JP2007266780A - Electronic device, electronic device information providing system - Google Patents

Abstract

An electronic device and an electronic device information providing system capable of providing accurate information about a component to a user are provided.
The part information is obtained from an electronic device, the part name and the latest version are obtained from the information indicating the part name, the information indicating the latest version of the part, and the part related information regarding the part, and the latest information is obtained. And the version acquired from the electronic device for each part, the part name having a version that is not the latest is extracted, and the extracted part name and the part related information corresponding to the part name are extracted. The updated part information including is transmitted to the electronic device.
[Selection] Figure 5

Description

  The present invention relates to an electronic device and an electronic device information providing system, and more particularly, to an electronic device and an electronic device information providing system that provide a user with information related to components of the electronic device.

  The electronic device is composed of various parts, and the manufacturer may upgrade each of these parts. For example, in a digital camera, the version of a lens, CCD, firmware, etc. is upgraded by the manufacturer.

  As a technique related to the maintenance of such an electronic device, Patent Document 1 enables automatic periodic inspection of household electrical appliances, and automatically handles those that can be automatically dealt with when a failure or abnormal operation occurs. A technique for efficiently dealing with parts replacement that cannot be automatically dealt with is disclosed.

The determination of component replacement in the technique of Patent Document 1 is made based on product version information.
JP 2002-354554 A

  However, if there is a mixture of parts that have already been replaced and parts that need to be replaced, such as when a user replaces some of the parts that need to be replaced, the product version alone identifies the part that needs to be replaced. Can not do it.

  Therefore, in the above-described conventional technology, it is impossible to provide the user with accurate information regarding the parts.

  In view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide an electronic device and an electronic device information providing system that can provide accurate information about components to a user.

  In order to achieve the above object, the invention of claim 1 displays a plurality of parts constituting the apparatus, a recording means in which part information indicating a part name and a version of each of the plurality of parts is recorded, and information. A display unit; and a control unit that acquires the component information recorded in the recording unit and controls the display unit to display a component name and a version indicated by the acquired component information.

  Here, in the first aspect of the present invention, the component information is acquired from the recording means in which the component information indicating the component name and version of each component is recorded, and the component name and version indicated by the acquired component information are obtained. Since the display unit controls the display, accurate information about the component can be provided to the user.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, the electronic device is a photographing device.

  Here, in the invention described in claim 2, the electronic device can be an imaging device.

  The invention according to claim 3 further includes a communication unit capable of communicating with the host device, and the control unit transmits the component information to the host device in a state in which the communication unit can communicate with the host device. To control.

  According to the third aspect of the present invention, component information can be output to a communicable host device such as a manufacturer's server.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a component information acquisition means for acquiring the component information from the electronic device according to the third aspect, information indicating the component name, information indicating the latest version of the component, and component related to the component The latest part information recording means in which information is recorded, the part name and the latest version are acquired from the latest part information recording means, and the latest version and the version acquired from the electronic device are compared for each part. To extract the name of a part having a version that is not the latest, and to update the electronic device with updated part information including the part name extracted by the extracting means and the part-related information corresponding to the part name Here, the invention according to claim 4 obtains the part information from the electronic device according to claim 3, information indicating the part name, the part By acquiring the part name and the latest version from the information indicating the latest version of the part and the part-related information regarding the part, and comparing the latest version with the version acquired from the electronic device for each part, The part name having no version is extracted, and the updated part information including the extracted part name and the part related information corresponding to the part name is transmitted to the electronic device. Can be provided.

  The invention of claim 5 further includes firmware transmission means for transmitting the latest firmware to the electronic device when the part name extracted by the extraction means indicates the firmware of the electronic device.

  In this case, the latest firmware can be transmitted to the electronic device.

  According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the component is a CCD or a lens.

