JP2019046411A - Searching system - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a searching system that can surely determine owners.SOLUTION: A searching system searches for lost belongings from internet auctions, in which peculiar ornament is preliminarily applied to the belonging in a searching server 6. The searching system comprises: a storage unit 32 that stores an image of the belonging including the peculiar ornament and a mail address of an owner in association; an acquisition unit 26 that acquires a product image retrieved in the internet auction with a category of the belonging as a retrieval key; a determination unit 28 that determines whether the acquired product image is in association with ornament information; and a notification unit 30 that, when the determination results in the association of the product image with the ornament information, notifies a user terminal 8 of the owner at a mail address corresponding to the image of the belonging that the belonging is found.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

  The present invention relates to a search system for searching for lost articles.

  In recent years, theft targeting expensive road bikes has frequently occurred, and measures such as connecting a road bike to a structure such as a pillar using a sturdy chain, attaching an alarm to a parked road bike, etc. Proposed. Although these measures are effective in preventing theft, they cannot counter theft with techniques that destroy chains and alarms. There is also a theft of parts, such as stealing only road bike saddles.

  If the property is stolen or lost, the owner submits a report of theft or loss to the police and requests a police search. If the property is found as a result of the search, the original owner is informed.

  Here, Patent Document 1 describes a system for searching for lost items. The system includes an acceptance server, a terminal at each police station base, and a verification server. The user accesses the receiving server from his / her terminal and transmits a lost article report. The receiving server receives the lost article notification from the user, and transmits lost article information regarding the lost article to the verification server. Each police station base terminal transmits information about the found item to the verification server. The collation server collates the lost item information with the found item information. As a result, if the lost item information matches the found item information, the original owner is notified.

JP 2002-189839 A

  By using the above system, a report can be submitted using a network, which is convenient because it is not necessary to go to the police station and submit a report. However, for example, if a report regarding the model number XX made by XX is submitted by multiple owners, that is, if a report is submitted for an article of the same specification that is difficult to distinguish from multiple owners, It is difficult to determine which owner belongs to.

  In view of the above-described problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a search system that can reliably determine an owner.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a search system for searching for a lost article from an image providing apparatus on the web for providing an image, wherein the article is provided with a unique decoration, A storage unit that stores decoration information related to decoration and contact information of an owner who owns the article in association with each other, an acquisition unit that acquires an image from the image providing device, and the acquired image and the decoration information correspond to each other. A determination unit that determines whether or not the article is found, and if the result of the determination is that it corresponds, the owner is notified that the article has been found based on contact information corresponding to the decoration information And a notifying unit.

  According to the present invention, a unique decoration is applied to an article, an image is acquired from an image providing device on the web, and the correspondence between the acquired image and the unique decoration is determined, thereby ensuring the owner of the article. Can be determined.

(A) The conceptual diagram of the search system which concerns on embodiment, (b) The side view and partial enlarged view of a user's possession. The block diagram of the said search system. A table stored in the storage unit of the search system. Flow chart of the search system.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of a search system according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  A search system 2 of the present embodiment shown in FIG. 1 is a system for searching for goods stolen from a group of products sold in an Internet auction (hereinafter also referred to as “theft goods”), and provides an Internet auction. A search server 6 that can communicate with the auction server 4 via the Internet, and a user terminal 8 that can communicate with the search server 6 via the Internet.

  The user terminal 8 is a terminal used by a user who uses the search system 2, and includes a CPU 38, a memory 40, a touch panel 10, a display 12, a camera module 42, and a network communication module 44. The CPU 38 executes a program stored in the memory 40. Thereby, the touch panel 10 functions as an input unit 14 (FIG. 2) for a user to input a character string, the display 12 functions as a display unit 16 (FIG. 2) for displaying information, and the network communication module 44 operates as a search server 6. The camera module 42 functions as the imaging unit 20 (FIG. 2) that images the appearance of the article. The user terminal 8 having such a configuration is, for example, a smart phone or a tablet terminal, but a keyboard and mouse that function as the input unit 14, a monitor that functions as the display unit 16, and network communication that functions as the communication unit 18. And a personal computer that acquires an image from a digital camera that functions as the imaging unit 20.

  The search server 6 includes a CPU 46, a memory 48, and a network communication module 50. The CPU 46 executes a search program stored in the memory 48. Thereby, the network communication module 50 functions as the communication unit 22 (FIG. 2) that communicates information with the user terminal 8 and the auction server 4. In addition, the CPU 46 registers the notification received from the user terminal 8 in the memory 48, the registration unit 24 (FIG. 2), the acquisition unit 26 (FIG. 2) that acquires information on products sold in the Internet auction, and the Internet auction. It functions as a determination unit 28 (FIG. 2) that determines the correspondence between the product being sold and the user's article, and a notification unit 30 (FIG. 2) that notifies that the user's article has been found. Further, the memory 48 of the search server 6 functions as the storage unit 32 (FIG. 2) that stores the notification received from the user.

