WO2023139803A1 - Photo sales system and sales method of same - Google Patents

Abstract

This photo sales system comprises: an opening information providing means in which an input terminal 11 of a photographer who participates in an event is communication-connected, through a cloud 13, to a reception terminal 12 of a sales image producer who produces sales images composed of photos and/or photo data from event images captured by the input terminal 11 and provides the sales images to a potential photo buyer, and a server 15 of a service provider connected to the cloud 13 transmits, to the photographer, an ID and password for opening a sales site 14 of the captured images on the cloud 13; a sales site opening means which opens, on the cloud 13, the sales site 14 by using the ID and password input from the input terminal 11; a publication means which enables the potential photo buyer to browse the sales site 14; and a selection information determination means which transmits, to the reception terminal 12, a captured image selected by a connection terminal 16 of the potential photo buyer, the connection terminal being connected to the sales site 14.

Description

Photo sales system and its sales method

The present invention relates to a photo sales system and its sales method that enable anyone to easily sell photos.

Conventionally, at various events such as weddings and sports competitions, photographers and photo shops commissioned to take photographs sold the photographs taken through the organizer of the event. For selling photographs, for example, as described in Patent Document 1, it is possible to use an image printing service system and an image printing service method on a network for efficiently providing a printing service to individual users for photography companies. Specifically, a server that provides an image printing service first receives image data and image attribute data from an image data input terminal owned by a photography company and registers them in storage means within the server. Next, based on the image attribute data received from the image data selection terminal owned by the individual user, the image data is selected from the storage means and transmitted to the image data selection terminal, and the execution of the printing of the image data designated for printing from the image data selection terminal is instructed.

On the other hand, in recent years, input terminals such as smartphones, mobile phones, tablet computers, etc. owned by users are usually provided with a camera function, and at the various events described above, each person uses these input terminals to take pictures.
As a result, each person can photograph a situation that he likes at a timing that he likes.
In addition, since each person takes a picture using an input terminal, not only events where a large number of people gather, such as a wedding ceremony, a sports competition, a concert (recital), an exhibition, etc., but also events where a small number of people gather, for example, a dinner party or a karaoke competition (karaoke box), etc., where photography is usually not requested to a photographer or a photo shop, can be easily taken.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-325082

Some people who have taken pictures using input terminals want to sell the pictures they have taken, but it is necessary to prepare a sales environment (initial cost) to sell the pictures, which is not easy.
In the photographs taken by each person, oneself is not usually the subject, so if one wishes to obtain a photograph in which oneself is the subject, it is necessary to obtain a photograph taken by another person. However, in this case, it is troublesome to check all the photographs taken by the other person on the other person's input terminal, and there is a problem that the photograph cannot be taken while the photograph is being confirmed. This problem is the same when viewing photos taken by others and searching for a favorite photo.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and aims to provide a photograph sales system and a sales method that enable anyone to easily sell photographs, and furthermore, enable them to easily obtain photographs of themselves as subjects and photographs taken by others.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a photo sales system in accordance with the above object, wherein an input terminal equipped with a camera function owned by a photographer who participates in a specific event and a reception terminal owned by a sales image creator who creates a sales image consisting of a photo and/or photo data to be provided to a person wishing to purchase a photo from the captured image of the event taken by the input terminal, are connected via a cloud for communication, wherein
A server owned by a service provider that provides a sales environment for the captured images and connected to the cloud,
opening information providing means for transmitting an ID and a password for opening the photographed image sales site in the cloud to the photographer;
sales site opening means for opening the sales site in the cloud using the ID and the password input from the input terminal;
Publishing means for enabling the person who wishes to purchase the photograph to view the sales site to which the photographed image has been uploaded from the input terminal;
A selection information determining means for transmitting the photographed image selected by a connection terminal owned by the person who wishes to purchase photographs and which is connected to the sales site by an access password obtained in advance by the person who wishes to purchase photographs to the receiving terminal.

In the photo sales system according to the present invention, the photo purchase applicant can participate in the event.

In the photo sales system according to the present invention, a plurality of photographers can participate in one event.

In the photo sales system according to the present invention, it is preferable that the photographed image taken by the input terminal is uploaded to the sales site in real time.

