JP4920449B2 - Image data search apparatus, image data search method, and program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an image data search apparatus, an image data search method, and a program for searching for an image associated with text created by an individual.

  In recent years, so-called blogs (blog: abbreviation of weblog), which are easier to create than homepages, have become popular. There are also various ideas that make this blog easier to use.

  For example, many blogs are displayed in order from the newest uploaded content, and the appearance is similar to a diary. However, a system has been proposed that allows users to easily create such a blog as if they had a daily diary. Various services using these systems are also available.

  In blogs, other people can often write comments and the like on articles created by users. By utilizing this, the results of other people's writing and the like are analyzed so that the user's friendship can be understood, and a system that enables user interaction is also widely used.

  In response to this background, users who create blog articles enjoy the reaction from other users and write diaries, essays and the like every day. In addition, these diaries and essays can be used as memorandums, and are written on the assumption that they will be read by others, so they tend to be high-quality content. Therefore, creating a blog is a creative activity.

  On the other hand, an image is also uploaded to a web server via a network in order to show a photograph taken by a user personally to everyone. Generally, since a web server has a large capacity recording medium, it is possible to store a large amount of images. However, a desired image is searched from a large amount of images stored in the server. It is becoming difficult to do.

  In relation to such an image search technology, Patent Document 1 searches for an image that feels nostalgia according to meta information by registering a photo and meta information in association with each other when the image is stored in a computer. A memory video with video effects is created according to the searched images.

Moreover, in patent document 2, in the portable terminal which has the acquisition means which can acquire text data, code data, or image data, and the communication means which can communicate the acquired data, the image data corresponding to the data which the acquisition means acquired Search for and order photo prints.
JP 2006-279861 A JP 2006-330834 A

  Here, in both Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2, in order to search for an image, it is necessary to intentionally associate image data with related data when the image is stored. For this reason, it may take a lot of time when organizing a large number of images at once, and even if the association is performed, the data associated with the image is not necessarily used as it is when the image is searched later. It is not always possible.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an image data search apparatus and an image data search method capable of searching for an image even after a long time without requiring the user to organize an image. And to provide a program.

In order to achieve the above object, an image data search apparatus according to a first aspect of the present invention includes a first recording unit in which a predetermined sentence associated with first date information is recorded, and a captured image. selection and second recording portion and the second date information about the shooting date of the image data and the image is recorded, a second keyword for nostalgic feeling associated with the first keyword old entered representing the A first search unit for searching for the first date information related to the sentence containing the first keyword or the second keyword, and the first search unit in the second recording unit. And a second search unit for searching for the image data related to the first date information searched by the first date information.

In order to achieve the above object, the image data search apparatus according to the second aspect of the present invention includes a first record in which a sentence associated with the first date information and a predetermined comment for the sentence are recorded. A nostalgic feeling related to the first keyword of nostalgia that has been input, a second recording unit in which image data representing a photographed image and second date information relating to the photographing date of the image are recorded A first search unit that selects the second keyword that represents the first date information related to the comment including the first keyword or the second keyword, and the second recording unit And a second search unit for searching for the image data related to the first date information searched by the first search unit.

In order to achieve the above object, the image data search method according to the third aspect of the present invention selects a second keyword representing a nostalgic feeling related to the input nostalgic first keyword, From the first recording unit in which a plurality of predetermined sentences each associated with one date information is recorded, the first related to the sentence including the predetermined keyword including the first keyword or the second keyword. The first date information searched for in the second recording unit in which the image data representing the photographed image and the second date information related to the photographing date of the image are recorded. It is characterized by searching for image data related to.

In order to achieve the above object, the image data search method according to the fourth aspect of the present invention selects a second keyword representing a nostalgic feeling related to the input nostalgic first keyword, From the first recording unit in which a predetermined sentence associated with one date information and a predetermined comment on the sentence are recorded, the first related to the comment including the first keyword or the second keyword. The first date information searched for in the second recording unit in which the image data representing the photographed image and the second date information related to the photographing date of the image are recorded. It is characterized by searching for image data related to.

In order to achieve the above object, the image data search program according to the fifth aspect of the present invention selects a second keyword representing a nostalgic feeling related to the input nostalgic first keyword; The first date information related to the sentence including the first keyword or the second keyword is retrieved from a first recording unit in which a predetermined sentence associated with the first date information is recorded. An image related to the first date information searched for in the second recording unit in which image data representing the captured image and second date information relating to the shooting date of the image are recorded. Causing the computer to perform the step of retrieving the data.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an image data search device, an image data search method, and a program that can search for an image even after a long time without requiring the user to organize an image. .

