JP2003283818A - Photograph date position deciding apparatus and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily accurately decides the positions of date characters on a plurality of photographic images photographed on one photograph film. <P>SOLUTION: A date position detecting part 22 obtains average image data by applying addition processing to low resolution image data P1, P2,...Pn obtained by prescanning the photograph film with a film scanner 10, detects pixels presenting colors original for the date characters on the basis of color data R', G', and B' of respective pixels of the average image data, and decides the positions of such pixels as date positions. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a photographic date position judging device for judging the position of a date character imprinted on a photographic image, and a program therefor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, as the price of large-capacity recording media has become lower, individuals can store large amounts of data, and individuals own systems for storing and managing large amounts of image data such as electronic albums. Is possible. Also,
There is also provided a service for managing user's photo image data like an electronic album on behalf of the user. The functions required of these management systems are not only to manage digital images captured by digital cameras, but to digitize and save existing photographs such as silver halide photographs,
May be managed. Digitalization makes management easier and eliminates aging deterioration.

To manage a large amount of image data of photographs,
A taxonomy that is easy and intuitive to search and browse when used later is required. The most practical method of classification is to use the date, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-251.
As described in No. 083, an electronic album technique for recording image data in order of date has been proposed. However, this technique requires manual input, which imposes a burden on the user, and therefore has a problem that it is rather inconvenient in practice.

Further, as an automatic classification method of image data of a photograph according to a photographing date without imposing a burden on a user, for example, in a silver salt film photograph, a character of the photographing date is partially overlapped with a subject image to be photographed. When converting photographic film or photographic prints into photographic image data with a scanner and storing them, the shooting date imprinted on the photographic image is automatically recognized and used as date information. A method of adding the image data has also been proposed. In order to realize automatic recognition of the shooting date, it is first necessary to determine the position of the letters of the date in each photographic image.
As described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-184168, it is assumed that the characters of the date in the photographic image are normally photographed in any of the four corners of the photograph, and the predetermined attention areas at the four corners of the photograph are set to the date position. A method has been proposed in which the date position is determined by sequentially scanning candidate regions and detecting the date.

[0005]

However, the above-mentioned date position determination method has a problem in that it is necessary to scan all four corners of a photographic image, which requires processing time.

Depending on the camera model, the date characters may not be located at the four corners of the image, or the date characters may not be in the attention area. Therefore, the size of the attention area may be adjusted. There is also a problem that the date position cannot be detected unless the complicated operation of is performed.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a date position determining device and a program therefor capable of easily and accurately detecting the position of a date character in a photographic image. is there.

[0008]

A date position judging device of the present invention is a photograph for judging the position of a date character imprinted in a plurality of photographic images photographed on one photographic film. A date position determination device, comprising: a conversion unit that converts each of the plurality of photographic images into image data, an operation unit that performs addition processing on the plurality of image data to obtain additional image data, and the operation unit. It is characterized by comprising a determining means for determining the position of the date character based on the obtained added image data.

The "photographic image" to be processed in the present invention may be a photographic image recorded on a photographic film or a photographic image of a photographic print that has already been printed. .

The "added image data" is image data obtained by adding the data values of pixels of the same portion of a plurality of image data, and the "data value" is R, G, B.
It can be a value.

The "addition process" may be a simple addition or an arithmetic process of performing an averaging process after the simple addition.

Further, the plurality of image data to be subjected to the addition processing may be image data of all the photographic images taken on the photographic film to be processed, or may be partial image data. . When using a part of the image data, it is preferable to employ image data of a photographic image in which date characters are clearly printed by visual inspection or the like.

In a photographic image taken on one photographic film, the subject image is various, but the position of the date character (hereinafter referred to as the date position), color, and shape are almost constant.
The photographic date position determining apparatus of the present invention utilizes this characteristic to detect the date position. Specifically, for example, the arithmetic means adds the color data R, G, and B forming each pixel of the image data representing a plurality of photographic images taken on one photographic film for each pixel, and the added image Color data of each pixel forming the data is obtained. As mentioned above, 1
Although the subject image in the photographic image taken on the photographic film of the book differs for each frame, the color and position of the date character part are almost unchanged, so in the added image data, the color data of pixels other than the date character part is Although it is data indicating a color close to gray, the average color data of the pixels in the date character portion is data indicating that the unique hue of the date character (for example, red or yellow) is strong. The determination means of the photograph date position determination device of the present invention uses the color data of each pixel of the added image data,
Pixels exhibiting a unique color of the date character are detected, and the positions of these pixels are set as the date position of each photographic image.

