JPH10308981A - Digital camera wireless communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [PROBLEMS] By connecting a wireless communication terminal to a digital camera without using a control adapter or the like, the system configuration can be simplified as compared with the conventional one, and furthermore, incoming calls are handled as much as possible during image transmission operation. The present invention provides a wireless communication system of a digital camera that can perform the communication. SOLUTION: A wireless communication terminal 2 has a PHS telephone function and a data transmission / reception function, and is connected to a digital camera 1 by a cable. One end of the cable is connected to the digital camera 1 via a three-pin connector, and the other end has a PC card slot and is connected to a PC card connector of the wireless communication terminal 2. By operating the operation keys of the wireless communication terminal 2, the image data of the digital camera 1 is temporarily stored in the memory unit of the wireless communication terminal 2 while displaying an image and information for transmission on the liquid crystal monitor of the digital camera 1. Thereafter, a call is transmitted to connect to the base station 4, and the image data is transmitted to a commercial network or the like.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a wireless communication system for transmitting image data of a digital camera to a commercial network or the like using a PHS communication system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A digital data communication system using a wireless line represented by a PHS has been put to practical use. Conventionally, when transmitting image data of a digital camera, the digital camera body is connected to the PHS terminal via a simple personal computer that interfaces with the PHS terminal, and transmits the image data with the PHS terminal in a transmission state. I have to. In addition, a handy transmitter is inserted between the digital camera body and the PHS terminal, and transmission is controlled on the digital camera side.
The PHS terminal is set to the transmission state and image data is transmitted to a predetermined location.

[0003]

For this reason, even if an attempt is made to receive a call from another terminal to the PHS terminal, the PHS terminal is busy during image data transmission, and the PHS terminal cannot receive received data or an incoming call. . In addition, since a control adapter such as a simple personal computer for controlling data transmission is inserted between the digital camera body and the PHS terminal, the number of devices constituting the transmitting side system becomes three and the communication system becomes It was complicated. An object of the present invention is to connect a wireless communication terminal to a digital camera without using a control adapter or the like, thereby simplifying the system configuration as compared with the related art, and transmitting image data to the wireless communication terminal in a state where no transmission is made. Another object of the present invention is to provide a digital camera wireless communication system capable of responding to an incoming call as much as possible during an image transmission operation by transmitting and transmitting after storing in a memory unit of a wireless communication terminal.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, a digital camera wireless communication system according to the present invention comprises a digital camera for storing photographed image data in a memory unit and a predetermined number of image data. A function of wirelessly transmitting and receiving data including images, having a memory unit, and P
A wireless communication terminal having an HS telephone function, and a wireless base station that communicates with the wireless communication terminal. When transmitting image data stored in the digital camera, connecting the digital camera to the wireless communication terminal The digital camera is directly controlled by the operation of the wireless communication terminal, and image data in the memory of the digital camera is transmitted to the memory unit of the wireless communication terminal, and then transmitted and transmitted to the wireless base station. Is configured. In the above configuration, when transmitting image data stored in the digital camera, image data to be transmitted is displayed on a liquid crystal monitor of the digital camera by operating a key button of the wireless communication terminal. Further, the memory unit of the wireless communication terminal is a shared memory unit for storing image data, character data transmitted from the wireless base station, and the like. Is configured to output a warning.

[0005]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a wireless communication system for a digital camera according to the present invention. When transmitting an image, the digital camera 1 is connected to the wireless communication terminal 2 through a cable. Image data of the digital camera 1 is sent to the memory unit of the wireless communication terminal by RS-232C. Since the wireless communication terminal 2 transmits image data stored in a target commercial network or the like, the terminal 2 becomes communicable with the PHS base station 4 by transmitting the image data, and the image data is transmitted at a speed of 29.2 Kbps.
The data is transmitted from the base station 4 to a target network or the like via the ISDN line 5.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the circuit of the digital camera and the wireless communication terminal shown in FIG. An image formed on the CCD 10 via a lens (not shown) is converted into digital data by an A / D converter 11, and
The image is displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 12 via the signal processing unit 13.
In response to a shutter operation signal from the key operation unit 16, the CPU 15 compresses the image in the signal processing unit 13 and stores the image in the memory unit 14. As the memory unit 14, a PC card or the like is used, and a plurality of (for example, 100
) Of image data can be stored.

