JP2001245290A - Image compositing apparatus and image processing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image processing system, that can transmit an image photographed, composited and output by an image synthesizer to an optional mobile phone, an optional PHS or an optional PDA or the like, where the image is displayed, via a communication channel. SOLUTION: The image processing system is provided with the image compositing apparatus, having an image compositing means that composites a background or foreground image, selected by a user with an object image and having an image transmission means that transmits the composited image and attribute information set by the user via a communication channel. The system is also provided with a center until that receives the composited image and the attribute information sent from the image synthesizer and that transfers the composited image to a terminal, having a display function designated by the attribute information.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image processing system for synthesizing an image of a subject with arbitrarily selected image data and transmitting the synthesized image to a personal computer, a portable telephone, or the like via communication means. is there.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an image printing apparatus installed in a street, a storefront, a game center, or the like, a frame image selected by a user from a plurality of frame images (characters, landscape images, posters, etc.) prepared in advance. Then, synthesize the subject image taken by the camera built in the housing,
There is known a configuration in which a printout is provided to a user.

When using the image printing apparatus, a user first selects a desired frame image from a plurality of prepared frame images. When the frame image is selected, the selected frame image and the user who is the subject photographed by the camera are simultaneously displayed on the monitor screen.
The user determines his or her position in the frame image while moving his / her own shooting position while watching the monitor screen.
After the position is determined, the subject is photographed, and the subject image and the frame image are combined and provided to the user as an arbitrarily divided print.

On the other hand, recently, a portable telephone, a PHS, and a small information portable terminal PD connected to the portable telephone, which can easily make a call.
The number of users of A (Personal Digital Assistant) has increased, and it has begun to spread not only as a telephone but also as a means for performing mail, file transfer, and data communication at a destination. In these portable information terminals, portable telephones and PHSs that can display not only text data but also WEB HTML data and image data are also on sale. Mobile phones and PHSs capable of browsing e-mails and WEBs have begun to spread widely because they can easily view and obtain necessary information wherever they are. In recent young generations, stickers printed from the image printing apparatus are attached to their mobile phones in order to give their mobile phones and PHS their own uniqueness.

[0005]

In the conventional image printing apparatus, the output result of the synthesized image is only a printed matter called a sticker. If the number of printed sheets is exhausted, a fee is added on the spot where the printing is performed. Then, other than reprinting the same, the same could not be duplicated, nor could it be edited on the printed output. Furthermore, since it is not possible to hold data as data only as an output as a printed matter, it is not possible to input or write an image to a homepage on the Internet, browse, or distribute data via communication. For this reason, displaying images of yourself and pets together, group photos with friends, etc. as background images on the liquid crystal display of the mobile phone, and writing images and comments with images directly on the Internet homepage Could not.

An object of the present invention is to transfer an image photographed by an image printing apparatus and synthesized and output via communication, and to transmit the image data to an arbitrary portable telephone, PHS or PDA. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image processing system that can display the image.

[0007]

To achieve the above object, the present invention provides an image synthesizing means for synthesizing a subject image and a background or foreground image selected by a user, and an image synthesizing means for setting the synthesized image and a user. An image synthesizing apparatus having image transmitting means for transmitting a set of attribute information via a communication line, receiving a composite image and attribute information transmitted from the image synthesizing apparatus, and And a center device for transferring the synthesized image to the terminal device with a display function.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the image processing system of the present invention. As shown in FIG.
104c (see FIG. 2) is connected to the communication network 101 by communication lines 102a to 102C. Communication line 102
a to 102c are general wired and wireless (cellular phones, PHS)
It can be either a line or a dedicated line. Communication network 10
1 is operated by one or more providers that connect to the Internet. This communication network 101 has an image control center 105 via a communication line 103a.
Is connected. The image control center 105 is, so to speak,
It is a server and plays the role of an HTTP server and a mail server that publish home pages on the Internet. The communication line 103a is different from the communication lines 102a to 102c,
A dedicated line with a high data transfer rate is used. For example, SMDS (Switche), which is proposed by the U.S.A.
d Multimegabit Data Service) or a high-speed digital dedicated line such as OC3 (line standard using optical fiber, ATM line capable of data transfer rate up to 155 Mbps). 1.54 for SMDS
The line with 4Mbps speed is called T1, and the line with 44.746Mbps is called T3. T1 can use 24 voice lines, and T3 can use 672 voice lines. T1 is 24 for ISDN 64Kbps B channel
Equivalent to the main.

