JP2018019145A - Imaging target position identifying apparatus, imaging target position identifying method, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an imaging target position identifying apparatus capable of identifying a position of an imaging target included in a captured image.SOLUTION: An imaging target position identifying apparatus 1 includes: an acquiring unit 12 that acquires a plurality of pieces of imaging information including an imaging position and an imaging direction corresponding to a captured image of an imaging target; an identifying unit 13 that identifies an imaging target position that is a position of the imaging target by using imaging positions and imaging directions included in the plurality of pieces of imaging information acquired by the acquiring unit 12; and an output unit 14 that outputs the imaging target position identified by the identifying unit 13.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a shooting target position specifying device for specifying a position of a shooting target.

  In recent years, shooting positions acquired by GPS (Global Positioning System) or the like are stored in association with shot images (see, for example, Patent Document 1). The photographing position may be embedded in the photographed image, for example, Exif (Exchangeable image file format). By using such a shooting position, it is possible to easily identify where each shot image was shot.

JP 2006-319538 A

  However, by using the shooting position, it is possible to know where the image was taken from, but it is not easy to know where the image was taken. Therefore, when it is desired to view a photographed image of a photographing target existing at a certain position, it is necessary to browse the photographed image photographed in the vicinity of the position and manually select the photographed image to be photographed.

  The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-described problem, and can use a shooting position corresponding to a shooting image of a shooting target to specify a shooting target position that is the position of the shooting target. An object is to provide a position identification device or the like.

In order to achieve the above object, an imaging target position specifying device according to the present invention includes an acquisition unit that acquires a plurality of shooting information including a shooting position and a shooting direction corresponding to a shooting image of a shooting target, and a plurality of acquired acquisition units. Using a shooting position and a shooting direction included in each of the shooting information, a specifying unit that specifies a shooting target position that is a position of the shooting target, and an output unit that outputs the shooting target position specified by the specifying unit It is a thing.
With such a configuration, it is possible to know the position of the shooting target that is the subject of the shot image. For example, the shooting target position can be used for searching for a shot image. In addition, for example, by taking a plurality of photographs that are not easily accessible by people such as Nakasu in a river, the position of the place can be easily known.

In the photographing target position specifying apparatus according to the present invention, the acquisition unit acquires three or more pieces of shooting information, and the specifying unit extends from the shooting position included in the shooting information to the shooting direction included in the shooting information. The shooting target position may be specified using three or more shooting direction half straight lines.
With such a configuration, it is possible to specify the shooting target position with higher accuracy than when the shooting target position is specified using two pieces of shooting information.

In the photographing target position specifying device according to the present invention, the specifying unit may calculate a plurality of intersections of three or more shooting direction half straight lines and specify a shooting target position that is a position representing the plurality of intersections. .
With such a configuration, since a plurality of intersections of the shooting direction half line are points that can be candidates for the shooting target position, the position representing the plurality of intersections is set as the shooting target position, so that the appropriate shooting target position can be obtained. Specific identification can be realized.

In the photographing target position specifying device according to the present invention, the specifying unit specifies the photographing target position that is the inner center of the triangle formed by the three photographing direction half lines when the photographing direction half lines are three. May be.
With such a configuration, a position that is equidistant from each of the three shooting direction half straight lines can be set as a shooting target position.

In the photographing target position specifying device according to the present invention, the specifying unit has the smallest area among the plurality of triangles formed by the three shooting direction half lines when the shooting direction half line is four or more. The photographing target position existing inside the triangle may be specified.
With such a configuration, the three shooting direction half lines considered to have the smallest error are specified from four or more shooting direction half lines, and the shooting target position is specified using the three shooting direction half lines. Therefore, it is possible to specify the photographing target position with a small error.

Further, in the photographing target position specifying device according to the present invention, the specifying unit specifies the photographing target position so as to optimize an objective function corresponding to the total of each distance between the three or more photographing direction half lines and the photographing target position. May be.
With such a configuration, for example, the shooting target position can be specified so that the sum of the squares of the distances between the shooting direction half lines and the shooting target position is minimized. Since the shooting target position specified in this way is a point close to each of the plurality of shooting direction half lines, it is considered to be an appropriate shooting target position.

In the photographing target position specifying device according to the present invention, the output unit may store the photographing target position in association with the photographed image of the photographing target corresponding to the photographing target position.
With such a configuration, for example, when it is desired to search for a shooting image of a shooting target existing at a certain position, the shooting image of the target shooting target is searched by searching the shooting target position using the position as a search key. Will be able to.

  According to the photographing target position specifying device and the like according to the present invention, the position of the photographing target included in the picked-up image can be specified.

