JPS63139478A - Image retrieving device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To display a necessary image with better efficiency and to facilitate the retirieval by turning over at least one of the plural displayed image indices to display newly another image index. CONSTITUTION:At the time of operating an optional key, maximum six sheets of subsequent index images are displayed. In case of a preceeding displayed indecies, the number of the image index that is displayed first is stored in an area NO, but in case of following indeces, the number of the image index that is displayed lastly is stored there. Then, in the former case, the number immediately preceeding the area NO is stored in an area FNO, and in the latter case, the number following the area NO is stored there. In such a way, the turning over of image indices is achieved. Therefore, by retrieving after looking at the image indices, the retrieval of an image can be executed with better accuracy and efficiency.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] 〔Technical field〕 The present invention relates to an image search device.

[Prior art]

Conventionally, search keywords have been used as a method for searching images stored in this type of device. However, with this method, images are searched using only search keywords, making it difficult to know whether or not the keyword corresponds to the desired image. As a method to solve this problem, an image index is displayed in which the index is represented as an image. However, this method alone has the problem that the image index display cannot be fully utilized as a means of search.

〔the purpose〕

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a search device that more efficiently displays necessary images and makes searching easier.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

Before explaining image index turning, which is a feature of this embodiment, first, how to perform image indexing will be explained.

FIG. 1 shows database files, where 1 is a keyword attached to a registered image, 2 is a keyword database file, 4 is an image index corresponding to the keyword, and 3 is an image index file. When registering images in the above file structure, keywords are created. At this time, an image index is created in the image index file. Each keyword has an address indicating the storage location of the image index.

Figure 2 shows keywords displayed. FIG. 3 will be explained based on FIG. 2.

FIGS. 3(1) to 3(3) show image indexes displayed on the access ready display.

This device for displaying image indexes first performs a keyword search. Keywords are displayed in the order specified by this search (Figure 2). By specifying any displayed keyword, the image index corresponding to the key is accessed from the image index file. In this device, when an arbitrary key is specified, up to six index images that follow it are displayed (if the registered images are A4 size).

FIG. 3(1) shows an example of displaying an image index when the registered image is A4 size. Figure 3 (2) is A3
The case is shown below. In this case, the image index is A
This corresponds to two image indexes in case 4. Figure 3 (3
) indicates a case where the registered image is a mixture of A3 size and A4 size.

Here, the registered image corresponding to the keyword No. 7 is A3
If No. 8 is A4 size, No. 9 is A3 size, and No. 10 is A4 size, the image index of No. 10 is displayed to the right of No. 8. NO10
If the image size is A3, this image index is not displayed. A registered image can be displayed by specifying an arbitrary displayed image index.

Next, this display method will be explained with reference to the drawing of FIG.

First, the number of the image index to be displayed first in 5TEPO is stored in the area number. 5TEP1 has counter and DISPOS as initial settings.

5 Store O in AVIS. Here, the area counter is used to store a value for checking whether the image index is the maximum number of images to be displayed.

Area DISPO3 stores a number (FIG. 5) indicating the arrangement position for displaying the image index. Area 5AV
IS has different image sizes of registered images (mixed)
Since the placement position of the image index to be displayed will change, the value for the position where it was not placed is stored.

Next, in 5TEP2, check the image size of the registered image, and
In the case of 3, it is checked in 5TEP3 whether there is an area to display an A3 size image, and if there is not, the process is ended. If there is, check in 5TEP4 whether the number indicating the placement position is an even number or an odd number. If it is in an odd numbered position, the image index specified by NO is placed at that position in 5TEP5. Thereafter, in 5TEP6, 2 is added to the area DISPOS to update the arrangement position. This 2 is A4 if the paper size is A3.
This is because two areas are used. At this time, add 2 to the counter.

Next, if the number indicating the placement position is an even number in 5TEP4, the number of the current placement position is stored in the area SAVIS (STEP8). In this case, the area DI is 5TEP9.
Add 1 to SPO3, change the placement position number to an odd numbered position, and display the image index (STEP 10)
. In 5TEPII, like 5TEP6, also 5TEP
In 12, 2 is added to the DISPOS and counter areas as in 5TEP7.

Next, use 5TEP2 and if the image size is A4, use 5TEP2.
13, it is checked whether there is a position that is not placed.

When not present, that is, when area 5AVIS is 0, 5TEP1
Step 4 places the image index specified by No at the current position. If the image size is A4, enter 1 in DISPOS.
and update the placement position (STEP 15). At this time, 1 is also added to the counter.