The communication network 101 includes communication lines 103b, 1
An Internet terminal 106 and a mobile phone (or PHS) 107 can be connected to each other via the terminal 03c. Internet terminals 106 are image synthesizing devices 104a to 104
The image data transmitted from any one of (c) and (c) can be received via the image control center 105 and displayed on the display screen.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing the internal structure of the image synthesizing devices 104a to 104c. A space capable of accommodating a plurality of subjects 201 is provided inside the external housing 202. The rear surface of the outer housing 202 does not need to be constituted by a wall, but may be constituted by a curtain, a screen, or the like. A wall constituting the inner back surface and the inner side surface of the outer housing 202,
Alternatively, the curtain and the screen are colored blue or green on one side to perform a chroma key synthesis process. On the front side of the subject 201, a camera 203 for photographing the subject 201 and a video printer 206 for printing the photographed subject image are arranged. The camera 203 is, for example, C
A CD camera, a video camera, or a digital stell camera is used, and its field of view is set so that an image of the whole body from the head to the feet of one or more subjects 201 who have entered the housing can be taken. The monitor / touch panel 204 outputs a position signal indicating the position when touching or pressing an arbitrary position on the display screen. In this embodiment, selection of various operation menus, selection of a background image, Used to specify the composition position, angle, and size of the image, and perform the operations required in the present invention, such as confirming the photographed subject image, photographing, compositing, printing, displaying, transmitting to outside, posting a magazine, etc. Do. A communication control device 207 for connecting to an external network is connected to the control device 205. In FIG. 2, it is arranged outside the outer housing 202, but it may be built in.
The communication control device 207 includes the communication lines 102a to 102 in FIG.
2c is connected to the communication network 101.

FIG. 3 shows an image synthesizing apparatus 102a to 102c.
It is a figure which shows the detailed internal structure of. The camera unit 301 can be controlled from the control device 311. Camera unit 3
01 is a low-resolution NTSC output (640 × 480 pixels) for displaying moving images and a high-resolution digital data output (1280 × 102
4) It has two outputs. When actually photographing, high-resolution data can be directly sent to the printer 302 via the control SCSI board 303, and a high-quality print result can be obtained. The resolution of the NTSC output and the digital data output varies depending on the camera used. The printer 302 is a printer having a digital I / F,
The digital data transmitted through the control SCSI board 303 and the photographing / combining result are printed. The SCSI board 303 performs control / photographing data input from the camera 301 and high-speed data transfer for data output to the printer 302.
The capture board 304 performs video signal capturing for displaying a monitor moving image captured by the camera unit 301 on a personal computer monitor (display) 306.
The VGA board 305 displays images and characters on a personal computer monitor. The display 306 also serves as the touch panel 307. The display 306 displays an operation method, a photographed image, a monitor screen of a subject, and the like.
Numeral 7 detects positional information touched or pressed by a transparent panel provided on the CRT screen of the display 306, and when the positional information is detected on the screen, various operation information is input. The coordinate input information detected from the touch panel 307 is converted into a mouse interface by the touch panel control device 308. Note that the touch panel control device 308 is connected to the serial interface of the control device 311. An I / O board 309 is built in the control device 311. It detects information on all information such as power and ON / OFF of coins and outputs ON / OFF information, detects insertion of coins and presses of switches, and advances a coin counter and a print counter. Also, ON for controlling lighting and extinguishing of the lighting lamp
/ OFF information, and according to the ON / OFF information,
Lighting such as a fluorescent lamp is turned on / off by an electric / electronic switch such as a relay. The sound board 310 outputs a voice guidance message and a BG indicating that the machine is operating.
Output M. The control device 311 includes various boards and FDs.
It is composed of a computer equipped with D, PD, and HDD (mounted on a removable case), and controls the entire system. SCSI board 303, capture board 30
4. The VGA board 305, the I / O board 309, the sound board 310, the serial interface 314, and the line connection device 315 are built in the control device 311.

