FR2858697A1 - Digital albums creating and managing system, has data processing units that permit combining digitized photographs referred by attributes, and classify and organize digitized photographs in tree structure having files - Google Patents

Abstract

The system has computing equipment that is provided with a referencing unit that records digitized photographs in a database. The computing equipment has a data processing unit that permits combining the digitized photographs referred by attributes. Another data processing unit classifies and organizes the digitized photographs, particularly in the tree structure having files.

Description

SYSTEM FOR USERS TO CREATE AND MANAGE ALBUMS

DIGITAL

  Problematic All companies and especially photographers, photo agencies, communication agencies, news agencies and webmasters use digital images or photos in paper or film.

  In order to communicate or distribute these images, they need to make computer-viewable presentations, allowing navigation between the different images or data by hyperlinks. These presentations can be copied on any digital media for a unit broadcast:

CD-ROM

DVD

  Label Hard disk Or to integrate within websites accessible via the web for wide distribution.

  However, from the image in silver or digital form, to all of these media for hosting digital presentations of image albums, many steps are required. These are at numbers of 6 for film images and 5 for digital images. Film images: digitization image indexing Image management and classification Digital image processing Creation of presentation design Publication of images and associated data. 10 Digital Images: Image Indexing Image Management and Ranking Digital Image Processing Creation of Presentation Design Publication of images and associated data.

  All of its operations are now laborious.

  The difficulty lies in the following points: No software in the market integrates all 20 functionalities to reach the target It is necessary to have technical skills It is impossible to automate the operations and therefore to be productive Every step The process involves specific skills and 25 computer standards. We can list a number of technical skills to master: Image formats (JPEG, BMP etc ...) Management of image data (IPTC fields, EXIF) Creation of website (HTML) Database (basic administration , SQL language) Etc ...

  These technologies, although essential, remove in its considerations the user or the company from his real need: To disseminate and present his images to the greatest number without requiring any technological mastery.

  The solution Introduction We propose to make it easier for users to create photo album presentations on all digital media.

  The object of our solution is to integrate all the functionalities needed to create presentations 10 of albums of images to speed up the process thanks to: A computer application all in 1 An interface eliminating all need of knowledge technical automation of technical tasks Imaginatively, to facilitate the understanding of our added value, we could say that our object is not to invent the train, the car, the bike or any other transport allowing to go a point A to a point B; but to allow to use all these means necessary to make 20 towards B, but without ever leaving his seat and know that one is in a car Purpose The application is a computer program running on computers.

  The application supports the entire process of acquiring images when creating image albums by automating and integrating all the technical operations within a single application to increase the number of images. the productivity.

  By the term image, we mean any pictographic element (photo for example).

  The Digitization Process The Imaload solution makes it possible to perform image acquisition from different sources. By source, we mean any means to integrate on a PC images, a priori not existing on the PC. We define two categories of sources. On the one hand, a so-called analog source for acquiring images of silver origin (negative and positive of all dimensions), commonly called scanner or digitizer. On the other hand, a so-called digital source to acquire existing images on a digital camera. The Imaload solution is able to detect the type of sources available. 10 Analog Acquisition The Imaload solution uses silver acquisition sources whose data transfer protocol between the source and the PC is governed by the TWAIN standard [1]. Three types of silver digitizers are supported and their use depends on the purpose of the user.

  Flatbed Reflective Scanner This scanner is used to acquire images in the form of paper in color, grayscale, and black and white.

  Transmissive flat digitizer This digitizer is used to acquire images in the form of positive or negative silver film cut in strips.

  A tape then has a number of images. The number of images per tape and the number of tapes supported by the scanner depends on the dimensions of its scanning surface. The tapes are placed on a specific scanner support.

  Film Digitizer This digitizer is used to acquire images in the form of positive or negative silver film in roll or tape.

  Single Acquisition The Imaload solution makes it possible to acquire single images, ie one by one, and to integrate them into the solution. This can be done with the three types of scanners defined above.

  Mass Acquisition The Imaload solution makes it possible to acquire mass images with any transmissive flat digitizer. This means that it is possible in a single scan to integrate a certain amount of images into Imaload. This feature is used to fully scan a negative, positive, color, grayscale, or black-and-white film. The Imaload solution is innovative in this respect because it alone today makes it possible to perform such a process in a much shorter time than a repeated unit acquisition.

