JP4909006B2 - Imaging device, control method thereof, and program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for access control of an imaging apparatus such as a digital camera accessible from a plurality of users.

  An image pickup apparatus such as a digital camera can easily transfer an image to a remote place via a public line or a network because the photographed image is digital data. Recently, a technology such as a wireless LAN that can be connected to a network in a mobile environment without connecting a cable even outdoors has been attracting attention. Therefore, a photographic image transfer system that combines a digital camera and wireless technology and transfers an image directly connected to the network from the digital camera has been put on the market. For example, products such as a product that inserts a wireless LAN card into the memory card slot of a digital camera, connects to the network via the card, and transmits images, and an adapter-type wireless LAN unit that connects to the digital camera with a cable are released. Has been.

The functions of a digital camera that can be connected to such a network are not limited to sending captured images to a server on the network. For example, it becomes possible to control the operation of the camera, change settings, and access an image file, an audio file, and the like on a recording device inside the digital camera from a PC on the network. That is, it is possible to remotely release from a PC on the network, or to browse a thumbnail image inside the camera and transfer a photographed image with a large number of pixels as much as you like (for example, see Patent Document 1). ).
Furthermore, the number of PCs on the network is not limited to one, and multiple users simultaneously access the digital camera from multiple PCs, and simultaneously perform operations such as viewing and transferring images and operating the release. Is becoming possible.

In particular, digital cameras used in operations such as news reports are required to be able to quickly send a photograph taken to a remote place such as a head office desk. Accordingly, the compatibility of digital cameras with the network has been regarded as important, and a camera control function by a plurality of users on the network such as a cameraman and an editor has been required.
JP 2003-069988 A

  However, when a plurality of users simultaneously access the digital camera in this way, unlike a general network server computer, depending on the function to be operated, simultaneous access may be inconvenient.

  For example, in a conventional captured image transfer system, a situation is assumed in which a photographer holding a camera and a remote user controlling the camera over a network exist at the same time. In this case, when the photographer holding the camera is about to take a picture, if the remote photography instruction is just given, the right to control the photography is transferred to the remote photographer with early timing. Therefore, the photographer sometimes missed a photo opportunity, and there was a problem in terms of the instant photographing property that the photographer took a picture immediately when he wanted to take a picture.

  The same is true if there are multiple remote users on the network. In conventional remote shooting, when multiple remote shootings were attempted at the same timing, priority was given to the timing being as early as possible, and if the timing was late, the photo opportunity was missed.

  In addition, when a photographer releases and tries to store a captured image on one recording medium, if another user tries to access an image file stored on the recording medium, the recording medium is accessed. Will overlap. As a result, the writing speed of the captured image becomes slow. If you try to take high-speed continuous shooting, the number of images that can be shot in a single continuous shooting may decrease if the access speed to the media is slow, and the photographer handles the camera alone. Compared to this, the usability of the camera is greatly deteriorated. On the other hand, if access to all recording media is prohibited, access to media other than the media on which the photographer intends to store captured images is also restricted.

  In addition, when a certain user is browsing an image or obtaining an image, when another user goes to access the same file, traffic on the network increases. Therefore, there is a problem that even if it is desired to transfer a large image immediately, it takes much longer than when only one person accesses. If such a situation occurs in operations such as news reporting, it can be a cause of serious damage to the preliminary reportability.

In order to solve the above problems, an imaging apparatus according to the present invention includes an imaging unit that captures an image of a subject and acquires image data, a storage unit that stores the image data in a storage medium, and a direct operation instruction from an operator. Operating means for accepting an operation, receiving means for connecting to a network and accepting an operation instruction from an external device, an operation instruction accepted by the operation means, and a priority of the operation instruction accepted by the receiving means . If the setting means preset based on the instruction and the operation instruction for the same operation is received while the operation based on the operation instruction is being performed, the operation with the lower priority based on the priority set by the setting means have a control means for limiting the operation based on the instruction, the setting means, the direct operation instruction accepted by said operation means, said receiving The priority may be set so as to give priority to the operation instruction from the external device received by the means, and the operation instruction from the external device received by the receiving means may be set more than the direct operation instruction received by the operation means. It is also possible to set the priority so as to give priority to the above .