Although a functional block diagram of the control device 311 is not shown, a memory is provided in the control device 311 to store subject image data input from the camera unit 301, and to issue a command issued to the CPU and image synthesis. An instruction group serving as control means of the apparatus is stored as a program. Also,
The processing data of the CPU is also temporarily stored as a work memory. A pattern memory is provided in addition to the memory,
The storage areas are divided in advance so that different types of data are stored separately. One of the divided pattern memories includes background image data to be superimposed on the subject image,
Area-specific brightness / saturation data for correcting the brightness and saturation of the subject and guide data such as an operation menu displayed on the display 306 are stored. An image captured by the user is stored in another area of the pattern memory.

The uninterruptible power supply 312 is for backing up the power supply for operation until the control device 311 normally completes the termination processing in the event of a power failure or inadvertent switching off of the switch. The control device 311 also performs encryption processing on the input attribute information. Since the encryption here is not particularly characterized in the present invention, a detailed description thereof will be omitted. However, even an encryption algorithm having a high degree of difficulty in decryption such as the RSA method, which is a simple one in which data is simply replaced, is used. It doesn't matter.

The control board 313 is a board on which a circuit for converting an ON / OFF signal to the power supply from the control device 311 into a voltage value suitable for various devices (coin selectors, switches, counters) is mounted. For example, since the input / output voltage of the I / O board 309 mounted on the control device 311 is DC 12 V, a power supply circuit of 12 V is mounted. In addition, it supplies power for control to each relay and the like, and power for voltage application to switches and the like.

The serial interface 314 transmits digital data from the control device 311 to the line connection device 315.
It has a function of converting between parallel data and serial data for transmitting and receiving data.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the internal configuration of the image control center 105. The image control center 105 is a server that converts image data sent from the image synthesizing devices 104a to 104c and performs registration transfer, and has a role of an HTTP server and a mail server. The CPU 401 in the image control center 105 performs all controls and assigns a unique ID to each piece of image data transmitted from each of the image combining devices 104a to 104c. The memory 402 stores, as a program, a command issued to the CPU 401 and a command group serving as control means for image registration control and transfer control. The processing data of the CPU 401 is also temporarily stored as a work memory. The I / O control unit 403 exchanges data with each processing unit. The encryption processing unit 404 decrypts the encrypted file transmitted from each of the image synthesis devices 104a to 104c. When the user's personal HP (dedicated directory) is set, the authentication setting unit 405 sets
Authentication setting is performed using the image ID of the user at the time of shooting and the password input by the user as one set. If the user
ID entered first when accessing P
Also checks whether the combination of password and password is correct. The image input unit 406 is connected to each image synthesizing device 104a.
Input a background pattern to be sent to .about.104c. The pattern memory 407 stores a background image. The image processing unit 408 includes an image size changing unit 409 and an image converting unit 410
It is constituted by. The image size change unit 409 changes the size of the image according to the information of the registration destination and the transfer destination. The image conversion unit 410 converts the type of an image according to information on a registration destination and a transfer destination. For example, multiple consecutive JPE
It is also possible to convert a G image into an animation GIF and convert it into an image that appears to be moving.

