Patent ID: 7671886

Claim:
A video-phone terminal apparatus having an image capturing device, the video-phone terminal apparatus comprising: a remote-operation authenticating unit that determines whether to permit a remote operation of the video-phone terminal apparatus by other video-phone terminal apparatus via a video phone communication; a remote operation unit that receives, from the other video-phone terminal apparatus that is permitted to perform the remote operation of the video-phone terminal apparatus, a request for a control including at least a shutter control of the image capturing device to shoot an image, and executes the control in response to the request; an image converting unit that converts the image into an image for the video phone communication; a communicating unit that transmits the image for the video phone communication to the other video-phone terminal apparatus; a display unit that displays various types of information; and an operating unit that accepts operations, wherein the remote operation unit displays in the display unit, when the remote-operation authenticating unit permits the remote operation of the video-phone terminal apparatus by the other video-phone terminal apparatus, a notification message indicating a permission of the remote operation of the video-phone terminal apparatus by the other video-phone terminal apparatus, and wherein the remote operation unit terminates the remote operation of the video-phone terminal apparatus by the other video-phone terminal apparatus, if a predetermined operation is performed on the operating unit while the remote operation unit displays the notification message in the display unit.