JP2000090112A - Image processor and method therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily and efficiently select a desired image out of a large number of extracted image at the time of image retrieval by means of a key word. SOLUTION: An image matched with a retrieval request is extracted in a step S303, a coordinate axis indicating retrieval conditions is generated in a step S304 according to the extracted image, and the extracted image is displayed in a step S305 together with the coordinate axis. When a reference point on the coordinate axis is changed in a step S307, an image is extracted again under the retrieval conditions based upon the reference point and displayed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and method, and more particularly, to an image processing apparatus capable of retrieving an arbitrary image and its control.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been known an image processing apparatus capable of storing a large amount of images in a storage device in advance and searching for and extracting an arbitrary image from the image. In such an image processing apparatus, for example, when a user desires an “image relating to the sea”, the information “sea” is given as a keyword, and the “sea” is stored in the storage device.
A large number of images corresponding to were extracted.

[0003]

However, the above-mentioned conventional image processing apparatus capable of searching by a keyword has the following problems.

[0004] That is, among the images extracted as corresponding to the "sea" as described above, there are some images in which the sea appears small and distant, and some images in which the sea appears large.
For example, if the user desires an image in which the sea is large, an image in which the sea is small is unnecessary, and extracting such an image is wasteful processing. .

Further, in order to select an image desired by the user from the extracted image group, it is necessary to browse, for example, an image group displayed on a display. Therefore, if the number of extracted images is large, the user has to confirm the display of the image group over a plurality of pages or perform a list display with a reduced size to confirm. Therefore, as the number of extracted images is large, the number of pages to be browsed increases, or the size of each image in the list display becomes so small that it is difficult to determine, and the user needs more labor. Was.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problem, and has as its object to provide an image processing apparatus and method capable of efficiently searching for a desired image.

[0007]

As one means for achieving the above object, the image processing apparatus of the present invention has the following arrangement.

[0008] That is, holding means for storing and holding a plurality of image data, input means for inputting search conditions, and extraction for extracting image data matching the search conditions from the plurality of image data held in the holding means. Means, coordinate axis creating means for creating coordinate axes indicating search conditions based on the extracted image data, display means for displaying the image data extracted by the extracting means together with the coordinate axes, and a reference point on the coordinate axes. And control means for controlling image data displayed on the display means in accordance with the reference point position on the coordinate axis.

For example, the control means extracts image data by the extraction means under a search condition based on a reference point position on the coordinate axis, and displays the extracted image data on the display means. .

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an image processing apparatus for performing an image search according to the present embodiment. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 101 denotes an input unit such as a keyboard and a mouse;
Reference numeral 02 denotes a control unit including a microprocessor, which performs data processing according to a control program written in a known internal memory (not shown). An image processing unit 103 includes a coordinate axis creation unit 104, an image analysis unit 105, and an image information storage unit 106. Note that the image information storage unit 106 stores a plurality of image data in advance. The image information storage unit 106 may be connected to an image processing device as an external storage device such as a CD-ROM.
Reference numeral 107 denotes a display unit, such as a CRT, for notifying the user by displaying image information.

First, a user inputs search request information of an image to be extracted from the input unit 101. Then, the control unit 10
In step 2, an image matching the request information is extracted from the image information storage unit 106.

FIG. 4 shows a file format of an image stored and held in the image information storage unit 106. In FIG. 4, reference numeral 41 denotes an image information section for storing image information such as keywords related to the image, and reference numeral 42 denotes an actual data section showing actual image data. The image search in this embodiment is executed by referring to the information in the image information section 41. Note that a configuration is also possible in which the image information storage unit 106 has an index file as a file system and obtains file information (image information) for each stored image file by referring to the index file. .

Then, the image analysis unit 105 analyzes the extracted image, and the coordinate axis creation unit 104 creates coordinate axes based on the analysis result. Then, the created coordinate axes and the extracted image are displayed on the display unit 107.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a specific example of the image search processing in the present embodiment. In the present embodiment, the user inputs a keyword of “sea” as search request information,
An example in which an image relating to the “sea” is extracted from the image information storage unit 106 will be described.