The image output unit 411 is connected to the image control center 10.
Display output is performed to check the image registered on 5. The data storage unit 412 matches the ID assigned by the CPU 401 with the image and stores the image. Further, an auxiliary storage device 4
13 and stores the data read from the CPU 13.
The data designated from 401 is stored in the auxiliary storage device 413. The auxiliary storage device 413 stores and stores a mail sent from each of the image synthesizing devices 104a to 104c described later. The mail check unit 415 is provided by the CPU 4
Based on the command from 01, a mail input / output from / to the external line 417 via the communication control I / F 416 is checked. This e-mail refers to each of the image compositing devices 104a to 104c.
Means an email with an image file sent from. The timer 415 is used for checking mail periodically.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a table for storing attribute data sent from the image synthesizing devices 104a to 104c to the image control center 105. The ID 501 is a number assigned to distinguish each image.
Unique values are individually assigned to the synthesized images.
In the present embodiment, the ID 501 has 12 digits,
It does not have to be this number of digits. The telephone number 502 is the telephone number of each user. For each phone, enter the number starting with the area code. It is determined whether a 10-digit number is input for a wireless telephone such as a mobile telephone or a PHS, and an 11-digit number is input for an ordinary general telephone. The first three digits determine the type of line. When an area code is input, it is determined from the total number of digits. The mail address 503 is an e-mail address of the user. It is used when transferring various information and a synthesized file to the user. The line type 504 indicates the line type of each telephone. The line type 504 is determined based on the total number of digits of the telephone number 502. The telephone type type 505 is determined by the telephone type. The first three digits of the telephone number 502 determine whether the mobile phone is a PHS or a general phone.

The telephone format type 506 indicates the type of the telephone, and is used to determine whether the image can be transferred from the image control center 105. When the user makes an input, a list of mobile phones is displayed in advance, and input is made by selecting from the list. The image format 507 indicates the type of the image format when the image is transferred to the telephone or posted on the homepage.
The JPEG format or PNG format is selected when transferring an image to a telephone, and the GIF format is selected when posted on a homepage. The image size change 508 indicates whether or not the image size has been changed. When an image is transferred to a telephone, the size of the liquid crystal display differs depending on the telephone format type 506, so that the change size differs for each model. 3 if posted on homepage
20 × 200 pixels are changed to the standard and optionally changed to the required size. HP writing presence 509
Indicates whether to write on the homepage. The password 510 is used for authentication when creating a personal homepage.
When the presence / absence of HP writing 509 is set and data is not written in the password 510, the image is made public on a public homepage without creating a personal homepage.

FIGS. 6 and 7 show image synthesizing devices 104a to 104a.
It is a flowchart which shows the internal process of 104c. First, the power is turned on as an opening. When the power is turned on, confirmation of blinking of the fluorescent lamp lighting device and confirmation of activation of the control device 311 are performed as device operation confirmation, shutter speed and aperture are set as camera photographing preparation, and further, the printer 302 is prepared for printing. Warm-up is started (step 610).

When the initial setting in step 601 is completed,
A demonstration for accepting a customer operation is started, and an introduction of an image synthesizing apparatus and a demonstration of an operation procedure are performed (step 60).
2). When a specified number of coins are inserted to actually start shooting, a processing procedure for shooting is displayed on the screen. First, the frame type selection is displayed on the screen. Here, a frame that the user wants to capture in this background is arbitrarily selected (step 603). In the next process, the photographing situation is confirmed. Select a frame that will be a wide image, if you want to take it with multiple people (step 604). Select a frame that will be a slim image. This is selected when the whole body is photographed alone (step 605). Select the frame that will be the up image. This is selected when shooting by bust up alone (step 606), and one of the frames is always selected. Foreground image masking is performed on the background frame selected in step 603 (step 607). Normally, the present apparatus performs synthesis using a total of three images. First, mask processing is performed on the foreground image of the arbitrarily selected frame. The overlap position between the photographed subject and the foreground image is confirmed by performing the mask processing. At the time of selection, the moving image of the subject is actually taken in (step 608), and the moving image is synthesized and displayed in the selected frame while being displayed as a moving image.
Foreground image masked in step 607 and step 6
The image is synthesized and displayed so as to sandwich the subject image of the moving image captured between the subject image and the background frame selected in step 03 (step 609). The photographing data on the subject side used at this time and the moving image data of low resolution of NTSC are used. Here, the resolution uses data having a resolution of 640 × 480 pixels. A subject image of the captured moving image is photographed (step 610). Here, shooting is performed using a still still image. When actually photographing, the output is switched to high-resolution image data, here, data of 1280 × 1024 pixels, instead of the low-resolution image.

