JP2006109915A - Image processing system and method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a new service using a digital image in which an image divided and distributed to a plurality of portable image display terminals is exchanged between terminals to create a composite image.
An arbitrary image is divided into a plurality (S204), the divided images are distributed to a plurality of information terminals (S205), and received image data is determined (S206). The images are exchanged with each other, and a composite image is created from the acquired images and displayed.
[Selection] Figure 2

Description

  The present invention relates to an image processing system and method, and more particularly, to an image processing system and method for providing a service using a digital image.

  Conventionally, there is an entertainment that enjoys collecting and reproducing divided images such as jigsaw puzzles.

There are also communication games in which data is exchanged and collected electronically. (For example, see Patent Document 1)
JP 2001-306573 A

  However, there is no game like an electronic jigsaw puzzle that collects divided image data and reproduces an original image using a mobile terminal and a communication function.

  In addition, there is no service for distributing a plurality of images obtained by dividing one image to a plurality of information terminals.

In addition, there has been no terminal or service to which an image composition technique for collecting the divided images and reproducing the original image is applied.

  The present invention replaces and collects different images divided from the same image among a plurality of information terminals, and reproduces the original image based on the acquired image data, thereby enabling a new use of a portable image display terminal. Propose a communication game.

  In order to solve the above problems, an image processing system according to the present invention includes a dividing unit that divides an image into a plurality of pieces, a distribution unit that distributes the divided images to a plurality of information terminals, and a determination unit that determines received data. A host server, a communication means for communicating with the host server, a display means for displaying a received image in a designated display method, an exchange means for exchanging images with each other, and the acquired The portable image display terminal includes a composing unit that creates a composite image from an image and a transmitting unit that transmits the composite image.

  The image processing method of the present invention includes a dividing step of dividing an image into a plurality of pieces, a distribution step of distributing the divided images to a plurality of information terminals, a determining step of determining received data, and specifying the received image A display step of displaying with the displayed display method, an exchange step of exchanging images with each other, a synthesis step of creating a composite image from the acquired image, and a transmission step of transmitting the composite image Is provided.

  According to the present invention, there is provided a portable image display terminal having a communication function in which an image divided and distributed to a plurality of portable image display terminals is exchanged between the terminals to create a composite image. Use to realize a jigsaw puzzle-like play.

  In addition, for the purpose of reproducing the original image, it is possible to use a service such as giving a privilege to a person who has achieved this quickly.

  The service using this system is not limited to a jigsaw puzzle, and may be a picture matching or a card trading game.

  In this way, there is an effect that it is possible to realize a new service business using the new portable image display terminal and the use thereof.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of an embodiment of an information processing apparatus according to the present embodiment.

  In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes an input unit for inputting information. Reference numeral 2 denotes a CPU, which performs operations for various processes, logical determinations, and the like, and controls each component connected to the bus 6. Reference numeral 3 denotes an output unit that outputs information.

  Reference numeral 4 denotes a program memory, which is a memory for storing a program for control by the CPU 2 including a processing procedure described later with reference to the flowchart. The program memory 4 may be a ROM or a RAM in which a program is loaded from an external storage device or the like.

  Reference numeral 5 denotes a data memory, which stores data generated by various processes and stores knowledge in the knowledge base. The data memory 5 is a RAM, for example, but knowledge in the knowledge base is loaded from a nonvolatile external storage medium prior to processing or referred to whenever necessary.

  An interface unit 7 communicates with an external host server and other terminals via a network.

  Reference numeral 6 denotes an address signal indicating a component to be controlled by the CPU 2, a control signal for controlling each component, and a bus for transferring data exchanged between the components. Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a flow of host server processing according to the present embodiment.

  As shown in the figure, when the system is activated, a system activation process is activated in step S201.

  Next, in step S202, an event waiting process is activated to wait for the occurrence of an event. When an event occurs, in step S203, if the event is a division, the process proceeds to step S204, where the dividing means is activated to generate an image. The division is performed, and the process returns to step S203 to repeat the subsequent processing.

  If the event is distribution, the process proceeds to step S205, the distribution unit is activated to distribute the data, the process returns to step S203, and the subsequent processing is repeated.

  If the event is reception, the process proceeds to step S206, the determination unit is activated to perform processing corresponding to the received data, and the process returns to step S203 to repeat the subsequent processing.

  In the subsequent step S207, a result handling process is started, and in response to the determination result, for example, an error is returned according to the result, or a ranking is given according to the result and stored in a list. Returning to S203, the subsequent processing is repeated.

