JP2000339327A - System for operating thumbnail image - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a thumbnail image information operation system capable of efficiently and simply operating a thumbnail image in a thumbnail image information operation system dealing with a tag attached to a thumbnail together with a thumbnail obtained by reducing a part of picture image information. SOLUTION: This system is provided with thumbnails 110 and 120 obtained by reducing a part of picture image information, tags 111 and 121 associated with the thumbnails, a displaying means which plurally overlaps the thumbnails and the tags and displays them and a tag designating means such as a mouse which designates the tags shown by the displaying means, can eliminate useless processing due to sequential image operations such as to turn pages in such a manner that the displaying means displays a thumbnail associated with a tag designated by the tag designating means on the front face and can simplify the display operation of a desired thumbnail image.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an image information system for handling image images. The present invention also relates to software for displaying a plurality of thumbnails in a workspace on a desktop of a computer, a document management system, an image editing system, a viewer for a digital still camera, and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the increase in the speed of a CPU and the increase in the memory capacity of a computer, in software for handling image images, image identification has conventionally been performed using text data such as a document name (an image is selected from a list of text data). After that, a method of displaying an image list visually using thumbnails (reduced images) has become established. Not only do thumbnails provide an overview of a single page, but software that can display a collection of thumbnails as a single document and treat it as if there are multiple documents on the desktop has increased.

[0003]

However, there is no system for easily managing and operating thumbnails, and it is troublesome for beginners and other persons who are unfamiliar with the operation.

[0004] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a thumbnail image information operation system that enables a user to perform operations visually using a mouse or the like and that can efficiently and easily handle thumbnail images. .

[0005]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, a thumbnail in which a part of the image information is reduced, a tag associated with the thumbnail, a display unit for displaying a plurality of the thumbnails and the tag in a superimposed manner, and a display unit for displaying the thumbnail and the tag. Sticky note designating means for designating a sticky note, wherein the display means displays a thumbnail associated with the sticky note designated by the sticky note designating means in the foreground.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a thumbnail image information operating system according to the first aspect, wherein the tag has a plurality of colors and shapes.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a thumbnail image information operating system according to the first or second aspect, further comprising: input means for registering additional information in the tag, wherein the display means comprises: The registered additional information is displayed.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a thumbnail image information operating system according to any one of the first to third aspects, wherein input means for inputting the tag search information is provided. Thumbnail extracting means for searching for the tag based on the inputted tag search information and extracting a thumbnail associated with the tag.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in order to solve the above-mentioned problem, in the thumbnail image information operating system according to the fourth aspect, a document creating means for creating a document by collecting the thumbnails extracted by the thumbnail extracting means is provided. It is characterized by having.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the thumbnail image information operating system according to the fourth or fifth aspect further comprises a thumbnail deleting unit for deleting the thumbnail extracted by the thumbnail extracting unit. It is characterized by the following.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In the present invention, since the tag information is added to the thumbnail (for example, a part of the image information is reduced), it is necessary to have a link between the thumbnail information and the data of the tag information. FIG. 1 shows an example of the data structure of the thumbnail information 10 and the tag information 20.

In this example of the thumbnail image data, a record of “belonging document ID” is provided. This indicates which document (the mother set of thumbnail images) the thumbnail image belongs to. "Belonging document ID"
Instead of the above, the present invention can be realized by link information to the original image of the thumbnail such as “real image ID of thumbnail”, or the present invention can be realized by grouping only the thumbnail image data and treating it as a document. It is possible.

When managed as a document, the document is composed of a plurality of images, and in that case, a plurality of thumbnails are also displayed. Sticky notes 111 and 12 on multiple thumbnails 110 and 120
FIG. 2 shows an example of the GUI when 1 is added.

Hereinafter, a process of displaying a target thumbnail will be described.

By specifying the sticky notes 111 and 121 in FIG. 2 with a pointing device such as a mouse, the target thumbnails 110 and 120 are displayed. When the 2P tag 121 in FIG. 2 is clicked, the thumbnail 120 attached to the 2P tag 121 is displayed in the foreground as shown in FIG. After this, if you click on the 1P tag 111,
The thumbnail 110 attached to the P tag 111 is displayed on the foreground again as shown in FIG. By this operation,
Thumbnails 110, 12 with sticky notes 111, 121 attached
The display of 0 can be easily realized without turning pages or specifying pages.

FIG. 4 shows the processing procedure. First, thumbnail data corresponding to the designated tag position is acquired (s0
01). As shown in FIG. 2, a document including a plurality of thumbnails 110 and 120 may have a plurality of sticky notes 111 and 121. Therefore, a display position and a table of the sticky note data corresponding to the display position are created so that it is possible to know which sticky note is designated. It is necessary to keep. Next, since the thumbnail ID 21 is known from the tag information 20, the corresponding thumbnail information 10 is searched (s002). The thumbnail information 10 needs to be stored in a file or a memory. The corresponding thumbnail image 120 is displayed on the foreground (s003). Thumbnail images may be thumbnail images that have been reduced and stored in advance, and actual images may be reduced in size and displayed. If the display order of the thumbnails changes, the position of the data table or the like used in “s001” is changed, so the correction is made (s004).

FIG. 5 shows an example of a GUI in a case where a plurality of colored sticky notes and a plurality of shaped sticky notes are attached to a thumbnail. color,
The tag information is stored in the tag information 20 of FIG.

Here, the display of six thumbnails is shown.
The thumbnail images 210, 230, 240, and 250 are the thumbnails with the sticky notes. Sticky notes 211, 231, 25
1 is an example in which the color is changed. The round sticky note 241 is an example of a sticky note with a changed shape.