The block diagram which shows the structure of the imaging | photography target position specific device by embodiment of this invention. The flowchart which shows operation | movement of the imaging | photography target position specification apparatus by the embodiment The figure for demonstrating specification of the imaging | photography target position in the embodiment The figure which shows an example of the imaging | photography direction half line in the embodiment The figure which shows an example of the imaging | photography direction half line in the embodiment The figure which shows an example of the imaging | photography direction half line in the embodiment The figure which shows an example of the picked-up image in the embodiment The figure which shows an example of the picked-up image in the embodiment The figure which shows an example of the picked-up image in the embodiment The figure which shows an example of imaging | photography information etc. in the embodiment The figure which shows an example of imaging | photography information etc. in the embodiment The figure which shows an example of imaging | photography information etc. in the embodiment Schematic diagram showing an example of the appearance of the computer system in the embodiment The figure which shows an example of a structure of the computer system in the embodiment

  Hereinafter, an imaging target position specifying apparatus according to the present invention will be described using embodiments. In the following embodiments, components and steps denoted by the same reference numerals are the same or equivalent, and repetitive description may be omitted. The shooting target position specifying device according to the present embodiment takes the same shooting target from a plurality of locations, and calculates the position of the shooting target using the shooting position and shooting direction (angle).

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a photographing target position specifying device 1 according to the present embodiment. The photographing target position specifying device 1 according to the present embodiment includes a storage unit 11, an acquisition unit 12, a specifying unit 13, and an output unit 14. The imaging target position specifying device 1 may be, for example, an information processing device such as a personal computer, or a mobile terminal such as a smartphone or a tablet terminal.

  The storage unit 11 stores a plurality of photographed images photographed by the camera 2 and a plurality of photographing information respectively associated with the plurality of photographed images. The shooting information is information including a shooting position and a shooting direction corresponding to the shot image. The captured image is preferably a still image, but may be a moving image. When the captured image is a moving image, it is preferable that the shooting position and shooting direction of the moving image do not change with time. When the camera 2 captures a moving image, the captured image may be, for example, one frame of the moving image. Further, the photographed image is preferably an image photographed when the photographing object (subject) is positioned on the extension line of the optical axis of the camera 2. That is, it is preferable that the subject to be photographed is centered in the photographed image. This is because the position of the photographing target can be appropriately specified. Further, in the captured images of the same shooting target, the shooting target that is the subject may or may not be shot with substantially the same size. The shooting position corresponding to the shot image is information indicating the position of the camera 2 when the shot image is acquired by the camera 2. The shooting position may be, for example, latitude / longitude or other coordinate values. The shooting position may be acquired by, for example, a position acquisition unit included in the camera 2. The position acquisition means may acquire the photographing position that is the position of the camera 2 by, for example, GPS, indoor positioning technology, or other means. The shooting direction corresponding to the shot image is information indicating the direction of the camera 2 when the shot image is acquired by the camera 2. The direction of the camera 2 is usually the optical axis direction of the camera 2. In the present embodiment, the case where the shooting direction is the optical axis direction of the camera 2 at the time of shooting will be mainly described. The photographing direction may be indicated by, for example, an azimuth angle that is an angle in a horizontal plane, or may be indicated by another angle. The azimuth angle may be, for example, an angle in which the north is 0 degrees and the east is 90 degrees. The shooting direction may be acquired by, for example, a geomagnetic sensor, a direction detection sensor, or another sensor that the camera 2 has. When one object to be photographed is photographed, it is preferable to photograph so that a photographing direction half line, which will be described later, does not become parallel. For this reason, when one shooting target is shot, it is preferable that shooting be performed so that the shooting directions are not the same. Note that the shooting position and shooting direction included in the shooting information corresponding to the shot image are preferably the shooting position and shooting direction when shooting the shot image. The shooting information may be embedded in the shot image, for example. In that case, the captured image may be an image in a format such as Exif, for example. Further, in the storage unit 11, as will be described later, for each shooting target, a shot image and shooting information corresponding to the shooting target may be stored. In addition, what kind of imaging | photography object may be sufficient. The object to be photographed may be, for example, a house, a landmark, a utility pole, a high-voltage line tower, a structure such as a bridge, or a natural object such as a river, a tree, or a field. It may be a feature. Further, the photographing object may be a part of a feature such as a field edge, a specific position of a river, a specific position of the feature, or the like. Further, the subject to be photographed may be on an existing map or may not be on the map. In the latter case, for example, the position of the subject to be photographed, which is a feature not on the old map, can be specified.

  Further, the shooting information may include information other than the shooting position and shooting direction. For example, the shooting information may include shooting date / time, shutter speed, aperture, focal length, and the like. Further, the photographed information may or may not include a photographed image. In the former case, for example, an embedded captured image such as a capturing position may be considered as capturing information. In the present embodiment, a case where a captured image is not included in the captured information will be mainly described.

The process in which a several picked-up image and several picked-up information are memorize | stored in the memory | storage part 11 is not ask | required. For example, a photographed image or the like may be stored in the storage unit 11 via a recording medium, and a photographed image or the like transmitted via a wired or wireless communication line or the like may be stored in the storage unit 11. It may be. Storage in the storage unit 11 may be temporary storage in a RAM or the like, or may be long-term storage. The storage unit 11 can be realized by a predetermined recording medium (for example, a semiconductor memory or a magnetic disk).
In the present embodiment, the case where the camera 2 exists outside the photographing target position specifying device 1 will be described. However, the photographing target position specifying device 1 may include the camera 2. In that case, the imaging target position specifying device 1 may be, for example, a mobile terminal with a camera.

