JP2002278857A - Address detector - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a technique for informing a user of a network address related with an image of advertisement, etc. SOLUTION: The address detector is provided with an image input part 22 for receiving the image transmitted from the user, an address specifying part 32 for specifying the address to the image, and an address transmission part 26 for transmitting a specified address to the user. The part 32 includes a character recognition part 24 for extracting address information included in the image. Otherwise, the detector includes a table 28 having a relation between the image and the address stored therein and a retrieval part 30 for obtaining the address by retrieving the table 28.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an address detection technique. The invention particularly relates to an apparatus for detecting a network address associated with an image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the recent advances in computer technology and network technology and the rapid increase in the number of people using the Internet, the Internet is rapidly permeating people's lives. The main use of the Internet is to search and transmit information. Many companies, not only IT-related companies,
We build an e-site and send out information. The content of such information is wide ranging, such as explanations of its products and online support, but the overall tone is in advertising and publicity.

[0003] Corporate Web sites have become one of the main sources of information for consumers to learn about companies and products. A consumer can access a corporate Web site using a mobile terminal such as a mobile phone. In addition, advertisements using websites are available on TV and radio
Unlike M, there is almost no time constraint, and it is effective in advertising companies and products. Therefore, it is important for companies to attract consumers to their own websites, and there are many advertisements on trains and advertisements published in magazines that advertise their products and introduce their addresses.

[0004]

The address of a Web site is introduced in an advertisement for hanging a train or an advertisement for a magazine. Even if the reader is interested in the advertisement, it is difficult to efficiently access the target Web site because the address cannot be easily remembered and the address must be input to the mobile terminal. In addition, We
The address of the site b may not be introduced. The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a technique for notifying a user of a network address related to an image such as an advertisement.

[0005]

One embodiment of the present invention relates to an address detecting device included in a server. The address detection device includes: an image input unit that receives an image sent from a user; an address identification unit that identifies an address of a network associated with the image by performing image recognition processing on the image; Includes an address transmission unit for transmitting to the user. “Related to an image” includes not only an address printed on the image but also an address associated with the image in some way.

[0006] The address specifying unit may include a character recognizing unit for extracting address information contained in the image.
The character recognition unit may recognize the address information imprinted as a watermark, or may detect the address using a character string characteristic of the address as a clue. The address specifying unit may include a table storing an association between an image and an address, and a search unit that searches the table to obtain an address.

[0007] An "image" may be the entire image or a part thereof. Some of them are, for example,
The part that contains the company name, product name, company trademark, etc. However, it is not limited to these.

[0008] Another embodiment of the present invention relates to an address detecting apparatus generally implemented as a portable terminal. The present address detection apparatus includes: an image input unit that captures an image; an address identification unit that identifies an address of a network related to the image by performing image recognition processing on the image; and accesses the identified address. Includes access section. The access unit may include a browser and the specified address may be directly set to the browser.

It is to be noted that any combination of the above-described components and any conversion of the expression of the present invention between a method, an apparatus, a system, a recording medium, a computer program, and the like are also effective as embodiments of the present invention.

[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiment 1 In this embodiment,
It is created assuming the following situation. Suppose that a user looks at a hanging advertisement of a train, is interested in the advertisement, and wants to know a little more detail. However, it is not easy for a user to write down an address in consideration of an environment such as inside a train or a busy situation. Further, it is practically impossible for the user to carry a memo in order to write down the address. Therefore, even if a company address or company name is introduced in the hanging advertisement, the user often cannot use it effectively. In addition, the company that publishes advertisements loses users who are likely to become customers each time the train arrives at the station.

Apart from such circumstances, recently, CCDs
(Charge Coupled Device) A new type of information device called a mobile phone has begun to be used. The present inventor has noticed such a situation, and has come up with a service in which a user transmits a hanging advertisement captured by the CCD to a server, and the server recognizes characters and returns an address to the user. In this service, the user can know the detailed information of the hanging advertisement on the spot simply by photographing the hanging advertisement with a mobile phone equipped with a CCD. Also, when the user is reading a newspaper or magazine, the user may be interested in the advertisement.
In such a case, the user can easily access the related site on the spot and obtain detailed information by using the same service. In addition, at that time, key entry of a complicated address on the mobile phone becomes unnecessary.

FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a network system 10 including an address detection device 16 according to the present embodiment.
The network system 10 includes a user terminal 12 and an address detection device 16, which are connected by a network 14 such as the Internet. Address detection device 1
Reference numeral 6 denotes a device that is in charge of a character recognition part in the service. When the user sends the image to this device, the address associated with the hanging advertisement is specified, and the user terminal 12
Will be replied to.

FIG. 2 shows a configuration of the address detection device 16 according to the present embodiment. The configuration of the address detection device 16 is as follows.
In terms of hardware, it can be realized by a CPU, memory, or other LSI of any computer, and in terms of software, it is realized by a program loaded into the memory. Is drawing. Therefore, it is clear that these functional blocks can be realized in various forms by hardware only, software only, or a combination thereof.
It is understood by those skilled in the art.