  The speed of the mass acquisition that Imaload offers depends on several factors (speed of the digitizer, performance of the PC) but for the same configuration comprising a 21 × 29.7 centimeter surface scanner, the time saving is considered to be a factor. 50 for a series of 36 images.

  The technical principle is based on the one-pass scanning of a contact sheet, that is to say several strips comprising several images inserted on a support resting on the scanning surface. After the scanning of the contact sheet, a module for extracting each image intervenes in order to obtain all the images, in other words, all the images present on each strip of the film. This image extraction process is detailed in Chapter 2.3 of this document.

  Image extraction method This method is used during the silver film acquisition defined in chapter 1.1.5. We recall that it makes it possible to digitize a silver film and to obtain in one pass all the images of the latter. Figure 1 provides an overview of the image produced by the one-pass scanning of the film. We call this image global image. It includes in this example 4 strips of 6 photos each.

  The extraction method described below is based on the automatic detection of the position of all the images on the overall image in order to extract them and comprises 4 steps.

  Thresholding Thresholding is the preliminary step which makes it possible to simplify the contents of the overall image in order to be able to perform the detection of the contours of the bands. This step is simple and fast, it amounts to modifying the value of the pixels according to the algorithm defined below. The resulting thresholded image 10 is shown in FIG. 2 and includes only pixels of value 0 and 255.

  Grayscale image: For all pixels in the image If Pixel> Threshold_1 15 Pixel = 0 Else Pixel = 255 Color image (3 RGB components) For all pixels in the image, A = [O.llxPixelR + 0.59xPixelV + 0. 30xPixelB] / 4 If A> Threshold 2 PixelR = PixelV = PixelB = 0 Else PixelR = PixelV = PixelB = 255 25 Notation: PixelR = pixel component pixel PixelV = pixel component pixel PixelB = pixel component pixel Threshold 1 = threshold used for image thresholding in 30 levels of gray Threshold 2 = threshold used for color image thresholding NB: formula A = [0.11xPixelR + 0.59xPixelV + 0.30xPixelB] / 4 applied on all the pixels of a color image makes it possible to convert it into greyscale, in other words to obtain no more than one component per pixel; the thresholding treatment is thus simplified because the thresholding is then performed on a single value.

  Contour detection Contour detection involves analyzing the thresholded global image to determine the contours of the film and calculating the position of each image in the overall image.

  The algorithm is as follows: Notation: imgW = width of an image included in the contact sheet imgH = height of an image included in the plate 15 contact W = width of the global image thresholded and not thresholded H = width of The global image thresholded and not thresholded Pixel (x, y) = pixel located in horizontal position x and vertical y Xs = abscissa of the upper left corner of the 1st band Ys = ordered from the upper left corner of the 1st band Pixel (Xs, Ys) = pixel of the upper left corner of the 1st band Dx = horizontal distance between each picture Dy = vertical distance between each picture imgX = abscissa of the upper left corner of an image of a band imgY = ordered from the upper left corner d 1 image of a band Nbandes = number of bands on the overall picture Nimg = number of images per band N = total number of pictures in the overall picture 35 i = index of the picture, eg: imgX ( i) Detection of the upper horizontal contour of the first band On the image g thresholded lobal, starting from the coordinate pixel (imgW, 0), the value of y 'y is incremented so as to compare the value of the pixel in (imgW, y) with 255. As soon as the pixel (imgW, y) is equal to 255, the ordinate corresponds to the ordinate of the upper horizontal contour of the first band. We then write Ys = y.

  Detection of the left vertical contour of the 1st band On the global thresholded image, starting from the coordinate pixel (imgW, Ys), the value of the abscissa x is decremented so as to compare the value of the pixel in (x, Ys) As soon as the pixel (x, Ys) is equal to 0, the abscissa x corresponds to the abscissa of the vertical left contour of the first band. We then write Xs = x.

