Integrated Internet/intranet camera
First Claim
1. A self-contained network-capable camera for transmitting digital images via an internet-protocol network, comprising:
- an image pickup, which receives images of a scene;
a lens, which forms the images of a scene on the image pickup;
an image capture circuit, which captures the images of a scene as digital images, which are stored as digital image files;
a network interface circuit, by which the camera communicates with the internet-protocol network; and
a controller circuit, which controls operations of the image capture circuit and the network interface circuit, and executes code including;
a protocol stack including a transport layer protocol that packetizes the digital image files according to a predetermined internet-protocol transmission control protocol,a transmission initiating routine, which autonomously initiates communication with the internet-protocol network via the transport layer protocol and said network interface circuit,a transmission scheduling routine, which schedules a transmission of the digital image files to a destination account at an internet-protocol address, andan internet-protocol client, which communicates via the network interface circuit with the destination account, and which transmits the digital image files to the destination account via the internet-protocol network as scheduled by the transmission scheduling routine, the digital image files in the destination account then being available to browsers accessing the internet-protocol network; and
a camera body, within which are housed all of said controller circuit, said image pickup, said lens, said image capture circuit, and said network interface circuit.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An integrated Internet camera includes, as embedded components contained within the camera body and controlled by a microcontroller, at least a network interface device for connecting to the Internet, a transport control device for packetizing according to Internet protocols, a file transfer device for communicating with a destination user directory on the Internet, and a transmission initiating device for initiating the connection and transfer operations of the file transfer device and transport control device. The network interface device may be a modem, network adapter, or adapter for connection to the Internet. Upon capturing the digital image, the camera initiates a connection to the Internet, connects to the destination user directory, and uploads the digital images. Thereafter, the digital images are available to authorized (or any) user having access to the Internet.
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Citations
40 Claims
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1. A self-contained network-capable camera for transmitting digital images via an internet-protocol network, comprising:
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an image pickup, which receives images of a scene; a lens, which forms the images of a scene on the image pickup; an image capture circuit, which captures the images of a scene as digital images, which are stored as digital image files; a network interface circuit, by which the camera communicates with the internet-protocol network; and a controller circuit, which controls operations of the image capture circuit and the network interface circuit, and executes code including; a protocol stack including a transport layer protocol that packetizes the digital image files according to a predetermined internet-protocol transmission control protocol, a transmission initiating routine, which autonomously initiates communication with the internet-protocol network via the transport layer protocol and said network interface circuit, a transmission scheduling routine, which schedules a transmission of the digital image files to a destination account at an internet-protocol address, and an internet-protocol client, which communicates via the network interface circuit with the destination account, and which transmits the digital image files to the destination account via the internet-protocol network as scheduled by the transmission scheduling routine, the digital image files in the destination account then being available to browsers accessing the internet-protocol network; and a camera body, within which are housed all of said controller circuit, said image pickup, said lens, said image capture circuit, and said network interface circuit. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A system for providing images from a network-capable camera via an internet-protocol network to one or more internet-protocol browsers, comprising:
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a destination account on a server at an internet-protocol address, the destination account having image storage accessible to a browser; and at least one camera having a camera body, the camera body containing; an image capture circuit, which captures and stores digital image files, a network interface circuit, by which the camera communicates with the internet-protocol network, and a controller circuit, which controls operations of the image capture circuit and the network interface circuit, and executes code including; a protocol stack including a transport layer protocol that packetizes the digital image files according to a predetermined internet-protocol transmission control protocol, a transmission initiating routine, which autonomously initiates communication with the internet-protocol network via the transport layer protocol and said network interface circuit, an internet-protocol client, which transmits the digital image files to the destination account via the internet-protocol network, the digital image files in the destination account then being accessible to internet-protocol browsers, and a capture scheduling routine, which schedules the capture by the image capture circuit of the digital image files, which are then transmitted by the internet-protocol client to the destination account. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A self-contained network-capable camera for transmitting digital images via an internet-protocol network, comprising:
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an image pickup, which receives images of a scene; a lens, which forms the images of a scene on the image pickup; an image capture circuit, which captures the images of a scene as digital images, which are stored as digital image files; a network interface circuit, which transmits the digital image files across the internet-protocol network; a controller circuit, which controls operations of the image capture circuit and the network interface circuit, and executes code including; a transport layer protocol, which packetizes the digital image files according to a predetermined transmission control protocol, a file transfer client, which communicates via the network interface circuit with a destination account at a predetermined network address, and which transfers the digital image files to the destination account, the digital image files in the destination account then being available to browsers accessing the internet-protocol network, a capture scheduling routine, which schedules a capture of the digital image files to be transferred to the destination account, and a transfer initiating routine, which autonomously initiates communication with the internet-protocol network via the transport layer protocol and said network interface circuit, the file transfer client transferring the digital image files captured according to the capture scheduling routine via the internet-protocol network; and a camera body, within which are housed all of said controller circuit, said image pickup, said lens, said image capture circuit, and said network interface circuit. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A network-capable, self-contained, self-controlled camera, comprising:
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a camera body, said camera body housing; an image pickup, which receives images of a scene; a lens, which forms the images of a scene on the image pickup; an image capture circuit, which captures the images of a scene and stores corresponding digital images; a network interface circuit, by which the camera communicates with an internet-protocol network; and a controller circuit, which controls operations of the image capture circuit and the network interface circuit, and executes code including; a protocol stack including a transport layer protocol that packetizes the digital images, wherein, in order to increase a rate of transmission of the digital images, said protocol stack does not retransmit erroneous data, a transmitting routine, which transmits the digital images according to the transport layer protocol to a destination computer at an internet-protocol address, a communication initiating routine, which autonomously initiates communication with the internet-protocol network via the transport layer protocol and said network interface circuit, and a transmission initiating routine, which autonomously initiates the transmission of the digital images to the destination computer after the communication initiating routine initiates communication with the internet-protocol network, such that said camera transmits the digital images to the destination computer without receiving commands from an external device. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A network-capable, self-contained, self-controlled camera, comprising:
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a camera body, said camera body housing; an image pickup, which receives images of a scene; a lens, which forms the images of a scene on the image pickup; an image capture circuit, which captures the images of a scene and stores corresponding digital images; a network interface circuit, by which the camera communicates with an internet-protocol network; a controller circuit, which controls operations of the image capture circuit and the network interface circuit, and executes code including; a file transmitting client, which transmits, via the network interface circuit, the digital images to a destination computer at an internet-protocol address, a protocol stack including a transport layer protocol that packetizes the digital images according to a predetermined transmission control protocol, an alarm initiated image capture routine, executed in response to an alarm trigger, which autonomously initiates an image capture and a transmission of the digital images to the destination computer at the internet-protocol address via the network interface circuit and transport layer protocol, and a schedule initiated image capture routine, executed in response to an image capture schedule, which autonomously initiates an image capture and a transmission of the digital images to the destination computer at the internet-protocol address via the network interface circuit and transport layer protocol. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32)
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33. A network-capable, self-contained, self-controlled camera, comprising:
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a built-in imaging apparatus including a lens that forms images of a scene on an image pickup that converts the images of a scene into internal video signals; a CCTV input system including an external video input connector capable of receiving external video signals from an external video source; an image capture circuit, which converts the internal video signals and the external video signals into digital image files and stores the digital image files; a network interface circuit by which the camera communicates with an internet-protocol network, which transmits the internal video signals converted to and stored as digital image files via the internet-protocol network, and transmits the external video signals converted to and stored as digital image files via the internet-protocol network; a controller circuit, which controls operations of the image capture circuit and the network interface circuit, and executes code including; a protocol stack including a transport layer protocol that packetizes the digital image files according to a predetermined internet-protocol transmission control protocol, a transmission initiating routine, which autonomously initiates a connection with the internet-protocol network via the transport layer protocol and said network interface circuit, and an internet-protocol client, which, after the transmission initiating routine autonomously initiates the connection, communicates with a destination account at an internet-protocol address, and which transmits the internal video signals converted to and stored as digital image files and the external video signals converted to and stored as digital image files to the destination account, the digital image files in the destination account then being available to users accessing the internet-protocol network; and a camera body, within which are housed all of said controller circuit, said built-in imaging apparatus, said CCTV input system, said image capture circuit, and said network interface circuit. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 36, 37)
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38. A network-capable, self-contained, self-controlled camera, comprising:
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an image pickup, which receives images of a scene; a lens, which forms the images of a scene on the image pickup; an image capture circuit, which captures the images of a scene as digital images, which are stored as digital image files; a network interface circuit interfaced to a local network; a controller circuit, which controls operations of the image capture circuit and the network interface circuit, and executes code including; a transport layer protocol, which packetizes messages according to a predetermined internet-protocol transmission control protocol, a transmission initiating routine, which autonomously initiates a connection with an internet-protocol network via the transport layer protocol, said network interface circuit, and said local network, an E-mail addressing routine that associates the digital image files with an e-mail address, and an E-mail client, including an access control mechanism which provides e-mail transfer server authentication permitting the E-mail client to transfer data via an e-mail transfer server, the E-mail client autonomously communicating with the e-mail transfer server at an internet-protocol address via the network interface circuit, the digital image files then being available to users accessing the e-mail address and transferable to the e-mail address over the network interface circuit; and a camera body, supporting all of said image pickup, said lens, said image capture circuit, said network interface circuit, and said controller circuit. - View Dependent Claims (39, 40)
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Specification