  In this case, the component can be a CCD or a lens.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an electronic device and an electronic device information providing system that can provide accurate information about components to a user.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In this embodiment, the electronic device is described as a digital camera that is a photographing device.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration according to the present embodiment. The electronic device information providing system includes a server 72 connected to the network 74, a PC 70, and the digital camera 10.

  Among these, the network 74 is a network configured by, for example, a LAN, the Internet, or a telephone line.

  The digital camera 10 is connected to the PC 70 via a USB (Universal Serial Bus), IEEE 1394, or the like, and transmits to the server 72 component information indicating the component name and version of each component constituting the apparatus. In FIG. 1, the server 72 is connected via the PC 70, but it may be directly connected to the network 74.

  The PC 70 is connected to the digital camera 10 and the network 74 and is an interface between the digital camera 10 and the server 72. The PC 70 may display component information or updated component information described later.

  The server 72, which is a host device and an electronic device information providing system, acquires component information from the digital camera 10 and compares the latest version with the version acquired from the digital camera 10 for each component. A part name having no version is extracted, and updated part information including the extracted part name and part related information corresponding to the extracted part name is transmitted to the digital camera 10. Details of the component related information will be described later.

  In addition to the above configuration, the latest component information database described later may be managed by another database server. In this case, the server 72 and the database server serve as an electronic device information providing system.

  Next, the configuration of the digital camera 10 will be described. First, the external configuration of the digital camera 10 will be described with reference to FIG.

  A front face of the digital camera 10 is provided with a lens 21 for forming an image on a subject and a strobe 44 that emits light to irradiate the subject as necessary during photographing. Further, on the upper surface of the digital camera 10, a release button (so-called shutter button) 56A that is pressed when shooting is performed, and a power switch 56B are provided.

  The release button 56A is pressed to an intermediate position (hereinafter referred to as “half-pressed state”), and is pressed to a final pressed position exceeding the intermediate position (hereinafter referred to as “full-pressed state”). The two-stage pressing operation can be detected.

  In the digital camera 10, the release button 56A is pressed halfway to activate the AE (Automatic Exposure) function to set the exposure state (shutter speed and aperture state), and then AF (Auto Focus (automatic focus) function works to control the focus, and then exposure (photographing) is performed when it is fully pressed.

  Next, the configuration of the electrical system of the digital camera 10 will be described with reference to FIG.

  The digital camera 10 includes an optical unit 22 including the lens 21 described above, a charge coupled device (hereinafter referred to as “CCD”) 24 disposed behind the optical axis of the lens 21, and an input analog. And an analog signal processing unit 26 that performs various analog signal processing on the signal.

  The digital camera 10 also performs an analog / digital converter (hereinafter referred to as “ADC”) 28 that converts an input analog signal into digital data, and performs various digital signal processing on the input digital data. And a digital signal processing unit 30.

  The digital signal processing unit 30 includes a line buffer having a predetermined capacity, and also performs control to directly record input digital data in a predetermined area of a memory 48 described later.

  The output terminal of the CCD 24 is connected to the input terminal of the analog signal processing unit 26, the output terminal of the analog signal processing unit 26 is connected to the input terminal of the ADC 28, and the output terminal of the ADC 28 is connected to the input terminal of the digital signal processing unit 30. . Accordingly, the analog signal indicating the subject image output from the CCD 24 is subjected to predetermined analog signal processing by the analog signal processing unit 26, converted into digital image data by the ADC 28, and then input to the digital signal processing unit 30.

  On the other hand, the digital camera 10 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 40 that controls the operation of the entire digital camera 10, a memory 48 that records digital image data obtained by shooting, and a memory interface that controls access to the memory 48. 46. A VRAM (Video RAM) may be used as the memory 48.

  Further, the digital camera 10 includes a compression / decompression processing circuit 54 that performs compression processing and decompression processing on digital image data, and an external device connection interface 60 for communicating with external devices such as the PC 70. The external device connection interface 60 is a device that enables communication with an external device using, for example, USB, IEEE 1394, or a wireless LAN. Accordingly, communication with the external device is performed by the external device connection interface 60 in accordance with control by the CPU 40.