In the photo sales system according to the present invention, the input terminal can be a smart phone, tablet computer, smart watch, smart glasses, mobile phone, or digital camera.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of selling photos according to the above object, wherein an input terminal equipped with a camera function and owned by a photographer who participates in a specific event and a receiving terminal owned by a sales image creator who creates a sales image consisting of a photo and/or photo data to be provided to a person wishing to purchase a photo from the captured image of the event taken by the input terminal, are connected via a cloud to sell the photos,
an opening information providing step in which a server owned by a service provider that provides an environment for selling the photographed images and connected to the cloud transmits an ID and a password for opening the sales site for the photographed images in the cloud to the photographer;
a sales site opening step in which the server opens the sales site in the cloud using the ID and the password input from the input terminal;
a publishing step in which the server makes the sales site, to which the photographed image is uploaded from the input terminal, viewable by the person who wishes to purchase the photograph;
The server has a selection information confirmation step of transmitting the photographed image selected by a connection terminal owned by the person who wishes to purchase photographs, which is connected to the sales site by an access password obtained in advance by the person who wishes to purchase photographs, to the receiving terminal.

In the photograph sales system and its sales method according to the present invention, a server owned by a service provider transmits an ID and a password for opening a sales site in the cloud for photographed images photographed by an input terminal equipped with a camera function owned by the photographer, and the sales site is opened in the cloud by the ID and password input from the input terminal, so that an environment for selling photographed images can be easily prepared. Photographed images are uploaded to the opened sales site, and the server makes the sales site viewable by those who wish to purchase the photographs. Then, the person wishing to purchase photographs connects his/her own connection terminal to the sales site by means of an access password obtained in advance, and the photographed image selected by the connection terminal is transmitted to the receiving terminal of the person who prepares the image for sale (photographer).
Therefore, any photographer can easily sell photographs, and can easily obtain photographs of himself or herself as a subject or photographs taken by others.

1 is an explanatory diagram of a photo sales system according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a photo selling method executed by the photo selling system;

Next, an embodiment embodying the present invention will be described with reference to the attached drawings for better understanding of the present invention.
As shown in FIG. 1, a photo sales system (hereinafter simply referred to as a sales system) 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a smartphone (an example of an input terminal: sometimes referred to as a mobile terminal) 11 having a camera function owned by a photographer who participates in a specific event, and a receiving terminal (for example, a computer) 12 owned by a photo creator (a sales image creator) who creates a photo (an example of a sale image) from the captured image of the event taken by the smartphone 11 and provides it to a person who wishes to purchase the photo. (Communication network: for example, public cloud) 13 is a system connected for communication.
A detailed description will be given below.

The photo sales system 10 virtually provides (opens) a sales site (sales folder (storage unit on the cloud 13)) 14 for images taken at an event to be held on the cloud 13, thereby obtaining information for producing photographs from the images taken by the smartphone 11, thereby allowing the photographer to sell the photograph to a person who wishes to purchase the photograph via the photo creator.
The sales site 14 is connected to a server (management server) 15 of a service provider that provides a photo sales environment (manages the sales system 10), and to this server 15, a smartphone 11 owned by a photographer, a receiving terminal 12 owned by a photo creator, and a smartphone (an example of a connection terminal) 16 owned by a person who wishes to purchase photographs are connected for communication via a cloud 13. This sales site 14 is provided in a storage 17 acquired by a service provider under a contract with a cloud operator.

The server 15 includes one or more CPU (Central Processing Unit), ROM (Read Only Memory), RAM (Random Access Memory), communication interface (I/F), input/output I/F, operation unit (e.g. keyboard), display unit (display), and storage means (HDD (hard disk drive) or SSD (solid state drive)). The server 15 has opening information providing means, sales site opening means, publishing means, and selection information determining means, which will be described later.
Here, the CPU reads the control program stored in the ROM and executes the control program using the RAM as a work area. This control program causes the computer (server 15) to function as opening information providing means, sales site opening means, publishing means, and selection information determining means, which will be described later.

For example, the photographer participates in multiple events (here, five events as shown in FIG. 1), and the sales site 14 is opened for each event. Five sales sites 14 respectively corresponding to five events are opened in the storage 17, but if there is one event, only one sales site may be opened, and if there are two or more events, a plurality of corresponding sales sites may be opened.
An event is not particularly limited as long as it is an event (event) where a plurality of people gather. For example, it means an event where a small number of people gather, such as a dinner party or a karaoke competition (karaoke box), or an event where a large number of people gather, such as a wedding ceremony, a sports competition, a concert (presentation), an exhibition, etc.

