JP3908171B2 - Image storage method, apparatus, and program - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an image storage method and apparatus for storing a plurality of image data, and a program for causing a computer to execute the image storage method.
[0002]
[Prior art]
When shooting with a camera, the owner of the camera cannot appear in the captured image as a subject, so the owner of the camera requests another person to shoot to make the camera owner a subject, A friend of the group takes a picture with a camera and receives a print from a friend at a later date. However, in such a method, the owner of the camera needs to reprint the print to be handed over to the friend, or to send the reprinted print to the friend by mail or the like.
[0003]
On the other hand, taking a picture with a digital camera to acquire image data, uploading the acquired image data to an image server, and notifying a friend of the URL and password storing the image data, it takes time to reprint and mail Images can be exchanged without any problem. However, it is very troublesome to search for image data representing an image in which the image is copied from a large amount of uploaded image data.
[0004]
For this reason, image data acquired by a camera installed in the theme park is stored in an image server, and subject recognition of the image data is performed based on personal information such as a face image that identifies a subject included in the image. A system for searching for image data that is likely to include the subject has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
[0005]
Further, a system has been proposed in which the position of a subject is specified and image data acquired by a camera installed corresponding to the position is searched as image data that is highly likely to include the subject (for example, Patent Documents). 2).
[0006]
Also, environmental information such as location, temperature, humidity, and speed is set as a keyword for searching, and by receiving the input of environmental information, information such as memos and photographic images with the environmental information assigned as keywords is searched. A system has been proposed (see Patent Document 3). According to this system, by setting environment information in advance and associating it with registration information such as a photograph, a photograph image corresponding to a specific environment can be searched.
[0007]
[Patent Document 1]
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-24229
[Patent Document 2]
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-24228
[Patent Document 3]
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-92853
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the systems described in Patent Documents 1 to 3, in order for the user to access the image data, it is necessary to authenticate the user by inputting a user ID and a password, which is very troublesome. It is. In addition, in order to acquire image data desired by the user, it is necessary to set conditions for searching for image data by setting person information or inputting environment information after performing user authentication. The work is also cumbersome.
[0011]
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to easily obtain desired image data.
[0012]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
An image storage method according to the present invention is an image storage method for storing a plurality of image data to which shooting information indicating a shooting location and a shooting date and time is given,
Generation of classification information for classifying a plurality of pieces of photographing information assigned to each of the plurality of image data into one or more pieces of photographing information groups including a plurality of pieces of photographing information in which the photographing information is spatially and temporally close. And
Based on the classification information, the plurality of image data is classified into one or more image data groups composed of a plurality of image data in which the shooting information is spatially and temporally close,
Obtain image data for search that has been given photo information for search,
With reference to the classification information, access is permitted only to the image data group classified by the shooting information corresponding to the search shooting information.
[0013]
As the “photographing location”, longitude, latitude, address, area name, etc. can be used. For example, the position data received from the GPS satellite is added to the image data acquired by the imaging device having a function of receiving the position data from the GPS satellite as information on the shooting location. Further, when the imaging device has a function of communicating with the mobile phone communication network, the position of the imaging device in communication can be estimated based on the position of the base station of the mobile phone communication network. The information indicating the position can be added to the image data from which the information on the shooting location is acquired. Therefore, information added to image data in this way can be used as shooting location information.
[0014]
“Shooting information is close in time and space” means that the shooting location represented by the shooting information is within a predetermined range centered on the shooting location specified by the reference shooting information, and The shooting date and time represented is within the predetermined time before and after the shooting date and time specified by the reference shooting information.
[0015]
An image storage device according to the present invention is an image storage device that stores a plurality of image data to which shooting information indicating a shooting location and a shooting date and time is attached,
Generation of classification information for classifying a plurality of pieces of photographing information assigned to each of the plurality of image data into one or more pieces of photographing information groups including a plurality of pieces of photographing information in which the photographing information is spatially and temporally close. Classification information generating means for
Classification means for classifying the plurality of image data into one or more image data groups composed of a plurality of image data in which the shooting information is spatially and temporally close based on the classification information;
An acquisition means for acquiring image data for search to which shooting information for search is attached;
Access control means for permitting access only to the image data group classified by the shooting information corresponding to the search shooting information with reference to the classification information is provided.
[0016]
The image storage method according to the present invention may be provided as a program for causing a computer to execute the image storage method.
