Image communication system

The present invention relates to an image communication system for communicating image data or the like via a network, for example.

[0002] A certain image file is on the user side, information related to the image file is stored in a server that can be connected via a communication path, and information is obtained from the server using the image on the user side. In the case, specifically: -Get the whole image file on the server side from a partial image file-Get the latest updated image on the server side from a certain image file-Similar to it from a certain image file Searching for another image When searching for bibliographic information related to a certain image file, the relationship between the image file on the user side and the image (or server) for which information is searched is determined by the user. Record by memorizing or writing down the sex By a method such as preparing data for managing it (for example, Hyper Link format data such as HTML) by the user or the data administrator on the server side Needed to show.

[0003] [Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in either method, since the description of the relationship between the image data on the user side and the data to be searched or the server is outside the image file, the image data alone is used. The relevance cannot be maintained. Therefore, for example, if the information on these relationships is lost or forgotten, the relationships will be lost.

[0004] The present invention embeds an ID in a duplicate image file generated from all or part of the original image file on the image communication server, and retains the correspondence between the ID and the original image on the server to duplicate the ID. The purpose is to enable the association between the image file and the original image file on the image communication server, and to easily obtain information about the original image on the image communication server from the image communication client program based on the duplicate image file. ..

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention has the following configuration. That is, it is an image communication system including an image communication server and an image communication client, and the image communication server is held by a holding means for storing an original image file including original image data and non-image information, and the holding means. Generate duplicate image data from all or part of the original image data<u style="single">And, the duplicated image identifier for the duplicated image data and the duplicated time when the duplicated image was processed are generated.</u>To do<u style="single">Generate</u>Means and<u style="single">The duplicated image identifier and the duplicated time generated by the generation means</u>The duplicate image data<u style="single">To</u>Add<u style="single">Addition</u>Means and the duplicate image<u style="single">identifier</u>The correspondence storage means for storing the correspondence between the image and the original image data, and the duplicate image from the image communication client.<u style="single">Identifier and said replication time</u>A receiving means for receiving a request including the above, and the duplicate image included in the request received by the receiving means.<u style="single">identifier</u>The original image data is specified from the correspondence stored in the correspondence storage means based on the above.<u style="single">specific</u>The means, the extraction means for extracting the non-image information existing in the image format from the original image file for the specified original image data, and the non-image information extracted by the extraction means to the image communication client. The image communication client has a transmission means for transmitting, and the image communication client has a duplicate image added to the duplicate image data.<u style="single">Identifier and replication time</u>Take out<u style="single">Take out</u>Means and<u style="single">Taken out by the taking-out means</u>The duplicate image<u style="single">Identifier and replication time</u>To request the image communication server for non-image information for the original image data.<u style="single">request</u>The image communication server having means<u style="single">The transmission means of</u>Is a duplicate image included in the request from the image communication client.<u style="single">identifier</u>Non-image information related to the original image data corresponding to is transmitted to the image communication client.<u style="single">When the original image file is updated after the duplication time, the information is transmitted to the image communication client to indicate that the original image file is updated.</u>。

[Embodiments of the Invention] [First Embodiment] FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of a system according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, the image communication server 101 is a server that provides an image communication service according to the present invention. The storage device 102 is a storage device for recording an image file provided by the image communication server 101, and is connected to the image communication server 101.

[0013] Inside the image communication server 101, the image communication server program p101 and the duplicate image generation program p102 are operating, and in an arbitrary storage area that can be referred to by both the image communication server program p101 and the duplicate image generation program p102. A correspondence table t101 showing the correspondence between the duplicate image file ID and the original image is held.

[0014] An image file is stored in the storage device 102, and for example, the operator can select a desired image file as the original image file d101 from the image files.

[0015] The image communication client 111 is a device that serves as a client of the image communication service, and the image communication client program p111 is operating inside the device.

[0016] Further, a storage device 112 is connected to the image communication client 111. The duplicate image file d111 is stored in the storage device 112, and the duplicate image file d111 is generated from the original image file d101 by the duplicate image generation program p102, and has an ID inside the image file. It is assumed that the duplicate image file d111 is passed from the image communication server 101 to the image communication client 111 by some means such as communication or exchange of recording media.

