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`Ex. GOOG 1001
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`Ulllted States Patent [19]
`Mattes
`
`US006038295A
`[11] Patent Number:
`[45] Date of Patent:
`
`6,038,295
`Mar. 14, 2000
`
`[54] APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR
`RECORDING, COMMUNICATING AND
`ADMINISTERING DIGITAL IMAGES
`
`5,737,592
`5,748,841
`5,748,898
`
`4/1998 Nguyen et al. ........................... .. 707/4
`5/1998 Morin et al. .
`395/266
`5/1998 Ueda ......................................... .. 348/7
`
`[75] Inventor: Heinz Mattes, Munich, Germany
`
`[73] Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft, Munich,
`Germany
`
`_
`[21] APP1-N°~- 08/877,488
`[22]
`Filed.
`Jun 17 1997
`
`.
`
`.
`
`,
`
`FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS
`
`0 624 968 11/1994 European Pat. Off. ..... .. HO4M 11/06
`0 702 490 3/1996 European Pat. Off. ....... .. H04N 7/14
`41 26 105
`2/1993 Germany ................. .. H04M 11/00
`4408 738 9/1995 Germany
`HO4M 11/00
`195 42 122 5/1996 Germany
`.... .. H04M 3/42
`44 41 685 6/1996 Germany .................... .. H04M 11/00
`6 268582 9/1994 Japan ........................... .. H04N 5/225
`
`Foreign Application Priority Data
`[30]
`Jun_17 1996 [DE]
`Germany
`
`......................... ..
`
`,
`
`196 24 128
`
`OTHER PUBLICATIONS
`Japanese Abstract, vol. 15, No. 351, 3—136487, Jun. 11,
`
`1991'
`
`Int. Cl.7 .................................................. .. H04M 11/00
`[51]
`[52] US. Cl. ...................... .. 379/9325; 348/211; 704/270
`[58] Field of Search .............................. .. 348/14—17, 211,
`
`Markt?bersich; L0W—c0st—Digita1kameras, Canon: Power
`Shot 600, MACup Apr. 1996, pp. 100—101.
`.
`.
`.
`
`348/223, 232, 231, 7, 239, 522, 455/418—420; 5m?” Emmi/6413111 Looéms
`379/88—89, 93.21, 93.25, 707/3_5, 10,
`SS“ ‘1” xamme’ . e°rge.11ng .
`395/266; 704/270; 396/283
`Attorney, Agent, or Ftrm—HI & Simpson
`[57]
`ABSTRACT
`
`[56]
`
`References Cited
`
`us‘ PATENT DOCUMENTS
`5,063,587 11/1991 Semasa et al. .......................... .. 379/53
`5,182,765
`1/1993 Ishii et a1_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
`_ _ _ __ 379/88
`5,260,989 11/1993 Jenness et al.
`379/59
`348/231
`5,576,759 11/1996 Kawamura et al
`5J594J736
`1/1997 Tatsumi et a1
`348/232
`576337678
`5/1997 Parulski et al'
`" 348/231
`5 640 198 6/1997 Makiyama et al. ..................... .. 348/17
`’
`’
`5,666,159
`9/1997 Parulskietal. ....................... .. 348/211
`5,689,303 11/1997 KuroiWa ...... ..
`348/232
`5,721,827
`2/1998 Logan et al. ..