[0017]
【The invention's effect】
According to the present invention, a plurality of pieces of shooting information assigned to each of a plurality of pieces of image data are classified into one or more pieces of shooting information groups including a plurality of pieces of shooting information in which shooting information is spatially and temporally close. Classification information is generated. Then, based on the classification information, the plurality of image data are classified into one or more image data groups composed of a plurality of image data in which shooting information is spatially and temporally close. In addition, search image data to which search shooting information is added is acquired, and access is permitted only to image data groups classified by the shooting information corresponding to the search shooting information with reference to the classification information. Is done.
[0018]
For this reason, the user who performs the search operation only performs an operation of inputting the search image data to which the search shooting information is added, and the image data classified by the shooting information corresponding to the search shooting information. You can access the group. Therefore, the user need not perform an operation of inputting an ID and a password for user authentication and further an operation of inputting a search condition for searching for desired image data. A group can be easily obtained.
[0019]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing a configuration of an image storage system including an image storage device according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the image storage system according to the present embodiment includes a plurality of terminal devices 1 such as personal computers, and an image exchange server 3 connected to the terminal devices 1 via a network 2 such as the Internet. The image data is uploaded from the apparatus 1 to the image exchange server 3 and a plurality of pieces of image data S0 are stored in the image exchange server 3. Further, in the terminal apparatus 1, a plurality of pieces of image data S0 stored in the image exchange server 3 are The image data S1 desired by one user is acquired.
[0020]
The terminal device 1 includes input means including a keyboard and a mouse, a monitor, and a main body including a CPU, a hard disk, a memory, and the like. The main body includes an interface for connecting the digital camera 5 and reading image data stored in the memory card of the digital camera 5 and a communication interface for connecting to the network 2. Note that a digital camera having a communication function, a mobile phone with a camera, and the like are also used as the terminal device 1.
[0021]
Here, in this embodiment, the digital camera 5 possessed by the user of the terminal device 1 has a function of receiving position data from the GPS satellite 6. The position data represents latitude and longitude information of the shooting location of the digital camera 5. The image data acquired by the digital camera 5 is given shooting location and shooting date and time as shooting information. Specifically, the latitude and longitude of the shooting location represented by the position data and the shooting date and time of the digital camera 5 are described in the tag information of the image data, whereby shooting information is given to the image data. Note that the shooting information may be added to the image data by associating the shooting information with the image data as a separate file from the image data.
[0022]
Then, the user of the terminal device 1 uploads the image data acquired by the digital camera 5 to the image exchange server 3 via the network 2.
[0023]
The image exchange server 3 includes a communication interface 31 connected to the network 2, a classification information generation unit 32 that generates classification information for classifying a plurality of image data S 0 including image data transmitted from the terminal device 1, and a classification A hard disk 33 that classifies and stores a plurality of image data S0 into one or more image data groups based on the classification information generated by the information generation unit 32, and an image data group that is classified and stored in the hard disk 33 as will be described later. An access control unit 34 that controls access to the image exchange server 3 and a control unit 35 that controls the image exchange server 3 are connected by a bus 36.
[0024]
Here, a plurality of image data S0 uploaded from a plurality of terminal devices including the terminal device 1 (including a digital camera having a communication function, a mobile phone with a camera, etc.) via the network 2 are stored in the image exchange server 3. Stored.
[0025]
For example, when there are elementary and junior high school events (hereinafter referred to simply as events) such as concerts, athletic events, school excursions, etc., professional cameramen who have been asked to shoot by event participants and event organizers use digital cameras. The image data S0 for the event is stored in the image exchange server 3 by capturing the image data by using the image and uploading the acquired image data to the image exchange server 3.
[0026]
The image exchange server 3 is connected to a print server 4 that prints out image data via the network 2, and image data selected from a group of image data permitted to be accessed by the terminal device 1 as will be described later. When the print order of S1 is received, the image data S1 is transmitted to the print server 4 to cause the print server 4 to print out the image data S1.
[0027]
The classification information generating unit 32 classifies the shooting information assigned to each of the plurality of image data S0 into one or more shooting information groups including a plurality of shooting information in which shooting information is spatially and temporally close. Generate classification information. For example, when a plurality of pieces of image data S0 acquired in three events are stored in the image exchange server 3, a plurality of pieces of shooting information given to each of the plurality of pieces of image data S0 are shown in FIG. When plotted on two-dimensional coordinates with the time axis as the horizontal axis and the space axis as the vertical axis, the imaging information is distributed in the three regions R1 to R3 corresponding to the three events.
[0028]
For this reason, reference reference shooting information is selected from a plurality of pieces of shooting information distributed to some extent, and a shooting location and a shooting time range that are spatially and temporally close to the reference shooting information are generated as classification information.