The photographer is a member who participates in the event, but may be a person other than the member, such as a photographer who is requested to take a picture or a clerk at a photo shop. Here, one photographer participates in one event, but two or more photographers may participate. Also, a photographer may only take photographs, but may also be a person who wishes to purchase photographs.
This photographer uses the smartphone 11 to capture the captured image at the event, but as long as the captured image is a digital image, there is no particular limitation on the device used to capture the captured image. The captured image may be not only one image (still image) but also a video image (moving image) captured for a predetermined time (for example, about 5 seconds to 60 seconds, or about 1 minute to 10 minutes).

A person who wishes to purchase a photograph is a member who participates in the event, but may be, for example, a person who was scheduled to participate in the event but was unable to participate due to circumstances, or an external person who satisfies a predetermined condition described later. Here, the number of persons who wish to purchase photographs is three, but may be one, or may be two or four or more.
A person who wishes to purchase a photograph uses a smartphone 16 as a connection terminal to purchase a photograph of an image taken at an event. However, the connection terminal is not particularly limited as long as it can connect to the cloud 13, browse the sales site, connect to the sales site and select a desired photographed image, and may be a tablet computer, smart watch, smart glasses, mobile phone, desktop computer, or the like.

The opening information providing means is a means for the server 15 to transmit an ID and a password to the photographer (here, the smartphone 11) in order to open the sales site 14 for images shot with the smartphone 11 in the cloud 13.
The sales site opening means is means for the server 15 to open the sales site 14 in the cloud 13 using the ID and password input from the smartphone 11 .
The publishing means is a means by which the server 15 enables a person who wishes to purchase the photograph to view the sales site 14 to which the photographed image is uploaded from the smartphone 11 .
The selected information determination means is a means for the server 15 to transmit the photographed image selected by the smartphone 16 owned by the person who wishes to purchase the photograph and which is connected to the sales site 14 by the access password (password for browsing) obtained in advance by the person who wishes to purchase the photograph to the receiving terminal 12 of the person who made the photograph.

Next, a photo selling method using the photo selling system 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG.
In this case, there are four members of the event, one of whom is the photographer and the other three are those who wish to purchase the photographs. Also, a photographer uses a smartphone 11 to take a photographed image at an event, and a person who wishes to purchase a photograph uses a smartphone 16 to purchase a photograph of the photographed image taken at the event on the spot (in FIG. 1, the photographer is not a person who wishes to purchase a photograph, but can be a person who wishes to purchase a photograph).

First, the photographer registers as a member to open the sales site. This membership registration is for confirming the identity of the service provider who manages the photo sales system 10. For example, the photographer applies by filling in an application form prepared in advance by the service provider with his/her name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, deposit account, etc., enclosing a copy of a document such as a driver's license or passport that can be used for identity verification, and sending it to the service provider.
The service provider registers the photographer based on the above documents. The registration can be completed by telephone, e-mail, etc., and the registration is preferably free of charge.

As a result, in step 1 (ST1), the server 15 owned by the service provider and connected to the cloud 13 transmits the ID and password for opening the sales site 14 for the photographed images taken by the photographer at the event in the cloud 13 to the smartphone 11 of the photographer (issues the ID and password). The ID and password may be sent to other smartphones, tablet computers, smart watches, smart glasses, mobile phones, desktop computers, etc. possessed by the photographer, as long as the photographer can receive (confirm) them. A photographer who has acquired this ID and password can subsequently open a sales site for each event without acquiring a new ID and password.

Here, if there are a plurality of photographers, each of them individually opens a sales site on the cloud for the images taken at the event. Specifically, each person individually submits the above-described documents to the service provider and registers a photographer, thereby receiving an individual ID and password.
It should be noted that even if there are multiple photographers, it is also possible to open a cloud sales site for images taken by each person at a common event. In this case, each person can receive a common ID and password from the service provider (the above is the opening information providing step).

