KR100835963B1 - Portable device and method of searching image thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

A portable terminal and an image searching method thereof are provided to detect face recognition information corresponding to an inputted search word for displaying an image file matched with the detected information, if an image is searched by using the terminal, thus a user can more conveniently and efficiently search the image. A storage unit(170) stores image files and thumbnails. A display unit(140) displays the image files. A controller(180) detects face recognition information corresponding to an inputted search word from the thumbnails if a searching process is requested, and searches image files matched with the face recognition information. The controller displays the image files matched with the face recognition information on the display unit.

Description

Portable device and method of searching image thereof

1 is a view showing a schematic configuration of a mobile terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention;

2 is a flowchart illustrating an image retrieval method of a mobile terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention;

3A to 3E are screen configuration diagrams showing an example to which the image retrieval method according to the present invention is applied.

The present invention relates to a mobile terminal and a method of searching for an image thereof, and more particularly, to a mobile terminal and a method of searching for an image thereof using a face recognition function.

The portable terminal is easy to carry, can store and play a variety of application programs, and is widely used in a large number of fields due to its excellent utilization added to optional functions. In particular, the mobile terminal provides a video service such as the Internet, multimedia, etc. together with a voice communication function, and includes a camera of various types capable of storing a desired subject as an image file. The portable terminal is equipped with a camera, which enables not only video communication. You can also transfer photos and videos taken with the camera.

When a user wants to transfer a photo to another terminal using a mobile terminal, the photo to be transferred can be selected from a photo album. However, since the photos stored in the photo album are displayed as a list according to the stored time or the file name of the photo, when a user wants to transfer a photo related to a specific person, it is inconvenient to search and confirm the photos stored in the photo album.

Therefore, the present invention was devised to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a mobile terminal and a method for retrieving an image thereof using a face recognition function when searching for an image using the mobile terminal. Can provide.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method for receiving a search request and inputting a search word, detecting face recognition information corresponding to the search word, and matching the face recognition information with each other are provided. And a step of searching for an image file, wherein the face recognition information detecting process includes: searching for a thumbnail corresponding to the search word, and detecting face recognition information from the thumbnail when the thumbnail exists. It is characterized by.

An apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention for achieving the above object, the storage unit for storing an image file and thumbnail; A display unit which displays the image file; And a controller configured to control the storage unit and the display unit, and to detect face recognition information corresponding to an input search word and to search for an image file matching the face recognition information when a search request is made. The facial recognition information corresponding to the search word may be detected in the thumbnail.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description, only the parts necessary for understanding the operation according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described, it should be noted that the description of other parts will be omitted so as not to distract from the gist of the present invention.

The terms or words used in the specification and claims described below should not be construed as being limited to the ordinary or dictionary meanings, and the inventors are appropriate to the concept of terms in order to explain their invention in the best way. It should be interpreted as meanings and concepts in accordance with the technical spirit of the present invention based on the principle that it can be defined. Therefore, the embodiments described in the present specification and the configuration shown in the drawings are only one of the most preferred embodiments of the present invention, and do not represent all of the technical idea of the present invention. It should be understood that there may be equivalents and variations.

For example, the image file according to the present invention below includes an image obtained through a camera unit, an image received from an external web server, and an image received from another terminal. In addition, a thumbnail refers to an image of a subscriber stored in a phone book or a business card menu, and a corresponding thumbnail may be displayed when an incoming call is received from the stored subscriber.

In addition, the embodiment of the present invention will be described as a mobile communication terminal having a camera unit as a mobile terminal as an example. Such mobile terminals include personal digital assistants (PDAs), smart phones, international mobile telecommunication 2000 (IMT-2000) terminals, code division multiple access (CDMA) terminals, and wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA). It will be apparent that all information communication devices and multimedia devices, such as terminals, Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) terminals, Universal Mobile Telecommunication Service (UMTS) terminals, and the like, and applications thereof.

