JP2001273230A - System and method for converting display data for terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a system and a method by which a general PC user, who has no knowledge or comprehension for establishing the function of an objective portable terminal or the transfer method of images or the like, can easily display his/her owned images or the like on the objective portable terminal. SOLUTION: A user transfers the images or the like preserved in a PC through the Internet to an image preserving/converting server. The image preserving/converting server determines an individual preservation place for each of transferred images or the like the image or the like in the determined preservation place. Afterwards, the position information of the preservation place is reported to the user. On the basis of the reported position information, the user requests the display of the image or the like to the server while using the object portable terminal. The server decides the kind or type of the portable terminal outputting the request and transfers the image or the like to the portable terminal after applying suitable processing such as data conversion, reduction, compressing work or format conversion so as to display the image on that portable terminal.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to various terminal devices connected on a network,
A system and method for transmitting multimedia data such as images. Specifically, the present invention relates to a system and method for automatically converting an image sent from a client (user) and sending the image to a portable terminal having an Internet connection function for display.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Today, with the expansion of the Internet,
Various mobile terminals that function by connecting to this have been developed. These mobile terminals have various functions, among them, display of multimedia data such as images and sound (music),
Significant enhancement of playback function. However, these mobile terminals have various standards, and the image display function and the sound reproduction function often differ greatly depending on the type (PDA, mobile phone, etc.) and model. This is due not only to the difference in hardware of the portable terminal but also to the difference in the data format that can be reproduced and displayed.

[0003] For this reason, even if a general personal computer (PC) user attempts to display an image or voice data (hereinafter referred to as an image or the like) on his or her personal computer with a portable terminal, the function of the target portable terminal is not considered. It requires a great deal of knowledge and understanding, such as understanding of images, appropriate processing of images, etc., and establishing a transfer method to a portable terminal, and it has been extremely difficult for individuals to respond.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems. In particular, a system in which a general PC user who does not have the knowledge or understanding of the function of the target mobile terminal or the method of transferring the image or the like can easily display the image or the like owned by the user on the target mobile terminal. And a method.

[0005]

The system comprises a network such as the Internet (hereinafter simply referred to as the Internet), a user's PC, an image storage / conversion server, and a target portable terminal. Each of these components can be connected to the Internet.

First, the user operates the PC hard disk, C
Images and the like stored in removable media such as D are transferred to an image and others storage / conversion server via the Internet.

[0007] The image and the like storage / conversion server determines an individual storage location for each transferred image and the like, and stores the images and the like in the determined storage location. Then, the user is notified of the location information of the storage location.

Next, the user makes a display request of an image or the like to the server using the target portable terminal based on the notified position information. The server determines the type and type of the mobile terminal that issued the request, and displays it on the mobile terminal.
After performing processing such as appropriate data conversion, reduction or compression processing, and format conversion, an image or the like is transferred to the portable terminal.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In a detailed description of a display data conversion system and method for a portable terminal according to the present invention, for simplification of description, data to be converted and displayed is image data.
The data is stored in the user's PC, and the target mobile terminal that displays the image data will be described as a mobile phone of the user (not necessarily the same person). Of course, the invention is not limited to these components.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the environment and configuration of a display data conversion system and method for a portable terminal according to the present invention. The system of the present invention includes a user's PC (12) connected to the Internet (11), an image storage / conversion server (13), and a mobile phone (14) for displaying images.
It consists of.

The PC (12) may be any terminal device that can store and output image data, including a normal personal computer, and can be connected to the Internet by dial-up or other methods.

The image storage / conversion server (13) includes a mail server function, an image storage / conversion function, and WWW.
A server system including a server function and the like, these functions may be configured on separate systems and linked with each other, or all functions may be configured on one system.

The mobile phone (14) has an Internet connection function (Web access function) and is a model capable of displaying an image on a display device.
Mo's i-mode machine and J-PHONE's J-SKY
Service-compatible devices are conceivable, but not limited to these. These and the names of companies and services that appear below are registered trademarks or service marks of the respective companies.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a more detailed configuration of the display data conversion system and method for the portable terminal shown in FIG. The user sends an image file (25) stored in a hard disk of the PC (22), a removable medium such as a CD or the like to a mail server (26) via the Internet (21).