FIG. 6 shows an example in which additional information is displayed on a tag. As shown in FIG. 6, character code information such as a comment is displayed on a tag. In order to display the comment, when the tag 111 is clicked in FIG. 6 (the clicking method should be a different point method than the operation of the previous screen display such as right-clicking and double-clicking), a comment input / output menu is displayed. I do. FIG. 7 shows the comment input / output menu.

Next, processing for inputting tag information and searching and displaying thumbnails will be described.

The user specifies a search condition by specifying a menu as in the case of displaying additional information on a tag. FIG. 8 shows a menu for setting the tag search condition, and FIG. 9 shows a flowchart of the search process.

First, a search condition input from the search condition menu of FIG. 8 is obtained (s011). A tag record corresponding to the search condition is searched from the tag information 20 in the data format of FIG. 1, and the corresponding thumbnail ID 21 is stored (s01).
2). The search for all the sticky records is performed (s01
3). The corresponding thumbnail is displayed from each of the tag records corresponding to “s012” (s014).

Next, a description will be given of a process of inputting tag information and collecting thumbnails satisfying conditions to form a document.

The processing from inputting a search condition to searching for a thumbnail corresponding to the search condition is the same as the above-described thumbnail search display processing. Next, a document in which the thumbnail image corresponding to the search condition is set to one thumbnail and one page is created.
The way of managing the document is not particularly limited. FIG. 10 shows an example of a document data structure as an example.

Next, a process for inputting tag information and deleting a thumbnail meeting a condition will be described.

The processing from inputting a search condition to searching for a thumbnail corresponding to the search condition is the same as the thumbnail search display processing and the document creation processing. Next, the thumbnails corresponding to the search condition are collectively deleted.

Thus, if information has been input to the tag information in advance, the thumbnails can be collectively deleted by specifying conditions.

[0029]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, by selecting a tag attached to a thumbnail with a specifying means such as a mouse, the thumbnail with the specified tag is displayed on the foreground. Therefore, unnecessary processing due to sequential image operations such as page turning can be eliminated, and the display operation of a desired thumbnail image can be simplified.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the color and shape of the tag can be changed for each thumbnail, so that the user adds a tag that is easy for the user to remember about the color and shape characteristics to the thumbnail image. The thumbnail images can be efficiently classified visually by the tag.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, a comment can be registered and displayed on a tag attached to a thumbnail, so that it can be used as a memo for a thumbnail image with a tag attached, and a thumbnail image can be used. You can check the contents without opening.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, a thumbnail can be searched for using color information, comment information, shape information, and the like of a tag attached to the thumbnail, so that a target thumbnail is searched from a large number of thumbnails. It is possible,
The desired thumbnail can be easily displayed.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, since the thumbnails searched by the tag information can be combined into a document, the same tag is added to the related thumbnails among the thumbnails browsed by the user. If so, the thumbnail can be used as one document as it is, and document creation can be facilitated. In the case of a book, for example, there is a process of cutting out a specific article while reading a book or article and organizing it into a scrapbook. This scrapbook creation process can be attached to a tag while browsing the thumbnails, and later compiled into a document.

According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, since thumbnails searched by the tag information can be deleted at once, a tag is added to unnecessary data or a thumbnail of low importance during thumbnail browsing. When it is desired to reduce data resources such as a shortage of disk capacity, the data resources can be deleted at once. If a plurality of types of tag information are used and tags are added according to importance levels, an effect of setting a priority to thumbnail data to be deleted can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a data structure of thumbnail information and tag information according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a GUI according to an embodiment when a tag is added to each of a plurality of thumbnails.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a GUI according to an embodiment when the foreground thumbnail is changed by designating a tag;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure for displaying a target thumbnail.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a GUI when a plurality of colored sticky notes and a plurality of shaped sticky notes are attached to a thumbnail;

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a GUI when additional information is displayed on a tag.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an input / output menu for tag information.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a setting menu for tag search conditions.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a thumbnail search process.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a document data structure for using a plurality of thumbnails as document data.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Thumbnail information 11 Thumbnail ID 12 Document ID to which it belongs 13 Page number 14 Sticky note link 20 Sticky note information 21 Thumbnail ID 22 Sticky note color 23 Sticky note comment 24 Sticky note shape 110, 120 Thumbnail 111, 121 Sticky note 210, 220, 230, 240, 250, 260 Thumbnail 211,231,241,251 Sticky Notes

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A thumbnail in which a part of image information is reduced, a tag associated with the thumbnail, display means for displaying a plurality of thumbnails and the tag in a superimposed manner, and the tag displayed by the display means. A tag designating means for designating, wherein the display means displays a thumbnail associated with the tag designated by the tag designating means on the foreground. 2. The thumbnail image information operating system according to claim 1, wherein said tag has a plurality of colors and shapes. 3. The thumbnail image information operating system according to claim 1, further comprising: input means for registering additional information in the tag, wherein the display means displays the registered additional information. Thumbnail image information operation system. 4. The thumbnail image information operation system according to claim 1, wherein: the input means for inputting the tag search information; and the tag is input based on the input tag search information. A thumbnail extracting means for searching and extracting a thumbnail associated with the tag; and a thumbnail image information operating system, comprising: 5. The thumbnail image information operating system according to claim 4, further comprising a document creating means for creating a document by collecting the thumbnails extracted by said thumbnail extracting means. 6. The thumbnail image information operation system according to claim 4, further comprising a thumbnail deletion unit for deleting the thumbnail extracted by said thumbnail extraction unit.