Image-Capturing and Image-Distributing System for Automatically or Manually Capturing Image of User Carrying Mobile Communication Terminal

Abstract

A system and a method in which image-capturing is effected automatically or manually. When a user-carried mobile terminal receives a near field wireless signal from a near field wireless signal transmitting station installed in an image-capturing field area, it is determined that a user is present within the image-capturing field of the externally installed image-capturing device and the user-carried communication terminal transmits automatically or manually an image-capturing request to the externally installed image-capturing device. In response, the externally installed image-capturing device effects image-capturing and then transmits the obtained image to an image server. After transmission of the image-capturing request, the user-carried mobile communication terminal makes a downloading request to the image server and effects downloading via a network and the downloaded data is automatically stored within the user-carried mobile communication terminal.

Claims

1. An image-capturing and image-distributing system comprising: a near field wireless signal transmitting station; a user-carried mobile communication terminal; an image-capturing device; and an image server; wherein the near field wireless signal transmitting station has a system near field wireless signal transmitting function according to which a near field wireless signal containing encrypted image-capturing condition information is transmitted via a near field wireless communication in order to identify that a user has entered an image-capturing target area; wherein the user carried mobile communication terminal has a system client management function according to which whether image-capturing is possible or not is determined based on the image-capturing condition information decrypted from the received near field wireless signal and then an image-capturing request including a user presence area within an image-capturing field is transmitted automatically or manually to the image-capturing device if this image-capturing is determined appropriate; wherein the image-capturing device has a system client image-capturing function according to which the image-capturing of the user presence area is effected based on the image-capturing request and then the acquired image data is transmitted to the image server; and wherein the image server has a system image server function according to which the acquired image data is temporarily stored in correlation with an image-capturing location and an image-capturing time/date, and the acquired image data is transmitted to the user-carried mobile communication terminal in response to a download request therefrom which designates the image-capturing location and the image-capturing time/date.

2. The image-capturing and image-distributing system according to claim 1, wherein in place of the near field wireless transmitting station and the image-capturing device, the system comprises an image-capturing device having both the system near field wireless signal transmitting function and the system client management function.

3. The image-capturing and image-distributing system according to claim 1, wherein in place of the image-capturing device and the image server, the system comprises an image-capturing device having both the system client image-capturing function and the system image server function.

4. The image-capturing and image-distributing system according to claim 1, wherein in place of the image server, the system comprises an image server having a system image server function according to which the acquired image data is temporarily stored in correlation with an image-capturing location and an image-capturing time/date, and the acquired image data is transmitted to a cloud storage in response to a request from the user-carried communication terminal.

5. The image-capturing and image-distributing system according to claim 1, wherein in place of the near field wireless signal transmitting station, the system comprises a near field wireless signal transmitting station having a system near field wireless signal transmitting function according to which an encrypted information is generated dynamically.

6. A program for use in an image-capturing and image-distributing system comprising: a near field wireless signal transmitting station; a user-carried mobile communication terminal; an image-capturing device; and an image server; wherein the program causes a computer to realize: a system near field wireless signal transmitting function according to which a near field wireless signal containing encrypted image-capturing condition information is transmitted via a near field wireless communication in order to identify that a user has entered an image-capturing target area; a system client management function according to which whether image-capturing is possible or not is determined based on the image-capturing condition information decrypted from the received near field wireless signal and then an image-capturing request including a user presence area within an image-capturing field is transmitted automatically or manually to the image-capturing device if this image-capturing is determined appropriate; a system client image-capturing function according to which the image-capturing of the user presence area is effected based on the image-capturing request and then the acquired image data is transmitted to the image server; and a system image server function according to which the acquired image data is temporarily stored in correlation with an image-capturing location and an image-capturing time/date and the acquired image data is transmitted to the user-carried mobile communication terminal in response to a download request therefrom which designates the image-capturing location and the image-capturing time/date.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0045] FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a system according to the present invention,

[0046] FIG. 2 is a schematic showing control principle of the inventive system, and

[0047] FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of control of the inventive image-capturing and image-distributing system.