[0029]
For example, the region R1 shown in FIG. 2 is spatially distributed with a radius of 100 m centered on east longitude 135 degrees and north latitude 36 degrees, and temporally before and after 2 on December 2, 2002 centered at 1 pm In the case of a time range distribution, this range is set as one of the classification information. In addition, the region R2 shown in FIG. 2 is spatially distributed with a radius of 100 m centered on 134 degrees east longitude and 35 degrees north latitude, and centered on 9:13 am on November 27, 2002. If the distribution is in the range of 2 hours before and after, this range is set as one of the classification information. Further, the region R3 shown in FIG. 2 is spatially distributed with a radius of 100 m centered on 133 degrees east longitude and 34 degrees north latitude, and temporally before and after centering around 10 am on June 20, 2002. In the case of a time range distribution, this range is set as one of the classification information. An example of the classification information generated in this way is shown in FIG. The classification information is stored in the hard disk 33.
[0030]
In the hard disk 33, a plurality of image data S0 are classified and stored based on the classification information. For example, a plurality of image data (referred to as S11) to which shooting information corresponding to the classification information 1 shown in FIG. 3 is assigned is classified into the G1 folder as shown in FIG. 4 as an image data group G1. In addition, a plurality of image data (S12 and S13) to which shooting information corresponding to the classification information 2 and 3 shown in FIG. 3 is assigned is set as image data groups G2 and G3 as shown in FIG. Each folder is classified. The control unit 35 classifies the image data S0. Here, the classification of the image data S0 may be performed periodically, or may be performed when the image data is uploaded from one terminal device 1 of the plurality of terminal devices 1.
[0031]
As will be described later, the access control unit 34 obtains the search photographing information given to the search image data (referred to as S2) transmitted from the terminal device 1 of the user who performs the search operation, and stores it in the hard disk 33. With reference to the classified information, the terminal device 1 is permitted to access only the image data group to which the shooting information corresponding to the search shooting information is given.
[0032]
For example, when search image data corresponding to the classification information 1 is added to the search image data S2 transmitted by the terminal device 1, access to the terminal device 1 is permitted only for the image data group G1. To do.
[0033]
The control unit 35 transmits the thumbnail image data SM included in the image data group permitted to be accessed to the terminal device 1, receives an instruction from the terminal device 1, and performs processing according to the instruction. For example, if the instruction received from the terminal device 1 is the download of the image data S1 selected from the image data group permitted to be accessed, the selected image data S1 is transmitted to the terminal device 1. If the instruction received from the terminal device 1 is a print order for the selected image data S1, the selected image data S1 is transmitted to the print server 4 and the print output of the image data S1 is performed to the print server 4. Make it.
[0034]
The control unit 35 stores the image data transmitted from the terminal device 1 in the hard disk 33, immediately generates thumbnail image data of the image data, and stores the thumbnail image data in the hard disk 33. Thereby, the user of the terminal device 1 can immediately display the thumbnail image of the transmitted image data on the terminal device 1.
[0035]
Note that the image data S0 stored in the image exchange server 3 includes image data that is obtained by photographing by a professional photographer and requires a usage fee. For this reason, if the image data S1 selected from the image data group permitted to be accessed is image data that requires a usage fee, and if there is a download or print order for the image data, the user of the terminal device 1 is notified. You need to pay. Therefore, the control unit 35 charges the user of the terminal device 1 when image data that requires a usage fee is used by the user of the terminal device 1. Here, the user is charged with the usage fee of the image exchange server 3.
[0036]
Next, processing performed in the present embodiment will be described. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing processing performed when image data is classified in the present embodiment. It is assumed that the image exchange server 3 stores a plurality of image data S0 transmitted from a plurality of terminal devices 1. Here, the classification of the image data S0 is performed when the image data is uploaded from one of the plurality of terminal devices 1.
[0037]
First, the control unit 35 monitors whether or not image data has been uploaded from the terminal device 1 (step S1), and if step S1 is affirmed, the terminal device 1 receives the uploaded image data (step S2). ) And temporarily stored in the hard disk 33 (step S3). Then, the classification information generation unit 32 generates classification information from a plurality of pieces of shooting information assigned to all the image data S0 stored in the hard disk 33 (step S4). Then, based on the classification information, the plurality of image data S0 are classified into a plurality of image data groups (step S5), and the process is terminated.