`348/13
`5,737,491
`4/1998 Allen et al. ........................... .. 348/211
`
`A communication system includes at least one telephone
`unit, a transmission system for communicating from the
`telephone unit, and a Server for receiving information Via the
`transmission system. The telephone unit includes a digital
`image pick up by Which images are recorded, transmitted to
`the server, and stored in the server depending upon classi
`?cation information Which characterizes the digital images
`and Which is associated With the digital image data. The
`-
`~
`~
`~
`~
`~
`~
`~
`classi?cation Information Is determined b an anal sIs unit
`in the Server
`y
`y
`'
`
`26 Claims, 4 Drawing Sheets
`
`TELEPHONE
`UNITS
`( KTE
`
`"
`
`US
`
`SERVER
`
`TRANSMISSION
`SYSTEM
`
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`ANALYSIS
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`UNIT
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`UNIT
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`SYNTHESIS
`UNIT
`
`BE A CONTROL
`\ \~/ UNIT
`
`ST
`
`RECEPTION
`UNIT
`
`Ex. GOOG 1001
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`

`

`U.S. Patent
`
`Mar. 14,2000
`
`Sheet 1 of4
`
`6,038,295
`
`TELEPHONE
`UNITS
`( KTE
`\ \
`
`F I G. 1
`
`__
`
`SERVER
`US
`/
`TRANSMISSION / S /
`SYSTEM
`/
`\
`
`KTE
`\
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`\
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`\
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`IMAGE
`ANALYSIS
`BAE \ / UNIT
`
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`ANALYSIS
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`UNIT
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`
`SYNTHESIS
`UNIT
`
`/\ CONTROL
`\ \~/ UNIT
`ST/
`
`)/ BE
`
`RECEPTION
`UNIT
`
`Ex. GOOG 1001
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`

`

`U.S. Patent
`
`Mar. 14,2000
`
`Sheet 2 of4
`
`6,038,295
`
`ANTENNA
`
`F I G 2
`
`\
`
`A
`A/
`FLASH
`k
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`C
`
`BL
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`MEMORY :/|/'”‘_/ MEMORY
`RAM \
`P
`/PROCESSOR
`TA
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`/
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`CLASSIFICATION
`INFORMATION
`(
`M/ ALLOCATOR
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`
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`RECOGNITION
`
`Ex. GOOG 1001
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`

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`U.S. Patent
`
`Mar. 14,2000
`
`Sheet 3 of4
`
`6,038,295
`
`FIG. 3
`
`RECORD AN
`IMAGE
`
`STORE IMAGE
`AS DIGITAL
`FORM
`
`TRANSMIT DATA CONTAINING DIGITAL
`IMAGE TO SERVER VIA TRANSMITSSION
`UNIT
`
`RECEIVE DATA
`
`f
`
`EXTRACT CLASSIFICATION
`INFORMATION FROM RECEIVED DATA
`
`STORE DIGITAL IMAGE TAKING INTO
`CONSIDERATION THE CLASSIFICATION
`INFORMATION
`
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`

`

`US. Patent
`
`Mar. 14, 2000
`
`Sheet 4 0f 4
`
`6,038,295
`
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`
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`EX. GOOG 1001
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`Ex. GOOG 1001
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`

`

`1
`APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR
`RECORDING, COMMUNICATING AND
`ADMINISTERING DIGITAL IMAGES
`
`BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
`
`1. Field of the Invention
`The present invention relates generally to an apparatus for
`recording of a digital image, communicating the digital
`image from the recording device to a storage device, and to
`administering the digital image in the storage device. The
`present invention also relates to a method for recording,
`communicating and administering the digital image.
`2. Description of the Related Art
`In the ?eld of telecommunications, data of a Wide variety
`of data types is transmitted from a sender to a receiver, either
`unidirectionally or bidirectionally. The data Which is trans
`mitted may be, for example, voice signals, image signals, or
`Written characters Which have been converted into digital
`signals. Video conferencing systems are used to transmit
`spoken data in combination With image data and/or Written
`character data. These systems share the operation of various
`applications. Video conferencing systems require a high
`performance, expensive and bulky computer With an exter
`nal video camera at both the sender end as Well as at the
`receiver end.
`Digital image cameras are currently available on the
`market, as knoWn, for example, from the publication “Mar
`ket Over VieW: LoW-Cost Digital Cameras, Canon: PoWer
`shot 600”, MACup, pages 100—101, No. 4, 1996.
`So called cellular telephones may be utiliZed for image
`transmission, as is knoWn, for example, from the US. Pat.
`No. 5,260,989, entitled “Method and System for Enhanced
`Data Transmission in a Cellular Telephone System”.