  According to the present invention, even when a plurality of users access one camera at the same time, there is provided a digital camera that does not impair the camera's instant shooting performance and is compatible with the promptness by the access function of a plurality of users. be able to.

<Example 1>
A first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a preferred example of the configuration of the digital camera 100 according to the present invention. Reference numeral 201 denotes an interchangeable lens that captures a subject as an optical image. Reference numeral 202 denotes an operation member that receives various operations from the user. The operation member 202 includes a release button for instructing a photographing operation. The release button is composed of two switches, SW1 and SW2, and when the release button is pressed halfway, SW1 is turned on and the photographing standby state is set. When the release button is fully pressed, SW2 is turned on and shooting is performed. A main storage device 203 is used for temporary reading and writing of data. Generally, RAM (Random Access Memory) is used. A display device 204 displays captured images and various operation menus. A wireless LAN device 205 performs data communication with an external device via the antenna 214. Reference numeral 206 denotes an image sensor that converts an optical image from the interchangeable lens 201 into an electric signal. A CPU (Central Processing Unit) 207 performs image processing and overall control of the digital camera 100. A communication control processor 208 controls data input / output with an external device in cooperation with the CPU 208. Reference numeral 209 denotes a nonvolatile storage device. In addition, a CF card 210, an SD card 211, an internal recording device 212, and an external recording device 213 are provided as storage devices. The internal recording device 212 and the external recording device 213 may be semiconductor recording devices such as a flash ROM. Further, a storage medium such as a hard disk or a CD-R (Compact Disk Recordable) may be used. Note that these storage devices are not necessarily part of the digital camera 100. The digital camera has only an interface for accessing the storage medium, and the storage medium may be attached or detached as necessary.

  FIG. 2 is a preferred example of a digital camera and network configuration according to the present invention.

  The digital camera 100 is connected to the network via the wireless LAN access point 102 by the wireless LAN device 205. Then, it communicates with remote PCs 108 and 109 which are external devices connected to the same network. When communication is started, initial communication is performed with the DHCP server 103, the DNS server 104, the authentication server 105, etc. as necessary to secure a link with the network.

  A user A 101 is a user who directly gives an operation instruction to the digital camera 100 by touching the operation member 202 of the digital camera 100. A user B110 and a user C111 are users who operate the digital camera 100 by operating the remote PCs 108 and 109, respectively. The remote operation is realized by transmitting an operation instruction from the remote PC to the digital camera based on the user's operation, and the digital camera 100 receiving the operation instruction performing an operation according to the operation instruction. Note that when connecting to the digital camera 100 from a remote PC, an authentication operation for identifying the user is required. User B110 and user C111 register an ID and a password for authenticating the user in the digital camera 100 in advance. Then, when performing remote operation, the remote PC logs in to the digital camera 100 by transmitting the ID and password to the digital camera 100. An authentication method for accessing the digital camera 100 can be realized by a method using an electronic signature, an electronic certificate, or the like in addition to a general ID and password login method.

  As a method for registering a user in the digital camera 100, there is a method in which the user directly operates the digital camera 100 using the operation member 202 and the display device 204 of the digital camera 100. Alternatively, registration information may be input to a recording medium such as the CF card 210 and read by the digital camera 100 for registration. Furthermore, a registration method from a PC or the like via a network is possible. As an example, the camera has a WEB server function, is accessed from a PC on the network using a general-purpose WEB browser, and displays a WEB page for user registration. From there, there is a method of registering user data in the camera by using a known CGI or the like.

  Furthermore, when registering a user, the operation authority and priority are set.