The image file (25) may be any image created, photographed or purchased, for example,
It may be photographic image information recorded on a Picture CD created by a Picture CD service of Kodak Corporation. In this case, the user checks the photographic image on the PC and uses the e-mail function included with the Picture CD to send the image data to be sent, the sender's e-mail address, and the destination e-mail address (e-mail address of the mobile phone) to the Internet. Via the mail server (26).

The mail server (26) transfers the received electronic mail to the image storage / conversion server (23).
The image storage / conversion server (23) processes the received mail in accordance with the procedure shown in FIG. 3 (27), stores necessary data such as image files in the database (28), and at the same time, the user who sent the image and the destination The storage location address of the image file is notified to the address of the portable telephone via the Internet.

When the destination mobile phone user accesses the WEB server function (29) of the image storage / conversion server (23) and requests image data, the image storage / conversion server (23) requests the image data according to the procedure of FIG. And transmits the image data converted according to the function of the mobile phone.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure when the image storage / conversion server (23) receives an image file or the like from a user by electronic mail. Mail server (2
When 6) receives the mail from the user, it transfers it to the image storage / conversion server (23) (31). The image storage / conversion server (23) first checks whether or not the received mail conforms to a prescribed rule (32). If the e-mail violates the prescribed rules, the e-mail is processed by violating the rules (33). If the mail complies with the prescribed rules, the mail is decomposed into a sender mail address, a destination mail address (mail address of a mobile phone) and image data (34). Next, at the same time as setting a storage WEB address indicating a location where image data is to be stored, necessary data including image data is stored in a database (3).
5). As the information stored in the database, in addition to the image data, an ID and a password used for management and subsequent access, information on a date, a sender mail address, a destination mail address, a full path name of an image file, and the like can be considered. Then, the set WEB address information is transmitted by e-mail to the destination e-mail address (e-mail address of the mobile phone) together with other necessary information (3).
6). At the same time, the mail is sent to the sender's e-mail address
Address information or the like may be notified.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure when the image storage / conversion server (23) receives an access request from a mobile phone. The WEB server (29) receives an access request from a mobile phone (41).
Then, it is checked whether the transmitted WEB address is an address existing in the system (42). Where the ID
A more detailed security check may be performed using a password and other means. If the inspection result is negative, the violation processing (43) is performed and the processing ends. If the test result is affirmative, the type and type of the mobile phone accessed by the procedure shown in FIG. 5 is determined (44). Next, referring to the model database, the conversion parameters of the image data are set according to the determination result (45). Then, the image data at the designated address is converted based on the conversion parameters (46), and the converted image data is transmitted to the mobile phone (47). The user of the mobile phone that has received the image data can use the image data in various ways such as setting the received image data on a standby screen according to the function of the model.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a procedure for determining the model and type of the mobile phone accessed by the image storage / conversion server (23). In the case of a mobile phone, information indicating the model and type is included in the HTTP request header when accessing the web server. The image storage / conversion server (23) uses the information to determine the model and type of the accessed mobile phone. FIG.
For example, J-PHONE model and NTT Doc
The figure shows a case of determining the model of oMo. First, "HTTP_X_JPHONE_MSNAME" in the HTTP request header
It is determined whether a field is included (51).
If the determination is affirmative, the subsequent processing is performed as the model of J-PHONE indicated by the value of the “HTTP_X_JPHONE_MSNAME” field (52). If the judgment is negative, HTT
It is determined whether or not the “HTTP_USER_AGENT” field of the P request header contains the character string “DoCoMo” (53). If the judgment is affirmative, the "HTTP_USER_AGEN"
Since the model name is embedded in the value of the "T" field, the following processing is performed as the model of the NTT DoCoMo of that type (54). If the judgment is negative, the J-PHONE model that has accessed the NTT Doc
The subsequent processing is performed assuming that the model is not an oMo model.

[0021]

In the present system, the server automatically determines the model and type of the target portable terminal, and the displayable screen size, number of colors, image format, reproducible sound range, number of simultaneous sounds, sound source of the target portable terminal The data format and other differences between the types and types of mobile terminals are determined with reference to the model database, and the images and the like appropriately converted for the mobile terminal are transferred to the mobile terminal, so that the user is targeted. There is no need to be aware of differences in mobile terminal functions.

