Image transmission system, image relay apparatus, and electronic image device

• US 7,764,308 B2
• Filed: 05/27/2003
• Issued: 07/27/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nikon Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nikon Corporation
• Inventors: Fujimura, Tadashi, Hibino, Hideo, Takemoto, Masami, Mitsuhashi, Setsu, Kusaka, Yosuke, Nozaki, Hirotake
• Primary Examiner(s): HO, TUAN V
• Assistant Examiner(s): Negron; Wanda M
• Application Number:
  US10/445,050
• Publication Number:
  US 20040109063A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,618 Days
• Field of Search: 348/207.1, 348/208.7, 348/208.11, 348/211.99, 348/211.2, 348/211.3, 348/211.4, 348/231.99, 396/421
• US Class Current: 348/211.3
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00132 in a digital photofinishing system, i.e. a system where digital photographic images undergo typical photofinishing processing, e.g. printing ordering
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00137 Transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00148 Storage information retrieval G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00196 Creation of a photo-montage, e.g. photoalbum H04N1/0019 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00244 with a server, e.g. an internet server fax-servers or the like for store and forward H04N1/324
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00307 with a mobile telephone apparatus constructional features of portable telephone sets H04M1/0202; mobile radio systems H04W84/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00477 Indicating status, e.g. of a job for control or supervision between transmitter and receiver or between image input and image output device H04N2201/3219
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32128 attached to the image data, e.g. file header, transmitted message header, information on the same page or in the same computer file as the image for information embedded in the image H04N1/32144
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0039 Connection via a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0084 Digital still camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3205 of identification information, e.g. name or ID code H04N2201/3209 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3214 of a date
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3215 of a time or duration
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3226 of identification information or the like, e.g. ID code, index, title, part of an image, reduced-size image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3252 Image capture parameters, e.g. resolution, illumination conditions, orientation of the image capture device H04N2201/3256 and subgroups take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3253 Position information, e.g. geographical position at time of capture, GPS data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3274 Storage or retrieval of prestored additional information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3278 Transmission

Abstract

An electronic camera 100 automatically transmits captured image data and user identification information to a gateway server 160 over a wireless portable telephone link 130. The gateway server 160 manages image albums created on a per-user basis on multiple image servers on the Internet 170, automatically selects one of the multiple image servers based on the user identification information received from the electronic camera 100, and stores the image data received from the electronic camera 100 in an image album corresponding to the user identification information on the selected image server.

Claims

1. An image transmission system comprising:

an electronic image device that generates image information, the electronic image device having at least a first transmission mode and a second transmission mode, the first transmission mode corresponding to a capture mode, and the second transmission mode corresponding to a playback mode;

multiple image storage devices that store the image information; and

an image relay apparatus that relays the image information between the electronic image device and the multiple image storage devices, the image relay apparatus being a device that is independent from the image storage devices and is separated from the image storage devices by the Internet,

wherein;

if the first transmission mode is selected, the electronic image device automatically transmits the generated image information and user identification information for identifying the user of the electronic image device to the image relay apparatus,

when the first transmission mode is selected, the electronic image device checks whether communication is possible, and if the communication with a portable telephone is possible, transmits the image information to the portable telephone, but if communication with the portable telephone is not possible, stores the image information on a memory and then automatically terminates the first transmission mode;

if the second transmission mode is selected, the electronic image device transmits the generated image information and user identification information for identifying the user of the electronic image device to the image relay apparatus after the user manipulates a transmit member;

when the second transmission mode is selected and the transmit member is manipulated, the electronic image device checks whether communication is possible, and if the communication with a portable telephone is possible, transmits the image information to the portable telephone, but if the communication with the portable telephone is not possible, automatically terminates the second transmission mode;

the electronic image device transmits the image information to the image relay apparatus via the portable telephone;

the multiple image storage devices have individual albums prepared corresponding to each item of the user identification information for storing the image information;

the image relay apparatus, based on the user identification information received from the electronic image device via the portable telephone, automatically selects an image storage device from the multiple image storage devices and transmits the image information and the user identification information received from the electronic image device to the image storage device;

the image storage device, which receives the image information and the user identification information from the image relay apparatus stores the received image information in an album corresponding to the received user identification information; and

the portable telephone displays a summary of the status of temporarily stored images with small images, on the screen display of the portable telephone when the user wishes to reconfirm the image information recently transmitted or received via the portable telephone.