  The above notification is the user information, property information, and theft information shown in FIG. The user information is information relating to a user who uses the search system 2, and is typically a user's name, password, address, telephone number, and e-mail address as a contact address. User information is registered in the user table in association with a user ID uniquely assigned to each user.

  The property information is information relating to an article owned by the user (hereinafter referred to as “property 34 (FIG. 1)”), and is typically a category of the property 34 and an image of the property 34. The product name or product model number of the possessed item 34 may be included. The property information is registered in the property table in association with the property ID assigned to the property 34 so as to be unique. Note that the above user information may be registered instead of the user ID.

  The above user information and property information are registered prior to use of the search system 2. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 2, when the user operates the input unit 14 and the imaging unit 20 of the user terminal 8, user information and property information are generated. These pieces of information are transmitted to the search server 6 by the communication unit 18 of the user terminal 8. The registration unit 24 of the search server 6 adds a user ID or property ID to the received information and registers the information in a predetermined table.

  Here, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, the user's property 34 is decorated with a unique decoration (hereinafter referred to as “unique decoration 36”), and is sold at an Internet auction based on the unique decoration 36. The correspondence with the product being made is determined. Therefore, the user images the property 34 using the imaging unit 20 of the user terminal 8 so that the unique decoration 36 is included in the image of the property 34 described above.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the theft information is information related to theft. Typically, the date and time when the user's property 34 was stolen (hereinafter “theft date and time”) and the category ( Hereinafter, it is “property category”), but is not limited thereto, and the product name or product model number of the possession 34 may be included. The stolen information is generated when the user operates the input unit 14 of the user terminal 8 when the property 34 is stolen, and is transmitted to the search server 6 by the communication unit 18 of the user terminal 8. The registration unit 24 of the server that has received the theft information assigns the theft number and registers the received theft information in the theft table.

  Internet auction is a service for auctioning in electronic commerce using the Internet. The auction server 4 that provides the Internet auction includes a CPU 52, a memory 54, and an Internet communication module 56, and product information uploaded from an exhibitor who sells products is stored in the memory 54. The merchandise information is information relating to the merchandise to be listed, and includes the category, description, and image of the merchandise. The memory 54 further stores exhibitor information and auction information in association with the product information. The auction information includes an exhibition start date and time that is the date and time of listing, an exhibition end date and time that is the date and time when the auction is completed, the bid price, and bidder information.

  In the search system 2 configured as described above, when a theft occurs, the notification step (s10), the acquisition step (s20), the determination step (s30), and the notification step (s40) shown in FIG. 4 are executed. Is done. In these steps, information communication between the user terminal 8 and the search server 6 performed via the Internet is performed via the respective Internet communication modules 44 and 50. Further, information communication between the search server 6 and the auction server 4 is performed in the same manner.

  The reporting step (s10) is a step executed between the user terminal 8 and the search server 6. In this step, first, a web browser stored in the user terminal 8 is activated by a user operation, and a login process (s11) for the search server 6 is executed. In the login process (s11), a process of transmitting authentication information (email address and password) input by the user via the touch panel 10 from the user terminal 8 to the search server 6 is executed, and the search server 6 transmits the authentication information. A process of receiving and verifying the received authentication information with the information in the user table is executed. As a result of the collation, when the authentication information matches the information in the user table, a notification process (s12) is executed.

  The notification process (s12) is a process in which the user terminal 8 transmits theft information to the search server 6. Specifically, the CPU 38 of the user terminal 8 downloads an input form for inputting theft information from the search server 6. The input form includes a date / time input unit (date / time input box) for inputting the theft date and time, a category input unit (category input box) for inputting the property category of the stolen property 34, and authentication in the login process. A user ID corresponding to the information is included. The CPU 38 of the user terminal 8 transmits the theft information and the user ID input by the user operating the touch panel 10 to the search server 6.

  When the theft information is transmitted from the user terminal 8, the search server 6 performs a registration process (s13). In the registration process (s13), the CPU 46 of the search server 6 receives the theft information and the user ID, extracts the property category of the received theft information and the property ID corresponding to the user ID from the property table and extracts it. The property ID and the theft date are associated and registered in the theft table.

  Following the reporting step (s10), the obtaining step (s20) is executed. The acquisition step (s20) is a step executed between the search server 6 and the auction server 4, and first, extraction processing (s21) is executed in the search server 6. The extraction process (s21) is a process for extracting information on the property to be searched from the memory. The CPU 46 of the search server 6 reads each theft date and time from the theft table, and extracts one theft date and time when a predetermined period has elapsed from the theft date and time at the time of the reading. Then, the property table corresponding to the extracted theft date is searched using the property ID as a search key, and the owner ID, property category, and property image corresponding to the search key are extracted.