Further, the image communication server 101 and the image communication client 111 are connected by an information communication path 121, and can communicate with each other. This information communication path 121 is an arbitrary communication path through which the server and the client can communicate with each other, and is generally Ethernet.<u style="single">(Registered trademark)</u>Although it is a wired connection such as a cable, a telephone line, or RS232C, it may be another connection method such as a wireless connection using radio waves or infrared rays, or a combined connection form thereof. Further, the communication path 121 may be connected via a plurality of devices and programs (for example, a communication relay program such as a communication relay device or a proxy program) on the way.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing a processing flow of the duplicate image generation program p102.

[0019] The duplicate image generation program p102 is a program that generates a duplicate image file d111 for distribution from the original image file d101 held by the storage device 102. First, the duplicate image file d101 is duplicated in whole or in part. Generate an image file (s501). Next, generate the ID to be given to the duplicate image file (s502). This duplicate image file ID may be just a string of letters or numbers, or may include information about the location of the image communication server 101 on the communication path 121 such as a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) or a telephone number. It may be in shape. Next, embed the generated duplicate image file ID inside the duplicate image file (s503). Further, the relationship between the duplicate image file ID and the original image d101 is registered in the correspondence table t101 (s504).

[0020] Here, the processes of s501 to s504 have been described in such steps and order for convenience of explanation, but the order of these steps may be changed, or some of these steps may be in one step. It does not matter if it is processed. Another method is to embed an ID in the original image file in advance and copy the ID embedded in the original image file in the duplicate image file generation step (s501) to the duplicate image file as the duplicate image file ID. There is also a method of adding some data (for example, a character string or the like) to the ID of the original image file, or adding an ID synthesized by performing an appropriate operation to the duplicate image file as a duplicate image file ID.

[0021] It is assumed that the duplicate image file d111 generated by the above processing is passed to the image communication client 111 by some means. Some means, for example<u style="single">flexible</u>It may be delivered to the user who operates the image communication client in the form of being recorded on a medium such as a disk or CD-ROM, or the image communication server 101 on the information communication path 121 or other information communication path. Or another server, which may be referenced by the image communication client 111 and stored in the storage device 112, or the image communication server 101 or another on the information communication path 121 or other information communication path. It may be stored in the server and referenced by the image communication client 111 and stored in the storage device 112, or another method may be used.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a processing flow on the image communication client program p111 side.

The image communication client program p111 running on the image communication client 111 first refers to the duplicate image file d111 stored in the storage device 112, and extracts the duplicate image file ID embedded therein. (s201). Next, based on the duplicate image file ID extracted in s201, a request including the duplicate image file ID is generated (s202), and the request is transmitted to the image communication server 101 (s203). This request is issued to request information related to the original image file d101 itself or the original image file. At this time, even if the duplicate image file ID does not contain the location information of the image communication server 101, the request is made by incorporating the information regarding the location of the image communication server 101 on the communication path 121 in advance in the image communication client program p111. Can be generated and sent.

[0024] Since the series of processes of the image communication client program p111 is internal processes of the image communication client program p111 and does not need to be made aware of by the user, for example, the user interface of the client program p111 is a user. The duplicate image file d111 may be presented to the user to perform an operation that triggers the start of request processing from the client.

FIG. 6 is a graphical example of the interface between the presentation of the duplicate image file d111 and the start trigger of request processing. In the case of this example, the graphical interface 601 of the image communication client program p111 presents the contents of the duplicate image file 111 to the image display area 602, and performs request processing triggered by the user pressing the button 603.

[0026] Fig. 7 shows an example in which the interface of the presentation of the duplicate image file d111 and the start trigger of the request processing is a character-based interface such as a command line. In FIG. 7, the character string "imgsrch" is a command that should instruct the start of the client program p111, and is an example in which the start of the client program p111 triggers the start of request processing. Also, "xxxxxxxx.img" is a name that means duplicate image file d111, for example, MS-DOS or UNIX.<u style="single">(Registered trademark)</u>It is like a file name in the system, and by giving it as an argument of the command "imgsrch", it indicates the duplicate image file d111.

[0027] FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a processing flow on the image communication server program p101 side.