  The operation authority is an authority for a specific operation, and an operation instruction from a user who does not have the operation authority cannot be accepted. The priority order will be described later.

  The operation right in this embodiment includes a release operation right and an access operation right to each medium. The setting of the release operation right includes setting whether to accept a release operation instruction and setting a medium and a folder for storing an image taken in accordance with the release operation. In this embodiment, it is assumed that an image is recorded on a recording medium built in the camera or a recording medium directly connected. However, the captured image may be recorded on a server on the network without being recorded on the recording medium, or directly transmitted to the remote PC 108 or the like.

  The priority order is a degree indicating which operation instruction is given priority when a plurality of operation instructions or operations based on the operation instructions overlap as a result of connecting a plurality of devices to the digital camera 100. The priority includes a release operation priority and an image transfer priority. The release operation priority order indicates a priority order when release operation instructions from a plurality of users overlap. The image transfer priority order is used to determine the order in which images are transferred and the allocation of the communication band of the network when instructions for image transfer operations on the network overlap. Note that priority order may be set not only for the release operation instruction and the image transfer operation instruction but also for the image browsing operation instruction.

  FIG. 3 shows an example of a specific management list for operation right setting and priority setting.

  In this list, three users are registered in the digital camera 100. Here, it is assumed that the user A is a user who directly operates the camera, and the users B and C are users who remotely operate the digital camera 100 from the network. The user A who operates the camera directly and the user B who operates the camera are given the release operation right (301), and the captured image storage medium and the storage folder are respectively designated (303, 304). Here, an image photographed in accordance with an instruction from user A is stored in a CF card, and an image photographed in accordance with an instruction from user B is stored in an SD card. Since the release operation right is not given to the user C (301), the captured image storage medium is not designated (303, 304). As for the priority order of the release operation right, the user A is the first and the user B is the second (302).

  As an access right to the medium, whether or not each user can access the four recording media 210 to 213 in this embodiment is set (303 to 308). For example, a user who intends to perform remote operation only needs to have access rights to the medium in which his / her captured image storage folder is located. However, if a user who directly operates the camera and a user on the network cooperate, access rights to the necessary media must be set for each user.

  The image transfer priority order is also set in advance (309). In the example of FIG. 3, the priority is higher in the order of user C, user A, and user B.

  The operation right and the priority order can be set at the time of user registration, or can be changed after user registration. Further, the digital camera 100 may automatically set the priority of the user who directly touches the operation member 202 to give an operation instruction to the highest priority. Generally, a user who directly operates a camera takes a picture from a position closest to the subject. Therefore, it is better to increase the priority so as not to miss an immediate photo opportunity. Conversely, when an editor or the like is monitoring a cameraman's shooting from a remote location, it is possible to set the editor's priority higher so that the photograph reflecting the editor's intention is taken. is there. The user information registered in this way is stored in the nonvolatile storage device 209 inside the digital camera 100.

  After setting a set of setting items in this way, the user can operate the digital camera 100.

  A user A101 who directly operates the camera issues a shooting operation instruction by operating a release switch. The user B110 and the user C111 issue a shooting operation instruction by transmitting a release command from the remote PC1 (108) and the remote PC2 (109) to the digital camera 100 via the network, respectively. When accessing an image recorded on the recording media 210 to 213 from the remote PC, an access instruction is performed by transmitting a command such as a read command or a write command to the digital camera 100.

  The captured image data is subjected to image processing by the CPU 207 to generate a main image and a thumbnail image. The generated image is once stored in the main storage device 203 and then stored in preset storage locations (303, 304).

  The details of the operation in the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a flowchart when the user A who directly operates the camera performs the release operation while the user B and the user C operate the camera from the network. The processing in this flowchart is executed by controlling each unit in accordance with a signal or program input by the CPU 207. As a premise of this process, it is assumed that the settings shown in FIG. 3 have been made.