  The digital signal processing unit 30, CPU 40, memory interface 46, external device connection interface 60, and compression / decompression processing circuit 54 are connected to each other via a system bus BUS. Therefore, the CPU 40 can control the operation of the digital signal processing unit 30 and the compression / decompression processing circuit 54 and access the memory 48 via the memory interface 46.

  On the other hand, the digital camera 10 includes a timing generator 32 that mainly generates a timing signal for driving the CCD 24 and supplies the timing signal to the CCD 24, and the driving of the CCD 24 is controlled by the CPU 40 via the timing generator 32.

  Furthermore, the digital camera 10 is provided with a motor drive unit 34, and the CPU 40 controls the driving of a focus adjustment motor, a zoom motor, and an aperture drive motor (not shown) provided in the optical unit 22 via the motor drive unit 34. Is done.

  In other words, the lens 21 according to the present embodiment has a plurality of lenses, is configured as a zoom lens that can change (magnify) the focal length, and includes a lens driving mechanism (not shown). The lens drive mechanism includes the focus adjustment motor, the zoom motor, and the aperture drive motor, and these motors are each driven by a drive signal supplied from the motor drive unit 34 under the control of the CPU 40.

  Furthermore, the release button 56A and the power switch 56B (generally referred to as “operation unit 56” in the figure) are connected to the CPU 40, and the CPU 40 can always grasp the operation state of these operation units 56.

  In addition, the digital camera 10 includes a charging unit 42 that is interposed between the strobe 44 and the CPU 40 and charges power for causing the strobe 44 to emit light under the control of the CPU 40. Further, the strobe 44 is also connected to the CPU 40, and the light emission of the strobe 44 is controlled by the CPU 40.

  As described above, the digital camera 10 includes a plurality of parts.

  Next, an overall operation at the time of photographing with the digital camera 10 will be briefly described.

  First, the CCD 24 performs imaging through the optical unit 22 and sequentially outputs analog signals for R (red), G (green), and B (blue) indicating the subject image to the analog signal processing unit 26. The analog signal processing unit 26 performs analog signal processing such as correlated double sampling processing on the analog signal input from the CCD 24 and sequentially outputs the analog signal to the ADC 28.

  The ADC 28 converts the R, G, and B analog signals input from the analog signal processing unit 26 into 12-bit R, G, and B signals and sequentially outputs them to the digital signal processing unit 30. The digital signal processing unit 30 accumulates digital image data sequentially input from the ADC 28 in a built-in line buffer and temporarily stores the digital image data directly in a predetermined area of the memory 48.

  The digital image data stored in a predetermined area of the memory 48 is read by the digital signal processing unit 30 under the control of the CPU 40, and the digital signal processing unit 30 generates digital image data of predetermined bits, for example, 8 bits. .

  The digital signal processing unit 30 performs YC signal processing on the generated digital image data of predetermined bits to generate a luminance signal Y and chroma signals Cr and Cb (hereinafter referred to as “YC signal”), and a YC signal. Are stored in an area different from the predetermined area of the memory 48.

  Here, when the release button 56A is half-pressed by the user, after the AE function is activated and the exposure state is set as described above, the AF function is activated and focus control is performed, and then the fully-pressed state is continued. In this case, the YC signal stored in the memory 48 at this time is compressed in a predetermined compression format by the compression / decompression processing circuit 54 and then recorded in the memory 48 via the memory interface 46.

  Next, the configuration of the server 72 will be described with reference to FIG. The PC 70 has the same configuration.

  The server 72 includes a CPU 80, an HDD 82, a RAM 84, a network interface 86, a ROM 88, a display unit 90, an operation input unit 92, and a bus 94.

