JP3351560B2 - Image data management method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a method for managing image data,
For example, the present invention relates to an image data management method particularly suitable for managing image data recorded on a read-only storage medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, not only music data but also various data such as images and computer data can be recorded in a large amount on a compact disk (CD) of the Sony Philips standard. For example, Kodak Philips standard photo CDs record images hierarchically at various resolutions, such as high-resolution, for example, 16-base image data and reduced image data obtained by thinning out the base image, from the basic (base) image. it can. Therefore, constructing a database using these large-capacity storage media is very effective in terms of data retrieval.

[0003]

In a database for retrieving image data recorded on a read-only external storage medium such as a read-only compact disc (CD-WO), the external storage medium itself includes a search keyword and the like. If this data is not stored from the beginning, a database cannot be constructed using the storage medium alone. Therefore, it has not been possible for a user of an external storage medium in which image data is already stored to later construct a user-specific database. This is because such a read-only storage medium cannot later add a keyword such as an index thereto.

[0004] For example, even if the above-mentioned photo CD is provided to the user in the form of a read-only CD, the user cannot add data such as a search keyword to itself, so that the user can construct his own database. Did not.

The present invention has been made in view of such a demand, and has as its object to provide an image data management method by which a user can independently construct a database for image data recorded in an external storage medium.

[0006]

According to the present invention, there is provided an image data management method for managing image data recorded on a large-capacity first external storage medium. A step of providing one card of a card-type database addressed to one frame of an image recorded in the first external storage medium, and a step of providing a first identification code to the card. , The second to specify the frame of the image
And a step of storing search condition data characterizing search conditions such as image contents, and a step of storing the card in a large-capacity rewritable second external storage medium.

[0007] The image data management method according to the present invention also includes:
Writing the image data recorded on the first external storage medium to the card.

[0008] The image data management method according to the present invention further includes a step of editing the image data recorded on the first external storage medium prior to the step of writing the image data on the card, and writing the image data on the card. In this step, the edited image data is written on a card.

[0009]

According to the present invention, the image recorded on the first external storage medium is associated with the card using the first and second identification codes as indexes. This card contains
In addition to the first and second identification codes, search condition data characterizing search conditions such as the content of an image are entered, and are stored in a rewritable second external storage medium. The image search is performed by using the first and / or second identification code and / or the search condition data as keywords.
Is performed for the card data in the external storage medium. After the search is performed on the second external storage medium, the corresponding image on the first external storage medium can be accessed.

[0010]

An embodiment in which the image data management method according to the present invention is applied to a photo CD will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Referring to FIG. 1, an image data management apparatus according to a specific embodiment of the present invention searches for an image recorded on, for example, a photo CD 10 of Kodak Phillips standard by operating the operation display unit 12 and finds the image. Image display section
12 or a device for displaying on the video monitor 14. The present apparatus also has a function of creating search data such as a keyword for image search by operating the operation display unit 12, for example, in the form of a card-type database. The search data thus created is stored on the hard magnetic disk 16 in this embodiment.

On the photo CD 10, high-resolution image data such as a 16-base image, or reduced image data such as a 1/16 base image obtained by thinning out a base image from a base image is stored in a progressive hierarchy for each image. Recorded in structure. This compact disc 10 may of course be a write-once type or a read-only type.
Magnetic and / or optical disks,
Large-capacity external storage media such as flash memory
No. In the present embodiment, a unique CD identification code such as a serial number is assigned to each compact disc 10 and recorded as data. If the disk 10 is a read-only type, the identification code is recorded at the time of recording data or at the time of pressing. Also, if it is a write-once type,
The user may record the identification code as data.

The apparatus has a CD drive 18 to which a compact disk 10 is removably mounted. The CD drive 18 is an input device that reads image data from the disk 10 under the control of the main control unit 20 and inputs the read image data to the main memory 22 through the connection line 24. The CD drive 18 may be of a type in which the compact disc 10 is manually attached / detached, or may have an autochanger function of automatically selecting and reading one of the compact discs 10.

The main memory 22 is a main storage device that forms a work area for temporarily storing and processing image data and for temporarily storing and processing search data to be described later. It is connected to the main controller 20 by a data line 26. The main control unit 20 is a control device that controls the entire apparatus, and is configured by a central processing unit. This is connected to the CD drive 18, the main memory 22, the hard disk 16 and the video monitor 14 by a connection line 28,
Are connected by a connection line 30.

