality of items indicating scenes of the event when shooting with the camera. Written,
The portable terminal has means for transmitting image data captured by the camera to a server for creating a predetermined electronic album by attaching to the e-mail,
When the image data captured by the camera is transmitted from the portable terminal to the server as an attachment to the e-mail, the standard format prepared as the e-mail body text according to the scene captured by the camera By specifying the item, the image data captured by the camera is transmitted to the server in association with the item specified according to the scene to be captured among the items written in the standard format. A camera-equipped mobile terminal. An image data transmission method for transmitting image data captured by the camera by attaching it to an e-mail from a mobile terminal equipped with a camera,
The portable terminal is provided with a standard format for a predetermined event as the body of the e-mail, and the standard format includes a plurality of items indicating scenes of the event when shooting with the camera. Written,
The portable terminal has means for transmitting image data captured by the camera to a server for creating a predetermined electronic album by attaching to the e-mail,
When the image data captured by the camera is transmitted from the portable terminal to the server as an attachment to the e-mail, the standard format prepared as the e-mail body text according to the scene captured by the camera By specifying the item, the image data captured by the camera is transmitted to the server in association with the item specified according to the scene to be captured among the items written in the standard format. A method for transmitting image data.