In step 2 (ST2), the photographer inputs an ID and password from the smartphone 11 to the site provided by the service provider, and the server 15 opens a sales site 14 for images taken at the event in the cloud 13 (storage 17). If there are a plurality of photographers, it is preferable that the server 15 collectively associate common event sales sites established by the respective photographers.
At this time, the photographer can set the opening period of the sales site 14 . The opening period is not particularly limited. For example, it can be opened for a preset period such as from before the start of the event to several days after the end of the event, but it can also be set only during the event.
Also, the photographer can set the price of the photographed image on the sales site 14 . It should be noted that the price setting can be appropriately changed according to the size of the photographed image and the object to be photographed (the above is the sales site establishment process).

In step 3 (ST3), the photographer uses the smart phone 11 to photograph the situation of the event at the desired timing. As a result, the captured image captured by the smartphone 11 is uploaded to the sales site 14 .
The photographed images are uploaded to the sales site 14 in real time (automatically) along with the photographing by the smartphone 11. For example, after photographing, only the photographed images selected by the photographer can be uploaded (manually uploaded) to the sales site 14. In addition, it is also possible to upload a photographed image that has been photographed in advance from the smartphone 11 to the sales site 14 . Furthermore, after performing various correction processing (correction processing) such as luminance (brightness), contrast, saturation, sharpness, level correction, color adjustment, tilt correction, etc., on a photographed image that has been photographed in advance, the photographed image can be uploaded from the smartphone 11 to the sales site 14.
Also, the captured image to be uploaded may be the video image described above.
The server 15 publishes the sales site 14 to which the photographed images have been uploaded from the smartphone 11 so that they can be browsed by those who wish to purchase the photographs (the above is the publication step).

In step 4 (ST4), the photographer notifies each of the three photo purchase applicants of the event, and also transmits the access password (browsing password) for accessing the photographed image sales site 14 to the smartphone 16 possessed by each photo purchase applicant. As a result, the server 15 connects the smartphones 16 to the sales site 14 by inputting the acquired access passwords to the smartphones 16 owned by the three photo purchase applicants.
Therefore, even an outside person who wishes to purchase photographs who does not participate in the event can access the sales site 14 of the photographed images if the access password is transmitted from the photographer.
The access password is not necessarily sent directly from the photographer to the person who wishes to purchase the photograph. For example, the photographer may send the access password from the service provider (server 15) to the person who wishes to purchase the photograph.

At step 5 (ST5), the person who wishes to purchase the photograph browses (confirms) a plurality of photographed images uploaded to the sales site 14 using the smartphone 16 connected to the sales site 14, and selects the photographed image that he/she wishes to purchase. Note that when the captured image is the video image described above, the video image can be selected as it is with the smartphone 16, but a necessary cut (one or more than two images) can be selected from the video image.
Here, a person who wishes to purchase a photograph can select a payment method for the purchase cost of the photograph when selecting a photographed image to be purchased with the smartphone 16, but can also select and determine the method of payment for the purchase cost of the photograph in advance before selecting the photographed image, for example, after the smartphone 16 is connected to the sales site 14.例文帳に追加Examples of payment methods for the photo purchase cost include credit card, cash on delivery, bank transfer, deferred payment, convenience store payment, carrier payment, smartphone payment service, and the like.

At step 6 (ST6), the information of the photographed image selected by the smartphone 16 is transmitted to the receiving terminal 12 of the photograph creator (the above is the selection information confirmation step).

At step 7 (ST7), the photo creator creates a photo from the information of the captured image received by the receiving terminal 12. The photograph can be produced using the receiving terminal 12 and a printer (printing device) connected thereto by wire or wirelessly. For example, the photograph can be produced using a computer separate from the receiving terminal 12 and a printer connected thereto.

At step 8 (ST8), the photo creator mails the photo to the person who wishes to purchase the photo.

The photo purchase cost of the photo purchase applicant is, for example, the price set by the photographer in step 2 above. For example, the service provider receives the photo purchase cost once, and then the service provider's commission, the photo creator's production cost, etc. are deducted from this price, and the remaining money (profit) is transferred (paid) to the photographer's pre-registered deposit account.
Therefore, anyone can easily sell photographs without making an initial investment.
In addition, when a plurality of photographers participate in the event, it is possible to easily obtain photographs of the photographer himself as a subject and photographs taken by others.

