IMAGE ACQUISITION SYSTEM AND METHOD OF AUTHENTICATING IMAGE ACQUISITION DEVICE IN THE IMAGE ACQUISITION SYSTEM

• US 20090290030A1
• Filed: 07/28/2009
• Published: 11/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Original Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Inventors: GOCHO, Nagahiro
• Granted Patent: US 8,264,557 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/211.2
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 17/00 Arrangements for transmitting signals characterised by the use of a wireless electrical link
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/4406 Restricting access, e.g. according to user identity mechanisms actuated y cards, PIN or the like in apparatus for dispensing G07F7/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/4426 involving separate means, e.g. a server, a magnetic card
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/4433 to an apparatus, part of an apparatus or an apparatus function
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42204 User interfaces specially adapted for controlling a client device through a remote control device; Remote control devices therefor constructive details of casings for the remote control device H01H9/0235; user interfaces for controlling a tuning device of a television receiver through a remote control H03J9/00; remote control of peripheral devices connected to a television receiver through the remote control device of the television receiver H04B1/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2101/00 Still video cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/65 Control of camera operation in relation to power supply
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/765 Interface circuits between an apparatus for recording and another apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/772 the recording apparatus and the television camera being placed in the same enclosure

Abstract

An image acquisition system includes a camera as an image acquisition device and a commanding device configured as a member separate from the camera to transmit a command for controlling the camera to the camera so that the camera can perform the operation corresponding to the command. The ability to transmit/receive the command between the commanding device and the image acquisition device is switchable.

Claims

1. An image acquisition system comprising:

an image acquisition device having an image acquisition unit;

a commanding device configured as a member separate from the image acquisition device to transmit a command for controlling the image acquisition device to the image acquisition device so that the image acquisition device can perform an operation corresponding to the particular command; and

an ability switching unit configured to switch an ability to transmit/receive the command between the commanding device and the image acquisition device.

2. The image acquisition system according to claim 1, wherein the ability switching unit is included in at least one of the commanding device and the image acquisition device.

3. The image acquisition system according to claim 1, wherein

the command includes a general command not containing authentication information and an authentication command containing the authentication information, the authentication information being for the image acquisition device to authenticate the commanding device, and

the ability switching unit includes a command transmission/reception ability switching unit configured to reduce the command transmission/reception ability for the authentication command as compared with the command transmission/reception ability for the general command.

4. The image acquisition system according to claim 3, wherein the image acquisition device includes:

a command reception unit configured to receive the command transmitted from the commanding device;

an authentication information recognition unit configured to recognize the authentication information contained in the authentication command received by the command reception unit; and

a function limiting unit configured to limit a predetermined function of the image acquisition device based on the authentication information recognized by the authentication information recognition unit.

5. The image acquisition system according to claim 1, wherein

the commanding device includes a command transmission unit configured to transmit the command, and

the ability switching unit includes a command transmission output switching unit, included in the commanding device, configured to switch the command transmission output of the command transmission unit of the commanding device.

6. The image acquisition system according to claim 1, wherein

the image acquisition device includes a command reception unit configured to receive the command transmitted from the commanding device, and

the ability switching unit includes a reception sensitivity switching unit, included in the image acquisition device, configured to switch reception sensitivity of the command reception unit of the image acquisition device.

7. The image acquisition system according to claim 6, wherein the reception sensitivity switching unit of the image acquisition device switches the reception sensitivity of the command reception unit in accordance with a sensitivity switching command transmitted from the commanding device.

8. The image acquisition system according to claim 6, wherein

the image acquisition device further includes a sensitivity select operation unit configured to accept an operation of selecting the reception sensitivity of the command reception unit of the image acquisition device, and

the reception sensitivity switching unit of the image acquisition device switches the reception sensitivity of the command reception unit in accordance with the select operation of the sensitivity select operation unit.

9. The image acquisition system according to claim 4, wherein

the image acquisition device further includes an image reproduction unit configured to reproduce the image acquired by the image acquisition unit, and

the function limiting unit of the image acquisition device limits a function of the image reproduction unit.