  The acquisition unit 12 acquires a plurality of shooting information from the storage unit 11. As described above, the shooting information is information including a shooting position and a shooting direction corresponding to a shot image to be shot. The number of shooting information acquired by the acquiring unit 12 may be two, three, or four or more, for example. The plurality of pieces of shooting information acquired by the acquisition unit 12 is usually shooting information corresponding to the same shooting target shooting image. Therefore, it is preferable that a plurality of pieces of shooting information having the same shooting target are managed so as to be distinguishable from other pieces of shooting information. For example, the imaging information may be manually distinguished by the user. Specifically, a plurality of photographed images included in one folder and a plurality of pieces of photographing information corresponding to the plurality of photographed images may correspond to one photographing object. Good. In this case, for example, the acquisition unit 12 can acquire a plurality of pieces of shooting information corresponding to the same shooting target by reading out a plurality of pieces of shooting information included in one folder. In the present embodiment, the case where the captured image and the shooting information corresponding to the shooting target are stored in the folder for each shooting target will be mainly described. Further, when the user shoots one shooting target, the shooting start time and shooting end time of the shooting target may be recorded. The recording may be performed in response to an instruction from the user, for example. Then, the acquisition unit 12 may acquire a plurality of pieces of shooting information corresponding to the shooting date and time after the start of shooting and before the end of shooting using the recorded shooting start time and shooting end time. In that case, it is preferable that the shooting date and time is included in the shooting information. In addition, when the shooting information includes the shooting date and time, the acquisition unit 12 may acquire a plurality of pieces of shooting information whose shooting dates and times are close as shooting information corresponding to the same shooting target. The shooting information close to the shooting date / time may be, for example, shooting information whose shooting date / time is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold, and the shooting date / time is clustered and corresponds to the shooting date / time included in one cluster divided by clustering. It may be shooting information.

  The specifying unit 13 specifies the shooting target position, which is the position of the shooting target, using the shooting position and shooting direction included in each of the plurality of shooting information acquired by the acquiring unit 12. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram for explaining the specification of the photographing target position. Assume that the photographing object 7 is photographed at the positions of the cameras 2a to 2c shown in FIG. Then, for example, using the shooting position and shooting direction at the position of the camera 2a, it can be seen that the shooting target 7 is ahead of the arrow 5a. The arrow 5a is an arrow extending from the shooting position acquired at the position of the camera 2a as a base point toward the shooting direction acquired at that position. Similarly, since the shooting target 7 is ahead of the arrows 5b and 5c, the specifying unit 13 obtains the intersection of the half lines obtained by extending the arrows 5a to 5c in the direction of the arrow, thereby It is possible to acquire a shooting target position that is a position. Note that the specification of the position to be photographed will be described in the case of using two pieces of photographing information, the case of using three pieces of photographing information, and the case of using four pieces of photographing information. In the description, the specifying unit 13 uses a shooting direction half line that is a half line extending in the shooting direction included in the shooting information from the shooting position included in the shooting information in specifying the shooting target position. . Note that the specifying unit 13 can acquire an expression of a shooting direction half line using the shooting position and the shooting direction. The expression of the shooting direction half line may be stored in a recording medium (not shown), for example. Further, even if a shooting direction straight line that is a straight line extending in the shooting direction included in the shooting information is used instead of the shooting direction half line from the shooting position included in the shooting information, the same shooting target position is usually specified. be able to. Therefore, it can be considered that using the shooting direction half line for specifying the shooting target position includes using the shooting direction straight line for the specification.

(1) Identification of shooting target position using two pieces of shooting information As shown in FIG. 4A, the specifying unit 13 is an intersection of two shooting direction half straight lines L1 and L2 respectively corresponding to two pieces of shooting information. V1 may be calculated, and the intersection V1 may be set as the imaging target position SP. The shooting direction half line L1 is a half line extending from the shooting position P1 in the shooting direction θ1, and the shooting direction half line L2 is a half line extending from the shooting position P2 in the shooting direction θ2. When two pieces of shooting information are used, as shown in FIG. 4A, the intersection of the shooting direction half straight lines L1 and L2 is uniquely determined, so that the intersection can be set as the shooting target position SP.

(2) Identification of Shooting Target Position Using Three Shooting Information As shown in FIG. 4B, the specifying unit 13 is formed by three shooting direction half straight lines L1 to L3 respectively corresponding to the three shooting information. The shooting target position SP existing inside the triangle to be displayed may be specified. The triangle is a triangle having a plurality of intersections V1 to V3 as vertices. Note that the shooting direction half line L3 is a half line extending from the shooting position P3 in the shooting direction θ3. In addition, the photographing target position SP is not limited as long as it exists inside a triangle having the intersections V1 to V3 as vertices. For example, the imaging target position SP may be the inner center of the triangle, or the center of gravity of the triangle, and the outer center of the triangle (provided that the outer center is present inside the triangle). It may be a position selected randomly within the triangle, or may be another position within the triangle. The positions equidistant from the respective shooting direction half straight lines L1 to L3 are considered to be suitable for the shooting target position SP, and therefore the shooting target position SP is a triangle formed by the three shooting direction half straight lines L1 to L3. It is preferable that it is the inner core. However, since it is generally considered that a very high accuracy is not required for the imaging target position, the imaging target position may be a position other than the inner center existing inside the triangle as described above. The triangle formed by the three shooting direction half straight lines L1 to L3 is a triangle having the three shooting direction half straight lines L1 to L3 as sides.