Distortion of the captured still image,
Color, brightness, density correction and image size correction 2
One of the two forms of correction is performed (step 611). Next, the captured image is stored (step 612). The order is affected, but the memory here is that the image with distortion, color, brightness and density corrected is stored first, the size of the image is corrected based on the stored result, and the correction is performed. The photographed image is stored under a name different from the first stored image. The captured image stored first is a target of image synthesis in step 615, and the captured image stored with a different name is used for display. The size of the image is reduced and synthesized with the selected background frame (step 613). The reason for reducing the image is that at this time the user has not decided which image to print, and the result of shooting and combining is displayed on the display 3.
This is because it is necessary to display a plurality of images in the limited display area 06. Next, the processing from step 607 to step 613, that is, photographing, correction, and combining are repeated three times, and the three combined images captured and combined are all displayed on the display 306.

The subject or the operator determines which one of the three composite images displayed on the display 306 is desired to be printed (step 614). Since the image determined in step 614 is a reduced image for display, the image of the first size stored in step 612 and the image to be actually printed are called out and combined with the background (step 615). .

For the determined still image after synthesis,
Before printing, graffiti or arbitrary color change can be performed on the image (step 616). The result of the change is displayed on the display 306 in real time.

Next, a print type selection and a print output type are selected. The template of the print result is displayed on the display 306 and is selected. The user is prompted to select whether to print on a 16-divided sticker or to print on an 8- or 4-part sticker (step 701). Printing is started based on the selected result (step 702). While printing continues, it is checked in parallel whether there is any posting to the magazine or to the HP or display-equipped telephone (step 703). When the post is confirmed in step 703, the user inputs the attribute information shown in FIG. 5 and the data necessary for the post on the display screen (step 704). The user is re-confirmed whether there is no mistake in the input contents and re-confirms whether or not the post is really made (step 705). If it is confirmed that the attribute information is not to be posted, it indicates that the input attribute information has been deleted.

Next, the user is asked to select a post destination.
The user is allowed to select from three of a magazine, a telephone with a display function, and the Internet (step 706). In the case of a magazine, several magazine names are displayed, and one of them is selected. Posting to the Internet will be described later with reference to FIG. In the case of a magazine posting, the image and the attribute data are linked and stored in the auxiliary storage device in the image synthesizing device (step 70).
7).

If the user selects not to post in step 703, a message about the printing status, such as how far the printing has progressed, is displayed on the display 306. That is, the printing time is about three minutes, so that the progress of printing is displayed, the progress status is displayed, and the combined image is displayed (step 708).

When the printing is completed and the printing result is output, the countdown starts (step 709). This countdown is for confirming whether to continuously print the same type of sticker, that is, for confirming whether or not to store the data of the photographed data, and a predetermined number of coins are not inserted within a certain time. In this case, the process ends, and the photographing data is deleted from the memory (step 71).
0), when a specified number of coins are inserted within a specified time, printing is further continued, and the same printed matter as the printed one is further printed (step 711).

FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing the transition of processing between the image synthesizing device, the image control center, and the user display device (devices such as a mobile phone and a personal computer). In the image synthesizing device, the processed synthesized image data,
Phone number, phone type, user ID, E
Optional attribute information 811 such as mail address and display destination
Is transmitted to the image control center (step 801). The attribute information 811 includes some or all of the items of the attribute information input in FIG. In this case, the transmission to the image control center is performed by a mail with an image attached. The image control center periodically receives mail. The image control center receives the transmitted composite image data and attribute information, and performs image processing and transfer processing (step 802). The transmitted attribute information is written in the attribute data table 812. With reference to the written attribute data table 812, the presence or absence of registration of an image and the transfer destination of the image are determined (step 803). Depending on the judgment in step 803, write on the homepage,
Decide whether to transfer to a telephone or transfer by e-mail, and perform image processing and change image size (step 80)
4). The attribute information 813 in the attribute data table 812 indicates a case of transferring to the homepage. In this case, the image format is changed to GIF, and the standard image size is 320 × 2.
00, and the URL of the display destination is registered. This value changes depending on the format of the captured image. The display destination URL is displayed to the user in advance on the image combining device side. The display may be displayed on the display screen during the combining process on the image combining device, or may be printed on the output print result. The attribute information 814 indicates a case where the attribute information 814 is transferred to a telephone equipped with a display device. The image format is changed to JPEG, and when changing the image size, the image size is set to 85 × 120 or 74 × 105 according to the liquid crystal size of the mobile phone. However, in this case, no image is transferred. The attribute information 815 indicates a case of forwarding to an e-mail and a displayable telephone. The image format is changed to JPEG, and the image size is set to 70 × 50. The e-mail address of the transfer destination is registered, and the image file is attached. After the transfer destinations are determined, registration processing and transfer processing are performed for each transfer destination. When the attribute information 813 is selected, the user-side display device refers to a URL that has been notified in advance. When the attribute information 814 is selected, a call is made to the registered telephone number from the image control center to inform the user of the image distribution procedure. The contact information of the delivery destination is transmitted, and the image is transferred by the user. When the attribute information 815 is selected,
The image file is attached to the registered e-mail address and transmitted.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a process of publishing a photographed image on the Internet. First, the subject is photographed and synthesized (step 901). A message "Watch right now?" Is displayed on the screen, and the user is requested to make a selection (step 902). If "not see" is selected, the destination of the image is selected (step 903).
When "display by telephone" is selected (step 904)
Uses the image display service of the mobile phone to view the image or attach the image to E-mail and transfer the image (step 905). If "magazine posting" is selected (step 905), the image is registered in the image synthesizing device,
Posting to the magazine later (step 907). If "Internet posting" is selected (step 908), image registration is performed on the public homepage via the network (step 909). In this case, no restriction is placed on the image so that anyone can see it. However, in this case, it takes time to register with the image control center.

If "view immediately" is selected in step 902, the image is transmitted to the image control center at that time,
A directory dedicated to the user, a so-called homepage, is created and registered in the image control center. Therefore, the user is required to input an arbitrary password (step 910). In the apparatus according to the present invention, a printed matter such as a sticker on which a composite image obtained by combining the subject and the selected background image is printed is output. The user-specific ID is printed on the output result, and the input password is used to open the home page of the user. The user accesses the home page specified in advance, opens the home page dedicated to the user by the output ID and password described in the printed matter, and can view the registered images (step 911).

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the contents of a mail transmitted from the image synthesizing apparatus to the image control center. Destination 10
For 01, an Internet post-only address is automatically entered. The broadcast distribution 1002 is always blank. The sender 1003 is assigned an address to each image synthesizing device, and can determine which image synthesizing device the mail is from based on the address. Title 1004
Is obtained by removing the SNP part from the attached file name, that is, the image ID assigned to each image at the time of shooting. The SNP means information obtained by converting a JPEG image and information shown in FIG. 5 input by the user on the image synthesizing apparatus into text, and the SNP file includes password information by the user. . These two files are obtained by SNP encryption, and the file size is about 70K at the maximum. The text 1005 is left blank. The attached file name 1006 is composed of the image ID and the name of the SNP file assigned at the time of shooting.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing the processing of the image control center. The mail attached with the combined image transferred from the image combining device is periodically checked by the mail server 1121 and received, and temporarily stored in the mail server 1121 (step 1101). The attached composite image file is extracted from the received mail, and SN
The P file is automatically saved in a directory dedicated to SNP (step 1102). After a certain period, this directory is deleted. At regular intervals, the presence or absence of an SNP is checked, and an SNP file is obtained. Next, it is determined whether or not the image is to be made public to the Internet from the SNP file (step 1104). If the home page is open to the public without creating a home page that only the user can see, the selection is Yes. If Yes, it is determined whether each item of the input attribute information (FIG. 5) is correct. Checking this item means filtering for whether a correct telephone number or a correct E-mail is entered. Next, it is confirmed whether or not "view immediately?" Is selected (step 1106).
If "view immediately" is not selected, the process ends as it is. If it is selected, a personal homepage (directory) needs to be created, so the SNP file is decrypted (step 1108). The SNP file is decrypted, and a JPEG file and a text file are extracted (step 1109). The JPEG file is image-converted (step 1110), and the GIF file and PNG are converted.
It is converted into a file (step 1111). Next, a directory for accessing the CGI of the homepage is generated (step 1112). CGI is required because an authentication system is required so that only a specific person who knows the password can view the password. This directory is created for each image ID assigned when the image is first synthesized by the image synthesizing apparatus, and is a JPEG file and a text file in step 1109 and a GIF file and a PNG file in step 1111 which are enclosed by the same ID. Four files are stored in this directory. When these four files are completed, a copy is made to the CGI access directory of the HTTP server 1122.

