Patent ID: 8169493

Claim:
An image acquisition system comprising: an image acquisition device having an image acquisition unit; and a commanding device, which is configured as a separate member from a main body of the image acquisition device, and which is configured to transmit an image acquisition execution command to the main body of the image acquisition device to cause the image acquisition unit to perform an image acquisition operation; wherein the commanding device includes: an authentication information transmission unit configured to transmit authentication information to the image acquisition device to cause the image acquisition device to authenticate the commanding device; wherein the image acquisition device includes: an authentication information receiving unit configured to receive the authentication information transmitted from the authentication information transmission unit of the commanding device; an authentication information recognition unit configured to recognize the authentication information received by the authentication information receiving unit; and 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; wherein the commanding device further includes: a commanding device information transmission unit configured to transmit one of an image acquisition command for the image acquisition operation of the image acquisition device including the image acquisition execution command and an authentication mode switching command for limiting the function of the image acquisition device, as a commanding device information; wherein the image acquisition device includes: a commanding device information receiving unit configured to receive the commanding device information transmitted from the commanding device information transmission unit of the commanding device; a command identification unit configured to identify contents of the commanding device information received by the commanding device information receiving unit; and a mode setting unit configured to set an authentication mode of the image acquisition device in response to the authentication mode switching command identified by the command identification unit; wherein the function limiting unit of the image acquisition device limits functions of the image acquisition device in accordance with the authentication mode set by the mode setting unit; and wherein the image acquisition device further includes: a time measuring unit configured to count time; wherein the mode setting unit of the image acquisition device sets a prohibit mode as the authentication mode based on the time counted by the time measuring unit; and wherein the function limiting unit of the image acquisition device prohibits the image acquisition device from execution of the functions thereof by other than the commanding device in a case in which the prohibit mode is set by the mode setting unit.