Patent ID: 8742890

Claim:
An image acquisition system comprising: an image acquisition device having a image acquisition unit; and a remote controller configured as a member separate from the image acquisition device and adapted to transmit a command to the image acquisition device to control the image acquisition device, thereby permitting the image acquisition device to perform an operation corresponding to the command; wherein the image acquisition device includes an identification information transmission unit configured to transmit identification information to the remote controller to permit the image acquisition device to identify the remote controller; wherein the remote controller includes: an identification information receiving unit configured to receive the identification information transmitted from the image acquisition device; and a command transmission unit configured to transmit a command to control the image acquisition device as an authentication command containing authentication information for permitting the image acquisition device to authenticate the remote controller, the authentication information containing one of the identification information and information derived from the identification information received by the identification information receiving unit; and wherein the image acquisition device further includes: a command receiving unit configured to receive the authentication command transmitted from the command transmission unit of the remote controller; an authentication information recognition unit configured to recognize the authentication information contained in the authentication command received by the command receiving unit and containing the one of the identification information and the information derived from the identification information; a function limiting unit configured to limit a predetermined function of the image acquisition device based on the authentication information recognized by the authentication information recognition unit; a command determination unit configured to determine the content of the authentication command received by the command receiving unit; and a mode setting unit configured to, in the case where the content of the authentication command determined by the command determining unit is an authentication mode switching command for giving a command to switch an authentication mode for the image acquisition device, set the authentication mode of the image acquisition device in accordance with the authentication mode switching command; and wherein the function limiting unit of the image acquisition device limits the function of the image acquisition device in accordance with the authentication mode set by the mode setting unit.