The main control unit 20 has a card processing unit 32 and an image processing unit 34 as functional units particularly related to the present invention. The card processing unit 32 is a data processing function unit that creates search condition data for searching image data stored in the compact disk 10 in the form of a card-type database in the present embodiment. The image processing unit 34 performs various image processing such as creating an edited image by performing image processing such as retouching on the image data stored in the main memory 22 and synthesizing a display image from the image data. This is a functional unit that performs In the present embodiment, the image data thus processed is also incorporated into the card data by the card processing unit 32.

The card data is stored on a hard magnetic disk.
Stored in 16. In the storage area of the hard disk 16 for recording card data, a session is formed corresponding to the compact disk 10. That is, in the present embodiment, one session is assigned to one disc 10 correspondingly.
Of course, the invention is not limited to the hard disk 16, such as a diskette or a write-once optical disc, and more
It is advantageously applied to a rewritable large-capacity storage medium such as a flash memory . The card processing unit 32 also has a search processing function of searching for an image meeting the search conditions using the database of the hard disk 16 created in this way.

In the present embodiment, the operation display unit 12 is an input device such as a keyboard (not shown) for manually inputting data such as search conditions and inputting various instructions such as start of search and designation of an edit type. Features, data and images found,
This is an input / output device that has a display function such as a CRT display device for displaying the state of the system or the like to the operator visually or audibly. The video monitor 14 is a compact disc
This is an image display device that visually displays the image recorded in the image display device 10. The video monitor 14 may not be basically provided, and this function may be replaced by the display function of the operation display unit 12. Further, instead of or in addition to the video monitor 14, an image data output device such as a printer or a communication line (not shown) may be connected.

Referring to FIG. 2, a card 50 is created by the card processing unit 32 for each image recorded on one compact disc 10. The card 50 includes the above-mentioned CD identification code unique to one compact disk 10 and an image identification code unique to each image (frame) recorded on the disk 10, for example, an image number. This image number corresponds to a logical block address in the compact disk 10. Therefore, when searching for image data, the card processing unit 32 can establish correspondence with the image data stored in the compact disc 10 from this image number.

The card 50 also includes, for each image,
Keywords in various categories are recorded. In the present embodiment, the type of the film as the image source of the original image, the type of the subject being photographed, the background, the weather, the color, and the like are included. The film type is, for example, a film manufacturer name or model number, and the subject type is, for example, gender, Japanese or foreign. The background is, for example, landscape,
Mountains, seas, etc. may be different. As for the color, a rough color tone of the entire image or a color of a characteristic portion may be designated by, for example, seven colors, or may correspond to a color palette. These search data may be classification results by a plurality of persons.

Further, the number of times that the card 50 has been searched is recorded numerically, and the date and time when the card 50 was found most recently is updated and recorded. These two pieces of search data are used to set a path for searching more frequently and the most recently searched data in a later search. In this embodiment, the search conditions are also learned by majority decision for various categories such as film type, subject type, background, weather, and color. With respect to the learned search conditions, a search path is set preferentially, and in a later search, the card 50 on this path is displayed first.
The learning and the setting of the path are realized by a search program executed by the card processing unit 32.

The feature of this embodiment is that the card 50
Is that image data can be recorded in advance.
As shown in FIG. 2, the image data may be an original image 52 such as an index image, or may be an edited image that has been subjected to other image processing. Such image processing is performed by the image processing unit 34 in response to an operator's instruction from the operation display unit 12 on image data temporarily stored in the main memory 22. The image data recorded on the compact disc 10 is first transmitted to the main memory 22 by the CD drive 18.
Is read in. For example, data of a 1/16 base or 1/4 base image of a certain frame is taken into the main memory 22, and the card processing unit 32 converts the data into original image data 52 for card data.
Can be recorded on the card 50. When other image data on which desired image processing has been performed is required, FIG.
As shown in (1), various image processes 60 such as retouching, close-up, panning, and framing are performed using the original image data 52 to create edited image data 62. Then, the image processing unit 34 calculates the difference between the edited image data 62 and the original image data 52 (box 64) and calculates difference data 54, 56 and / or
Form 58. The card processing unit 32 calculates the difference data 54,
Store 56 and / or 58 on card 50. The type of image processing performed at this time is recorded on the card 50 as data of the editing method. To reproduce the edited image data 62 from the difference data 54, 56 or 58, these difference data
54, 56 or 58 may be added to the original image data 52. This addition process is also performed by the image processing unit 34.