  Calculates coordinates of all the images of the contact sheet Knowing: the starting point pixel (Xs, Ys), the horizontal and vertical distance between each images the number of images per band the number of bands It is then easy to calculate the coordinates from the upper left corner of each image. According to the following algorithm: i = 0 For y ranging from 0 to Nbandes - 1 For x ranging from 0 to Nimg - 1 imgX (i) = Xs + x * Dx imgY (i) = Ys + y * Dy i The extraction consists in using the coordinates of each previously calculated image in order to extract the pixels corresponding to the images of the overall image and to integrate them individually into independent computer image files. Extraction thus means loading all the pixels corresponding to an image into the memory of the computer and writing them to a file for each image.

  Adjusting Color Levels Automatically Adjusting color levels automatically is the last step in the overall extraction process.

  This actual adjustment remains independent of the extraction process but is still necessary in order to obtain images of correct visual quality.

  When scanning silver film, the resulting overall image has a color histogram that does not fully exploit the allowed color dynamics, for reasons intrinsic to the scanning system.

  It is therefore necessary to make a correction to each extracted image. For each image, this correction consists in: - Calculate the color histogram - Analyze this histogram in order to determine the left and right minimums - Modify the value of the pixels according to these 25 minimums in order to exploit all the authorized dynamics.

  Digital Acquisition The application also uses digital direct-acquisition sources such as digital cameras that can be connected to a computer. The solution is then able to detect the connection between the digital camera and the PC and to integrate the images in Imaload unitarily or multiple by handling the transfer of the source to the computer.

  Indexing the images Referencing system Whether the acquisition takes place by scanning or digital acquisition, two options are proposed to the user: - working directly on the images 5 working on copies of the images In both cases, the images are supported by the application. Each image is assigned a unique number, in increments, independent of the name of the original image file. All image information is stored in a database accessible only by the application.

  This system makes it possible to take care of the complexity of referencing and the risk of duplication instead of the user.

  The manner in which images are named is no longer the responsibility of the user but of the application which automatically assigns file names to embedded images in the application.

  The description information of the images.

  Each image can be assigned any type of data to describe it. All of its information is stored in a database that allows you to search or extract images.

  There are two ways to fill in these fields of information: -For IPTC or EXIF field recovery if they are filled -For direct data entry if the IPTC or EXIF fields are not filled or if the image format does not support 30 these standards.

  In the first case, the process is automatic, the application when indexing the images reads the IPTC or EXIF data contained in the image file. This information is copied into the database and can then be modified by input. l1

  In the second case, after selecting the image within the application, it is possible to enter all information to describe the image. This information is saved in the database.

  application frees the user from technical constraints related to image formats and data management. Whether or not the image formats used handle data recording standards within the image file (IPTC or EXIF), all formats are set at the same level by the use of a database which federate all information.

  Management and classification of images The application facilitates the management of images thanks to a structure independent of the physical positioning of the images.

  Indeed, as we have seen, the images are indexed within the application that one works on the original images or that one works on integrated copies within the application. For the user, the organization of the images is independent of their positioning in computer directories.

  The application makes it possible to create structures with 3 levels that fit together: - project level - folder level - pocket level There is no limit in the number of possible horizontal levels to create.

  Thus, the indented images are positioned at the level of the pockets while the upstream levels make it possible to classify the images by logical group.

  For the user, the attribution of an image in a particular pocket is independent of the actual physical location of the image.

  The organization is supported by a database that virtually manages the ranking.

  Exception is made when working on copies of images. These are copied within the application and are positioned in directories which are created transparently and which are not to be managed by the user but by the application.

  Conceptually, a user is no longer in an image file management but simply an image content. Even if the images remain on his station or on a network station, no system knowledge is needed to organize the images since it is no longer necessary to know how to create directories, move files etc ....

  All actions are offered in functional and non-technical form.

  Digital image processing The solution allows a number of processes to be performed on images embedded in Imaload. By processing we mean any computer process acting on the pixels [2] of a digital image so as to change their value.

  Technical definitions Supported computer file formats The Imaload solution supports the following computer file formats [3]:

BMP DIB

JPEG

GIF

TIFF

PICT

  Supported color dynamics The Imaload solution supports a dynamic range from 1 bit to 32 bits. This means for color images that the three components Red, Green, Blue have a dynamic range of 0 to 255. And for grayscale images using 8 bits, the only component also uses a dynamic range of 0 to 255.