The wireless communication terminal 2 has a PHS telephone function and a data transmission / reception function, and the memory section 18 is capable of storing character data sent by an incoming call and image data from the digital camera 1. For example, it has a capacity of 200 Kbytes, and in this case, the image data 1
Since 64 Kbytes are required per sheet, three image data and character data having received an incoming call can be stored.
When a call is made by the key operation unit 20, the CPU 17 accesses the base station 4 in the service area by the antenna 23 via the protocol CPU 19 and the RF unit 21. The telephone number is sent, the other party's terminal is called, and a call can be made.

When an incoming call is received, a speaker or the like sounds and is called. It can also be called by vibration of the vibration. CP when character data is sent
U17 stores the character data in the memory unit 18 and displays it on the liquid crystal monitor 22. At this time, an incoming call display is provided to inform the user. When transmitting image data from the digital camera 1, the operation is performed by the key operation unit 20 of the wireless communication terminal 2, and the CPU 17 sends a request command to the CPU 15 of the digital camera 1, thereby directly controlling the digital camera 1. Can control. An image can be displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 12 of the digital camera 1 and transmitted.

FIG. 3 is a front view showing an embodiment of the appearance of the wireless communication terminal. The upper flip 2A and the lower flip 2B have a thin and substantially rectangular shape, and can be folded and folded, and can be folded in the standby state. The upper flip 2A has an antenna 32 on the upper left edge, and has an incoming call lamp 29a and a ringing speaker 29b at the upper end.
An earpiece speaker 33 is provided in the upper front part. A display unit 34 is provided at the center for displaying various information such as various character information received from a modem or the like and transmission information obtained by operating keys or the like.

On the other hand, the lower flip 2B includes a power switch 30 at the lower left, a call switch 25a for transmitting a call signal and an on-hook switch 25b at the upper left, a call key 25 below, and a numeric keypad 26 thereunder. A function key 27 including keys for realizing other various functions, such as an external terminal / slave device switching key, is arranged on the side. Also, the function key 27
Also, a volume adjustment / function selection key 27F is provided.

The lower flip 2B is detachable in a sheath shape. When the lower flip 2B is removed, a connector of a PC card provided inside and other external interfaces are exposed. The other end of the cable 36 connected to the digital camera 1 with a three-pin terminal is connected to a PC card slot 35.
Is connected, and the PC card slot 35 is
The wireless communication terminal 2 is mounted on the connector of the card.
And the digital camera 1 are connected.

FIG. 4 is a view for explaining a sequence of image data transmission and reception between the digital camera and the wireless communication terminal. Hereinafter, the operation of each circuit unit in FIG. 2 will be described according to the image transmission sequence in FIG. When the image data transmission mode is selected by the function key 27 of the key operation unit 20, the CPU 17
An initialization request command is transmitted to U15. It is sent at a serial speed of 9600 bps. The CPU 15 of the digital camera 1 transmits a camera-side status command. Any one of standby OK, no recording, no card, and busy is sent as a status command.

The CPU 17 terminates when it receives a signal other than standby OK and when it times out. The timeout time at this time is, for example, 500 milliseconds (fixed value). Next, the CPU 17 transmits a baud rate request command. 9600, 1920 as the baud rate
0, 38400, 57600 bps. CPU15
Sends a baud rate confirmation command in response to the baud rate request command. The CPU 17 ends when a value other than the corresponding confirmation baud rate is received and when a timeout occurs.

Here, when setting a speed request, the CPU 17 transmits a baud rate change command.
The CPU 15 transmits a baud rate change confirmation command in response to the change command. When receiving the baud rate change confirmation command, the CPU 17 next transmits a picture data request command. Subsequently, a frame number (a plurality of frame numbers are also possible) is transmitted as 4-byte numerical data. When it is desired to confirm the image of the transmitted frame number, the image can be displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 12 by transmitting a display command. When receiving the picture data request command and the frame number, the CPU 15 transmits a picture data confirmation command and picture header data (32-byte binary data is regarded as one block). CPU17
Shifts to END command transmission when a picture data confirmation command is received and a command other than the preview confirmation command is received, and when a timeout occurs.