10. The image acquisition system according to claim 3, wherein the commanding device includes a command transmission unit configured to transmit the authentication command and the general command to the image acquisition device.

11. The image acquisition system according to claim 3, wherein the commanding device further includes a authentication command transmission unit configured to transmit an image acquisition command for the image acquisition operation of the image acquisition device and an authentication mode switching command for limiting the function of the image acquisition device, as the authentication command.

12. The image acquisition system according to claim 10, wherein the commanding device further includes a switching unit configured to switch the general command and the authentication command to be transmitted by the command transmission unit.

13. The image acquisition system according to claim 3, wherein the commanding device further includes a command transmission unit configured to transmit an image acquisition command on an image acquisition operation of the image acquisition device as the general command and an authentication mode switching command for limiting the function of the image acquisition device as the authentication command.

14. The image acquisition system according to claim 13, wherein the commanding device further includes a switching unit configured to switch the general command and the authentication mode switching command to be transmitted by the command transmission unit.

15. The image acquisition system according to claim 4, wherein the authentication information recognition unit of the image acquisition device further includes a command determination unit configured to determine the content of the authentication command received by the command reception unit.

16. The image acquisition system according to claim 15, wherein the function limiting unit of the image acquisition device limits the function of the image acquisition device in accordance with the content of the authentication command determined by the command determination unit.

17. The image acquisition system according to claim 15, wherein

the image acquisition device further includes a mode setting unit configured to, in the case where the content of the authentication command received by the command reception unit is an authentication mode switching command for limiting the function of the image acquisition device, set the authentication mode of the image acquisition device in accordance with the particular authentication mode switching command, and

the function limiting unit of the image acquisition device limits the function of the image acquisition device in accordance with the authentication mode set by the mode setting unit.

18. The image acquisition system according to claim 17, wherein

the mode setting unit of the image acquisition device further sets a prohibit mode as the authentication mode at the time of switching on power for the image acquisition device, and

the function limiting unit of the image acquisition device prohibits the image acquisition device from execution of the functions thereof by other than the commanding device in the case where the prohibit mode is set by the mode setting unit.

19. The image acquisition system according to claim 17, wherein the mode setting unit of the image acquisition device has a memory configured to store the currently set authentication mode at the time of switching off the power of the image acquisition device.

20. The image acquisition system according to claim 19, wherein the memory of the mode setting unit of the image acquisition device is a nonvolatile memory capable of holding the contents of storage even in the case where the power is switched off.

21. The image acquisition system according to claim 19, wherein the mode setting unit of the image acquisition device further reads the authentication mode stored in the memory and sets the particular authentication mode at the time of switching on the power for the image acquisition device.

22. The image acquisition system according to claim 17, wherein the mode setting unit of the image acquisition device sets the authentication mode only in response to the authentication mode switching command from the commanding device.

23. The image acquisition system according to claim 17, wherein

the image acquisition device further includes a time measuring unit configured to count time,

the mode setting unit of the image acquisition device further sets the prohibit mode as the authentication mode based on the time counted by the time measuring unit, and

the function limiting unit of the image acquisition device prohibits the image acquisition device from execution of the functions thereof by other than the commanding device in the case where the prohibit mode is set by the mode setting unit.

24. The image acquisition system according to claim 23, wherein

the time measuring unit of the image acquisition device continues to count the time even after the power of the image acquisition device is switched off, and

the mode setting unit of the image acquisition device sets the prohibit mode upon counting of a predetermined time by the time measuring unit.

25. The image acquisition system according to claim 17, wherein the mode setting unit of the image acquisition device sets the prohibit mode as the authentication mode one of (i) after a battery is one of consumed up and removed, one of immediately and upon lapse of a preset time and (ii) as a result of monitoring a voltage.

26. The image acquisition system according to claim 1, wherein the command is transmitted one of optically and by radio.

27. The image acquisition system according to claim 3, wherein the image acquisition device use a commanding device having a transmission unit of the authentication command and a commanding device having no transmission unit of the authentication information and being capable of transmitting at least the general command.