Next, if there is a position that has not been placed in 5TEP13, the image index designated by NO is placed in the position that has not been placed in 5TEP17.

(7) i&, area 5 AVIS Oi, m (ST
EP18). At this time, add 1 to the counter.

When any of the above processes is completed, 1 is added to the image index number stored in the area No. in step 5TEP20, and the next image index number is stored in the area No. After this, it is checked in 5TEP21 whether the maximum number of images have been displayed, and if the maximum number of images has not been displayed, the next image index is displayed. When the maximum number of images have been displayed, the process ends.

The above is an explanation regarding image index display. Next, image index counting will be explained using Fig. 6. There are two types of image index counting. There is a method of displaying an image index after the currently displayed image index (referred to as the next index).

First, in 5TEP 1, in the case of the previous index, the number of the image index displayed first is stored in the area number. In the case of the next index, the number of the last displayed image index is stored in area N.

Store in. In 5TEP2, in the case of the previous index, the number immediately before the area No. is used, and in the case of the next index, the area No.
The next number is stored in area FNO. Next, in 5TEP3, in the case of the previous index, the number before the area No.
In the next index, the next number is stored in the area No. 5
In TEP4, if the paper size of the registered image is A3, 2 is added to the area count, and if the paper size is A4, 1 is added. Next 5T
In EP6, if the area count is less than the maximum display number, the process returns to 5TEP3. If the maximum number of images to be displayed exceeds the maximum display number, the previous index displays each image from the next image index specified by area NO (STEP 7) to the number stored in area FNO using the method shown in Figure 4 (STEP 7).
P8). Further, in the next index, the number up to the one before the image index specified by the area No. is displayed from the number stored in the area F'NO using the method shown in FIG. 4.

Next, in 5TEP6, if the area counter and the maximum display number are equal, in the case of the previous index, from area No.
Display up to NO using the method shown in Figure 4. In the case of the next index, the area from area FNO to area NO is displayed using the method shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a diagram explaining the hardware configuration of this image retrieval device, in which 1 is a display device, 2 is a keyboard, 3 is a pointing device (PD), 4 is a microfilm scanner device, and 5 is an optical A disk drive device, 6 is a document scanner device, 7 is a laser printer device, 8 is a CPU, 9 is a mini floppy disk device (FDD), 10 is a hard disk device (HDD)
, 11 represents a system device composed of 8, 9, and 10.

Keywords input from the keyboard 1 are stored in 10 keyword database files and 5 optical discs. The image input from 4 or 6 is displayed on 1 and stored on the optical disk 5.

It shows the flow of data.

In the figure, 12 represents the data flow of registered images,
13 represents the flow of image index data, and 14 represents the flow of keywords.

The image index specified by the keyboard is read from the image index file on the hard disk and displayed on the display. Images searched by the image index are displayed on the display starting from 4 and 5.

As a method for image index flipping, the method described in the above embodiment is performed after specifying a keyword, but it is also possible to directly display the image index without specifying a keyword and perform image index flipping. Although image index flipping was performed with the maximum number of images displayed as six, it is also possible to change this number arbitrarily and perform index flipping.

Furthermore, when flipping the index, it is also possible to change the display of all displayed images by number using a new pond image index.

In the above embodiment, the image size is A3. Although only A4 size has been described, when creating an image index at the time of image registration, the compression ratio can be changed and image indexes of other image sizes can be displayed in the same way and paged through.

〔effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, images can be searched accurately and efficiently by searching by looking at image indexes. Furthermore, it is possible to prevent a huge waste of time from being erroneously read out and displayed on a high-definition image such as a photograph from the memory.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is a diagram for explaining the relationship between keywords and image indexes, Figure 2 is a diagram showing an example of displaying keyword information added to registered images to explain the display position in Figure 3, and Figure 3 is a diagram for explaining the relationship between keywords and image indexes. (1) to (3) are diagrams showing display positions of image indexes by size, Figure 4 is a flowchart showing a method of displaying image indexes, and Figure 5 is a diagram explaining the order of display positions of image indexes. , FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a method for turning over image indexes, and FIG.
The figure shows the hardware configuration of this apparatus, and FIG. 8 shows the flow of image data.

Claims (1)

[Claims] In an image search device that searches for stored images by displaying an image index for searching for stored images, by flipping over at least one of the displayed image indexes, a new image index is created. An image search device characterized by displaying an image and controlling a display position.