  Here, the case where there are three intersections of the three shooting direction half straight lines L1 to L3 has been described. However, when there is one intersection, the intersection may be set as the shooting target position SP, and the intersection is 2 In the case of the number, the midpoint of the two intersections may be set as the imaging target position SP. The midpoint of the two intersections is a point on a line segment having both intersections at both ends, and is a point equidistant from both intersections.

(3) Identification of Shooting Target Position Using Four Shooting Information As shown in FIG. 4C, the specifying unit 13 is formed by four shooting direction half straight lines L1 to L4 respectively corresponding to the four shooting information. Among the plurality of triangles, the imaging target position SP existing inside the triangle having the smallest area may be specified. Note that the shooting direction half line L4 is a half line extending in the shooting direction θ4 from the shooting position P4. In FIG. 4C, the triangle with the smallest area is a triangle having intersections V2, V5, and V6 as vertices. Therefore, the photographing target position SP exists inside the triangle. The position in the triangle that is the imaging target position SP is the same as (2) above, and the description thereof is omitted. Here, the small area of the triangle means that the error between the three shooting direction half lines forming the triangle and the specified shooting target position SP is small. Therefore, by specifying the shooting target position SP as described above, three shooting direction half lines with small errors from the shooting target position SP are selected, and the shooting target position SP is selected using the selected shooting direction half lines. Therefore, it is possible to specify the shooting target position with higher accuracy.

  Although the case where there are six intersections of the four shooting direction half straight lines L1 to L4 has been described here, the shooting target position SP may be specified in the same manner even when there are four intersections. In addition, when the number of intersections of the four shooting direction half straight lines L1 to L4 is one, the intersection may be set as the shooting target position SP, and when there are two intersections, The midpoint may be set as the shooting target position SP. When there are three intersections, the shooting target position SP may be specified as described in (2) above.

  Here, the specification of the shooting target position using the four pieces of shooting information has been described, but it goes without saying that the shooting target position can be specified in the same manner even when five or more pieces of shooting information are used. That is, when there are four or more shooting direction half lines, the specifying unit 13 is the most of the plurality of triangles formed by the three shooting direction half lines selected from the four or more shooting direction half lines. You may identify the imaging | photography target position which exists in the inside of a triangle with a small area.

  It goes without saying that the specifying unit 13 may specify the shooting target position by a method other than the above. For example, when three or more pieces of shooting information are acquired, the specifying unit 13 calculates a plurality of intersections of three or more shooting direction half lines corresponding to the three or more pieces of acquired shooting information, An imaging target position that is a position representing a plurality of intersections may be specified. When specifying an imaging target position that is a representative position from a plurality of intersections, it is preferable to specify the imaging target position so that it is the central position of the plurality of intersections. When there are three intersections, for example, the shooting target position may be specified as in (2) above. When there are three or more intersections, for example, for three or more intersections, positions where the average of the x coordinate (longitude) and the average of the y coordinate (latitude) are the values of the x and y coordinates, respectively. May be set as an imaging target position.

  In addition, for example, when three or more pieces of shooting information are acquired, the specifying unit 13 sets each of the three or more shooting direction half lines corresponding to the acquired three or more pieces of shooting information and the shooting target position. The photographing target position may be specified so as to optimize the objective function corresponding to the sum related to the distance. The total for each distance may be, for example, the total of each distance, the sum of the squares of each distance, or another total for each distance. The total may be, for example, a weighted weight for each distance, as will be described later. Further, the objective function corresponding to the total for each distance may be, for example, the total for each distance itself, or a function having the total for each distance as an argument. The objective function may be, for example, an increase function with the sum of each distance as an argument or a decrease function. In the former case, optimizing the objective function means minimizing the value of the objective function, and in the latter case, optimizing the objective function means maximizing the value of the objective function. To do. Note that the optimization of the objective function can be realized by a known algorithm that solves the optimization problem, and therefore the details of the processing are omitted.