FIG. 2A is a display example of the result of the first image extraction (first search), that is, the images 201, 201 extracted in response to the image search request for "sea" input by the user.
202 and 203 are displayed. Reference numeral 200 denotes a coordinate axis indicating an image extraction condition. In the present embodiment, the size (proportion) of the “sea” in the image is set as the vertical axis, and the time indicated by the image (photographing time) is set as the horizontal axis. Then, the center of the coordinate axis 200 is set as a default extraction reference value P,
Of all the images extracted in response to the image search request for “sea”, the three images 201, 202,
203 is displayed. In this way, by limiting the number of display images at the time of the first search, the processing can be speeded up.

In this embodiment, when the user is not satisfied with the result of the first image extraction shown in FIG. 2A, the coordinates of the extraction reference value P on the coordinate axis 200 are changed by dragging with a mouse, for example. Can be.
FIG. 2B is a display example in a case where the extraction reference value P is changed and an image relating to “sea” is extracted again (refinement search). In this example, a case is shown in which the user desires an image in which “sea” is projected larger than the extracted image displayed in FIG. That is, when the user enters FIG.
In the images 201, 202, and 203, when the “sea” portion is determined to be small, the position of the reference point P on the coordinate axis 200 is moved upward to extract an image whose extraction criterion is “larger” than the previous time. Change to As a result, the search conditions are narrowed, and as a result, the images 204,
205 is extracted.

The method of displaying the extracted images is not limited to this example. If more images are extracted, the display may be performed over a plurality of screens. In this case, the user can check all the images by operating a predetermined screen switching button or the like.

In the example shown in FIG. 2, the user can select an image of the sea at any time from "early morning" to "late night".

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an image search process according to this embodiment. First, in step S301, it is determined whether an image search request has been made by the user. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that there is a search request based on the keyword “sea”. If there is a search request, the process proceeds to step S302, and it is determined whether an image matching the search request exists in the image information storage unit 106. As described above, this determination is made by referring to the image information section 41 of each image file.

If there is no matching image, the extraction operation is terminated. If there is, the control unit 102 extracts all images that match the search request in step S303. That is, all the image files in which the information on “sea” is stored in the image information section 41 are extracted.

Then, in step S304, the image analyzer 1
05 (information of the image information section 41)
, Etc.), and create coordinate axes according to the analysis results.
In the present embodiment, the size (ratio) of the “sea” in the image
Is used as a vertical axis, and a coordinate axis is created with the time indicated by the image (such as the shooting time) as the horizontal axis. Note that the method of creating the coordinate axes is not limited to this example. For example, without referring to the extracted image itself, the content indicated by each coordinate is determined based only on the keyword input as the search condition. It is also possible to achieve the conversion.

In step S305, the display unit 1
At 07, an extraction reference point P is displayed at the center on the coordinate axis, and among all the extracted images, a predetermined number (three in this embodiment) closest to the extraction reference point is displayed.

The above is the first search processing, and thereafter, the narrow search is started.

In step S306, it is determined whether or not the end of the search processing has been instructed by the user assuming that the desired image has been obtained. If there is no end instruction, the process advances to step S307 to determine whether or not the extraction reference point P has been moved on the displayed coordinate axis. If it has been moved, that is, since the extraction criterion has been changed, step S30
In step 8, all applicable images are extracted again from the image information storage unit 106 based on the new extraction criterion. Then, in step S309, the above-described step S305
Similarly, all the extracted images are displayed, and the process returns to step S306. Steps S306 to S30
Step 9 is repeated until the user instructs termination.

As described above, according to the present embodiment,
By creating a coordinate axis of image information according to the search condition and allowing the user to arbitrarily operate an extraction reference point on the coordinate axis, the search condition can be narrowed down and the number of displayed images can be limited. Therefore, not only the display speed of the extraction result is improved, but also the visibility is improved, so that the user can efficiently search for a desired image.

<Modification> In the present embodiment, an example has been described in which only a predetermined number of extracted images are displayed in the first search, but the present invention is not limited to this example.
For example, all the images extracted in the first search may be displayed. Conversely, only a predetermined number of images extracted by the refined search may be displayed. In any case, if the extracted image cannot be displayed within one screen, the display is performed over a plurality of screens, and the user operates a predetermined screen switching button or the like as necessary, so that all the images can be displayed. Image can be confirmed.