28. The image acquisition system, according to claim 17, wherein

the image acquisition device further includes a built-in memory, and

the function limiting unit of the image acquisition device causes a acquired image to be stored only in the built-in memory in the case where the prohibit mode prohibiting the execution of the function of the image acquisition device by other than the commanding device is set as the authentication mode by the mode setting unit and in the case where the image acquisition operation is performed by the image acquisition unit based on the command from the commanding device identified by the command identification unit.

29. The image acquisition system according to claim 28, wherein the function limiting unit of the image acquisition device limits any of the operations of reading, display, copy, transfer and print the image stored in the built-in memory in such a manner as to be performed only in accordance with the image acquisition command from the commanding device authenticated by the authentication information recognized by the authentication information recognition unit.

30. The image acquisition system according to claim 28, wherein

the image acquisition device is further configured of a removable memory, and

the image stored in the built-in memory, if one of copied and transferred to the removable memory, is encrypted and stored.

31. The image acquisition system according to claim 30, wherein the commanding device further includes a selecting unit configured to select whether the image acquired by the image acquisition unit is recorded in the built-in memory or in the removable memory.

32. The image acquisition system according to claim 10, wherein the commanding device further includes an authentication information generating unit configured to generate authentication information containing a random number generated by a random number generating unit as the authentication information.

33. The image acquisition system according to claim 10, wherein the commanding device further includes authentication information generating unit configured to generate authentication information containing data selected from a table stored in advance, as the authentication information.

34. The image acquisition system according to claim 17, wherein

the commanding device further includes:

a command transmission unit configured to transmit the command;

a first counting unit configured to start a counting operation at the stating time point when the authentication mode switching command is transmitted by the command transmission unit; and

a transmitting unit configured to transmit the command containing the count value of the first counting unit from the command transmission unit after transmitting the authentication mode switching command,

the image acquisition device further includes;

a second counting unit configured to start the counting operation at the time of setting the authentication mode by the mode setting unit, based, on the authentication mode switching command from the commanding device; and

a comparator unit configured to compare the count value on the second counting unit with the count value on the first counting unit contained in the command which may be received from the commanding device by the command receiving unit, and

the function limiting unit of the image acquisition device sets the limit of the function based on the result of comparison by the comparator unit.

35. The image acquisition system according to claim 15, wherein

the commanding device further includes a command transmission unit configured to transmit the command with the authentication information added thereto, and

the function limiting unit of the image acquisition device does not limit the function of the image acquisition operation in the image acquisition unit regardless of the result of recognition of the authentication information in the authentication information recognition unit and limits the other functions based on the authentication information attached to the command, received by the command receiving unit and recognized by the authentication information recognition unit.

36. The image acquisition system according to claim 35, wherein

the command transmission unit of the commanding device transmits the command further with function range information designating the limited range of the function, and

the function limiting unit of the image acquisition device limits the function in accordance with the function range information added to the command received by the command receiving unit.

37. The image acquisition system according to claim 10, wherein the authentication information contains ID information unique to the image acquisition device.

38. The image acquisition system according to claim 15, wherein

the commanding device further includes a command transmission unit configured to transmit the command with the authentication information added thereto, and

the image acquisition device operates in accordance with the command having the authentication information received by the command receiving unit.

39. The image acquisition system according to claim 1, wherein the ability switching unit switches the ability for command transmission/reception between the commanding device and the image acquisition device to the ability corresponding to the type of the command transmitted by the commanding device.

40. An image acquisition device authenticating method for carrying out authentication between an image acquisition device having an image acquisition unit and a commanding device configured as a member separate from the image acquisition device to transmit a command for controlling the image acquisition device to the image acquisition device so that the image acquisition device can perform an operation corresponding to the command, the method comprising:

in at least one of the commanding device and the image acquisition device, providing an ability switching unit configured to switch an ability for command transmission/reception between the commanding device and the image acquisition device; and

switching the command transmission/reception ability by the ability switching unit.