  Note that when the shooting target position is calculated by optimizing the objective function, the shooting target position may be calculated using a weight according to the shooting distance that is the distance from the shooting position to the shooting target position. When photographing a subject, the optical axis of the camera 2 may deviate from the direction desired by the photographer due to disturbance such as camera shake. Assuming that the degree of the disturbance is the same regardless of the shooting position, if the shooting target is shot from a distance, the shooting target is the camera 2 at the time of shooting due to the disturbance compared to shooting from a distance. It is considered that the degree of the distance deviating from the optical axis increases. Therefore, it is considered that the shooting information corresponding to the shot image obtained by shooting the shooting target from near is higher in accuracy than the shooting information corresponding to the shot image obtained by shooting the shooting target from a distance. Therefore, when the shooting distance from the shooting position to the shooting target position is large, a weight that reduces the influence of the shooting direction half line extending from the shooting position is used, and the shooting distance from the shooting position to the shooting target position is small. The objective function may be optimized using a weight that increases the influence of the shooting direction half line extending from the shooting position. The weight is a weight used in the objective function. In addition, the weight is normally used in the sum regarding each distance. Even in that case, since the objective function is in accordance with the total, the weight is used in the objective function as a result. Further, the effect of the shooting direction half-line becomes larger (smaller) means that the distance between the shooting direction half-line and the shooting target position becomes shorter (longer). When optimization of the objective function means minimizing the value of the objective function (for example, when the objective function is the sum of the distances or the sum of the squares of the distances) The weight may be a weight that decreases as the shooting distance increases and increases as the shooting distance decreases, that is, a weight that is a decreasing function with the shooting distance as an argument. Also, the weight according to the shooting distance from the shooting position to the shooting target position is multiplied by the distance between the shooting direction half line passing through the shooting position and the shooting target position, the square of the distance, etc. May be. In addition, the shooting distance used for specifying the weight may not be strictly calculated. For example, the shooting distance from the shooting position to the shooting target position may be calculated using the positions representing a plurality of intersections of the plurality of shooting direction half straight lines as provisional shooting target positions. Further, since it can be assumed that the larger the focal length is, the longer the distance from the subject is, the more the focal length is included in the shooting information, the focal length itself or the focal length is used as an argument. The value of the increase function may be used as the shooting distance.

  The output unit 14 outputs the shooting target position specified by the specifying unit 13. The output unit 14 may output the shooting target position together with the shot image of the shooting target corresponding to the shooting target position. The photographed image may be one or plural. Here, the output may be, for example, display on a display device (for example, a liquid crystal display), transmission via a communication line to a predetermined device, printing by a printer, or storage in a recording medium. It may be delivered to other components. The output unit 14 may or may not include an output device (for example, a display device or a printer). The output unit 14 may be realized by hardware, or may be realized by software such as a driver that drives the devices. When the output is accumulation, the output unit 14 may accumulate the identified shooting target position in the storage unit 11 in association with the shooting target image corresponding to the shooting target position. Note that when the captured image and the captured information are associated with each other, the output unit 14 may accumulate the capturing target position in association with, for example, both. In this embodiment, this case will be mainly described. Further, for example, the output unit 14 may read a captured image from the shooting information, and newly store the read captured image and the shooting target position in association with each other. For example, when the shooting position, shooting direction, and the like are embedded in the shot image, the output unit 14 may store the shooting target position so as to be embedded in the shot image.

Note that the output unit 14 may output the accumulated shooting target position together with the shot image. In that case, it is preferable to output so that the correspondence between the shooting target position and the shot image can be understood. When a captured image is output, information corresponding to the captured image, for example, a shooting position and a shooting direction may be output together. That is, a shooting target position, shooting information corresponding to the shooting target position, and a shot image corresponding to the shooting information may be output. The output may be, for example, transmission, display, printing, delivery to another component, accumulation, or the like. When the storage unit 11 is a recording medium that can be attached to and detached from the shooting target position specifying device 1, the storage unit 11 is detached from the shooting target position specifying device 1 and attached to another device or the like. Accordingly, the correspondence between the shooting target position and the shot image may be used.
Further, in the shooting target position specifying device 1, a search related to the shooting target position may be performed. Specifically, the shooting target position specifying device 1 receives a position as a search key, searches the shooting target position using the received position as a search key, and outputs a shot image or the like corresponding to the hit shooting target position. It may be.

Next, the operation of the photographing target position specifying device 1 will be described using the flowchart of FIG.
(Step S101) The acquisition unit 12 acquires a plurality of pieces of shooting information from the storage unit 11. The plurality of pieces of shooting information are preferably shooting information for the same shooting target.

  (Step S102) The specifying unit 13 specifies the shooting target position using the plurality of shooting information acquired in step S101.

  (Step S103) The output unit 14 outputs the photographing target position specified in Step S102. The output may be, for example, storing the shooting target position in the storage unit 11 in association with the shot image corresponding to the shooting target position.

  (Step S104) The acquisition unit 12 determines whether to acquire the next plurality of pieces of shooting information. If the next plurality of pieces of shooting information are to be acquired, the process returns to step S101. If not, the series of processes for specifying the shooting target position ends. Note that the acquisition unit 12 may determine to acquire the next plurality of pieces of shooting information, for example, when the storage unit 11 stores shooting information for which the position of the shooting target is not specified. . If it is determined Yes in step S104 and the process returns to step S101, it is preferable that the acquisition unit 12 acquire a plurality of pieces of shooting information that have not been used for specifying the shooting target position so far.