Although the position of the date character can be detected only by detecting the pixel exhibiting the unique color of the date character, the date character can be detected based on the model of the camera used for taking the photograph. The shape, size, etc. of the date character part, in addition to the unique color of the date character,
The date position may be detected more accurately by further narrowing down the pixels of the date character portion from the size.

A film scanner which reads a photographic image formed on a photographic film and converts it into image data can be applied as the conversion means of the photographic date position determining apparatus of the present invention.

The program of the present invention is a program for determining the position of a date character imprinted on a photographic image using a plurality of image data representing a plurality of photographic images taken on one photographic film. And performing addition processing on a plurality of the image data to obtain added image data,
It is characterized in that the computer is caused to execute a process of judging the date position based on the added image data.

[0017]

According to the image processing apparatus of the present invention, in a plurality of photographic images taken on one photographic film, the subject image differs for each frame, but the position, color, shape, etc. of the date character are almost the same. The date position is determined by detecting the pixels of the date character portion from the added image data of the image data of these plural photographic images by utilizing the fact that it is constant, so all the candidate date positions are scanned. It is not necessary and is easy to process.

Further, since the date pixels are detected based on the data values of all the pixels of the added image data, it is not necessary to assume a date candidate position and the date position is accurately determined. .

The program of the present invention can use a computer as the photograph date position determining device of the present invention.

[0020]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the arrangement of an image storage device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the image storage device of the present embodiment uses a plurality of photographic images T captured on a photographic film.
(T1, T2, T3, ... Tn n: n: number of photographic images) are pre-scanned and main-scanned to obtain low-resolution image data P (P1, P2, P corresponding to photographic images, respectively).
3 ,. ． ． Pn) and the image data for storage S (S1, S2,
S3 ,. ． ． Film scanner 10 for converting to Sn)
And date information D (D1, D2, D3, ... Dn) for identifying the photographing date of each photographic image photographed on this photographic film using the low-resolution image data P and for giving the date information D (D1, D2, D3, ... Dn). A storage unit 40 that stores the storage image data S in association with the date information D;
Control unit 3 that controls the operations of the date adding unit 20 and the storage unit 40
It consists of 0 and. The date adding unit 20 detects the position of the date in the photographic image using the low resolution image data P, and the date from each image data (P1, P2, P3, ... Pn). A recognition order estimation unit 24 that estimates the order of extracting information, and a date recognition unit 26 that extracts date information from image data with a high order.
The date recognizing unit 28 estimates the date information of the image data whose date information is not extracted, the low-resolution image data P and the date position, the recognition order, the recognized or estimated date, and the like. Memory 21 stored in
It has and.

Here, the operation of the date adding section 20 will be described.

First, the operation of the position detector 22 will be described.

The date position detecting section 22 utilizes the fact that the color, position, and shape of the date characters are almost constant, although the subject images are various in a plurality of photographic images taken on one photographic film. , Detect the date position. Specifically, the image data P1, P2, P3 ,. ． ． The color data R, G, B forming each pixel of Pn (whose position is (x, y)) is added for each pixel, and an average value is calculated to obtain the average color data Ri ′ (x, y), Gi '(x,
y), Bi '(x, y) (i: 1, 2, 3, ... m,
m: total pixel number of low resolution image data corresponding to one photographic image) is obtained. The subject image in a photographic image shot on a single film differs for each sesame, but the color and position of the date character part are almost unchanged, so the average color data of pixels other than the date character part is a color close to gray. The average color data of the pixels in the date character portion is data indicating that the unique hue of the date character (for example, red or yellow) is strong. The date detection unit 22 of the present embodiment detects the pixels strongly exhibiting the unique color of the date character by using the average color data for each pixel, and sets the positions of these pixels as the date position of each photographic image. .