  The CPU 80 governs the overall operation of the server 72, and a flowchart showing processing of the server 72 described later is executed by the CPU 80. The HDD 82 is a non-volatile storage device in which each database, various programs such as a program for obtaining updated component information, an OS, and the like are recorded. The RAM 84 is a volatile storage device in which the OS, programs, data, and the like are expanded. The network interface 86 is for connecting to the network 74, and is composed of a NIC and its driver. The ROM 88 is a non-volatile storage device that stores a boot program that operates when the server 72 is started. The display unit 90 displays information related to the server 72 to the operator. The operation input unit 92 is used when an operator inputs operations and information on the server 72. The bus 94 is used when information is exchanged.

  Next, each database (hereinafter referred to as DB) used in the present embodiment will be described. FIG. 5 shows a component information DB stored in the memory 48 (see FIG. 3) of the digital camera 10.

  The component information DB is a DB in which component information indicating the component name and version of each component constituting the digital camera 10 is recorded. For example, in FIG. 5, the version of lens A is 2.0. As shown in FIG. 5, the firmware is one of the parts.

  Next, the latest component information DB stored in the HDD 82 (see FIG. 4) of the server 72 will be described with reference to FIG. The latest component information DB is a DB in which information indicating a component name, information indicating the latest version of the component, and component-related information regarding the component are recorded. In the case of FIG. 6, for example, the latest version of the lens B is 1.5, and the component related information is “exchange”.

  The component-related information is information obtained by removing the component name and version from the information regarding the component. Specifically, by way of example, information indicating the replacement or update of a component or information indicating a note when the replacement or update is performed is component-related information. For example, “replacement” shown in the component-related information of the lens B is information indicating replacement or update of the component, and “replacement of the farm A is necessary when replaced” shown in the component-related information of the lens A. This is information indicating precautions for replacement or update.

  The above two DBs are DBs used in the present embodiment. Hereinafter, each process executed by the digital camera 10 and the server 72 will be described with reference to flowcharts. The process executed by the digital camera 10 is a process executed by the CPU 40 (see FIG. 3), and a program for executing the process is stored in the memory 48. The process executed by the server 72 is a process executed by the CPU 80 (see FIG. 4), and a program for executing the process is stored in the HDD 82.

  First, a process in which the digital camera 10 displays component information to the user will be described with reference to FIG. Step 101 is waiting for a component information display instruction from the user. This component information display instruction is an instruction given by the user using, for example, the cross cursor button 56D (see FIG. 2).

  When the component information display instruction is issued by the user, in step 102, the component information recorded in the component information DB is acquired. In the next step 103, control is performed so that the component name and version indicated by the acquired component information are displayed on the LCD 38.

  A display example at this time is shown in FIG. The display example shown in FIG. 8 is a display example in which the component information DB has the content shown in FIG. 5 and shows that the component name and version information are displayed. The component information may be displayed on a display included in the PC 70.

  Next, a process in which the digital camera 10 transmits component information to the server 72 will be described with reference to FIG. This process is performed in a state where the server 72 and the digital camera 10 can communicate with each other via the external device connection interface 60.

  Step 201 is waiting for reception of a component information request from the server 72. When the component information request is received, in step 202, the component information is acquired from the component information DB, and the acquired component information is transmitted to the server 72.

  Processing of the server 72 to which the component information is transmitted will be described with reference to FIG. Step 301 is waiting for parts information acquisition. When the component information is acquired, in step 302, the component name and version are acquired from the component information.

  The loop processing from the next step 303 to step 306 acquires the part name and the latest version from the latest part information DB, and compares the latest version with the version acquired from the digital camera 10 for each part. This is a process of extracting a part name having a version that is not the latest. First, in step 303, the latest version is compared with the version indicated by the component information.

  In step 304, it is determined whether or not the version indicated by the component information is the latest version. If the determination is negative, the version of the part of the digital camera 10 is not the latest version, so the part name and the part related information corresponding to the part name are added to the updated part information list, and the process proceeds to step 306. move on. Note that the latest version may be included as information added to the updated component information list in step 305.