  Processing functions Color inversion processing The Imaload solution can be used to invert the colors or gray of an image. This operation is useful for transforming a negative image into a positive image and vice versa.

  Brightness modification processing The Imaload solution makes it possible to modify the color or gray levels of an image linearly and independently of one pixel to another. This operation is useful for increasing or decreasing the brightness of an image that is too dark or too light.

  Contrast modification processing The Imaload solution makes it possible to modify the color or gray levels of an image in a non-linear manner and taking into account the differences in value between the neighboring pixels. This operation is useful for increasing or decreasing the contrast of an image.

  Gamma Edit Processing Sharpen Processing The Imaload solution is used to sharpen an image to compensate for a focus error when shooting.

  Sharpness reduction treatment The Imaload solution makes it possible to reduce the sharpness of an image.

  Resize image processing The Imaload solution resizes images with or without vertical and horizontal proportions.

  Image Clipping Processing The Imaload solution allows to manually extract (zone selection by the user) part of an image in order to integrate it into a new computer image file.

  Mass Processing One of the many advantages of the Imaload solution is to allow the user to perform one or more operations on the selected images in a single command. This therefore saves time, unlike a unitary manipulation on each photo. The principle consists on the one hand in deciding a priori the types of treatment and their parameters and on the other hand in choosing the images concerned. An iterative IT process then takes care of applying the processing to each image.

  Creation of the presentation design To create presentations with a hyperlinked navigation, it is necessary to use file formats making it possible to link views in interaction with the user: Static webpage formats: HTML, HTM etc. .

  Dynamic web page formats (in connection with a database): ASP, CFM, etc. 20 DVD page formats All formats managing one user interaction.

  All of these solutions allow to link views and manage the graphics allowing to integrate a presentation design.

  In order to facilitate the creation of these pages without having any technical programming skills, we have created a functional and non-technical interface between the user and the file generator in the formats described above.

  The principle is to propose pages masters: Home page Pages of presentation of the thumbnails images Pages of presentation large format of images Pages of information Etc ...

  Each of its pages are presented to the user and cut into several active areas. Each active area allows to influence several characteristics: editorial content Text font Graphic content (images) colors etc ...

  The user by selecting the active zones is proposed to influence these various parameters.

  At each change the presentation model is readapted to take into account any functional change.

  The user can therefore influence the design of each page.

  Publishing The application allows you to publish images to different types of media.

  Image Directory A publication to an image directory consists of copying a number of images contained in one or more pockets to a backup medium.

  This copy of images may be accompanied by formatting operations (format, size, etc.). In addition, the referencing of the copied images is such that the referencing link between a published image and an image in the Imaload solution is preserved.

  unitary presentation A unitary publication consists of creating an image presentation (the unit term is specified here in order to distinguish itself with any solution working with a database).

  The application automatically generates presentation files including images and related information.

  The use of the design tools described above makes it possible to anticipate all the characteristics on which the user can intervene and thus to translate the parameters into computer language.

  Depending on the media types desired, the application uses preformatted files and replaces within the file 1 the set of variables defined by the user.

  The organization of the images and also transcribed by the multiplication of the necessary number of files and the creation of link between the files.

  Dynamic Publishing Dynamic publishing is the process of transferring images and data over a network or not to an interactive and dynamic information management system.

  The information management system is either directly a database management system or a server application that receives the data and images and then modifies the database of the target website.

  The global system therefore makes it possible to: 20 Synchronize local data Transfer the site's design into a database.

  The site's dynamic web pages read this data in order to adapt their design.

  Formatting the images and data according to a formalism defined in the Transfer Data application with a formalism to maintain the link between the organization of the images in the application and the destination information management system.

  Transfer the images into a user-configurable directory hierarchical structure in the application Archiving and restoring the data process The Imaload solution allows the user to archive and thus restore the images while preserving the formalism and The organization of origin.

  Archiving Archiving takes place at the highest level and allows the user to extend his image classification and maintain the established formalism, ie the user of the Imaload solution chooses among all Type 1 levels or those he wants to archive. The solution then proceeds to concatenate the data and images, followed by compression to reduce the occupied memory space. The hierarchical structure of the information (Level 1, Level 2, etc.) is retained but is no longer accessible to the user, except in case of restoration of the archive. 15 Archive Restore The Imaload solution keeps the list of all archives and allows the user to restore the entire structure and data of an archive. In addition, it also makes it possible to restore archives created with the solution not included in the list (ie archives created by other users of the Imaload solution, this allowing traditional data sharing).