1 is a view showing a schematic configuration of a portable terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, a mobile terminal 100 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a radio frequency (RF) communication unit 110, a camera unit 120, an image processor 130, a display unit 140, The audio processor 150 includes an input unit 160, a storage unit 170, and a controller 180.

The RF communicator 110 wirelessly transmits user data to another external portable terminal using a communication channel established with the base station for data communication and voice call in the controller 180. In addition, the RF communication unit 110 transmits and receives contents and control signals related to the contents through interworking with an external web server. The RF communication unit 110 tunes to a channel frequency (Turning) to extract a signal on the channel frequency, a tuner, an RF transmitter for up-converting and amplifying the frequency of the transmitted signal, and a low-noise amplification and frequency of the received signal It may include an RF receiver for converting down.

The camera unit 120 captures image data, and includes a camera sensor for converting the photographed optical signal into an electrical signal, and a signal processor for converting the analog image signal photographed from the camera sensor into digital data. The camera sensor may be a CCD sensor, and the signal processor may be implemented by a DSP. In addition, the camera unit may be integrally implemented as the camera sensor and the signal processor, or may be implemented separately.

The image processor 130 is controlled by the controller 180 and processes an image or a video input through the camera unit 120. The image processor 130 outputs the input image or video through the RF communication unit 110 or the display unit 140 or stores the image or video file in the storage unit 170 as an image file or a video file. In addition, the image processor 130 processes an image or a video received through the RF communication unit 110 and outputs the image or video through the display unit 140 or stores the image or video file in the storage unit 170.

The display unit 140 displays various menus of the portable terminal 100, user data input by the user, function setting information, or various information provided to the user. The display unit 140 may be formed of a liquid crystal display (LCD), and may be included in an input means when the LCD is formed in the form of a touch screen. In particular, the display unit 140 according to the present invention activates and displays a search word input box when a user requests an image search. In addition, the display unit 140 displays image files according to the search results.

The audio processor 150 reproduces an audio signal output from the controller 180 or transmits an audio signal such as a voice input from a microphone MIC to the controller 180. That is, the audio processor 150 converts the voice / sound data into an audible sound through the speaker SPK under the control of the controller 180 and outputs the audible sound. In addition, the audio processor 150 outputs audio data such as a voice received from the microphone MIC.

The input unit 160 includes a plurality of input keys and function keys for receiving numeric or character information and setting various functions. The function keys may include direction keys, side keys, shortcut keys, and the like, which are set to perform a specific function. In addition, the input unit 160 transmits a key signal input in relation to the function control of the mobile terminal 100 to the controller 180. In particular, when the search word input in the search word input box is input, the input unit 160 according to the present invention generates a key signal corresponding thereto and transmits it to the control unit 180.

The storage unit 170 stores an application program required for operating a function according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, content to be downloaded, user data generated by a user, and image file / audio data transmitted and received during communication. The storage unit 170 may include one or more buffers for temporarily storing user data generated while executing a predetermined application program, for example, a text message application program. The storage unit 170 may largely include a program area and a data area. In particular, the data area according to the present invention stores an image acquired through the camera unit 120, an image transmitted from another terminal, and an image downloaded from an external web server. Data management activates the images under the control of the controller 180. In addition, the data area stores thumbnails according to subscribers stored in the phonebook. The thumbnail according to the present invention refers to a picture of a subscriber stored in a phone book, and is used to extract face information when searching for a picture.

The controller 180 controls the overall operation of the mobile terminal 100 and the signal flow between the internal blocks of the mobile terminal 100. The controller 180 may include a data processor function for processing audio data transmitted from a microphone, numeric / character data input from a viewer through the input unit 160, data transmitted from the RF communication unit 110, and the like. In this case, the data processor may include a transmitter configured to mismatch and modulate a signal transmitted through the RF communication unit 110, and a receiver configured to demodulate and decode the received signal. That is, the data processing section is composed of a modulation / demodulation section and a codec.