  If the determination in step 304 is affirmative, that is, if the version of the component of the digital camera 10 is the latest version, the process proceeds to step 306.

  Step 306 is a determination as to whether or not all the component names included in the component information acquired from the digital camera have been compared. In the case of negative determination, the processing returns to step 303 again. In the case of an affirmative determination, in step 307, updated part information including the part name extracted by the processing from step 303 to step 306 and part related information corresponding to the part name is transmitted to the digital camera 10.

  The next step 308 is a determination as to whether or not the part name extracted by the processing from step 303 to step 306 indicates the firmware of the digital camera 10. In the case of negative determination, the processing of the server 72 ends. If the determination is affirmative, the latest firmware is transmitted to the digital camera 10 in step 309.

  An example of the updated part information list used in the processing described above is shown in FIG. The update part information list example shown in FIG. 11 is an update part information list example in which the product information DB and the latest part information DB have the contents shown in FIGS. 5 and 6. Further, in this updated part information list example, the latest version is also included.

  Next, processing of the digital camera 10 that receives the updated part information and firmware will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Step 401 is waiting for reception of updated component information. When the updated part information is received, it is determined whether the updated part information received in the next step 402 includes firmware. If the determination is negative, the process proceeds to step 404. If the determination is affirmative, in step 403, the firmware is received and installation is executed. Thereafter, in step 403, the updated part information is displayed.

  FIG. 13 shows a display example of updated part information. The display example shown in FIG. 13 shows a display example when the updated component information shown in FIG. 11 is received. As shown in the figure, the part name, latest version, and part related information are displayed. In the case of FIG. 13, since the firmware is also updated, it is also displayed that the firmware is being downloaded and installed. Note that the screen shown in this display example may be displayed on the display of the PC 70.

It is a figure which shows the electronic device information provision system which concerns on this Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the structure on the external appearance of a digital camera. It is a figure which shows the structure of the electric system of a digital camera. It is a figure which shows the structure of a server. It is a figure which shows components information DB. It is a figure which shows the newest components information DB. It is a flowchart which shows the process in which a digital camera displays component information. It is a figure which shows the example of a display of component information. It is a flowchart which shows the process which a digital camera transmits component information. It is a flowchart which shows the process of a server. It is a figure which shows the example of an update components information list. It is a flowchart which shows the process in which a digital camera receives update components information. It is a figure which shows the example of a display of update component information.

Explanation of symbols

10 Digital camera 38 LCD
40, 60 CPU
48 Memory 56 Operation unit 60 External device connection interface 72 Server 74 Network 82 HDD
86 Network interface

Claims (6)

A plurality of parts constituting the device;
A recording unit in which component information indicating a component name and version of each of the plurality of components is recorded;
Display means for displaying information;
Control means for acquiring the component information recorded in the recording means and controlling the display to display the part name and version indicated by the acquired part information;
An electronic device.   The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the electronic device is a photographing device. It further has communication means capable of communicating with the host device,
The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the control unit controls the communication unit to transmit the component information to the host device in a state where the communication unit can communicate with the host device. Component information acquisition means for acquiring the component information from the electronic device according to claim 3,
Information indicating a component name, information indicating the latest version of the component, and latest component information recording means in which component-related information regarding the component is recorded;
The part name and the latest version are acquired from the latest part information recording means, and the part name having a version that is not the latest is extracted by comparing the latest version with the version acquired from the electronic device for each part. Extraction means to
Updated part information transmitting means for transmitting updated part information including the part name extracted by the extracting means and the part related information corresponding to the part name to the electronic device;
An electronic device information providing system.   5. The electronic device information providing system according to claim 4, further comprising firmware transmission means for transmitting the latest firmware to the electronic device when the part name extracted by the extraction means indicates the firmware of the electronic device.   The electronic device information providing system according to claim 4, wherein the component is a CCD or a lens.

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