EMBODIMENT(S) OF THE INVENTION

[0048] As shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, an image-capturing and image-distributing system according to this embodiment includes a user-carried mobile communication terminal A, a near field wireless signal transmitting station B, an image-capturing device C and an image server D. The user-carried mobile communication terminal A (to be referred to simply as “terminal A” hereinafter) is a mobile (or portable) communication terminal carried by a user who is an image-capturing subject and this can typically be a smart phone. A basic function of this invention included in the terminal A is realized by execution of a program (to be referred to as “application” hereinafter) installed in the terminal A. The near field wireless signal transmitting station B has a function of transmitting (or broadcasting) near field wireless signal that can be received by the terminal A. The near field wireless signal transmitting station B is installed in each image-capturing area (shown as an image-capturing area 1, an image-capturing area 2, . . . in the exemplary illustration of FIG. 2). The image-capturing device C has an image-capturing function for image-capturing each image-capturing area as its image-capturing field as well as a communicating function. The image-capturing device C will effect image-capturing operations in repetition as long as the device C is receiving an image-capturing request from the terminal A and will forward the generated images to the image server D. The image server D will receive the images forwarded from one or more image-capturing devices and store them therein temporarily. The stored images will be transmitted to a terminal A which has sent a downloading request to be stored in accumulation in this terminal A.

[0049] When a user as an image-capturing subject leaves the image-capturing area 1, the terminal A carried by this user will stop receiving any near field wireless signals from the near field wireless signal transmitting station B belonging in this image-capturing area 1. As a result, transmission of a new image-capturing request from the terminal A to the image-capturing device C and transmission of a new downloading request to the image server D will be stopped, and new image-capturing operation or new image distribution by this user in the image-capturing area 1 will be stopped also. Yet, it is to be noted that distribution of image in response to a downloading request transmitted within the image-capturing area 1 will be continued until time-out after the exit from the image-capturing area 1. The image distribution is effected not via the near field wireless communication, but via a long distance wireless communication, so that success ratio of image distribution can be increased even when the user keeps moving or the image-capturing area is small.

[0050] The image-capturing device C which has received an image-capturing request will effect image-capturing of the image-capturing field and will then transmit it to the image server D together with and in operative linkage with an image-capturing location information and an image-capturing time/date information. Incidentally, if a plurality of users are present at a time within the image-capturing area 1, the image-capturing device C may receive image-capturing requests from a plurality of terminals A. Then, the image-capturing device A will try to meet the image-capturing requests from all of these terminals A. However, the image-capturing device per se is set with a continuous image-capturing interval of 1 second approximately (a value obtained with the currently tested configuration). Thus, if a plurality of image-capturing requests are received within this interval, the time/date of the image-capturing request will be compared with the most recent (newest) time/date of image-capturing request and will ignore the most recent image-capturing request of the difference therebetween shorter than the above-described continuous image-capturing interval.

[0051] After the terminal A transmits an image-capturing request to the image-capturing device C, this terminal A will transmit a downloading request to the image server D in order to obtain an image corresponding to this image-capturing request. This downloading request contains an image-capturing device ID and the information of the image-capturing request data in encrypted forms, so that the image server D upon receiving this downloading request will transmit to the terminal A an image corresponding to this image-capturing request data or an image which was taken at a time/date nearest the image-capturing request date. With this configuration, even if many terminals A are present at a time within a single image-capturing area, it is still possible to meet downloading requests from all of these terminals A.

[0052] When the user exiting the image-capturing area 1 now enters the image-capturing area 2, in response to a near field wireless signal from the near field wireless signal transmitting station B belonging in this image-capturing area 2, an image-capturing request for the image-capturing area 2 as an image-capturing field will be transmitted from the terminal A carried by this user to the image-capturing device C. Further, a downloading request will be transmitted to the image server D. With this, similarly to the above, the image of the image-capturing area 2 will be stored in accumulation in the terminal A carried by the user.

[0053] Next, with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 3, an example of flow of control executed among the terminal A, the near field wireless signal transmitting station B, the image-capturing device C and the image server D will be described in more detail.