  Next, the search server 6 accesses the auction server 4 (s22), and the search request process (s23) is executed. The search request process (s23) is a process for requesting the auction server 4 to search for a product. Specifically, the CPU 46 of the search server 6 downloads the search keyword input form from the auction server 4 and uses the keyword input unit (keyword input) provided with the property category extracted in the extraction process (s21). Box) and send.

  When receiving the search request, the CPU 52 of the auction server 4 searches for product information corresponding to the property category input to the keyword input unit (s24). As a result of the search, product information of the same product category as the property category and product information in which the property category is included in the product description are output (s25). In addition, exhibitor information and auction information corresponding to the output product information are also output. The output product information, exhibitor information, and auction information are downloaded (s26) by the search server 6.

  Following the acquisition step (s20), a determination step (s30) is executed. In the determination step (s30), the CPU 46 of the search server 6 executes a date / time comparison process (s31) and an image collation process (s32). In the date / time comparison process (s31), the theft and date extracted in the extraction process (s21) are compared with the previous and next times of the exhibition start date and time included in the downloaded auction information. As a result of the comparison, if the exhibition start date is earlier than the theft date, it is determined that the product corresponding to the auction information is not a stolen product because the item has been sold before the theft. On the other hand, if the exhibition start date and time is later than the theft date, it is determined that the product corresponding to the auction information may be a stolen product because it is a product sold after the theft.

  Such a date and time comparison process (s31) is performed for the exhibition start date and time of all auction information downloaded from the auction server 4. As a result, if it is determined that all the auction information is not a stolen item, the acquisition step (s20) is executed after a predetermined period. On the other hand, if it is determined that there is a possibility that the auction information may be stolen, a part of the image is included in the product information corresponding to the part of the auction information (s32). Is executed.

  In the image collation process (s32), the product image is collated with the property image extracted in the extraction process (s21). The algorithm for collating the images is not particularly limited. For example, a plurality of feature points related to the shape and color are extracted from both the product image and the property image, and whether the positional relationship of each feature point is common to both images. An algorithm is used to determine whether. If the product image and the property image are not in common as a result of the collation, it is determined that the product related to the product image is not a stolen product. On the other hand, when the product image and the property image are common, it is determined that the product related to the product image has a high possibility of being stolen.

  Such an image collation process (s32) is performed with respect to the product image corresponding to the auction information determined to be a stolen item in the date comparison process (s31). As a result, when it is determined that the products related to all the product images are not stolen goods, the acquisition step (s20) is executed after a predetermined period. On the other hand, when it is determined that the possibility of the theft is high, a notification step (s40) is executed.

  The notification step (s40) is a step executed between the user terminal 8 and the search server 6, and first, the CPU 46 of the search server 6 executes a transmission process (s41). In the transmission process (s41), product information, auction information, and merchant information determined to have a high possibility of theft are transmitted to the user terminal 8. The transmission to the user terminal 8 is performed by extracting a mail address from the user table using the owner ID extracted in the extraction process (s21) as a search key and transmitting it to the extracted mail address. The CPU 38 of the user terminal 8 executes a reception process (s42) for receiving the information transmitted from the search server 6, and a display process (s43) for displaying the received information on the display 12 is executed. Thus, the owner can know that his / her property is being sold at an Internet auction.

  According to the present embodiment, the user's property 34 is provided with the unique decoration 36, and based on the image including the unique decoration 36, the image matching process (s32) with the image acquired from the Internet auction is executed. The correspondence between the images is determined. Therefore, it is possible to reliably determine whether or not the product for sale in the Internet auction is the user's property 34 (theft item).

  In addition, since the unique decoration 36 different from the bar code or the two-dimensional code is provided on the possession 34, the appearance of the possession 34 does not feel strange. This is also the same for the theft, and since there is no sense of incongruity in the appearance, there is a high possibility that a product image clearly showing the unique decoration 36 will be uploaded to the Internet auction, and it is easy to find the stolen product. Become.

  Furthermore, by performing the date and time comparison process (s31) prior to the image collation process (s32) with a high processing load, it is possible to classify in advance whether or not to be a collation target. Therefore, the processing load on the search server 6 can be reduced.

  As described above, the search system according to the present invention has been described based on the embodiment. However, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and may be implemented, for example, in the following manner.

<Modification>
(1) In the above embodiment, the possibility of a stolen product is determined by comparing the product image acquired from the auction server with an image including the unique decoration. However, the determination mode is not limited to this mode.