[0028] The image communication server program p101 has a request from a client program (for example, the image communication client program p111) after being started (s301). When the request is received (s302), the image duplicate file ID of the duplicate image file d111 is extracted from the request (s303). Next, the original image d101 having a correspondence with the duplicate image file ID is specified by referring to the correspondence table t101 (s304). Next, the image communication server program p101 creates information related to the original image file d101 based on the original image file d101 specified by s304 (s305) and sends it to the image communication client p111 (s306).

[0029] In s307, the termination process of the server program is determined, but this is a step described for generalization, and in the case of a normal server program, the determination expression of s307 is always false and the process is set to s301. It is common to go back and have the request again.

[0030] The information related to the original image file d101 is, for example, the following information. Information on how to capture or refine digital data (File Source) Information on copyright (Intellectual property) Information on the content of the image (person, place, etc. in the image) (Content description) Camera used for shooting Information about camera (Camera information) Information about camera settings (exposure, shutter speed, focal distance, presence / absence of flash, etc.) at the time of shooting (Per Picture camera setting) Information about digital camera specific resolution and mosaic filter (Digital camera characterization) Information such as film manufacturer name, product name, type (negative / positive, color / black and white) (Film description) Information on type and size when the original is a book or printed matter (Original document scan description) Scan image In the case of, information about the scanner and software used and the person who operated it (Scan device) These information exist as non-image information in the image format considered in this embodiment. This information is extracted from the original image file d101 by the image communication server 101 in response to the request from the image communication client 111, and is returned to the image communication client 111.

[0031] As described above, by using the duplicate image file d111 having the duplicate image file ID, it is possible to easily access the image communication server 101 and retrieve the information regarding the original image file d101 that is the source thereof. Become.

[Second Embodiment] In the present embodiment, in the information generation step process s305 of the server program p111 in FIG. 3 of the first embodiment, for example, a second duplicate image duplicated from the whole or a part of the original image file 101. Generate a file and return it to the image communication client program p111 in step S306. This makes it possible to search for a duplicate image of the entire original image or a part of the other image from the duplicate image of a part of the original image.

[Third Embodiment] In the present embodiment, a multi-frame format image file such as a Tiff format multi-frame image data file is used as the original image file d101 of the second embodiment. Of course, regardless of the Tiff format, the duplicate image file d111 may be an image file generated from arbitrary image data among a plurality of frame image data possessed by the original image file d101. At this time, the image format of the duplicate image file d101 or the second duplicate image file does not have to be the same as that of the original image file d101. As a result, the original image or a part of the original image can be searched from the image data of a part of the multi-frame image.

[Fourth Embodiment] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the concept of a hierarchical image file having a plurality of the same images having different resolutions, such as the FlashPix format. In FIG. 4, one image file 401 contains image data 411,412,413 in which the same image is represented by three different resolutions.

[0032] In the second embodiment, as the original image file d101, as illustrated in FIG. 4, a hierarchical image file having a plurality of the same images having different resolutions can be applied. In this case, the duplicate image file d111 may be an image file generated from arbitrary image data among a plurality of image data possessed by the original image file d101. At this time, the image format of the duplicate image file d101 or the second duplicate image file does not have to be the same as that of the original image file d101.

[0033] Thereby, based on the image data of a certain resolution passed to the client, the image data of another resolution can be searched.

[Fifth Embodiment] In the second embodiment, as the original image file d101, for example, an image file of the progressive coding method of the JPEG image coding method defined in ISO / IEC 10918, or an image file of the progressive coding method of ISO / IEC 11544. It is also possible to apply an image file that holds an image in a hierarchical difference structure, such as an image file of the JBIG image encoding method defined in. In this case, the duplicate image file d111 may be an image file generated from image data sufficient to form an image of an arbitrary hierarchy of the original image file d101. At this time, the image format of the duplicate image file d101 or the second duplicate image file does not have to be the same as that of the original image file d101. As a result, it is possible to search for the difference information necessary for generating image data of another resolution based on the image data of a certain resolution passed to the client.

[Sixth Embodiment] In the present embodiment, the original image file d101 is an image file that is updated automatically or manually with the passage of time, for example, a meteorological image transmitted by a meteorological satellite.

[0034] FIG. 8 is a processing flow chart of the image communication client program. Since the processing according to the flow chart of FIG. 8 is the processing of the image communication client program of the first embodiment described by FIG. 2 with one step (step S802) added, only the added portion will be described.