[0054] When a user carrying a terminal A, which is a smart phone in this example, enters a sightseeing place such as a theme park, an application based on the present invention and installed in this terminal A will be activated (#A01). Upon activation of the application, a near field wireless signal receiving section, an image-capturing request transmitting section and an image management section will be configured within the terminal A. Then, as an initial processing, the activated application will read out addresses of image servers D to which images of the respective image-capturing devices C installed in this sightseeing location are to be distributed (#A02). Further, initial setting operations of various flags and coefficients will be effected (#A02). The near field wireless signal receiving section has following functions. Namely, this section will receive an encrypted near field wireless signal from the near field wireless signal transmitting station B which is disposed in correspondence with the image-capturing field of the image-capturing device C (#A03) and then will decrypt the encrypted near field wireless signal from the near field wireless signal transmitting station B (#A04). Then, the section will determine whether this near field wireless signal per se is appropriate for this theme park or not (#A05) and will also make comparison between an image-capturing field intensity recorded within the near field wireless signal and a received field intensity received by the near field wireless signal receiving section, and then will determine that the user carrying the terminal A is present within the image-capturing area if the received field intensity is stronger (#A06). The image-capturing request transmitting section has a function of transmitting an image-capturing request for requesting image-capturing of the image-capturing field to the image-capturing device C (#A07). The image management section generates a new downloading instance within its image management section (#A08, #A09). The downloading instance has a function of transmitting, to the image server D which manages the images acquired by the image-capturing device C, a downloading request requesting downloading of the image obtained within a time period defined by the image-capturing request (#A10). The downloading instance waits for a response from the image server D (#A11), receives the image (#A12) and then stores the received image in a memory (#A13) and discards this downloading instance itself subsequently (#A14).

[0055] All of the near field wireless signal transmitting stations B transit near field wireless signals in distribution respectively (#B02). When a user approaches an image-capturing area where a near field wireless signal transmitting station B is provided, the terminal A carried by this user will receive a near field wireless signal from this near field wireless signal transmitting station B (Yes branching at #A03). Then, based on this reception of the near field wireless signal, the terminal A will read out a communication address of the image-capturing device C corresponding to the near field wireless signal transmitting station B transmitting this near field wireless signal and the image server D (#A02) and then will transmit an image-capturing request to the image-capturing device C (#A07). Further, the terminal A will transmit a downloading request to the image server D in order to effect downloading of the image generated by this image-capturing device C (#A10). With this, the terminal A will receive the image transmitted from the image server D (#A12) and store it into the internal memory of the terminal A or in an external memory or storage (#A13). The above processes from step #A03 to step #A14 will be effected in repetition as long as the reception of the near field wireless signal is continued and all of the conditions are met.

[0056] The image-capturing device C, when activated, will check whether the image-capturing request from the terminal A has been received or not (#C01). If the image-capturing request has been received (Yes branching at #C01), the device C will effect checking of appropriateness whether the received image-capturing request is appropriate or not (#C02) and determine whether image-capturing is possible or not (#C03) and then will effect image-capturing (#C04) and obtain an image (#C05). The obtained image will be forwarded to the image server D (#C06). The above processes from step #C01 to step #C06 will be effected in repetition as long as reception of an image-capturing request from any terminal A is present.

[0057] The image server D transmits the captured image forwarded from the image-capturing device C to the terminal A from which the downloading request transmitted. In this, there is set a time period of retaining the forwarded image. Upon lapse of the predetermined retention period, the image will be erased. Normally, this predetermined period will be set to few tens of seconds or a few minutes, so that security of privacy can be ensured. To this end, the image server D constantly checks, in the course of the processes repeated as above, whether the retention period of a forwarded image has exceeded the predetermined period or not. If it is found that the retention period of image has exceeded the predetermined period, this image (“timed-up image”) will be erased (#D01). Then, it is checked whether an image has been received from an image-capturing device C or not (#D02). A received image, if any, will be temporarily stored and this image will be assigned with a reception time for checking the retention period as described above (#D03). Subsequently, it is checked whether there exists a downloading request from the terminal A or not (#D04). If a downloading request is present (Yes branching at #D04), the image stored at this timing will be read out (#D05) and this image will be transmitted to the terminal A which transmitted the above downloading request (#D06) and then the process returns to step #D01. Incidentally, if a downloading request is absent at step #D04, the process will return to step #D01.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

[0058] Installment at a theme park, a sightseeing spot, etc. is conceivable.