  In step S400, when the digital camera 100 detects that the user A has pressed SW1 for performing photometry / ranging, it determines that a direct operation has been performed. In step S <b> 402, the digital camera 100 refers to the management list stored in the nonvolatile storage device 209, and reads information on the priority order of the release operation right of the user A who is performing the direct operation and the storage location of the image. In the management list of FIG. 3, since the priority order of the release operation right of the user A is 1, the digital camera 100 performs a process of giving the release operation right to the user A. That is, an operation instruction using the direct operation member 202 is accepted.

  In step S402, the digital camera 100 determines whether or not the user B has entered the release operation from the network. In the present embodiment, the state in which the release operation is started is an instruction to end the release operation after the completion of the writing of the photographed image to the storage medium from the time when the release operation instruction is received from the remote PC 1 (108). It means the state until it receives. If the release operation instruction is in the release operation of the user B, the process proceeds to step S403 because the user A and the user B are instructing the same operation.

  In step S403, the digital camera 100 refers to the priority order regarding the release operation, and determines whether or not the user A has a higher priority order than the other users who performed the release operation. If it is determined that user A has a higher priority, the process proceeds to step S404. If it is determined that another user has a higher priority, the process returns to step S402. In the case of the setting shown in FIG. 3, the priority order of the user A is 1, the priority order of the user B is 2, and the priority order of the user A is higher. Therefore, the process proceeds to step S404, and the digital camera 100 cancels the release operation of the user B and also prohibits receiving another operation instruction.

  This is not limited to the case of user B, and the same applies to the release operation of another user.

  In step S410, the digital camera 100 notifies the remote PC 1 (108) operated by the user B who has been prohibited from accepting the operation instruction, that the release operation is cancelled. Receiving the notification, the remote PC 1 (108) displays a dialog as shown in FIG. 5 on its own display unit (not shown).

  In step S <b> 405, the digital camera 100 determines whether a user other than the user A is accessing the registered image storage destination. As shown in FIG. 3, the image taken in the user A release operation is set to store the taken image in the CF card 210. In this case, if another user is accessing the CF card 210, the time taken to write the captured image to the card becomes long. In addition, this may reduce the number of frames that can be taken during continuous shooting. Therefore, for example, when the user C is accessing the CF card 210, the digital camera 100 advances the processing to step S406, and cancels access to the CF card 210 from the remote PC 2 (109) operated by the user C. . Also, subsequent access is prohibited.

  In step S <b> 407, the digital camera 100 notifies the remote PC 2 (108) operated by the user C who has been prohibited from accepting operation instructions, the cancellation of access to the CF card 201. Receiving the notification, the remote PC 2 (109) displays the dialog on its own display unit (not shown).

  In step S <b> 408, the digital camera 100 determines whether SW <b> 2 is pressed by the user A operation. If so, the process proceeds to step S409. If not, the process proceeds to step S411.

  In step S409, the digital camera 100 performs shooting based on an operation instruction from the user A.

  In step S411, the digital camera 100 determines whether or not a predetermined time has passed since the SW1 was released. If the predetermined time has elapsed, the process proceeds to step S415, and the prohibition of operations from the user B110 and the user C111 is canceled. Conversely, if the certain time has not elapsed, the process proceeds to step S412.

  In step S <b> 412, the digital camera 100 determines whether SW <b> 2 is pressed by the operation of the user A. If so, the process advances to step S413. If not, the process proceeds to step S416.

  In step S413, the digital camera 100 performs shooting based on the release operation instruction from the user A.

  In step S414, the digital camera 100 determines whether an image has been written to the CF card 210. If it is determined that the image has been written, the process proceeds to step S415.

  If it is determined in step S412 that SW2 has not been pressed, the process proceeds to step S416. In step S416, the digital camera 100 determines whether an operation instruction for transferring the image captured in step S409 or step S413 has been received. If it is determined that it has been received, the process proceeds to step S417. If it is determined that it has not been received, the process returns to step S411.