  In step S203, if the power is off, the process proceeds to step S208, the system termination process is started, and the system is terminated.

  Note that the dividing method by the dividing means is not limited to linear division, division by color, division by object, division by outline, or by randomly extracted dots, or outline, color, texture The category may be different.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a flow of processing of the image display terminal according to the present embodiment.

  As shown in the figure, when the system is activated, a system activation process is activated in step S301, and then an event wait process is activated in step S302 to wait for the occurrence of an event. When an event occurs, if the event is reception in step S303, the process proceeds to step S304, the display unit is activated to display the received image, the process returns to step S302, and the subsequent processing is repeated.

  If the event is detection, the process proceeds to step S305, the detection unit is activated to perform detection, the process returns to step S302, and the subsequent processing is repeated.

  If the event is exchange, the process proceeds to step S306, the exchange unit is activated to exchange data, the process returns to step S302, and the subsequent processing is repeated.

  If the event is composition, the process proceeds to step S307, the composition unit is activated to perform image composition, the process returns to step S302, and the subsequent processing is repeated.

  If the event is transmission, the process proceeds to step S308, the transmission unit is activated to perform transmission, the process returns to step S302, and the subsequent processing is repeated.

  In step S303, if the power is off, the process proceeds to step S309, the system termination process is started, and the system is terminated.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of image division by the dividing unit according to the present embodiment.

  As shown in the figure, when there is an original image 401, it is divided into a plurality of patterns 402 by a dividing means. In this case, nine divided images from image 1 to image 9 are generated. As a matter of course, the images 1 to 9 are display for explanation, and are not actually displayed.

  An image 403 is an example of a display screen of an information terminal that has received divided images generated by a plurality of patterns 402. In this case, only the divided image 1 is received and displayed.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the flow of the distribution means according to this embodiment.

  As shown in the figure, when the distribution unit is activated, in step S501, the list acquisition unit is activated to acquire the destination list.

  Next, in step S502, the processing target is set at the top of the destination list.

  Next, in step S503, the processing target is set at the head of the image group.

  Next, in step S504, if there is a destination in the destination list, the process proceeds to step S505. Subsequently, if there is a processing target image, the process proceeds to step S506, and the image is transmitted to the current processing target destination.

  Next, in step S507, the list is advanced.

  Next, the process returns to step S504 and the subsequent processing is repeated.

  If there is no destination in the list in step S504, and if there is no image to be processed in step S505, the subsequent processing is omitted and the process ends.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a flow of the determination unit according to the present embodiment.

  As shown in the figure, when the determination unit is activated, if the received data is an image in step S601, the process proceeds to step S602 and is compared with the original image.

  If it is determined in step S601 that the received data is other than an image, the process proceeds to step S604, where other processing is started and the corresponding processing is performed.

  Next, if the data match in step S603, True is returned and the process ends.

  In step S603, if the data do not match, False is returned and the process ends.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of the present embodiment.

  As shown in the figure, it is a display example at a certain point in time on the display screen 701 of the portable information terminal A having an image display function, and among the divided image data, images 1, 7 and 9 are displayed as acquired. ing. This is a display example at a certain point in time on the display screen 702 of the portable information terminal B having an image display function, and among the divided image data, images 2, 3 and 5 are displayed as acquired.

  In addition, in portable information terminals A and B having an image display function, each is an example of a display screen 703 as a result of data exchange between the two. In this case, by exchanging with the divided image data held by both A display image synthesized from the acquired divided image data is displayed.

  The present invention assumes a content service using an information terminal having an image display function and a communication function such as a mobile phone.

  For example, in a content service such as a game, any divided image is distributed and all the images are collected within a certain period, and a score is obtained by competing for the short period of collecting the images, or all images Collecting images forms a meaningful image, or displays an image that is the answer to a quiz.

  This may be, for example, a member registration service or a prize advertisement.

  Note that other services using the system according to this embodiment are not limited to jigsaw puzzles, and may take the form of treasure hunting and card collection.

  The specific operation of the embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  For example, suppose that a certain business entity conducts a campaign such as a sweepstakes advertisement, and a privilege is given to a user who has reproduced and transmitted an original image quickly using an electronic jigsaw puzzle system to which the present invention is applied.

  As shown in FIG. 2, when the host server is activated, an event waiting process is activated to wait for input.

  As shown in FIG. 4, when an arbitrary image 401 is designated as an original image of a jigsaw puzzle, the dividing means in S204 is activated, and an image data group 402 obtained by dividing the original image 401 is generated.