  For example, when registering property information received from a user terminal, the search server analyzes an image including a unique decoration in advance and extracts a plurality of feature points, and registers information about the plurality of feature points in the property table. It doesn't matter. In addition, the information regarding the said feature point may be analyzed and extracted in a user terminal.

  Further, when registering the property information received from the user terminal, the search server detects, for example, the number “3” of the star mark in FIG. 1 from the image including the unique decoration, and uses the number as property information. It may be registered in the table, the number of star marks may be detected from the product image acquired from the auction server, and the possibility of theft may be determined by comparing the number of star marks.

  That is, whether or not there is a correspondence with the product image downloaded from the auction server based on the decoration information about the unique decoration such as the feature point information included in the unique decoration image described above and the number of marks included in the image. What is necessary is just to judge.

(2) The unique decoration applied to the article is not limited to that shown in FIG. 1, and various patterns and color schemes can be adopted.

(3) The image matching process may be executed after applying a known correction process to the product image downloaded from the auction server.

(4) In the above embodiment, a single unique decoration is given to the user's property, but the same unique decoration may be given to the property at a plurality of locations. At this time, a predetermined interval is provided between the plurality of unique decorations. As described above, since a plurality of unique decorations are given to the possession, there is a high possibility that the product image acquired in the acquisition step includes the unique decorations, so that the matching accuracy in the image matching process is improved. It will be. Further, even if some of the unique decorations included in the product image have deteriorated, if the product image includes other unique decorations that do not deteriorate, the feature is based on the other unique decorations. Since the points can be compared, the collation accuracy is improved. In addition, you may give the mark which designates the division | segmentation of each unique decoration, without providing a space | interval between several unique decorations.

(5) The search target of the search server is not limited to an existing auction server that provides an Internet auction, and may be a server that provides a social networking service in which an image is searched based on a search keyword. Further, it may be a server that operates a portal site capable of searching for an image based on a search keyword. That is, any server that provides a web application that searches for an image based on a keyword may be used.

  Further, a plurality of servers that provide the web application as described above may be visited. In this case, the web address of a plurality of servers is stored in the memory (storage unit) of the search server, and each time the search server executes the acquisition step and the determination step, the web address of the server to be accessed is read from the memory. Extract and repeat the acquisition and determination steps.

(6) Furthermore, the search target of the search server may be a live camera that distributes a captured image in real time. The live camera is a fixed-point camera that is installed on the street and photographs a state on the road, or a security camera that is installed in a public facility such as an airport or a station and photographs a state inside the facility.

  In this way, when the live camera is a search target, the extraction process and the search request process are not executed in the acquisition step, and only the download process is executed after the access process for the live camera is executed. In the download process, for example, an image when the live camera is accessed is downloaded. In the determination step, the date comparison process is not executed, and the image matching process is executed. Such an acquisition step and a determination step are executed in a predetermined cycle. As a result, the lost article can be searched in real time. In this aspect, the web address of the live camera to be accessed is stored in the memory (storage unit) of the search server, and information (address, etc.) regarding the installation location of the live camera is associated with the web address. It will be memorized. Then, as a result of the determination step, when it is determined that the possibility of theft is high, the user terminal is notified of information regarding the installation location. Therefore, the search target of the search server in the present invention is not limited to a web application server that searches for an image based on an input keyword and provides the image, but on a web including a live camera that delivers a captured image in real time. Any image providing device may be used.

  The present invention can be implemented in a mode in which various improvements, modifications, or variations are added based on the knowledge of those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the present invention. Moreover, you may implement with the form which substituted any invention specific matter to the other technique within the range which the same effect | action or effect produces.

  For example, the search system of the present invention can be used not only for searching for stolen goods but also for searching for lost items. That is, it can be used for searching for lost articles.

2 ... Search system 4 ... Auction server (image providing device)
34 ... Property (article)
36 ... Unique decoration 32 ... Storage unit 26 ... Acquisition unit 28 ... Determination unit 30 ... Notification unit

Claims (3)

A search system for searching for lost articles from an image providing device on the web that provides images,
The article has a unique decoration,
A storage unit that stores the decoration information related to the unique decoration and the contact information of the owner who owns the article in association with each other;
An acquisition unit for acquiring an image from the image providing device;
A determination unit for determining whether or not the acquired image corresponds to the decoration information;
As a result of the determination, if it corresponds, a notification unit that notifies the owner that the article has been found based on contact information corresponding to the decoration information;
A search system characterized by comprising: The image providing device is a web application server that searches for the image based on an input keyword,
The search system according to claim 1, wherein the acquisition unit inputs information on the article as the keyword to the web application server, and acquires the image searched by the web application server. The search system according to claim 1, wherein the article is provided with a plurality of unique decorations.

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