In the present invention, one of the three images is taken and one of them is selected. All three images are selected, and the three image data are converted into an animation GIF, which is displayed with a display function. The image may be transferred to a telephone or the Internet to display a moving image on the display area of each display device.

[0035]

According to the present invention, since image data photographed by the image synthesizing apparatus can be transmitted to a homepage or a telephone with a display function, it is possible to have a portable telephone on which a photograph of the user is displayed. In addition, you can post your own image and comment on the homepage on the Internet.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram showing an embodiment of an image processing system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing an embodiment of the image synthesizing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a functional part of the image synthesizing apparatus of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a functional configuration diagram showing a configuration of an image control center of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a table showing attribute data sent to an image control center.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a process performed by the image composition device.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating processing of the image composition device.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a transition of processing between the image synthesizing device, the image control center, and the user display device.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a process of publishing a captured image on the Internet.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the contents of a mail transmitted from the image synthesizing device to the image control center.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing processing of the image control center.

[Explanation of symbols]

101: communication network, 102, 103: communication line, 104a
-104c: Image synthesis device, 105: Image control center, 106: Internet terminal, 107: Mobile phone, 201: Subject, 202: External housing, 203: Camera, 204: Monitor and touch panel, 205: Control device, 206: Video printer, 207: Communication control device.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing from the front page (72) Inventor Yasushi Yasuda 6-81 Onoe-cho, Naka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture In-house Hitachi Software Engineering Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Shigeo Nakajima 6, Oue-cho, Naka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa 81 Hitachi Software Engineering Co., Ltd. In-house (72) Inventor Toru Baba 6-81 Onoe-cho, Naka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture Hitachi Software Engineering Co., Ltd. In-house F-term (reference) 5B021 AA30 BB02 LG07 LG08 PP08 5B089 GA23 GA25 JB03 KH11 LA18 LB10 LB14 5C023 AA16 AA27 AA31 AA37 AA38 BA11 CA03 5C054 AA01 CA04 CC03 CH02 DA06 EA01 EA03 EA05 EA07 FA00 FE12 GA05 GB14

Claims (5)

[Claims] An image synthesizing means for synthesizing a subject image and a background or foreground image selected by a user, and an image transmitted as a set of a synthesized image and attribute information set by a user via a communication line. An image synthesizing device having a transmitting unit; and a center device receiving the synthesized image and the attribute information transmitted from the image synthesizing device and transferring the synthesized image to a terminal device with a display function designated by the attribute information. An image processing system comprising: 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the center device includes an image processing unit that changes a size of a composite image based on information on a transfer destination type in the attribute information and transfers the combined image. Image processing system. 3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the center device includes an image processing unit that changes a format and a size of a composite image based on information on a destination type in the attribute information and transfers the composite image. The image processing system described in the above. 4. The image processing system according to claim 1, wherein the image transmitting unit transmits the set of the composite image and the attribute information in an attached file format of an electronic mail. 5. An image synthesizing means for synthesizing a subject image and a background or foreground image selected by a user, and an image transmitted as a set of the synthesized image and attribute information set by the user via a communication line. An image synthesizing device comprising a transmitting unit.