If a timeout occurs when picture header data is received, NAK is transmitted in a data reception response up to three times and retry is performed. If the timeout has occurred four times, the process proceeds to the END command transmission. When receiving the picture data confirmation command and the picture header data, the CPU 17 transmits a data reception response command when the data can be received. Upon receiving the data reception response command, the CPU 15 starts picture data transmission (transmits a 256-byte data block). The CPU 17 performs the same processing as the picture header data reception.
If timeout occurs, up to three times N
Send AK and retry. If it times out four times,
Move on to END command transmission. If the reception is successful, ACK is transmitted.

When receiving the picer data, the CPU 17 sends a data reception response command,
5 receives this command and repeats the picture data transmission. The data bits consist of one start bit, eight data bits, and one stop bit, and have no parity bit. When the transmission of the picture data is repeated and the reception of the image data is completed, the CPU 17 transmits an END command to the CPU 15 and ends the image transmission.

After that, the CPU 17
19. The image data is transmitted to the target commercial network via the RF unit 21 and the image data stored in the memory unit 18 is transmitted. If there is an incoming call while the digital camera 1 is transmitting image data to the wireless communication terminal 2, the user can ignore the incoming call and continue transmitting the image data as it is. It is also possible to interrupt image data transmission and respond to an incoming call. The digital camera 1
Before transmitting the image data stored in the wireless communication terminal 2,
By operating the key operation unit 20, the image data to be transmitted can be displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 12 of the digital camera 1.

In transmitting image data, the memory unit 1
If 8 is full due to accumulation of character data or the like, or if it is full during transmission, a warning to that effect is displayed on the LCD monitor 12. The memory unit 18 mounted on the wireless communication terminal 2 cannot use a memory having a very large capacity in terms of price and size. As described above, when a capacity of 200 Kbytes is used, the number of image data is about three in addition to the character data. However, when a large amount of character data is received and part of the image data is not sent to the host station, the remaining capacity of the memory unit 18 is small, so that the memory unit 18 may be filled halfway. is there.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Without inserting a simple personal computer etc. between the digital camera and the wireless communication terminal, the digital camera is directly controlled from the wireless communication terminal side to temporarily store the image data in the memory section of the wireless communication terminal, and then transmit the image data to a predetermined The image can be transmitted to a network or the like, and the image can be transmitted with a simple system as compared with the conventional system configuration. In addition, during accumulation from the digital camera to the memory unit of the wireless communication terminal, if there is an incoming call, the image transmission is interrupted to respond to the incoming call,
It is possible to select to continue the image transmission as it is, and there is an effect that the usability is better for the user as compared with the conventional communication system.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a wireless communication system of a digital camera according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a circuit of the digital camera and the wireless communication terminal of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a front view showing an embodiment of the appearance of the wireless communication terminal of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a sequence of image data transmission and reception between a digital camera and a wireless communication terminal.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Digital camera 2 ... Wireless communication terminal 3 ... Antenna 4 ... Base station 5 ... ISDN line 6 ... PC 10 ... CCD 11 ... A / D converter 12,22 ... LCD monitor 13 ... Signal processing unit 14, 18 ... Memory unit 15, 17 CPU 16, 20 Key operation unit 19 Protocol CPU 21 RF unit 26 Numeric keypad 27 Function key 28 Microphone 30 Power switch 32 Antenna 33 Receiver speaker 34 Display unit (liquid crystal monitor) 35 ... PC card slot 36 ... Cable

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A digital camera for storing photographed image data in a memory unit, a memory unit for storing a predetermined number of image data, and a function of wirelessly transmitting and receiving data including images and a PHS telephone function A wireless communication terminal, and a wireless base station that communicates with the wireless communication terminal. When transmitting image data stored in the digital camera, the digital camera and the wireless communication terminal are connected to each other to transmit the image data. The digital camera is directly controlled by the operation of (1), after transmitting the image data in the memory of the digital camera to the memory unit of the wireless communication terminal, transmitting and transmitting the image data to the wireless base station. Camera wireless communication method. 2. When transmitting image data stored in the digital camera, image data to be transmitted is displayed on a liquid crystal monitor of the digital camera by operating a key button of the wireless communication terminal. The wireless communication system of the digital camera described in the above. 3. The memory unit of the wireless communication terminal is a shared memory unit for storing image data, character data transmitted from a wireless base station, and the like, and when the storage of the character data and image data is full, 2. The digital camera wireless communication system according to claim 1, wherein a warning is output to that effect.