It is also effective that the user can arbitrarily select, by operating buttons or the like, whether to display a predetermined number or all of the extracted images.

Further, the coordinate axis 200 according to the present embodiment is used.
Has been described as an example in which the coordinate axis creation unit 104 creates the image based on the image extracted as matching the input search condition. However, the method of determining the coordinate axes is not limited to this example. A plurality of types of coordinate axes may be prepared in advance, and an appropriate one may be selected from among them. By doing so, the display processing can be speeded up. In addition, the user analyzes the tendency of the desired image based on the image extracted in the past, and
By simply inputting D, it is possible to set a coordinate axis that is most appropriate for the user. And, of course, the user can arbitrarily change the once set coordinate axes. In any case, the present invention can be applied to any coordinate axes that can narrow down search conditions.

[0030]

[Other Embodiments] Even if the present invention is applied to a system including a plurality of devices (for example, a host computer, an interface device, a reader, a printer, etc.), an apparatus (for example, a copying machine) Machine, facsimile machine, etc.).

Another object of the present invention is to provide a storage medium storing a program code of software for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or apparatus, and to provide a computer (or CPU) of the system or apparatus.
And MPU) read and execute the program code stored in the storage medium.

In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiment, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

As a storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, a floppy disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM, CD
-R, a magnetic tape, a nonvolatile memory card, a ROM, or the like can be used.

When the computer executes the readout program code, not only the functions of the above-described embodiment are realized, but also the OS (Operating System) running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. ) May perform some or all of the actual processing, and the processing may realize the functions of the above-described embodiments.

Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written into a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, based on the instructions of the program code, It goes without saying that the CPU included in the function expansion board or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the processing realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments.

When the present invention is applied to the storage medium, the storage medium stores program codes corresponding to the above-described flowcharts. Is stored in the storage medium.

[0037]

As described above, according to the present invention, a desired image can be efficiently searched.

[0038]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an image processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a display example according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an image search process according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of an image file format according to the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 input unit 102 control unit 103 image processing unit 104 coordinate axis creation unit 105 image analysis unit 106 image information storage unit 107 display unit

Claims (10)

[Claims] A storage unit configured to store a plurality of image data; an input unit configured to input a search condition; and an extraction unit configured to extract image data matching the search condition from the plurality of image data stored in the storage unit. Means, coordinate axis creating means for creating coordinate axes indicating search conditions based on the extracted image data, display means for displaying the image data extracted by the extracting means together with the coordinate axes, reference points on the coordinate axes An image processing apparatus comprising: moving means for moving the position of the image data; and control means for controlling image data displayed on the display means according to a reference point position on the coordinate axis. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the control unit extracts image data by the extraction unit under a search condition based on a reference point position on the coordinate axis, and displays the extracted image data on the display unit. The image processing device according to claim 1. 3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the coordinate axis creating unit sets a reference point on the coordinate axis as a center of the coordinate axis. 4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the holding unit holds the image data together with the image information, and the input unit inputs the image information as the search condition. 5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said coordinate axis creating means creates a coordinate axis based on said image information. 6. The image processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the image information is a keyword. 7. An image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said control means limits the number of image data displayed on said display means to a predetermined number or less. 8. An image processing method in an image processing apparatus in which a plurality of image data is stored and held in a holding unit, wherein a search condition is input, and the search condition is satisfied from the plurality of image data held in the holding unit. Image data to be extracted, a coordinate axis indicating a search condition is created based on the extracted image data, the extracted image data is displayed together with the coordinate axis, and a position of a reference point on the coordinate axis has been moved. In this case, the display of the image data is controlled according to the reference point position. 9. When the position of a reference point on the coordinate axis is moved, image data is extracted based on a search condition based on the reference point position, and the extracted image data is displayed. 8. The image processing method according to 8. 10. A recording medium on which a program code for image processing in an image processing apparatus in which a plurality of image data is stored and held in a holding unit is recorded, wherein the program code is a code for inputting a search condition, and A code for extracting image data that matches the search condition from the plurality of image data stored in the means, a code for creating a coordinate axis indicating the search condition based on the extracted image data, and the extracted image data And a code for controlling the display of the image data according to the position of the reference point when the position of the reference point on the coordinate axis is moved. Medium.