  In step S417, the digital camera 100 cancels and prohibits another image transfer operation instruction. This process prohibits instructions other than the operation of transferring the image obtained by the shooting in step S409 or step S413 regardless of the priority order (309) of the image transfer operation.

  In step S418, the digital camera 100 transfers the image to a server on the network.

  In step S419, the digital camera 100 determines whether the image transfer is completed. If it is determined that the process has been completed, the process proceeds to step S415.

  In step S415, the digital camera 100 cancels the prohibition of operations from the user B110 and the user C111.

  In this way, when the SW1 is released from the user A's hand, the release operation right of the user A is not released immediately, but the release operation right is released when a certain time has passed since the release of the SW1. As a result, when the user A continuously takes pictures at short intervals, the operation right can be continued, so that smooth continuous shooting similar to that performed by one person can be realized.

  In addition, by giving priority to the transfer of the image captured immediately before the SW1 is released from the hand of the user A for a certain period of time, the user can immediately transfer the image just captured. .

  In step S420, the digital camera 100 transmits a notification to the remote PC 1 (108) that the prohibition of the operation has been canceled to notify the user B110 and the user C111 that the prohibition of the operation has been canceled. The remote PC 1 (108) that has received the notification inquires in a dialog form as shown in FIG. 6 whether to resume the release operation that has been canceled halfway. In FIG. 6, when the OK button is selected by the user B 110, the remote PC 1 (108) transmits a restart notification to the digital camera 100. When the digital camera 100 receives the restart notification, the digital camera receives the release operation instruction transmitted from the user B, that is, the remote PC 1 (108), and performs the release operation.

  In step S421, the digital camera 100 transmits a notification to the remote PC 2 (109) that the prohibition of operation has been canceled in order to notify the user C111 that the prohibition of operation has been canceled. The remote PC 2 (109) that has received the notification that the operation prohibition has been canceled displays a dialog (not shown) and notifies the user C111 that the access operation has been permitted again. The above is the operation when receiving release operation instructions from a plurality of users.

  Next, an operation when receiving image transfer operations from a plurality of users simultaneously will be described.

  The digital camera 100 provided with a communication function can display an image stored in the recording devices 210 to 213 or transmit an image to a server or the like on a network, independently of a shooting operation. It is. These processes can also be performed directly or remotely. In this case, if the timing of performing the image transfer operation is overlapped by a plurality of users, not only traffic for accessing the recording apparatus but also traffic on the network increases. Therefore, there is a problem that the response is deteriorated, for example, the transmission time is longer than that in the case of operating alone. In order to solve such a problem, in this embodiment, an image transfer operation is performed based on the priority order. Hereinafter, the operation of the digital camera 100 at the time of image transfer in this embodiment will be described.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the operation of the digital camera 100 during image transfer in this embodiment. The processing in this flowchart is executed by controlling each unit in accordance with a signal or program input by the CPU 207. The priorities in this embodiment are set as shown in FIG. 3, and when performing transfer processing based on an operation instruction from the user A, when the user C has already performed image transfer, or during transfer Consider a case where an instruction to transfer an image is received from the user C. In the present embodiment, “transfer processing is in progress” refers to the time from when the operation member 202 is operated and a transfer instruction is detected or when a transfer start command is received until all the images to be transmitted are transmitted.

  First, in step S701, the user A directly operates the operation member 202 to instruct to transfer all images in the CF card 210 to an external server. At this time, if there is no other person using the network, the entire bandwidth of the network is assigned to the image transfer operation instructed by the user A.

  In step S702, the digital camera 100 determines whether an image transfer request has been received from another user. Here, it is determined that the image is being received even when the image is being transferred according to an instruction from the user C111 at the time of entering the process of step S702. If it is determined that it has been received, the process proceeds to step S703. If it is determined that it has not been received, the process proceeds to step S707. In this embodiment, it is assumed that the user C111 has operated the remote PC 2 (109) and has transmitted an instruction to request transfer of a specific image in the CF card 201 of the remote PC 2 (109).