  Next, the operation of the photographing target position specifying device 1 according to the present embodiment will be described using a specific example. In this specific example, the specifying unit 13 specifies the shooting target position by any one of the methods (1) to (3).

  First, the user operates the camera 2 to set so that captured images and the like are accumulated in the folder F001. Thereafter, it is assumed that the user uses the camera 2 to shoot a shooting target that is a hut from a certain position. The photographed image “IMA001.jpg” is shown in FIG. 5A, and the photographing position and the photographing direction are (X001, Y001) and θ1, respectively. Those photographed images and photographing positions are stored in the folder F001. Next, it is assumed that the user uses the camera 2 to shoot the same shooting object from two different positions. These photographed images “IMA002.jpg” and “IMA003.jpg” are assumed to be those shown in FIGS. 5B and 5C. The shooting position and shooting direction corresponding to the shot image “IMA002.jpg” are (X002, Y002) and θ2, respectively, and the shooting position and shooting direction corresponding to the shot image “IMA003.jpg” are (X003), respectively. , Y003), θ3. Those captured images are also stored in the folder F001. Thereafter, it is assumed that the user designates another folder and performs photographing of another photographing target in the same manner.

  When the user connects the camera 2 to the shooting target position specifying device 1 after a series of shootings and operates to transfer the shot images and the like, the shot images and the like stored for each folder are stored in the storage unit 11. Accumulated. Assume that the captured images and the like stored in the storage unit 11 are those shown in FIG. 6A. In FIG. 6A, a captured image, shooting information, and a shooting target position are associated with each folder. At this point in time, the position of the shooting target has not yet been specified, so no information is entered in the shooting target position.

  In this situation, when the user inputs an instruction to specify the shooting target position to the shooting target position specifying device 1, the acquisition unit 12 is included in the first folder “F001” from the storage unit 3. Three pieces of photographing information are read out, and three sets “(X001, Y001), θ1”, “(X002, Y002), θ2”, “of the photographing position and the photographing direction included in the read three pieces of photographing information”. (X003, Y003), θ3 ”is passed to the specifying unit 13 (step S101). The specifying unit 13 acquires a formula of the shooting direction half line for each set of the shooting position and the shooting direction received from the acquisition unit 12, and calculates three intersections of the three shooting direction half lines. Then, the center of the triangle (X101, Y101) having the three intersections as vertices is calculated and passed to the output unit 14 (step S102). The position of the inner center is the shooting target position. The output unit 14 stores the shooting target position (X101, Y101) received from the specifying unit 13 in association with each shooting information included in the first folder F001 (step S103). As a result, the shooting information stored in the storage unit 11 is as shown in FIG. 6B.

  Thereafter, the acquisition unit 12 determines that the next folder F002 exists (step S104), reads four pieces of shooting information included in the second folder “F002”, and adds the four pieces of shooting information to the read four pieces of shooting information. Four sets of the included shooting position and shooting direction are passed to the specifying unit 13 (step S101). Thereafter, the specifying unit 13 specifies the shooting target position using the four sets, and the shooting target position is accumulated in the storage unit 11 (steps S102 and S103). As a result, the information stored in the storage unit 11 is as shown in FIG. 6C. In this way, the position to be photographed is specified by the specifying unit 13.

  Thereafter, the imaging target position specifying device 1 may transmit the information shown in FIG. 6C to another device, for example. The transmission may be performed by the output unit 14, for example. Then, in the transmission destination apparatus, a shooting target position corresponding to the input position as a search key may be specified, and a plurality of shot images corresponding to the specified search target position may be output. By doing so, when it is desired to view an image taken at a certain position, the image can be easily obtained. Also, assuming that the shooting direction is transmitted together with the shot image and the shooting target position, for example, when the position and the direction are input as a search key in the device, the shooting target position corresponding to the position is specified, and the identification is performed. Of the plurality of shooting directions corresponding to the shooting target position, a shooting direction closest to the direction input as the search key may be specified, and a shot image corresponding to the specified shooting direction may be output.

  As described above, according to the shooting target position specifying device 1 according to the present embodiment, the shooting target position can be specified by using the shooting position and the shooting direction corresponding to the shot image. As a result, for example, a photographed image can be associated with a photographing target position that is a photographing target position of the photographed image, and a search using the photographing target position can be performed. Further, when the shooting target position is specified using three or more pieces of shooting information, the shooting target position can be specified more accurately. Further, by using the photographing target position specifying device 1, it becomes possible to know the position of a place where a person cannot easily approach. For example, by taking a plurality of photos from the riverbank for an object that exists in the river in the middle of the river that cannot be reached without a ship, and using the shooting information, the shooting target position specifying device 1 identifies the shooting target position. Even a user who has no knowledge of surveying or the like can easily know the position of the object to be photographed in Nakashu. In addition, when the captured image and the shooting target position are associated with each other, it is easy to know which object the shooting target position is related to.