`An arrangement With a television camera and a telephone
`Which provides for audio data and image data to be trans
`mitted in common through a telephone line is knoWn, for
`example, from the US. Pat. No. 5,063,587 entitled “Trans
`mission System for Still-Picture T.V. Telephone”. The dis
`closed apparatus makes it possible to digitiZe, compress and
`transmit individual still pictures, such as photographs.
`When a large number of digital images are recorded and
`are to be archived in a central computer unit, then the
`organiZation of the data base becomes a problem. In
`particular, the problems of locating the data of an image data
`?le increase as the number of images to be archived
`increases.
`Abook by S. Naumann et al. entitled “Parsing”, Teubner
`Verlag, Stuttgart, 1“ Edition, ISBN 3-519-02139-0, pages
`155—166, 1994 discloses devices referred to as parsers.
`An image and audio communication system having a
`graphical annotation capability is disclosed in the European
`Patent document EP 0 64 968 A2 in Which voice, data and
`image communications are used in telephone systems. The
`circuit arrangement provides that still pictures and/or mov
`ing pictures can be recorded during a voice and data com
`munication on a picture screen of a PC (personal computer)
`in parallel to the data displayed on the screen.
`
`SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
`
`The present invention addresses the problem of a com
`municating and administering digital images by providing
`for recording, administration and archiving of digital images
`simply, fast and in such Way that the information therefor
`may be easily tracked. Furthermore, the present invention
`simpli?es transmission of digital images Which have been
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`recorded, optimiZes the communication of the image data
`and provides a method for administering the storage of the
`digital images, Which is simple, fast and surveyable so that
`the digital images may be archived.
`These problems are solved by a communication system
`for recording and administering the digital images Which
`includes at least one telephone unit that in addition to a
`telephone function has a digital image pick up unit for
`recording images, a telephone memory for storing the digital
`images, and a processor for processing the digital images.
`The telephone unit may associate classi?cation information
`With the digital images. Atransmission system is coupled to
`the telephone unit and to a server for transmitting of the data
`Which includes the digital images and potentially the clas
`si?cation information from the telephone unit to the server.
`The server has a receiving unit for receiving the data sent by
`the telephone unit, and an analysis unit for analyZing the
`data With respect to the classi?cation information Which
`characteriZe the digital images, and a memory in Which the
`digital images may be archived, taking into consideration
`the classi?cation information during the archiving step.
`Speci?cally, the communication system has at least one
`telephone unit, a server and a transmission system for
`transmitting the data from the telephone unit to the server.
`The telephone unit has a telephone portion and at least one
`digital image recorder Which has the function of a digital
`camera, a telephone unit memory for storing the digital
`images taken by the digital camera and a data processor for
`processing the digital image data. The server includes a
`reception unit, an analysis unit Which analyZes the data that
`is sent from the telephone unit With respect to classi?cation
`information, also referred to as order features, as Well as a
`memory for storing the digital images. The order features, or
`classi?cation information, characteriZe the digital images
`and are taken into consideration as the images are stored.
`As the method of the present invention, the digital images
`are recorded and administered by, ?rst, recording the images
`by a digital image pick up unit Which is included in the
`telephone unit, converting the images to digital form as
`digital images and possibly stored, transmitting data Which
`contains the digital images as Well as classi?cation infor
`mation Which characteriZe the digital images to a server,
`receiving the data in the server, extracting the classi?cation
`information from the data, and storing the digital images in
`the server taking into consideration the classi?cation infor
`mation during the storing step.
`The communication system of the present invention
`exhibits a number of advantages. The present communica
`tion system can transmit speech as in a standard telephone
`system using the telephone unit and can additionally trans
`mit still picture, in other Words photographs, over this same
`communication system. The telephone unit Which records
`the digital images in the digital image pickup also transmits
`the data Which contains these digital images using the
`telephone functions. Addition data may be transmitted With
`the digital image data as Well. Classi?cation information
`Which is found in the transmitted data is extracted in the
`analysis unit and are used for storing the digital images in
`such a Way that they can be easily relocated, even When a
`great number of digital images are stored and administered.