According to FIG. 8, the image communication client program extracts the duplicate image file generation time information from the duplicate image file after extracting the ID from the duplicate image file d111 (s802). As the name suggests, the duplicate image file generation time information is information indicating the time when the duplicate image file d111 is generated from the original image file d101, and may simply be the time stamp of the duplicate image file d111. Further, when a field of the generation time of the image file is provided inside the image format such as the FlashPix format, the field may be referred to. Further, if the duplicate image generation program embeds the information of the time when the duplication process is performed in the ID generation in the ID generation step in s502 of FIG. It is a process to retrieve information. Next, the image communication program generates a request from the duplicate image file ID and the duplicate image file generation time information (s803), and sends the request to the image communication server (s804).

[0036] FIG. 9 is a processing flow chart of the image communication server program. Since the processing according to the flow chart of FIG. 9 is obtained by adding some steps (s904, s906) to the processing of the image communication server program of the first embodiment described by FIG. 3, only the added portion will be described. To do.

According to FIG. 9, the image communication server program receives the request from the image communication client program, extracts the duplicate image file ID from the request, and then extracts the duplicate image file generation time information (s903). Next, the generation time information of the original image file, simply the time stamp of the original image, or depending on the image format, is taken out from the corresponding field and compared with the duplicate image file generation time information extracted earlier, and the duplicate image file generation time is compared. Determine if the original image file has been updated since then (s906). If it is determined that the original image file has been updated as a result of step s906, the process flows to step s907 and the information is transmitted to the image communication client program. On the contrary, when it is determined that the update has not been performed, the process flows to the end determination process of step s909.

[0038] Thereby, when the original image is updated, the duplicate image can be easily updated.

[7th Embodiment] An image database is added to the system according to the 1st embodiment, and further, in the information generation step process s305 of the server program p111, for example, a search for the original image file 101 is performed, and as a result, for example, the original Keywords and other information added to the image file 101 may be used as information related to the original image. Thereby, not only the image data but also the data related to the original image can be searched from the duplicated image.

[0039] [Other Embodiments] Even if the present invention is applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices (for example, a host computer, an interface device, a reader, a printer, etc.), the device including the device (for example). For example, it may be applied to a copier, a facsimile machine, etc.).

[0040] Further, an object of the present invention is to supply a storage medium in which a program code of software that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiment is recorded to a system or device, and to supply a computer (or CPU or MPU) of the system or device. Is also achieved by reading and executing the program code stored in the storage medium.

[0041] In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the function of the above-described embodiment, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

[0042] As a storage medium for supplying the program code, for example,<u style="single">flexible</u>Disks, hard disks, optical disks, magneto-optical disks, CD-ROMs, CD-Rs, magnetic tapes, non-volatile memory cards, ROMs, etc. can be used.

[0043] Further, by executing the program code read by the computer, not only the functions of the above-described embodiment are realized, but also the OS (operating system) running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. ) Etc. perform a part or all of the actual processing, and the processing may realize the function of the above-described embodiment.

[0044] Further, the program code read from the storage medium is written in the memory provided in the function expansion board inserted in the computer or the function expansion unit connected to the computer, and then based on the instruction of the program code. The case where the function expansion board, the CPU provided in the function expansion unit, or the like performs a part or all of the actual processing, and the processing realizes the function of the above-described embodiment is also included.

[Effect of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, an ID is embedded in a duplicate image file generated from all or a part of the original image file on the image communication server, and the correspondence between the ID and the original image. By holding the image on the server, it is possible to easily search for the original image on the image communication server based on the duplicate image from the image communication client having the duplicate image file.

[Brief Description of Drawings] [Fig. 1] Fig. 1 is a system configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a processing flow chart of a client program.

FIG. 3 is a processing flow chart of a server program.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram of an image file having images having different resolutions hierarchically.

FIG. 5 is a processing flow chart of a duplicate image generation program.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of an interface of a client program.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of an interface of a client program.

FIG. 8 is a processing flow chart of a client program.

FIG. 9 is a processing flow chart of a server program.

[Code description] 101 Image communication server 102 Storage device 111 Image communication client 112 Storage device 121 Information communication path p101 Image communication server program p102 Duplicate image generation program p111 Image communication client program d101 Original image file d111 Duplicate image file t101 Correspondence table