It is also possible to install a program (software) for causing a computer to function as the opening information providing means, sales site opening means, publicizing means, and selection information determining means described above into a computer (a cloud-connectable server) owned by a service provider that provides a photographed image sales environment via a network or various storage media, and the computer (or CPU, MPU, etc.) reads out the program, thereby allowing the computer to function as a photo sales system.
This program may be recorded in a computer-readable recording medium (information recording medium) or may be recorded in a cloud service. Examples of recording media that can be used include flexible disks, hard disks, optical disks, magneto-optical disks, CD-ROMs, magnetic tapes, nonvolatile memory cards, and ROMs.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the configurations described in the above embodiments, and includes other embodiments and modifications that are conceivable within the scope of the matters described in the claims. For example, the scope of rights of the present invention includes a combination of a part or all of the above-described embodiments and modifications to form a photo sales system and method of the present invention.
In the above embodiment, the case where the photo creator creates a photograph from the photographed image of the event and provides it to the person who wishes to purchase the photograph has been described, but it is also possible to provide the person who wishes to purchase the photograph with photographic data as a sales image instead of or together with the photograph. This data may be the data of the photographed image itself (without correction), or may be, for example, the data of the photographed image partially corrected (luminance, etc.) by the sales image creator. When the data is provided, the sales image maker can transmit the data to the person who wishes to purchase the photograph in step 8, or the data can be sent by mail using a recording medium.
Further, in the above-described embodiment, a case has been described in which after the photographed image is uploaded (started) to the sales site by the photographer (step 3), the password for accessing the sales site is issued to the person who wishes to purchase the photograph (step 4), but the photographed image may be uploaded to the sales site after the access password is issued.

With the photo sales system and method of the present invention, photographers do not need to prepare their own photo sales environment. This makes it possible for anyone to easily sell photographs, and to easily obtain photographs of himself as a subject or photographs taken by others.

10: Photo sales system, 11: Smartphone (input terminal), 12: Receiving terminal, 13: Cloud, 14: Sales site, 15: Server, 16: Smartphone (connection terminal), 17: Storage

Claims (6)

A photo sales system in which an input terminal equipped with a camera function owned by a photographer who participates in a specific event and a reception terminal owned by a sales image creator who creates a sales image consisting of a photo and/or photo data to be provided to a person who wishes to purchase the photo from the captured image of the event taken by the input terminal, are connected for communication via a cloud,
A server owned by a service provider that provides a sales environment for the captured images and connected to the cloud,
opening information providing means for transmitting an ID and a password for opening the photographed image sales site in the cloud to the photographer;
sales site opening means for opening the sales site in the cloud using the ID and the password input from the input terminal;
Publishing means for enabling the person who wishes to purchase the photograph to view the sales site to which the photographed image has been uploaded from the input terminal;
A photo sales system comprising selection information determination means for transmitting the photographed image selected by a connection terminal owned by the photo purchase applicant, which is connected to the sales site by an access password obtained in advance by the photo purchase applicant, to the receiving terminal. The photograph sales system according to claim 1, wherein said person who wishes to purchase photographs participates in said event. The photo sales system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a plurality of said photographers participate in one said event. The photo sales system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the photographed image taken by the input terminal is uploaded to the sales site in real time. The photo sales system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the input terminal is a smart phone, tablet computer, smart watch, smart glasses, mobile phone, or digital camera. A method in which an input terminal equipped with a camera function owned by a photographer participating in a specific event and a receiving terminal owned by a sales image creator who creates a sales image consisting of a photograph and/or photo data to be provided to a person wishing to purchase a photograph from the photographed image of the event taken by the input terminal, are connected for communication via the cloud, and the photograph is sold.
an opening information providing step in which a server owned by a service provider that provides an environment for selling the photographed images and connected to the cloud transmits an ID and a password for opening the sales site for the photographed images in the cloud to the photographer;
a sales site opening step in which the server opens the sales site in the cloud using the ID and the password input from the input terminal;
a publishing step in which the server makes the sales site, to which the photographed image is uploaded from the input terminal, viewable by the person who wishes to purchase the photograph;
a selection information determination step of sending the photographed image selected by a connection terminal owned by the person who wishes to purchase photographs and which is connected to the sales site by an access password obtained in advance by the person who wishes to purchase photographs, to the receiving terminal.

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