In the operating state, referring to FIG. 4, when creating a database card 50 for a desired photo CD 10, the operator loads the photo CD 10 into the CD drive 18 (step 101). Then, the main control unit 20 controls the CD drive 18 to read out the CD identification code from the disk 10 (102). Then, the main control unit 102 searches the card data of the hard disk 16 and checks whether there is a card session corresponding to the CD identification code (103). If no session exists, the card processing unit 32 allocates a new session to the disk 10 (104). If a session already exists, the card processing unit 32 reads the data of the session, and visually displays a list of cards included in the session on the operation display unit 12.

Then, the operator inputs the desired frame number, that is, the image number, of the frames recorded on the disk 10 from the operation display section 12 (106). Card processing unit 32
In response to this, the card data in the hard disk 16 is searched to determine whether there is a card 50 corresponding to the image number (107). If the card 50 does not exist, a new card 50 is allocated to the frame (108). If the card 50 exists or is newly assigned, the card 50 is displayed on the operation display unit 12 (109).

Here, the control is performed along the jump symbol A in FIG.
Then, the operator inputs search data to be recorded on the card 50 from the operation display section 12 (110). When an instruction to edit an image is issued from the operation display device 12 (111), the image processing unit 34 performs an editing process 60 for the specified image in response to the instruction (112). Search data entered and / or
Difference data 54, 56 and / or of the edited image
58 is edited into the card 50 under the control of the card processing unit 32 (113). These card editing operations are performed using the storage area of the main memory 22. In this way, the operator can edit the card 50 by inputting another image number one after another. This causes control to cycle through steps 106 through 114 as indicated by jump symbol B. In this way, cards 50 are completed in the main memory 22 one after another for desired images recorded on the compact disc 10.

When the creation of the card 50 for the desired image is completed, an end instruction is given from the operation display section 12 (115). In response, the main control unit 20 controls the hard disk 16, reads out the card 50 of the corresponding session created in the main memory 22 from the main memory 22, and stores it in the hard disk (115).
As described above, in this embodiment, a card-type database is additionally created in a large-capacity external storage device such as the rewritable hard disk 16 corresponding to the identification code such as the serial number of the compact disk 10. Therefore, the user can independently create the database of the compact disc 16. This is most effective when the compact disk 16 is a read-only storage medium.

In order to search for an image on the compact disk 10 using the card 50 stored in the hard disk 16 in this way, as shown in FIG. 6, a search mode is designated from the operation display section 12 and a search condition is input. (120). The search condition data can specify images by CD identification code and image number, and of course, instead of these, arbitrary logical conditions for various categories such as film type, subject type, background, weather and color, etc. Can be specified in pairs. For example, the object is a car and the color is input from the operation display unit 16 under a logical sum condition such as red. that time,
The card processing unit 32 preferentially displays the cards included in the learned path in accordance with the number of searches for the card 50, the latest search date and time, or another search keyword category.
In accordance with the input search condition, the card processing unit 32 accesses the card database of the hard disk 16, reads out the corresponding card 50, if any, into the main memory 22 and displays it on the operation display unit 12 (121). Then, the operator operates the operation display section 12 to scroll the display of the card 50 to display a desired card 50 (122). If the desired card 50 is not obtained, the operation display unit 12 is further operated to instruct the search conditions to be narrowed down or to be changed (step 123).

When an instruction to display an image is given from the operation display device 12 for the displayed card 50 (124), it is possible to specify whether to display the simplified image or the original image (125).
When the display of the original image is specified, the main control unit 20 controls the CD drive 18 to read the CD identification code of the compact disc 10 and determines whether or not it matches the CD identification code of the specified card 50. Check (130). If the disc 10 is not loaded in the drive 18 or if the read identification code does not satisfy the search condition, an instruction to display a message prompting a correct disc loading on the operation display device 12 is issued (131). If the drive 18 has an autochanger function, the main control unit 20 selects the relevant disc and loads it to the reading position.

If the disk 10 loaded in the drive 18 is the intended one, the main control unit 20 determines the logical block address in the compact disk 10 from the image number contained in the currently displayed card 50. Derived and stores the image data of the specified resolution hierarchy of the image number in the main memory
Read to 22. The image data is read out to the video monitor 14 or the operation display unit 12 under the control of the main control unit 20, and displayed thereon as a visible image (132). Reading and displaying an image from the compact disk 10 takes a relatively long time, especially for a fine image such as a 16-base image, because of the large amount of data.