`In this Way, it is possible to implement an automated
`archiving of digital images in the server. Since the storing
`step depends upon the extracted classi?cation information
`that characteriZe the individual digital images, a simple, fast
`and surveyable archiving of the digital images is automati
`cally carried out.
`According to the present method, the images are acquired
`and stored in digital form as digital images. Data is trans
`
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`

`3
`mitted from the telephone unit to the server, the data
`containing at least the digital images. The classi?cation
`information Which characterize the digital images is
`extracted in the server and the digital images is stored in the
`server taking into consideration the classi?cation informa
`tion.
`In a development of the present invention, the telephone
`unit is a Wireless telephone Which Wirelessly transmits the
`data over the transmission system. In other Words, the
`telephone is a mobile telephone unit, Which makes it pos
`sible to immediately register the image and voice informa
`tion and to have this information available at any arbitrary
`location. It is, thus, possible to distribute image and voice
`information over the mobile telephone quickly and possibly
`to distribute it to multiplied locations.
`It is Within the frameWork of the present invention that the
`user may provide the classi?cation information Which is
`allocated to the digital images and Which identify the digital
`images. The communication system of the present invention
`provides a means for allocating this classi?cation informa
`tion as prescribed by the user of the present device to the
`digital images. The communication system provides that
`additional information about the recorded image may be
`attached at the time of the image acquisition directly by the
`individual implementing the recording of the image. This
`avoids additional information editing Which may potentially
`be required for the digital images at the server end. Another
`advantage is that the individual Who records the image
`probably best understands the information Which describes
`the image and can easily allocate that description to the
`image data.
`As a further development of the communication system,
`a speech recognition unit is provided in the telephone unit.
`The recogniZed speech data can be easily transmitted With
`the image data since the compression rate for recogniZed
`speech data (Which is in the form of text) is greater than for
`the audio information.
`According to the various embodiments of the present
`communication system, the classi?cation information may
`have different embodiments containing different informa
`tion. It is advantageous in one development of the invention
`that the classi?cation information includes audio data. The
`archiving of such data is very simple and user friendly since
`the user merely has to speak the information describing the
`recorded image into the telephone unit as in a telephone
`conversation. In addition to speech, the audio data included
`With the image data may provide other classi?cation infor
`mation for the image. For example, it is envisioned that
`speci?c sounds or noises Which characteriZe the image data
`or freely selectable music passages be included as classi?
`cation information in the transmitted data. The classi?cation
`information may contain at least the time and/or time of day
`at Which the image Was recorded or at Which the image data
`Was transmitted to the server. As a result, the classi?cation
`information may be extracted in a very simple Way in the
`server and can be directly converted into information about
`the location in the memory at Which the digital image should
`be stored. By converting the time and date information into
`a form usable by the server, the received digital images may
`be stored in lists or directories in the server Which are
`classi?ed according to the time at Which the image Was
`acquired or the time of the transmission of the digital image,
`Which information is transmitted along With the digital
`image to the server or obtained upon transmission.
`As a further development, the classi?cation information
`may contain at least the telephone number of the telephone
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`unit and/or the telephone number of the server in the data
`accompanying the digital image. This permits the particular
`telephone unit or server to be identi?ed by the classi?cation
`information included With the digital image.
`The classi?cation information, according to an advanta
`geous development, may directly contain particular infor
`mation about the location in the server memory Where the
`digital images should be stored. For example, a direct path
`indication of the directory in the server in Which the digital
`image is stored may be included as the particular informa
`tion accompanying the digital image. This simpli?es the
`analysis of the classi?cation information so that the method
`of the present invention can be implemented considerably
`faster and the communication system can be realiZed With
`less outlay for hardWare.
`A data bank system may be provided as a server in the
`present communication system in a preferred embodiment.