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
In the present embodiment, the second date information associated with the creation of the image data is associated with the first date information associated with the article created in the diary format or the like and the comment with respect thereto, and the article or comment text The date when these articles and comments are written is specified from the contents, and the image data obtained on the same date as the date information obtained therefrom is searched.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a communication system including an image data search device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The communication system shown in FIG. 1 includes an image management server 1 and a blog management server 2 that are communicatively connected to each other via a network 3. A personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a PC) 4 and 5 is connected to the image management server 1 and the blog management server 2 via a network 3 so as to be able to communicate with each other. Furthermore, image data is input to the PC 4 from a digital camera 6 which is an example of an image input unit. The image data input to the PC 4 can be transmitted to the image management server 1 via the network 3.

  The image management server 1 includes a communication unit 11, an image recording unit 12, a corresponding image data search unit 13, and a display control unit 14.

  The communication unit 11 performs communication control when the image management server 1 performs communication via the network 3. The image recording unit 12, which is an example of a second recording unit, records the image data transmitted from the PC 4 in association with the shooting date of the image as the second date information. The corresponding image data search unit 13 having a function as an image data search device searches for an image corresponding to a condition designated by the user from among a large number of image data recorded in the image recording unit 12. The display control unit 14 performs display control so that the image data searched by the corresponding image data search unit 13 can be viewed on the PC 5.

  The blog management server 2 includes a communication unit 21, a blog related data recording unit 22, an article search unit 23, and a date management unit 24. Here, the blog management server 2 may have a function as an SNS (Social Networking Service) server.

  The communication unit 21 performs communication control when the blog management server 2 performs communication via the network 3.

  The blog related data recording unit 22 which is an example of a first recording unit records various data related to an article created by a user and a comment on the article. The blog related data recording unit 22 includes a writing recording unit 22a, a comment recording unit 22b, and an article recording unit 22c. The writing recording unit 22a records the text data of the writing date for each user as the first date information when any writing is made in the blog management server 2. The comment recording part 22b records the text data which shows the text content of the comment for every user, when the comment with respect to an article is written. When an article is written in the blog management server 2, the article recording unit 22c records text data indicating the text content of the article for each user. By providing the writing recording unit 22a, the comment recording unit 22b, and the article recording unit 22c, it is possible to identify later what time each user wrote what and who commented on it. It is.

  The article search unit 23 selects a keyword related to the keyword input by the user at the time of image data search, and searches the article recording unit 22c and the comment recording unit 22b for articles and comments including the selected keyword. To do.

  The date management unit 24 specifies when the event indicated by the article and the comment including the keyword selected by the article search unit 23 from the sentence contents of the article recording unit 22c and the comment recording unit 22b actually occurred, and the article And important words that can be keywords in comments and date information actually performed by the event indicated by the article or comment are managed in association with each other.

  The PCs 4 and 5 are computers installed with software for browsing web pages and having an operation unit such as a mouse and a keyboard and a display unit such as a liquid crystal display for performing various operations on the web page. In the following description, the description is continued assuming that the PC 4 is a PC for the user to create images, articles, comments, etc., and the PC 5 is a PC for the user to view images. There is no particular difference in itself, and a general PC can be used.

  The digital camera 6 captures a subject (not shown) and obtains image data. When an image is shot by the user, the digital camera 6 attaches shooting date information as second date information to the obtained image data. The image input unit only needs to be able to input image data, and a mobile phone with a photographing function may be used instead of the digital camera 6.

  Hereinafter, the operation of the communication system shown in FIG. 1 will be described.

  FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation performed on the image management server 1 by the user. In the present embodiment, when the user of the PC 4 wants to save the image data in the image management server 1 (step S1: YES), the user selects the image data to be saved from the image data recorded in the digital camera 6. The image data is transferred to the PC 4, and this image data is transmitted from the PC 4 to the image management server 1 via the network 3 (step S2). As a result, the image data is recorded in the image recording unit 12 of the image management server 1. If the digital camera 6 has a function of connecting to the network 3, it is not necessary to transfer the image data to the PC 4, and it is also possible to directly transmit from the digital camera 6 to the image management server 1. .