  In the present embodiment, a case has been described in which the acquisition unit 12 acquires a plurality of pieces of shooting information by reading from the storage unit 11, but this need not be the case. For example, the acquisition unit 12 includes the camera 2, and the camera 2 may be used to acquire shooting information. In that case, the acquisition unit 12 may acquire the captured image and the shooting information together.

  Further, in the present embodiment, a case has been described in which a single shooting target is shot by one camera 2 when specifying a certain shooting target position. It may be performed by more than one camera 2.

  Moreover, although the case where the acquisition unit 12 acquires a plurality of pieces of shooting information corresponding to one shooting target has been mainly described in the present embodiment, this need not be the case. The acquisition unit 12 may acquire a plurality of pieces of shooting information corresponding to two or more shooting targets. Even in this case, it is preferable that two or more pieces of shooting information are acquired for one shooting target. In general, it is considered that the shooting distance from the shooting position to the shooting target position is not so long. Therefore, when the acquisition unit 12 acquires a plurality of pieces of shooting information corresponding to two or more shooting targets, the specifying unit 13 calculates each intersection of a plurality of shooting direction half lines corresponding to the plurality of shooting information. If at least one of the two distances from the two shooting positions to the intersection is greater than the threshold value for the two shooting direction half lines, the intersection is not used for specifying the shooting target position. May not be used for specifying the shooting target position. In other words, the specifying unit 13 may specify the shooting target position using a line segment having a length corresponding to the threshold value extending from the shooting position to the shooting direction instead of the shooting direction half line. The threshold value is the upper limit of the shooting distance, and may be 100 meters or 200 meters, for example.

  Moreover, although the case where the imaging target position specifying device 1 includes the storage unit 11 has been described in the present embodiment, this need not be the case. When the imaging target position specifying device 1 does not include the storage unit 11, the acquisition unit 12 may acquire a plurality of shooting information from the camera 2, for example, from a server that manages the shooting information or the like A plurality of pieces of shooting information may be acquired.

  In the above embodiment, the case where the photographing target position specifying device 1 is a stand-alone has been described. However, the photographing target position specifying device 1 may be a stand-alone device or a server device in a server / client system. May be. In the latter case, when the imaging target position specifying device 1 does not have the storage unit 11, the acquisition unit 12 may receive a plurality of imaging information transmitted via a communication line. Further, the output unit 14 may transmit the specified shooting target position to the transmission source of the plurality of transmission information.

  In the above embodiment, each process or each function may be realized by centralized processing by a single device or a single system, or may be distributedly processed by a plurality of devices or a plurality of systems. It may be realized by doing.

  In the above embodiment, the information exchange between the components is performed by one component when, for example, the two components that exchange the information are physically different from each other. It may be performed by outputting information and receiving information by the other component, or when two components that exchange information are physically the same, one component May be performed by moving from the phase of the process corresponding to to the phase of the process corresponding to the other component.

  In the above embodiment, information related to processing executed by each component, for example, information received, acquired, selected, generated, transmitted, or received by each component In addition, information such as threshold values, mathematical formulas, addresses, and the like used by each constituent element in processing may be temporarily or for a long time held in a recording medium (not shown), even if not specified in the above description. Further, the storage of information on the recording medium (not shown) may be performed by each component or a storage unit (not shown). Further, reading of information from the recording medium (not shown) may be performed by each component or a reading unit (not shown).

  In the above embodiment, when information used by each component, for example, information such as a threshold value, an address, and various setting values used by each component may be changed by the user, Even if it is not specified in the description, the user may be able to change the information as appropriate, or may not be so. If the information can be changed by the user, the change is realized by, for example, a not-shown receiving unit that receives a change instruction from the user and a changing unit (not shown) that changes the information in accordance with the change instruction. May be. The change instruction received by the receiving unit (not shown) may be received from an input device, information received via a communication line, or information read from a predetermined recording medium, for example. .

  In the above embodiment, when two or more components included in the imaging target position specifying apparatus 1 include a communication device or an input device, the two or more components have a physically single device. Or may have separate devices.

  In the above-described embodiment, each component may be configured by dedicated hardware, or a component that can be realized by software may be realized by executing a program. For example, each component can be realized by a program execution unit such as a CPU reading and executing a software program recorded on a recording medium such as a hard disk or a semiconductor memory. At the time of execution, the program execution unit may execute the program while accessing the storage unit or the recording medium. In addition, the software which implement | achieves the imaging | photography target position specification apparatus 1 in the said embodiment is the following programs. That is, this program causes the computer to acquire a plurality of shooting information including a shooting position and a shooting direction corresponding to a shooting image to be shot, and shooting positions included in the plurality of shooting information acquired by the acquisition unit, respectively. And a program for functioning as a specifying unit that specifies a shooting target position that is a position of a shooting target, and an output unit that outputs the shooting target position specified by the specifying unit.

  In the program, the functions realized by the program do not include functions that can be realized only by hardware. For example, functions that can be realized only by hardware such as a modem or an interface card in an acquisition unit that acquires information, an output unit that outputs information, and the like are not included in at least the functions realized by the program.