  In step S <b> 703, the digital camera 100 compares the priorities of image transfer between the user A and the user C with duplicate operation instructions. As shown in FIG. 3, the priority for image transfer is 1 for user C and 2 for user A, and user C has a higher priority (309). If the priority order of user C is higher, the process proceeds to step S704. If the priority order of the user A, that is, the priority order of the user who is currently performing the image transfer operation is high, the process proceeds to step S707.

  In step S704, the digital camera 100 cancels the image transfer operation of the user A. That is, the operation based on the operation instruction of the user with a low priority is restricted.

  In step S <b> 705, the digital camera 100 starts or continues image transfer based on an operation instruction from the user C.

  In step S706, the digital camera 100 determines whether the image transfer based on the operation instruction of the user C has been completed. If it is determined that the process has been completed, the process proceeds to step S707.

  In step S707, the digital camera 100 resumes the image transfer operation of the user A canceled in step S704. That is, in this flow, the operation instruction of the user C111 is interrupted during image transfer based on the operation instruction of the user A101. By performing this interrupt processing based on the priority order, the order in which the image transfer operations are performed is manipulated, and the request of the user C111 having a higher priority order is given priority.

  In step S708, the digital camera 100 determines whether there is a transfer request from another user. If it is determined that there is a request, the process returns to step S703, and the priorities are compared again. If it is determined that there is no request, the process proceeds to step S709.

  In step S709, the digital camera 100 determines whether all images to be transmitted have been transmitted based on the user A instruction. If it is determined that all have been transmitted, the process proceeds to step S709, and the process ends. If it is determined that all have not been transmitted, the process advances to step S707 to continue the transfer process.

  The above is the flow of processing in image transfer. In this embodiment, the order of transferring images is controlled based on the priority order, but the present invention is not necessarily limited to this embodiment. For example, it is possible to limit the network bandwidth used for image transfer based on the operation instruction of the user A101 to 20%, and to allocate 80% when the operation is performed by the user C111. In this case, it is possible to accept the operation instructions of both users at the same time while considering the priority in the form of bandwidth allocation.

  Thus, the image transfer in the present embodiment controls the transfer operation based on the set priority order. For this reason, even when a plurality of users access at the same time, it is possible to maintain promptness without degrading the performance of image transfer processing of users with high priority.

  As described above, the digital camera according to the present embodiment executes a process according to a user operation instruction with a high priority when a plurality of users perform a release operation at the same time. Therefore, a user with high priority will not miss a photo opportunity.

  In addition, when a user tries to shoot, access to the media from other users can be prohibited, so the access speed does not decrease compared to operating the camera alone. . Access to a medium other than the medium on which the captured image is to be stored is not prohibited, so that the access efficiency to the entire recording medium included in the digital camera can be improved.

  In addition, for a user whose operation is prohibited or restricted, a display to that effect is displayed, so that the cause can be easily understood even if the response deteriorates. Further, when the prohibition or restriction of the operation is released, whether to resume the prohibited operation is displayed and the user is allowed to select, so that the user can perform the operation smoothly.

<Other embodiments>
The object of the present invention can also be realized by using a storage medium storing software program codes for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments. That is, it is also achieved by supplying to a system or apparatus and reading and executing the program code stored in the storage medium by a computer (or CPU, MPU, etc.) of the system or apparatus.

  In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments, and the program code and the storage medium storing the program code constitute the present invention. .

  As a storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, a magnetic disk such as a floppy (registered trademark) disk or a hard disk, or a magneto-optical disk can be used. Further, optical disks such as CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD + RW, magnetic tape, nonvolatile memory card, ROM, and the like can be used. Alternatively, the program code may be downloaded via a network.