  The system allows users to create and manage digital albums including pictorial elements, such as photographs or images, using computer equipment. The system comprises: - acquisition means for: converting said pictographic elements into digitized elements, in particular by means of a scanner or digitizer and / or importing said pictographic elements from a remote database or image files in the form of digitized elements to said computer equipment.

  Said computer equipment comprises: - referencing means for referencing said digitized elements, in particular by assigning them an autonomous number; - recording means for recording, in a database, said digitized elements thus referenced; first computer processing means for associating with said digitized elements thus referenced attributes, in particular information intended to describe said digitized elements thus referenced, second computer processing means making it possible to classify and organize said digitized elements thus referenced, in particular in a project-type tree comprising folders comprising pockets, so that the user can classify and manipulate the scanned elements without having to worry about the physical location of the corresponding files in the directories of the equipment. ormatique.

  Said computer equipment furthermore comprises: computer image processing means making it possible to improve the visual quality of said digitized elements thus classified and organized, in particular by inverting colors, modifying brightness, modifying contrast, modifying gamma, resizing third computing processing means for generating, from said digitized elements thus classified and organized, digital albums in the form of ergonomic image presentations; said third computer processing means being associated with a functional interface for enabling said user to view, select and customize a specific digital album from a plurality of pre-formatted digital albums provided by said functional interface, including selecting or by adapting a specific design.

  Said system further comprises: multimedia publication means intended to enable the broadcasting of said digital albums, in particular means for saving computer data constituting image directories; dynamic publishing means for transferring said digital albums to an information management system, in particular of the database or server application type, - archiving means for archiving said digitized and classified elements of said digital albums, - data compression means for compressing said elements. digitized digital albums 15 and archived.

REFERENCES

  [1]: TWAIN: www.twain.org [2]: pixel: elementary point ...

  [3]: The following acronyms are used to define the formats of the computer image files 10 BMP: "bit map format" DIB: "Device Independent Bitmap", a graphic file format allowing an independent display of the monitor or the printer.

  JPEG: "Joint Photographic Experts Group". 15 files format to store an image by compressing it.

  GIF: "Graphics Interchanged Format" TIFF: "Tagged Image File Format". Format used to store scanned images.

  PICT: allows you to store images in vector format.

Claims (1)

PEVENDICATIONS   1. A system for users to create and manage digital albums including pictorial elements, such as photographs or images, using computer equipment; said system comprising: acquisition means for: converting said pictographic elements into digitized elements, in particular by means of a scanner or digitizer and / or importing said pictographic elements from a remote database or image files in the form of digitized items to said computer equipment; said computer equipment comprising: - referencing means for referencing said digitized elements, in particular by assigning them an autonomous number; - recording means for recording, in a database, said digitized elements thus referenced; first computer processing means for associating with said digitized elements thus referenced attributes, in particular information intended to describe said digitized elements thus referenced, - second computer processing means 25 for classifying and organizing said digitized elements thus referenced, in particular in a project-type tree comprising workbooks comprising pockets, so that the user can classify and manipulate the digitized elements without having to worry about the physical location of the corresponding files in the directories of the equipment information technology; said computer equipment further comprising: - computer image processing means for improving the visual quality of said digitized elements thus classified and organized, in particular by color inversion, brightness modification, contrast modification, gamma modification, resizing third computing processing means 5 for generating, from said digitized elements thus classified and organized, digital albums in the form of ergonomic image presentations; said third computer processing means being associated with a functional interface for enabling said user to view, select and customize a specific digital album from among a plurality of pre-formatted digital albums provided by said functional interface, including selecting or by adapting a specific design; said system further comprising: - multimedia publication means for enabling the broadcasting of said digital albums, in particular * means for saving computer data constituting image directories, * dynamic publishing means for transferring said digital albums to an information management system, in particular of the database or server application type, - archiving means for archiving said digitized elements thus classified and organized of said digital albums, - data compression means for compressing said data digitized elements of said digital albums thus archived.