  On the other hand, when the user of the PC 5 wants to search for image data from the image data stored in the image management server 1 (step S1: NO and step S3: YES), the user inputs a predetermined keyword (step S4). Thereby, the corresponding image data search unit 13 of the image management server 1 starts searching for image data. Details of this image data search will be described later.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation that the user performs on the blog management server 2. When the user of the PC 4 wants to browse an article written by another person (step S11: YES), the user accesses the blog management server 2 by the PC 4 and selects an article to browse (step S12). Thereby, the text content of the selected article is displayed on the display unit of the PC 4.

  When it is desired to write a comment on the article written by another person displayed (step S13: YES), the user of the PC 4 creates a comment and transmits it to the blog management server 2 (step S14). When a comment is written, the date when the comment was written is recorded in the writing recording unit 22a, and the text content of the comment (comment text data) is recorded in the comment recording unit 22b.

  Further, when creating an article (step S15: YES), the user of the PC 4 creates an article and transmits it to the blog management server 2 (step S16). When an article is written, the date when the article was written is recorded in the writing recording unit 22a, and the sentence content of the article (text data of the article) is recorded in the article recording unit 22c.

  As described above, in this embodiment, even if the server that manages the image data and the server that manages the blog article are different, the image data and the blog article data can be managed in association with the date information. It is.

  Utilizing this, in the present embodiment, when a button such as “Find nostalgic image” is selected on the web page by the PC 4, for example, it waits for acceptance of a keyword for expressing nostalgia. Here, for example, when keywords such as “fun” or “unforgettable” are input as keywords representing nostalgia, articles including these keywords, comments of other people on this article, and the like are recorded in the comment recording unit 22b and the article. Extracted from the recording unit 22c. Then, it is determined from the extracted article contents and the sentence contents of the comments when the article contents of the articles and comments are events, and the image data taken on that day is searched from the image recording unit 12 of the image management server 1. Is done.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing for executing such an image data search method. In the following example, a case where the image data search process shown in FIG. 4 is performed mainly by the corresponding image data search unit 13 of the image management server 1 will be described. In this case, the blog management server 2 performs processing in cooperation with an instruction from the corresponding image data search unit 13. When the function of the image management server 1 and the function of the blog management server 2 in FIG. 4 are provided in one server, the corresponding image data search unit 13 performs each block according to the program for executing the processing shown in FIG. It is also possible to consider a form for controlling the above.

  For example, when a keyword such as “nostalgic” is input by the user, the image data search process of FIG. 4 is started, and the corresponding image data search unit 13 of the image management server 1 searches the blog management server 2 for the input keyword. It transmits to the part 23 (step S21).

  The article search unit 23 selects a keyword related to the keyword input from the image management server 1 (step S22). For example, since the feeling of “nostalgic” is an emotion that does not emerge until the time has passed, the keyword “nostalgic” itself is not always included in the text of articles and comments. However, the feeling of “nostalgic” is considered to be an emotion that can be felt when remembering an experience in which the emotions were high, such as being fun or sad. Therefore, when the keyword “nostalgic” is entered, keywords related to this keyword can be used in the diary, such as “fun”, “unforgettable”, “interesting”, “sad”, etc. Select keywords that represent everyday emotions that are easy to break. Here, these keywords are recorded in the article search unit 23 in advance.

  After selecting the keyword, the article search unit 23 then searches the article recording unit 22c and the comment recording unit 22b for articles and comments including at least one of the keyword received in step S21 and the keyword selected in step S22. Then, the retrieved article and comment are transferred to the date management unit 24 (step S23).

  Next, the date management unit 24 specifies when the event specified by the keyword included in the article and the comment searched by the article search unit 23 actually occurred, and uses the specified date information as the image management server 1. To the corresponding image data search unit 13 (step S24).

  When the date information is received by the corresponding image data search unit 13 (step S25), the corresponding image data search unit 13 searches the image recording unit 12 for image data shot on the same shooting date as the received date. The searched image data is transferred to the display control unit 14 (step S26). Thereafter, the display control unit 14 processes the received image data so that it can be displayed on the PC 5 (step S27). In this way, the user can immerse in nostalgic feelings by looking at the selected image.

  Here, at the time of the search in step S23, the search is performed based on keywords related to “nostalgic” emotions, but it is naturally conceivable to search from keywords such as place names and person names. Furthermore, it is also possible to search from a keyword indicating a date (○ month ○ day) or time (□ hour □ minute, morning, afternoon, lunch, etc.) as a more direct keyword.