2. An image transmission system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the electronic image device transmits all the generated image information to the image relay apparatus immediately after the image information is generated and deletes the image information that it has finished transmitting.

3. An image transmission system as set forth in claim 2, wherein the electronic image device comprises storage means for storing information, temporarily stores generated image information in the storage means when the image information cannot be transmitted to the image relay apparatus, and automatically transmits the image information temporarily stored in the storage means to the image relay apparatus under specific startup conditions.

4. An image transmission system as set forth in claim 3, wherein the startup conditions are a predetermined time.

5. An image transmission system as set forth in claim 3, wherein the startup conditions are a state of communication between the electronic image device and the image relay apparatus.

6. An image transmission system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the image relay apparatus generates image identification information for identifying the image information received from the electronic image device and transmits the image identification information to the image storage device that stores the image information corresponding to the image identification information and to the electronic image device that transmitted the image information corresponding to the image identification information.

7. An image transmission system as set forth in claim 1, wherein a removable storage medium that stores the user identification information can be installed in the electronic image device, and the electronic image device transmits the user identification information stored in the installed removable storage medium to the image relay apparatus.

8. An image transmission system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the electronic image device comprises a storage means for storing information, and stores scaled-down image information obtained by compressing the data volume of image information received from and transmitted to the image relay apparatus in the storage means.

9. An image transmission system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the electronic image device comprises an identification means that identifies the user of the electronic image device, and transmits the user identification information according to the results of identification by the identification means to the image relay apparatus.

10. An image transmission system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the electronic image device comprises a display means that displays the image information.

11. An image transmission system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the electronic image device comprises an image pickup means that generates image information through an image pickup operation.

12. An image transmission system as set forth in claim 1, wherein a protocol of information transmission between the electronic image device and the image relay apparatus is different from a protocol of information transmission between the image storage device and the image relay apparatus.

13. An image transmission system comprising:

multiple electronic image devices that generate image information, the electronic image devices each having at least a first transmission mode and a second transmission mode, the first transmission mode corresponding to a capture mode, and the second transmission mode corresponding to a playback mode;

an image storage device that stores the image information; and

an image relay apparatus that relays the image information between the electronic image devices and the image storage device, the image relay apparatus being a device that is independent from the image storage device and is separated from the image storage device by the Internet,

wherein;

if the first transmission mode of one of the multiple electronic image devices is selected, the corresponding electronic image device automatically transmits the generated image information to the image relay apparatus,

when the first transmission mode is selected, the electronic image device checks whether communication is possible, and if the communication with a portable telephone is possible, transmits the image information to the portable telephone, but if communication with the portable telephone is not possible, stores the image information on a memory and then automatically terminates the first transmission mode;

if the second transmission mode of one of the multiple electronic image devices is selected, the corresponding electronic image device transmits the generated image information to the image relay apparatus after the user manipulates a transmit member;

when the second transmission mode is selected and the transmit member is manipulated, the electronic image device checks whether communication is possible, and if the communication with a portable telephone is possible, transmits the image information to the portable telephone, but if the communication with the portable telephone is not possible, automatically terminates the second transmission mode;

the multiple electronic image devices transmit the generated image information to the image relay apparatus via the portable telephone;

the image relay apparatus transmits the image information received from the multiple electronic image devices to the image storage device;

the image storage device stores the image information received from the image relay apparatus;

the image relay apparatus generates image identification information for identifying the image information received from the multiple electronic image devices and transmits the image identification information to the image storage device that stores the image information corresponding to the image identification information and to the electronic image device that transmitted the image information corresponding to the image identification information; and

the portable telephone displays a summary of the status of temporarily stored images with small images, on the screen display of the portable telephone when the user wishes to reconfirm the image information recently transmitted or received via the portable telephone.

14. An image transmission system as set forth in claim 13, wherein each of the electronic image devices comprises a display means that displays the image information.

15. An image transmission system as set forth in claim 13, wherein each of the electronic image devices comprises an image pickup means that generates image information through an image pickup operation.

16. An image transmission system as set forth in claim 13, wherein a protocol of information transmission between the electronic image devices and the image relay apparatus is different from a protocol of information transmission between the image storage device and the image relay apparatus.