`It is advantageous to provide an image analysis unit in the
`server to determine the quality of the digital images so that
`the relationship betWeen the required image quality and the
`data transmission rate in the transmission system may be
`improved. When the image quality Which is required is
`higher than the image quality Which is supplied, then a
`higher image resolution for the digital images may be
`requested by the server from the telephone unit according to
`yet another development of the present invention. When, on
`other hand the image quality transmitted by the telephone
`unit is higher than that required in the server, then a loWer
`data transmission rate can be set and a loWer image quality
`can be requested from the telephone unit. Thus, the present
`communication system may include a control unit in the
`server for controlling the resolution of the digital images in
`the telephone unit and/or for controlling the transmission
`rate of the data to be used in the transmission system. The
`transmission rate and the costs for the transmission of the
`digital images can thereby be reduced.
`Further, features of the present invention provide for a
`speech analysis unit for analyZing parts of speech and a
`extracting therefrom information for the classifying infor
`mation to be included With the image signals. In another
`development, the server may include a speech synthesis unit
`for generating speech signals to transmit to the telephone
`unit. It is contemplated that the telephone unit may be
`connected to the server via the internet.
`
`BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
`
`FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a communication system
`including a plurality of telephone units according to the
`principles of the present invention;
`FIG. 2 is a plan vieW of a telephone unit to be used in the
`communication system of the present invention;
`FIG. 3 is a How chart illustrating the method steps
`according to the method of the present invention; and
`FIG. 4 is a block diagram shoWing various classi?cation
`information, or order features, Which may be associated With
`the image data according to the present invention.
`
`DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE
`PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
`The communication system according to the present
`invention as shoWn in FIG. 1 including as components an
`arbitrary number of telephone units TE, a server S, and a
`transmission system US that is coupled to the telephone
`units TE as Well as to the server S and that is used for
`transmitting data betWeen the telephone units TE and the
`server S.
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`The server S is a computer system Which serves for
`organizing a database Which includes a large number of
`digital images as Well as classi?cation information OM
`Which may potentially be allocated to the digital images. The
`server S includes at least the folloWing components, an
`receiving unit EE for receiving the data that is sent from the
`telephone unit TE via the transmission system US and an
`analysis unit AE that is coupled to the receiving unit EE and
`Which extracts the classi?cation information from data
`received by the server S. Various possible embodiments for
`the analysis unit AE Will be described later. In addition, a
`memory SP for storing the data as Well as the digital images
`Which is contained in the data is provided in the server S.
`In one embodiment, the servers includes an image analy
`sis unit BAE Which determines the quality of the digital
`image that is provided to the server S. For example, the noise
`level Within the digital image is determined by the image
`analysis unit BAE and the quality of the image is estimated
`depending upon the amount of noise Which is detected.
`In addition, a control unit ST is provided in the server S
`in one embodiment of the communication system. The
`control unit ST controls the image resolution of the digital
`images using the image compression in the telephone unit,
`for example. In particular, image compression methods
`utiliZe a control parameter to set the image compression
`level for the digital images such as the quantiZing factor in
`a JPEG (joint photographic expert group) image date com
`pression. The control unit ST determines this quantiZing
`factor to be used to obtain the desired image quality.
`The control unit ST also controls the transmission rate
`during transmission of the data via the transmission system
`US.
`Further developments of the present communication sys
`tem provide for including a means for analysis of voice
`signals Which are spoken into the telephone unit TE, from
`Which the classi?cation information OM may be extracted.
`In a preferred development, this voice analysis means is
`provided in the image analysis unit BAE. It is also contem
`plated in the present invention to provide a speech synthesis
`unit in the server S. The speech synthesis unit includes
`digitally stored voice information Which is converted into
`speech Which is then presented to a user of the present
`communication system as a natural language output.
`The server S is con?gured With an arbitrary data bank
`system in Which the digital images may be administered.
`The analysis unit AE provides the administering function,
`Which Will be described in greater detail here and after.