FIG. 2 shows average color data Ri '(x, y),
An image represented by Gi ′ (x, y) and Bi ′ (x, y) (hereinafter referred to as an average image) and the original photographic image T (T1, T
2 ,. ． ． The difference from Tn) is shown. As shown in the figure, since the subject image of the photographic image T is different for each frame, in the average image, the parts other than the date character (“1223”) have various colors overlapping with each other, so the colors are close to gray. Since the date character portion has the same unique color in every frame, it does not become gray in the average image, and the color remains as it is.

Next, the operation of the recognition order estimation section 24 will be described.

The recognition rank estimating section 24 is provided with the date position detecting section 2.
The order of date recognition is estimated based on the flatness and blackness of the background at the date position detected by 2.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the relationship between the difficulty of date recognition in a photographic image and the background. The background of the date part of the photograph image of the photographer is flat and black, flat and bright, complicated and bright in order from the left, and as you can see visually, the recognition of date characters is also the image on the left. To the right image, getting harder. In the present embodiment, the recognition rank estimating unit 24 utilizes this characteristic, that is, the flatter and darker the background of the date character portion is, the easier it is to recognize, and the image data P1, P2, P3 ,. ． ． Pn is ranked according to the ease of recognition. FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the recognition rank estimation unit 22 for estimating the rank of date recognition, and the hatched portion in the drawing indicates the background portion of the date position portion (the width including the date position portion in the drawing). It is a rectangular range of W and height H). The recognition rank estimation unit 24
First, the density Q of each pixel of the background portion excluding the pixels of the date character portion is calculated, and the date character portion of each image data P (P1, P2, ... Pn) is calculated using the following equation (1). The background brightness Bi (i = 1, 2, 3, ..., N) is calculated, and the density dispersion value Gi (i = i = i) of the background portion of each image is calculated.
1, 2, 3 ,. ． ． Calculate n).

[0030]

[Equation 1] The recognition order estimation unit 24 calculates the brightness B and the density variance value G based on the calculated background brightness B and the density variance value G of each image.
The lower the value of, the higher the recognition priority is, so that the recognition priority of each image data is estimated. Specifically, for example, the brightness B is low and the density dispersion value G is low, the brightness B is low but the density dispersion value G is high, the brightness B is high but the density dispersion value G is low, and the brightness B is The recognition priority is assigned in the order of high and the density dispersion value G.

The date recognizing unit 26 first extracts date information stepwise from image data having a high priority of recognition and outputs the date information to the date estimating unit 28. The date estimation unit 28 estimates the date of the image data for which date information has not been extracted, based on these date information. The extracted date information and the estimated date information are stored in the memory 21.

Hereinafter, using the flowchart of FIG. 5,
The operation of the image storage device of this embodiment will be described in more detail.

As shown in the figure, in the image storage apparatus of the present embodiment, when starting the processing for one photographic film, first, the control unit 30 causes the film scanner 10 to detect all the images photographed on this film. The pre-scan is performed on the photographic image (S10, S15: No).
Low-resolution image data P1 obtained by prescan,
P2 ,. ． ． The Pn is transmitted and stored in the memory 21 of the date giving unit 20. The date position detection unit 22 detects the pixel position of the date data in these image data by the method described above, and sends it to the recognition order estimation unit 24 and the memory 21 (S20). The recognition order estimating unit 24 calculates the background brightness B and the density variance value G at the date position detected by the date position detecting unit 22 for each image data P, and extracts the date information from the image data P. The priority order is estimated and transmitted to the date recognition unit 26 and the memory 21 (S25). The date recognition unit 26 first extracts date information from the image data having the highest priority (i = 1) (S30, S35). The date estimating unit 28 compares the date information extracted by the date recognizing unit 26 and checks whether there is the same date information (S40, S4).
5). If the image data P having the same date information and having the same date information corresponds to the photographic images T chronologically separated (S45: Yes, S48: Ye
s), this same date information is given to the image data T corresponding to all the photographic images T sandwiched in time series in the photographic image T (S50). The extracted date information and the added date information correspond to the image data T and are stored in the memory 2
Stored in 1. If the extraction of the date information to the image data T having the highest priority and the addition of the date information based on the extracted date information are completed, or step S4
5, if the extracted date information is not the same (S45: No), or in step S48,
If the image data T having the same date information corresponds to the photographic images P that are adjacent in time series (S48: N).
o), the control unit 30 confirms whether or not all the image data T have date information attached thereto (S55), and if there is image data to which date information has not yet been attached (S55:
No), the date recognition unit 26 and the date estimation unit 28 are caused to perform the processing from step S35 to step S50 on the image data having the next highest rank (S60, S35 to S5).
0). It should be noted that the processing from step S35 to step S60 is performed by the image data T1, T2 ,. ． ． All of Tn are repeated until a date is added (S55: Yes).