By the way, such a compact disk
Prior to projecting the actual image recorded in 10,
If the user wants to grasp the recorded contents with a rough image such as an index image, a simple display, that is, a quick display is designated in step 125. At that time, the display of the original image 52 or the edited image 62 (FIG. 3) can be designated (126).
In response to this, the main control unit 20 reads out the original image data 52 from the corresponding card 50 temporarily stored in the main memory 22 and displays it as a visible image on the operation display unit 12 if the original image is to be displayed. (129). The operator can quickly know the outline contents of the recorded image on the compact disc 10 by looking at the displayed image. This is advantageous in that it takes less time than directly reading an image from the compact disc 10. When the display of the edited image 62 is instructed in step 126, the main control unit 20 sends the original image data of the card 50 by the image processing unit 34.
Add the specified difference data 54, 56 or 58 to 52 and edit
Restore 62. The restored edited image 62 is temporarily stored in the main memory 22 and displayed on the operation display unit 12 or the video monitor 14 as a visible image. For these displayed images, the same image data may be output to another image data output device such as a printer or a communication line (not shown).

[0029]

As described above, according to the present invention, a user can arbitrarily and independently construct a database in a rewritable large-capacity external storage device for image data recorded on an external storage medium such as a compact disk. I can do it. Therefore, image data management unique to the user is realized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing an embodiment in which an image data management method according to the present invention is applied to a photo CD.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a format of card data in the embodiment shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of an image data editing process in the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of an operation flow for creating a card database of image data in the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a continuation of the operation flow shown in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of an operation flow for searching for image data in the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a continuation of the operation flow shown in FIG. 6;

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Compact disk 16 Hard disk 20 Main control unit 22 Main memory 32 Card processing unit 34 Image processing unit 50 Card 52 Original image data 54 Difference data

Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-2-293974 (JP, A) JP-A-63-286969 (JP, A) JP-A-3-1422663 (JP, A) JP-A-63-244168 (JP, A) , A) COLEG, Photo CD: Digital imaging on the high street, Electron World, September 10, 1992, Vol. 1687, pp. 737-742 Shinichi Abe, Importing CD-ROM MEDLINE data into dBASE III, online search, Japan, June 1990, VOL11. No. 2, pp. 76-79, Machiko Sato, Sample Image Retrieval System for Supporting Ethnological Studies, IPSJ Journal, Information Processing Society of Japan, December 15, 1988, VOL 29 No. 12, pages 1108 to 1118 (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 17/30 JICST file (JOIS)

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] 1. A large-capacity first external storage medium,
WasFormerImage data management method for managing image data
And the method assigns a unique first identification code to the first external storage medium.
The process and recorded on the first external storage mediumFormerAbout the image,
One card of the card type database addressed to one image
Preparing a first identification code on the card;FormerIdentify the frame of the image
Search code such as the second identification code and the content of the image
Filling in search condition data characterizing the case;Desired from the original image data recorded on the first external recording medium
The reduced image data is added to the card as original image data.
Adding and recording; A process for editing the original image data to create edited image data
About The difference between the original image data and the edited image data
Forming data; Edit the original image data and the difference data on the card.
The process of entering  Storing the card in a second external storage medium.
An image data management method, characterized in that: 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method comprises:
IsDesired image data based on the search condition data
Searching and displaying the card corresponding to the search result
When, Simple display of the image corresponding to the card or the original image
Specifying whether to display an image, If you specify simple display, the card
Reading and reproducing the read image from the second external recording medium,
If you specify to display the original image, record on the card
The original image data corresponding to the original image
Read from recording media and play Image data characterized by
Data management method. 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the method comprises:
IsSpecifies that the image corresponding to the card is to be displayed simply.
Display the original image or the edited image
Including the step of specifying If you specify to display the original image, a second external record
Read and reproduce the corresponding original image data from the medium, If you specify to display the edited image, the second external record
Read the corresponding original image data and difference data from the medium.
And edit image data from the original image data and the difference data.
And play the edited image data Characterized by
Image data management method. 4. The image data management method according to claim 1, wherein the first external storage medium is a storage medium detachable from the apparatus. 5. The image data management method according to claim 1, wherein the second external storage medium is a large-capacity rewritable storage medium.