The user terminal 12 is a device capable of photographing an advertisement as an image and transmitting the image to the address detection device 16. For example, a CCD is added to a mobile phone. The image input unit 22 receives a transmission image from the user terminal 12. The address specifying unit 32 performs an image recognition process to specify an address of a network related to the transmission image.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a transmission image. Hereinafter, in the present embodiment, a URL is taken as an example of an address. FIG.
In the case where the URL 42 itself is included in the transmission image 40 as in the above, the character recognition unit 24 specifies the URL 42.
The URL is "http://www.xxx.com"
, It often includes a character string such as “http: //” or “www”. Therefore, the character recognition unit 24
The URL may be specified by recognizing an image portion including the form of “http: //” or “www”. In the case of recognizing characters, the processing is considered to be image recognition, and is considered to be included in image recognition in this specification. The character recognition unit 24 uses the URL imprinted as a watermark.
The part may be recognized. Also, in the case of a train hanging advertisement,
In advance, in any position on the paper,
If there is an agreement on whether to describe URL, URL
It is easy to increase the recognition rate of The same applies to magazine advertisements. Generally, if the description format of the URL is determined, the effectiveness of the present embodiment is enhanced.

On the other hand, when the URL itself is not included in the transmission image, the search unit 30 specifies the URL by comparing the URL with the image stored in the table 28. FIG. 4 shows an example of the data stored in the table 28, in which the association between the name 60 of the company publishing the advertisement and the URL 62 is stored. For example,
It is assumed that the transmission image includes the company name “XYZ Denki”. The search unit 30 performs image collation with the company name stored in the table 28 to obtain “ht” as a URL.
tp: // www. xyz. ne. jp ”is specified.
In this example, the company name is stored in the table 28, but the product name and the trademark may be stored, and the URL may be specified by collating the stored name or trademark.

The address transmitting unit 26 receives the specified URL.
Is transmitted to the user terminal 12. FIG. 5 is an example of a search result screen displayed on the user terminal 12. The user can know the URL 52 by looking at the display of the search result. Further, the specified URL 52 may be set in the browser of the user terminal 12 so that the user can directly access the Web site.

Embodiment 2 FIG. FIG. 6 shows a configuration of the user terminal 12 according to the second embodiment. This terminal is also a mobile phone with a CCD. However, unlike the terminal used in the first embodiment, the terminal itself has a function of recognizing a URL. Therefore, unlike the first embodiment, there is no need to access the remote address detection device 16 and use its function.

The photographed image is input to the image input section 22. The address specifying unit 32 specifies the URL of the network related to the image by performing the image recognition processing. As shown in FIG. 3, when the URL 42 itself is included in the image 40, the character recognition unit 24 specifies the URL 42. On the other hand, when the URL 42 itself is not included in the image 40, the search unit 30 specifies the URL by collating with the image stored in the table 28.

FIG. 7 shows an example of an image photographed by the user terminal 12. In the image 70 is a trademark 72 of a company
It is included. FIG. 8 shows an example of the data stored in the table 28, in which the correspondence between the image 80 of the trademark of the company and the URL 82 of the company having the trademark is stored. The search unit 30 compares the URL with the image 80 stored in the table 28 to obtain the URL.
To identify. In the case of the image 70 in FIG. 7, the search unit 30 sets the UR of “http://www.abc.ne.jp”
L is specified. The access unit accesses the Web site by directly setting the specified URL in the browser. In the case of the image 70 in FIG.
p: // www. abc. ne. jp ”is accessed.

As described above, in the present embodiment, an image such as an advertisement or a magazine is taken into a portable terminal, and the image is subjected to image recognition, whereby a UR related to the image is obtained.
L can be specified. Further, by directly setting the specified address in the browser of the mobile terminal, the user of the mobile terminal can easily access the Web site related to the image.

The present invention has been described based on several embodiments. These embodiments are exemplifications, and it is understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications can be made to the combination of each component and each processing process, and such modifications are also within the scope of the present invention. By the way.

[0023]

According to the present invention, it is possible to efficiently access a network address related to an image.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a network system including an address detection device according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of an address detection device according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a transmission image from a user terminal.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of data stored in a table for storing an association between an image and a URL.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a search result screen displayed on the user terminal.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of a user terminal according to Embodiment 2.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an image captured by a user terminal.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of data stored in a table that stores an association between an image and a URL.

[Explanation of symbols]

12 user terminal, 14 network, 16 address detection device, 22 image input unit, 24 character recognition unit, 26 address transmission unit, 28 table,
30 search unit, 32 address specifying unit, 34 access unit.

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Takeshi Shinohara 2-5-5 Keihanhondori, Moriguchi-shi, Osaka Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. F-term (reference) 5B057 AA20 CA12 CB12 CC01 CE09 DA06 DB02 DC36 5B064 AA07 AB13 FA18 5C076 AA14 BA04 BA06

Claims (7)

[Claims] An image input unit that receives an image sent from a user; an address identification unit that identifies an address of a network associated with the image by performing image recognition processing on the image; And an address transmitting unit that transmits the address to the user. 2. The address detecting device according to claim 1, wherein the address specifying unit includes a character recognizing unit that extracts address information included in the image. 3. The address detection device according to claim 2, wherein the character recognition unit recognizes address information imprinted as a watermark. 4. The address detection device according to claim 2, wherein the character recognition unit detects an address using a character string characteristic of the address of the network as a clue. 5. An image input unit for photographing an image, an address specifying unit for performing an image recognition process on the image to specify a network address related to the image, and accessing the specified address. An address detecting device, comprising: 6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the address specifying unit includes: a table storing an association between an image and an address; and a search unit configured to search the table and obtain an address. The address detection device according to any one of the above. 7. The address detecting device according to claim 5, wherein the access unit includes a browser, and the specified address is directly set in the browser.