The image data T1, T2 ,. ． ． The date information D given to Tn is the image data T1, T2 ,. ． ． T
It is stored in the memory 21 corresponding to n.

On the other hand, in step S15, if the prescanning for all the photographic images T of the film to be processed is completed by the film scanner 10 (S15: Y).
es), the control unit 30 causes the date assigning unit 20 to perform the date assigning process (the processes from S20 to S60) described above, and causes the film scanner 10 to perform the main scan on the photographic image T of the same film (S100). ), The high resolution image data S (S1,
S2 ,. ． ． Sn) is output to the storage unit 40.

The storage unit 40 stores the low resolution image data T1,
T2 ,. ． ． Tn and high resolution image data S1, S
2 ,. ． ． Based on the correspondence with Sn, the image data T1, T2 ,. ． ． The date information D given to Tn is read, and the image data S1, S2 ,. ． ． The data is stored in association with Sn (S200).

As described above, according to the image storage apparatus of the present embodiment, in a plurality of photographic images taken on one photographic film, the subject image is different for each frame, but the position, color and shape of the date character are Is almost constant, and the date position is determined by detecting the pixels of the date character part from the image data of the image data of these multiple photographic images. It does not need to be scanned and is easy to process.

Since the pixels of the date character portion are detected based on the data values of all the pixels of the added image data, it is not necessary to assume the candidate date position and the date position is determined. Is accurate.

Although the preferred embodiment of the photographic date position determining device of the present invention has been described above, the photographic date determining device of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and the gist of the present invention is not changed. , Various changes can be made.

For example, in the image storage device of the above-described embodiment, the image data for giving a date and the image data for storage are separately acquired by the prescan and the main scan so that the processing time can be further shortened. However, the date may be directly added to the high-resolution image for storage without performing the prescan.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the image data is obtained by scanning the photographic film, but it may be a photographic print that has already been developed instead of the photographic film. In this case, it suffices to arrange these prints in the order in which they were photographed and perform scanning in this order.

Further, in the above embodiment, the average image data is used as the addition image data when estimating the date position, but the addition image data obtained by the simple addition process may be used.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an image storage device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the operation of a date position detector in the image storage device shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the difficulty level of date recognition.

FIG. 4 is a view for explaining the operation of a recognition rank estimation unit in the image storage device shown in FIG.

5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the image storage device shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 film scanner 20 Dater 21 memory 22 Date position detector 24 Recognition rank estimation unit 26 Date recognition part 28 Date Estimator 30 control unit 40 Storage B Date background brightness D Date information G Density variance of date background part H Date background area range height P Low resolution image data Q concentration High resolution image data for S storage T photo image W Date background range width

Continued front page    F-term (reference) 2H106 AA62 BA47 BA72                 5C077 LL17 MP05 MP08 PP32 PP46                       PP58 PQ12 TT09                 5C079 HB01 LA02 LA06 LA17 MA11                       NA17 NA27 NA29 PA08                 5L096 BA18 FA38 FA44 GA09 GA51

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A photographic date position determination device for determining the position of a date character imprinted in a plurality of photographic images taken on a single photographic film, wherein the plurality of photographic images Based on the added image data obtained by the calculating means, the conversion means for converting the A photograph date position determining device, comprising: a determining means for determining the position of 2. The photographic date position determining apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the converting means is a film scanner which reads a photographic image formed on a photographic film and converts it into image data. 3. A program for determining the position of a date character imprinted on a photographic image using a plurality of image data representing a plurality of photographic images taken on one photographic film, A program for causing a computer to execute a process of determining a position of the date character based on the added image data by performing an addition process on a plurality of the image data.