  For example, a diary-format article indicated by reference numeral 101 in FIG. 5 and a comment indicated by reference numeral 102 may be searched using keywords specifying a date such as “Yesterday” or “Yesterday”, or “ Or the like. In the example of FIG. 5, when “Today” is January 21 and a search is performed with the keyword “Yesterday”, all articles and comments written on January 20 are searched (example of FIG. 5). Then, the article 101 is searched). In addition, when a search is performed using the keyword “theater”, all articles or “comments” that include “theater” are searched (in the example of FIG. 5, the comment 102 is searched).

  However, the date of the article or comment may not necessarily match the date when the event identified by them actually occurred. For example, in the example of FIG. 5, the article 101 written on January 20 includes the character string “Yesterday”, and the comment 102 written on January 21 includes the character string “Ototoi”. It is included. That is, the event specified by the article 101 and the comment 102 actually occurred on January 19. Therefore, when searching for image data, it is necessary to transmit “January 19” to which the date information associated with the article or comment is shifted to the image management server 1. The date management unit 24 performs such date shift.

  Note that when an article or comment is already recorded in the blog-related data recording unit 22 of the blog management server 2, the date shift as described above may be performed in advance. An example of such article management is indicated by reference numeral 103 in FIG. In the article management data 103 shown in FIG. 5, important words used as keywords, such as the place where the event specified by the article 101 and the comment 102 occurred on January 19, and the emotion at that time, are extracted and arranged. Yes. If the article management data 103 is provided in the date management unit 24 in advance, the date shift at the time of image data search becomes unnecessary.

  In FIG. 6, the process of the blog management server 2 including such article management is illustrated as a flowchart.

  The blog management server 2 determines whether an article creation request has been made by the user (step S31). If it is determined in step S31 that an article creation request has not been made, the blog management server 2 determines whether or not an article has been input by the user and recorded in the article recording unit 22c (step S32). If it is determined in step S32 that no article is recorded, the process returns to step S31.

  In the determination in step S32, if an article has already been recorded, the article search unit 23 of the blog management server 2 uses, for example, an important word that can be used as the keyword described above from the article in the article recording unit 22c. Search for words that specify time, words that specify emotion, words that specify a place, words that specify a person, and the like. Similarly, when a comment is recorded in the comment recording unit 22b, an important word is searched from comments in the comment recording unit 22b (step S33).

  Next, the article search unit 23 determines whether or not an important word that can be used as a keyword has been extracted (step S34). If it is determined in step S34 that an important word has been extracted, the article search unit 23 transfers the extracted important word to the date management unit 24 (step S35). Thereafter, the date management unit 24 extracts a date designation word for designating a date among the transferred important words (step S36). For example, when there is a date designation word such as “Yesterday” or “Yesterday”, it is necessary to perform the date shift described above. Therefore, the date management unit 24 determines whether or not the extracted date designation word is a word that needs to be shifted (step S37). If it is determined in step S37 that the date designation word is a word that requires a date shift such as “Yesterday” or “Yesterday”, the date information associated with each important word is shifted (for example, “Yesterday”). In the case of (1), the shift is made one day before, and in the case of “the day before yesterday”, the shift is made two days ago) (step S38). On the other hand, if it is determined in step S37 that the date designation word is a word that does not require date shift such as “today”, the date is not shifted.

  If it is not necessary to perform the date shift in the determination in step S37, or after performing the date shift in step S38, the date management unit 24 associates the important word transferred from the article search unit 23 with the date information and posts the article. Management data 103 is created, and the created article management data 103 is recorded (step S39). Thereafter, the process returns to step S31.

  With the processes in steps S33 to S39 described above, it is not necessary to perform date shift again for the important words recorded as the article management data 103 when searching for image data.

  Further, in the determination in step S31, when an article creation request is made by the user, the blog management server 2 performs processing for article creation.

  Here, when creating an article in the processing of FIG. 6, it is assumed that the user writes an article while referring to an image. Therefore, the blog management server 2 determines by inquiring the image management server 1 whether or not image data is recorded in the image management server 1 (step S40). If the image data is recorded in the image management server 1 in the determination in step S40, the blog management server 2 asks "Is there an image but do you refer to it?" In response to this question, the user accesses the image management server 1, selects desired image data, and displays an image (step S41). In this case, the user can write an article while looking at the image displayed on the PC 4 and recollecting memories (step S42).

  Here, when the user creates an article while viewing the image, the relationship between the created article and the image is clear. Accordingly, in this case, after the article is created, the blog management server 2 records the writing date information of the created article as text data in the writing recording unit 22a, and also refers to the written article and the image referred to. Data indicating that the data is associated is recorded in the date management unit 24 (step S43). When such related data is recorded, the image data can be searched at a higher speed.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S40 that no image data is recorded in the image management server 1, an article is created without referring to the image by the user (step S44).