  Further, processing may be shared with an OS (operating system) running on the computer based on an instruction of the program code. For example, the case where the OS performs part or all of the actual processing and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing is also included.

  Further, the program code read from the storage medium may be written in a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer. In this case, based on the instruction of the program code, a CPU or the like provided in the extension board or extension unit with the extension function performs part or all of the actual processing, and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing. .

The figure which shows an example of the block diagram of the digital camera in this invention Diagram showing an example of network configuration The figure which shows an example of a release operation right setting and a media access right setting Flow chart when release operations are overlapped by multiple users Example of display when the release operation is canceled Example of display when release operation can be resumed Flow chart when file access operations overlap for multiple users

Explanation of symbols

100 Digital camera 101 User A who operates the camera directly
102 wireless LAN access point 103 DHCP server 104 DNS server 105 authentication server 106 router 107 FTP server 108 remote PC 1
109 Remote PC1
110 User B remotely operating from the network
111 User C remotely operating from the network

Claims (10)

Imaging means for imaging a subject and acquiring image data;
Storage means for storing the image data in a storage medium ;
An operation means for receiving a direct operation instruction from the operator;
Receiving means connected to a network, and receives an operation instruction from an external device,
Setting means for presetting the priority of the operation instruction accepted by the operation means and the operation instruction accepted by the receiving means based on an instruction of the operator ;
Control means for restricting an operation based on an operation instruction with a low priority based on the priority set by the setting means when an operation instruction for the same operation is received while an operation based on the operation instruction is being performed ; I have a,
The setting unit may set a priority so that a direct operation instruction received by the operation unit is given priority over an operation instruction from an external device received by the reception unit. An imaging apparatus , wherein priority can be set so that an operation instruction from a device is given priority over a direct operation instruction received by the operation means . The imaging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the setting unit can set priorities of a plurality of operation instructions, and can set the priorities for each type of the operation. The operation instruction, the imaging apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that it comprises an imaging instruction to perform imaging by the imaging means. The setting unit can set, using the priority, which of the imaging instruction received by the operation unit and the imaging instruction received by the receiving unit has priority. Imaging device. The operation instruction, the imaging apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that it comprises an access instruction for accessing the storage medium. The said setting means can set which of the access instruction accepted by the said operation means and the access instruction accepted by the said receiving means is prioritized using the said priority. Imaging device. The storage means can store the image data in a plurality of storage media ,
The imaging apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein the setting unit can set the priority of the access instruction for each storage medium . The operation instruction further includes a transfer instruction for transferring an image to an external device,
The setting means can further set which of the transfer instruction accepted by the operation means and the transfer instruction accepted by the receiving means is prioritized using the priority,
Wherein when the imaging instruction is found accepted by the operation means, the control means performs imaging based on the imaging instruction, regardless of the priority of the transfer instruction, based on the imaging instruction accepted by said operation means The image pickup apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein transfer of an image obtained by the executed image pickup is preferentially executed . An imaging process of imaging a subject and acquiring image data;
A storage step of storing the image data in a storage medium ;
An operation acceptance process for accepting direct operation instructions from the operator;
Connected to the network, a receiving step for receiving an operation instruction from an external device,
A setting step for setting in advance the priority of the operation instruction received in the operation step and the priority of the operation instruction received in the reception step based on an instruction from the operator ;
When an operation instruction for the same operation is received while an operation based on the operation instruction is being performed, a restriction process for restricting an operation based on an operation instruction with a low priority based on the priority set in the setting process And
In the setting step, it is also accepted in the reception step that the priority is set so that the direct operation instruction accepted in the operation step has priority over the operation instruction from the external device accepted in the reception step. A control method for an imaging apparatus , wherein priority can be set so that an operation instruction from a given external device is given priority over a direct operation instruction received in the operation step . A computer-readable program that causes a computer to function as the imaging apparatus according to claim 1.

Images