`Although the present communication system is envi
`sioned as including a plurality of telephone units TE, the
`communication system Will be described hereinafter With
`reference to only a single telephone unit TE for simplicity
`and Without limiting the scope of the present invention. The
`single telephone unit TE is shoWn in FIG. 2. The telephone
`unit includes the standard features of a telephone unit
`55
`including, for example, an earphone HM, a keypad TA
`Which serves as an operating ?eld for the telephone unit TE,
`as Well as a microphone LS. The telephone unit also includes
`a digital image pick up unit for recording images, the digital
`image pick up unit being integrated into the telephone unit
`TE. In FIG. 2, the telephone unit TE includes a lens LI and
`a vieW ?nder SU and may possibly include a photo?ash BL.
`As an alternative to an integrated image pick up unit and
`telephone unit, the image pick up unit may be spatially
`separated from the telephone unit but connected to one
`another via a connection such as a line connection, a
`plug-type connection or a radio link.
`
`6
`The digital image pick up unit operates as a digital photo
`camera of the type Which is knoWn. A telephone unit
`memory TS is provided for storing the images registered by
`the digital image pick up unit in digital form in the telephone
`unit TE. The digital images may be compressed using still
`picture image data compression methods such as JPEG. The
`compression method is implemented using a data processor
`P Which includes a memory RAM. The data processor P
`serves for processing the digital images. HoWever, the
`processor P can be used for other processing tasks as Well
`including, for example, pattern recognition or voice recog
`nition Within the telephone unit TE.
`The telephone unit TE can be used as a “normal tele
`phone” to make calls or as an image recording device With
`its expanded functionality. It is provided, according to one
`development of the invention, to provide a mode key MT by
`Which the operating mode of the telephone unit TE is
`sWitched such as betWeen operation as a normal telephone or
`as an image pick up and transmitting unit according to the
`present communication system. When set to operate as an
`image pick up unit, a separate trigger, or shutter button, AL
`is provided for recording of the images by the image pick up
`unit.
`The various functions provided by the present telephone
`unit TE may be controlled and/or displayed in an operating
`?eld BE. For instance, the operating ?eld BE may be utiliZed
`in the allocation of speech spoken by the user to individual
`digital images. The telephone unit thus temporarily func
`tions as a “dictating machine”, With control via the operating
`?eld BE. While the various controls such as the mode key
`MT, the shutter AL and the operating ?eld BE are shoWn as
`separate controls, they need not be fashioned as separate
`keys but may be integrated in terms of their various func
`tions into the keypad TA for the telephone unit TE by using
`key combinations.
`The present telephone unit may be operated via a tele
`phone line or may alternately be operated Wirelessly as a
`mobile telephone using an antenna A for transmission and
`reception of data. Thus, the telephone unit TE is fashioned
`as a mobile telephone (a so called cellular phone) or as a
`cordless telephone.
`In the illustrated embodiment, a means MZ is provided in
`the telephone unit TE for allocating the classi?cation infor
`mation OM Which are prescribed by the user to the digital
`images and thus characteriZing the digital images. In terms
`of its function, the allocation means MZ may be integrated
`into the keypad TA, for example, by using key combinations.
`The telephone unit TE also includes a speech recognition
`unit Which converts open speech into text. The text can then
`be allocated to the digital images and transferred With the
`digital image data. Referring to FIG. 4, the various possi
`bilities for the classi?cation information OM are illustrated.
`The classi?cation information OM Which are unambigu
`ously allocated to the digital images serve to characteriZe the
`digital images so that a surveyable, unambiguous storage of
`the digital images in the server S may be carried out in such
`a Way that the digital images can be quickly relocated in
`their stored locations. The folloWing classi?cation informa
`tion OM is not intended to be all inclusive but only as
`examples of information Which may be included as classi
`?cation information. The classi?cation information OM may
`be implicitly contained in the digital image itself, such as
`being derived from the image content such as identifying a
`speci?c building in the photo, identifying a speci?c recorded
`landscape, or a speci?c recorded vehicle type. The analysis
`unitAE of the server serves to analyZe the image content and
`record the image according to the meaning derived from the
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`image analysis. When the classi?cation information OM are
`implicitly contained in the digital image, then the analysis
`unit AE includes a pattern recognition unit Which searches
`the image for speci?c, predetermined features in the digital
`image.