[0038]
FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing processing performed when the terminal device 1 accesses the image data S0 stored in the image exchange server 3. First, in response to an instruction from the user of the terminal device 1, the terminal device 1 transmits search image data S2 to the image exchange server 3 (step S11). The image exchange server 3 receives the search image data S2 transmitted by the terminal device 1 (step S12). Then, the access control unit 34 refers to the classification information stored in the hard disk 33, and the terminal only applies to the image data group classified by the shooting information corresponding to the search shooting information given to the image data S2. Access to the device 1 is permitted (step S13), and the thumbnail image data SM of the image data included in the image data group permitted to be accessed is transmitted to the terminal device 1 via the communication interface 31 (step S14).
[0039]
The terminal device 1 displays a list of thumbnail images represented by the thumbnail image data SM (step S15), and ends the process. The user of the terminal device 1 places an order for printing from the displayed thumbnail image list display screen or selects an image to be downloaded, and transmits information from the terminal device 1 to the image exchange server 3. The image exchange server 3 transmits the image data S1 selected according to the instruction from the terminal device 1 to the print server 4 to perform printing, or transmits the image data S1 to the terminal device 1.
[0040]
As described above, in this embodiment, the search image data S2 to which the search shooting information is added is acquired, and the image data group classified by the shooting information corresponding to the search shooting information added thereto. The access from the terminal device 1 is permitted only for. For this reason, the user of the terminal device 1 is only classified by the shooting information corresponding to the search shooting information, only by transmitting the search image data S2 to which the search shooting information is given to the image exchange server 3. The image data group can be accessed. Therefore, the user need not perform an operation of inputting an ID and a password for user authentication into the terminal device 1 and further an operation of inputting a search condition for searching for image data. Data groups can be easily acquired.
[0041]
In particular, when a plurality of users who participated in an event such as a concert or school event uploaded image data taken at the event to the image exchange server 3, a plurality of image data S0 regarding the event is stored in the image exchange server 3. However, access to the image data S0 of the event is permitted only to the user who owns the image data to which shooting information about the event is given. For this reason, it is possible to prevent others who have not participated in the event from accessing the image data of the event. In addition, since event participants can refer to all image data related to the event, each event participant can obtain various image data obtained by other participants under various conditions during the event. It can be acquired.
[0042]
In addition, since photographs taken at school events can be browsed only by being posted in the school, images taken by individual students are difficult to share between students. According to the present invention, image data obtained by photographing can be simply uploaded to the image exchange server 3, and image data obtained by individual students can be referred to at school events, so that image data can be easily shared between students. It becomes.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a configuration of an image storage system including an image storage device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a spatial and temporal distribution of photographing information. FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining classification of image data. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing processing performed when classifying image data. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing processing performed when accessing image data. Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Terminal device 2 Network 3 Image exchange server 4 Print server 5 Digital camera 6 GPS satellite 31 Communication interface 32 Classification information generation part 33 Hard disk 34 Access control part 35 Control part

Claims (3)

An image storage method for storing a plurality of image data with shooting information indicating a shooting location and shooting date and time,
Generation of classification information for classifying a plurality of pieces of photographing information assigned to each of the plurality of image data into one or more pieces of photographing information groups including a plurality of pieces of photographing information in which the photographing information is spatially and temporally close. And
Based on the classification information, the plurality of image data is classified into one or more image data groups composed of a plurality of image data in which the shooting information is spatially and temporally close,
Obtain image data for search that has been given photo information for search,
An image storage method, wherein access is permitted only to an image data group classified by shooting information corresponding to the search shooting information with reference to the classification information. An image storage device for storing a plurality of image data to which shooting information indicating a shooting location and shooting date and time is given,
Generation of classification information for classifying a plurality of pieces of photographing information assigned to each of the plurality of image data into one or more pieces of photographing information groups including a plurality of pieces of photographing information in which the photographing information is spatially and temporally close. Classification information generating means for
Classification means for classifying the plurality of image data into one or more image data groups composed of a plurality of image data in which the shooting information is spatially and temporally close based on the classification information;
An acquisition means for acquiring image data for search to which shooting information for search is attached;
An image storage apparatus comprising: an access control unit that permits access only to the image data group classified by the shooting information corresponding to the search shooting information with reference to the classification information. A program for causing a computer to execute an image storage method for storing a plurality of image data to which shooting information indicating a shooting location and shooting date and time is given,
Generation of classification information for classifying a plurality of pieces of photographing information assigned to each of the plurality of image data into one or more pieces of photographing information groups including a plurality of pieces of photographing information in which the photographing information is spatially and temporally close. And the steps to
A procedure for classifying the plurality of image data into one or more image data groups composed of a plurality of image data in which the shooting information is spatially and temporally close based on the classification information;
A procedure for acquiring search image data to which the shooting information for search is added;
A program for referring to the classification information and permitting access only to the image data group classified by the shooting information corresponding to the search shooting information.

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