  After step S43 or step S44, the blog management server 2 records the text content of the article created by the user as text data in the article recording unit 22c (step S45). Thereafter, the process returns to step S31.

  Here, in the flowchart of FIG. 6, an example in which the user creates an article has been described, but the same processing as in steps S <b> 40 to S <b> 45 of FIG. 6 is applied even when a comment is created. In step S40, it is determined whether or not there is an image. However, not only the image but also a previously created article or comment may be referred to.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the user can easily search for image data without intentionally adding metadata when recording the image data. That is, the user can easily perform subsequent image data search simply by uploading image data and writing a blog article in a diary format.

  Although the present invention has been described above based on the embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications and applications are naturally possible within the scope of the gist of the present invention. For example, in the above-described embodiment, only an example in which image data is searched and displayed has been described. However, a comment or a blog article may be displayed together with an image.

  Further, the above-described embodiments include various stages of the invention, and various inventions can be extracted by appropriately combining a plurality of disclosed constituent elements. For example, even if some configuration requirements are deleted from all the configuration requirements shown in the embodiment, the above-described problem can be solved, and this configuration requirement is deleted when the above-described effects can be obtained. The configuration can also be extracted as an invention.

It is a figure which shows the structural example of the communication system provided with the image data search device which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows operation which a user performs with respect to an image management server. It is a flowchart shown about operation which a user performs with respect to a blog management server. It is a flowchart shown about the process for performing the image data search method which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating operation | movement of a date management part. It is a flowchart which shows the process of a blog management server.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Image management server, 2 ... Blog management server, 3 ... Network, 4, 5 ... Personal computer (PC), 6 ... Digital camera, 11, 21 ... Communication part, 12 ... Image recording part, 13 ... Corresponding image data search , 14 ... display control unit, 22 ... blog related data recording unit, 22a ... writing recording unit, 22b ... comment recording unit, 22c ... article recording unit, 23 ... article search unit, 24 ... date management unit

Claims (6)

A first recording unit in which a predetermined sentence associated with the first date information is recorded;
A second recording unit in which image data representing a photographed image and second date information relating to the photographing date of the image are recorded;
A second keyword representing a nostalgic feeling related to the first keyword that is input is selected, and the first date information related to the sentence including the first keyword or the second keyword is searched. A first search unit to perform,
A second search unit for searching the image data related to the first date information searched by the first search unit in the second recording unit;
An image data retrieval apparatus comprising: A first recording unit in which a sentence associated with the first date information and a predetermined comment on the sentence are recorded;
A second recording unit in which image data representing a photographed image and second date information relating to the photographing date of the image are recorded;
Selects a second keyword for nostalgic feeling associated with the first keyword old entered, searches the first date information associated with the comment containing the first keyword or the second keyword A first search unit to perform,
A second search unit for searching the image data related to the first date information searched by the first search unit in the second recording unit;
An image data retrieval apparatus comprising:   The image data search apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sentence includes a diary. Selects a second keyword for nostalgic feeling associated with the first keyword old inputted,
From the first recording unit in which a plurality of predetermined sentences respectively associated with the first date information are recorded, the above-mentioned sentence relating to the sentence including the predetermined keyword including the first keyword or the second keyword Search for the first date information,
Image data related to the searched first date information is searched in a second recording unit in which image data representing the shot image and second date information related to the shooting date of the image are recorded. ,
An image data search method characterized by the above. Selects a second keyword for nostalgic feeling associated with the first keyword old inputted,
From a first recording unit in which a predetermined sentence associated with the first date information and a predetermined comment on the sentence are recorded,
Search for the first date information related to the comment including the first keyword or the second keyword,
Image data related to the searched first date information is searched in a second recording unit in which image data representing the shot image and second date information related to the shooting date of the image are recorded. An image data search method characterized by the above. Selecting a second keyword representing a nostalgic feeling associated with the first keyword of nostalgia entered;
The first date information related to the sentence including the first keyword or the second keyword is retrieved from a first recording unit in which a predetermined sentence associated with the first date information is recorded. Steps,
Image data related to the searched first date information is searched in a second recording unit in which image data representing the shot image and second date information related to the shooting date of the image are recorded. Steps,
Image data search program for causing a computer to execute.

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