Further, this program may be executed by being downloaded from a server or the like, and a program recorded on a predetermined recording medium (for example, an optical disk such as a CD-ROM, a magnetic disk, a semiconductor memory, or the like) is read out. May be executed by Further, this program may be used as a program constituting a program product.
Further, the computer that executes this program may be singular or plural. That is, centralized processing may be performed, or distributed processing may be performed.

  FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the external appearance of a computer that executes the program and realizes the imaging target position specifying device 1 according to the embodiment. The above-described embodiment can be realized by computer hardware and a computer program executed on the computer hardware.

  7, the computer system 900 includes a computer 901 including a CD-ROM drive 905, a keyboard 902, a mouse 903, and a monitor 904.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an internal configuration of the computer system 900. In FIG. 8, in addition to the CD-ROM drive 905, a computer 901 is connected to an MPU (Micro Processing Unit) 911, a ROM 912 for storing a program such as a bootup program, and the MPU 911, and receives instructions of an application program. A RAM 913 that temporarily stores and provides a temporary storage space, a hard disk 914 that stores application programs, system programs, and data, and a bus 915 that interconnects the MPU 911, the ROM 912, and the like are provided. The computer 901 may include a network card (not shown) that provides connection to a LAN, WAN, or the like.

  A program that causes the computer system 900 to execute the function of the imaging target position specifying device 1 according to the above embodiment may be stored in the CD-ROM 921, inserted into the CD-ROM drive 905, and transferred to the hard disk 914. Instead, the program may be transmitted to the computer 901 via a network (not shown) and stored in the hard disk 914. The program is loaded into the RAM 913 when executed. The program may be loaded directly from the CD-ROM 921 or the network. Further, the program may be read into the computer system 900 via another recording medium (for example, a DVD) instead of the CD-ROM 921.

  The program does not necessarily include an operating system (OS), a third party program, or the like that causes the computer 901 to execute the functions of the imaging target position specifying device 1 according to the above-described embodiment. The program may include only a part of an instruction that calls an appropriate function or module in a controlled manner and obtains a desired result. How the computer system 900 operates is well known and will not be described in detail.

  Further, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications are possible, and it goes without saying that these are also included in the scope of the present invention.

  As described above, according to the shooting target position specifying device or the like according to the present invention, an effect that the shooting target position can be specified using the shooting position or the like can be obtained, for example, using the shooting position or shooting direction corresponding to the shot image, This is useful as a device for specifying the position of the subject (photographing target) of the photographed image.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image | photographing object position specific apparatus 11 Memory | storage part 12 Acquisition part 13 Specification part 14 Output part

Claims (9)

An acquisition unit for acquiring a plurality of shooting information including a shooting position and a shooting direction corresponding to a shooting image to be shot;
A specifying unit for specifying a shooting target position, which is a position of the shooting target, using a shooting position and a shooting direction included in each of a plurality of shooting information acquired by the acquisition unit;
An imaging target position specifying device comprising: an output unit that outputs the imaging target position specified by the specifying unit. The acquisition unit acquires three or more pieces of shooting information,
The said specific | specification part specifies an imaging | photography object position using the 3 or more imaging direction half line which is a half line extended in the imaging direction contained in the said imaging information from the imaging position contained in the said imaging information. The imaging target position specifying device described. The imaging target position specifying device according to claim 2, wherein the specifying unit calculates a plurality of intersections of the three or more shooting direction half straight lines, and specifies a shooting target position that is a position representing the plurality of intersections. The photographing target position according to claim 2, wherein when the number of the photographing direction half straight lines is three, the specifying unit specifies a photographing target position that is an inner center of a triangle formed by the three photographing direction half straight lines. Specific device. When the number of the shooting direction half lines is four or more, the specifying unit is configured to determine a shooting target position that exists within a triangle having the smallest area among a plurality of triangles formed by the three shooting direction half lines. The photographing target position specifying device according to claim 2, wherein the target is specified. The imaging target position according to claim 2, wherein the specifying unit specifies the imaging target position so as to optimize an objective function corresponding to a sum regarding each distance between the three or more imaging direction half lines and the imaging target position. Specific device. The imaging target position specifying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the output unit accumulates the imaging target position in association with a captured image of the imaging target corresponding to the imaging target position. An imaging target position specifying method processed using an acquisition unit, a specifying unit, and an output unit,
The acquisition unit acquires a plurality of shooting information including a shooting position and a shooting direction corresponding to a shooting image to be shot;
A specifying step of specifying a shooting target position, which is the position of the shooting target, using the shooting position and shooting direction included in each of the plurality of shooting information acquired in the acquiring step;
An imaging target position specifying method comprising: an output step in which the output unit outputs the imaging target position specified in the specifying step. Computer
An acquisition unit for acquiring a plurality of pieces of shooting information including a shooting position and a shooting direction corresponding to a shooting image to be shot;
A specifying unit for specifying a shooting target position, which is a position of the shooting target, using a shooting position and a shooting direction included in each of a plurality of shooting information acquired by the acquisition unit;
The program for functioning as an output part which outputs the imaging | photography object position specified by the said specific part.

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