`The classi?cation information OM may also be included
`in the transmitted data as forWarded from the telephone unit
`TE to the server S With the digital images. Such information
`may be the address or the telephone number of the telephone
`unit TE Which transmits the data. Furthermore, the time of
`recording of the respective digital image and/or the time of
`transmission of the digital image to the server may be
`provided as classi?cation information for the image data.
`When this is the case, the analysis unit AE is fashioned such
`the this time and date, or address, or telephone number
`information can be extracted from the transmitted data. This
`information can be included as a header ?eld provided With
`the transmitted message that contains the image data and, as
`such, analysis thereof is quite simple.
`In a preferred embodiment, the classi?cation information
`OM as shoWn in FIG. 4 include the folloWing types of data:
`an arbitrary form of audio data 401 such as melodies,
`songs, noises, or speech 402 Which is spoken into the
`telephone unit TE by the user;
`the time of day and/or the date of the recording of the
`image and/or the time of day and/or the date of the
`transmission of the data 403;
`the telephone number of the telephone unit TE Which
`obtained and transmitted the image data and/or the
`telephone number of the server S 404 Which received
`the data, or some other type of identi?cation of the
`telephone unit TE and/or of the server S such as an
`unambiguous address for the telephone unit TE or for
`the server S;
`some particular information about the location in the
`memory at Which the digital image should be stored
`405. This may be an unambiguous path indication
`Which indicates the location in memory or in the
`directory structure and the server S at Which the respec
`tive digital image should be stored; and
`other alphanumeric data Which may be input into the
`telephone unit TE via the key pad TA in, for example,
`an ASCII format 406.
`The analysis unitAE is fashioned so that it may extract the
`classi?cation information OM from the data received by the
`server S and, as such, it is fashioned in accordance With the
`expected classi?cation information OM. Various realiZations
`of the analysis unit AE may be utiliZed including in a type
`of parser With Which the respective information is extracted.
`A parser may be of the type Which is knoWn.
`The classi?cation information OM Which are transmitted
`With the digital image or Which are allocated to the digital
`image are used for archiving the images in the server
`memory.
`Amethod according to the present invention is illustrated
`in FIG. 3, including a ?rst step 301 in Which images are
`recorded With the digital image pick up unit that is integrated
`into the telephone unit TE. According to the step 302, the
`images are stored in digital form in the telephone unit
`memory TS as digital images. The images are transmitted in
`step 303, either in compressed form or non-compressed
`form, from the telephone unit TE to the server S via the
`transmission system US. The data is received at step 304 at
`the server S and the classi?cation information OM Which
`characteriZe the digital images are extracted at step 305 from
`the data received in the server. The digital images and
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`possibly the classi?cation information OM and potentially
`further information that characteriZe or described the digital
`images are stored at step 306 in the server. During the storing
`step, the classi?cation information OM is taken into con
`sideration.
`The classi?cation information OM may be prescribed by
`a user of the telephone unit TE, for example, by simply
`speaking the information into the microphone LS of the
`telephone unit TE or by inputting a character sequence into
`the key pad TA.
`As a development of the method, the spoken language by
`the user may be recogniZed and stored in a compressed form,
`for example, as text. This achieves a further reduction in the
`transmission rate for the digital image With accompanying
`classi?cation information. Also included in a development
`according to the present invention is the identi?cation of the
`quality of the image and the control of the required or
`available transmission rate in the transmission system US by
`Which the data is transmitted, the controlled being dependent
`upon the quality of the image desired. When the quality of
`the image is classi?ed as too loW in the server, a
`re-transmission of the digital images requested from the
`telephone unit With the neWly transmitted image exhibiting
`a higher quality or high resolution.
`To determine the quality of the image, the noise in the
`digital image is estimated using, for example, the image
`analysis unit BAE. The noise in the image serves as a
`criterion for estimating the quality of the image.
`It is a particular advantage to utiliZe the present invention
`in conjunction With the connection to the Internet. For
`example, the images may be automatically stored or
`archived on the basis of the classi?cation inform