  Next, when the distribution unit in S205 is activated, the destination list and the divided image list are acquired in S501, and the divided image is transmitted to the destination.

  As shown in FIG. 3, when the portable image display terminal is activated, an event waiting process is activated in S302 to wait for input.

  When the image from the host server is received, the display unit is activated in S304, and the received divided image is displayed.

  As shown in FIG. 7, at a certain point in time, the information terminal A displays the image 1, the image 7, and the image 9, which are divided images generated from an arbitrary image, like 701. Similarly, the information terminal B displays image 2, image 3, and image 5, which are other divided images generated from the same image, as in 702.

  At this time, when the information terminal A and the information terminal B approach within a certain distance, the detection unit in S305 is activated to detect the presence of information terminals each having a divided image generated from the same image.

  Therefore, when the exchanging means in S306 is activated, a copy of data of image 1, image 7, and image 9 that is a divided image held by information terminal A and image 2, image 3, that is a divided image held by information terminal B, A copy of the image 5 data is exchanged. That is, the duplicates are transmitted to each other, and the received new divided image data is displayed on the screen of the own terminal.

  Subsequently, when the synthesizing means is activated in S307, an image obtained by synthesizing a newly acquired image with an image held in the past is created. Similarly, when the divided image is collected in the portable image display terminal and the original image is reproduced, the transmission unit of S308 is activated to transmit the composite image (that is, the reproduced original image) to the host server. .

  At this time, the information terminal that offers the exchange may designate and present the file to be exchanged. In addition, the information terminal that is offered to exchange may refer to the exchange-presented file list and reject the exchange. Of course, the exchange offer itself may be refused.

  It is assumed that such exchanges between information terminals use electronic mail or instant messages using the Internet or mobile phone functions.

  Now, when the host server receives the image transmitted from the information terminal, the determination means in S206 is activated and returns the result compared with the original image in S602. In response to this result, if the image received in the subsequent result corresponding process in s207 matches the original image, a list is created by ranking in the order of the received time.

  In this case, a business entity conducting a campaign such as a sweepstakes advertisement uses this list to give a privilege to the user.

  Note that dummy data may be mixed in advance with the divided image data distributed to the information terminal to increase the difficulty of reproducing the original image. Also, in this case, it is more interesting that the difficulty level is further increased if the image is created in advance so that the image is not unnatural even if it is incorrect.

  Further, the answer transmitted to the server by the information terminal may be a keyword that can be estimated from the reproduced image, not the data of the reproduced composite image itself.

It is a block diagram which shows the hardware constitutions of one Embodiment of the image processing apparatus which concerns on this Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the flow of a process of the host server which concerns on this Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the flow of a process of the portable image display terminal which concerns on this Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example by the division means which concerns on this Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the flow of the delivery means concerning this embodiment also. It is a figure which shows the flow of the determination means which concerns on this Embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of this Embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

1 Input unit 2 CPU
3 Output unit 4 Program memory 5 Data memory 6 Bus 7 Interface

Claims (8)

A dividing means for dividing the image into a plurality of parts;
A distribution means for distributing the divided image to a plurality of information terminals;
A host server comprising determination means for determining received data;
Communication means for communicating with the host server;
Display means for displaying the received image in a designated display method;
Exchange means for exchanging images with each other;
Synthesis means for creating a composite image from the acquired image;
An image processing system comprising: a portable image display terminal comprising transmission means for transmitting the composite image. The dividing means includes
The image processing system according to claim 1, wherein an arbitrary image is divided into a plurality of arbitrary patterns. The delivery means includes
The image processing system according to claim 1, wherein an arbitrary image is distributed in an arbitrary distribution pattern. In the portable image display terminal,
2. The image processing system according to claim 1, further comprising detection means for detecting that the distance between the terminals is within a certain distance when different images divided from the same image are respectively displayed on the plurality of terminals. . The synthesis means includes
The image processing system according to claim 1, wherein a composite image is created from a plurality of received image data.   By combining the detection means and the combining means, when different images divided from the same image are displayed on a plurality of terminals, and the distance between the terminals is within a certain distance, the image before the division The image processing system according to claim 1, wherein the image processing system is reproduced and displayed.   The image processing system according to claim 1, wherein the reproduced image does not display unacquired image data or is a mosaic display. A dividing step of dividing the image into a plurality of parts;
A distribution step of distributing the divided images to a plurality of information terminals;
A determination step of determining received data;
A display process for displaying the received image in a designated display method;
An exchange process for exchanging images with each other;
Creating a composite image from the acquired image; and
An image processing method comprising: a transmission step of transmitting the composite image.

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