Further, since the system itself is general-purpose, it is possible to easily cope with not only a new model but also a new type of portable terminal simply by modifying the structure and information of the software or database of the server.

Note that the relationship between the user's PC and the target portable terminal is interchangeable. That is, it is obvious that a configuration in which an image or the like in a mobile terminal is transmitted to a PC as a target is also possible.

Further, although the embodiments of the system and method of the present invention have been described using a PC, a mobile phone, and image data, it is apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to these. For mobile phones, the WEB server is HTT
Although the information available in the P request header for use in the model identification is used, it is also possible to extract the available information from the data sent from the mobile terminal and use it, which also falls within the scope of the present invention. Is obvious.

By constructing the system according to the present invention on the Internet, it becomes possible for a user to send (gift) his / her own images and the like to a friend's portable terminal and exchange them with each other. It is also possible to perform a new service operation for the user using the system.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an environment and a configuration of a display data conversion system and method for a portable terminal according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a more detailed configuration of the mobile terminal display data conversion system and method shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure when the image storage / conversion server (23) receives an image file or the like by e-mail from a user.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure when the image storage / conversion server (23) receives an access request from a mobile phone.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a procedure for determining the model and type of the mobile phone accessed by the image storage / conversion server (23).

[Explanation of symbols]

 11, 21: Internet 12, 22: User's PC 13, 23: Image etc. storage / conversion server 14, 24: Mobile phone 25: Image file 26: Mail server 28: Database

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) H04M 11/00 303 F term (Reference) 5K030 HA06 HB02 HB21 JT09 LB16 LD13 5K033 BA15 DA19 EA07 5K067 AA34 BB04 EE02 EE10 FF02 FF23 HH21 5K101 KK02 LL12 NN18 NN21 PP03 UU19 UU20 9A001 CC05 EE02 HH28 HH34 JJ19 JJ25 JJ27 KK62

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A network comprising: a network, a transmitting terminal, a server, and a receiving terminal connected to the network, wherein the transmitting terminal transmits the multimedia data to the server together with an address of the receiving terminal. Wherein the server comprises a mail server means, a multimedia data storage and conversion means, a WWW server means and a receiving terminal device model database means, and the multimedia sent from the transmitting terminal device. Means for notifying the receiving terminal device of an address indicating a storage location of the stored multimedia data, and responding to an access request from the receiving terminal device. The model of the receiving terminal device is determined using the receiving terminal device model database, and based on the determination result. Means for converting and sending the requested multimedia data, wherein the receiving terminal device accesses the WWW server means of the server according to the notification from the server, and inputs an address indicating the notified storage location. A display data conversion system for a terminal, comprising means for requesting multimedia data using the display data conversion system. 2. The terminal display data according to claim 1, wherein the network is the Internet, and the receiving terminal device is a portable terminal device having an Internet connection function. Conversion system. 3. The terminal display data conversion system according to claim 2, wherein said portable terminal device is a portable telephone. 4. The display data conversion system for a terminal according to claim 2, wherein the multimedia data is image data. 5. A method for converting multimedia data in a server when transmitting multimedia data from a transmitting terminal device connected to a network to a receiving terminal device via a server. Sending multimedia data from a transmitting terminal device to a server via a network together with an address of a receiving terminal device; storing, in the server, the transmitted multimedia data; Notifying the receiving terminal device of the address indicating the storage location of the multimedia data; requesting the multimedia data using the notified address at the receiving terminal device; Determining the model of the terminal device, and according to the determined model, A terminal display data conversion method comprising: converting requested multimedia data; and transmitting the converted multimedia data to a receiving terminal device. 6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the step of storing includes the step of storing the multimedia data received from the transmitting terminal, the address of the receiving terminal, and the address of the transmitting terminal. A display data conversion method for a terminal, comprising a step of disassembling and storing each in a database. 7. The method according to claim 5, wherein the step of converting the multimedia data according to the determined model is performed according to the determined model in a model database prepared in a server in advance. A display data conversion method for a terminal, comprising setting a data conversion parameter by referring to the data conversion parameter, and converting data on a designated address based on the set parameter. 8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the network is the Internet, and the receiving terminal is a portable terminal having an Internet connection function. Method. 9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the mobile terminal device is a mobile phone.
Display data conversion method for terminals. 10. The display data conversion method for a terminal according to claim 8, wherein said multimedia data is image data.