In particular, when the user requests an image search, the controller 180 checks the search word input in the search word input box, and detects the face recognition information corresponding to the search word, and the face detected by the face recognition detection unit. And an image detector for detecting an image file matching the recognition information.

In detail, the face recognition detection unit checks a search word input in a search word input box and confirms that a thumbnail corresponding to the search word exists. That is, the face recognition detector detects face recognition information in the thumbnail when a thumbnail corresponding to the search word exists. Here, the face recognition information detection method according to the present invention includes a direct variable method, an indirect variable method and a local feature analysis method. The direct parameterization method is a method of parameterizing a relative position between feature points in an image. For example, the feature points used in the direct parameterization method detect and parameterize the distance between two eyes, the width of the mouth, the distance between the eyes and the mouth, the distance between the nose and the mouth, and the width of the eye from the facial image. Indirect variableization is a method of finding patterns from facial images. Indirect parameterization is a method of finding a unique face that can represent a person's face from a plurality of faces and expressing an arbitrary face as a linear combination of these unique faces. In this case, the feature information refers to a weight that is multiplied by the unique face in the linear combination. The local feature method utilizes only the advantages of the direct and indirect variable methods described above. However, the method of detecting face recognition information according to the present invention is not limited to the above three methods but may use various parameterization methods. The face recognition detector extracts face recognition information from the thumbnail in the same manner as described above and transmits the face recognition information to the image detector.

The image detector detects an image matching the face recognition information transmitted from the face recognition detector. That is, the image detector detects an image file matching the face recognition information among the image files stored in the portable terminal by using the same method as the face recognition information detection method used in the face recognition detector. The image detector transmits and displays the image file matching the face recognition information to the display unit 140.

Meanwhile, FIG. 1 illustrates a block configuration required for describing an operation according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure for convenience of description, but the present disclosure is not limited thereto. That is, the portable terminal 100 of the present invention may further include a digital broadcasting module and / or a portable (wireless) internet module according to the provision form thereof.

In the above, the configuration for searching for an image in the portable terminal 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention has been described. Hereinafter, an image search method of the mobile terminal 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 2.

2 is a flowchart illustrating an image retrieval method of the mobile terminal 100 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, when the user requests an image search, the controller 180 detects this in step S101 and displays a search word input box for inputting a search word. For example, when the user selects a photo album, the photos stored in the photo album are displayed as a list as shown in FIG. 3A. When the user inputs a menu key while the pictures are displayed as a list, the controller 180 displays a menu tree composed of search / delete / cancel as shown in FIG. 3B. Here, the menu tree is described as an example, and the menu of the photo album according to the present invention is not limited thereto. When the user selects a search in the menu tree, the controller 180 displays a search word input box for inputting a search word as shown in FIG. 3C.

When the user inputs a search word in the search word input box, the controller 180 checks the search word input in the search word input box in step S102 and checks whether face recognition information corresponding to the search word exists in step S103. That is, when the search word is input, the controller 180 checks the search word to determine whether a thumbnail corresponding to the search word exists. When the controller 180 confirms that the thumbnail exists, the controller 180 detects face recognition information from the thumbnail. However, the face recognition information according to the present invention is not limited to being detected only in thumbnails of the phone book. That is, the face recognition information according to the present invention may be detected in a separately configured face recognition information DB (Data Base). For example, the face recognition information DB may store face recognition information registered in the face recognition information registration menu.

If the controller 180 determines that the face recognition information corresponding to the search word exists in step S104, the controller 180 searches for an image file matching the face recognition information and an image file including the search word in a name in step S105. For example, when a user enters A in a search word input box and an OK key, as shown in FIG. 3D, the controller 180 searches for face recognition information corresponding to A. FIG. When the controller 180 determines that the face recognition information of A exists, the controller 180 searches for an image file matching the face recognition information. In addition, the controller 180 searches whether the file name including A is present among the image files.

If the controller 180 determines that there is an image file according to the search result in step S106, the controller 180 displays the image file found in step S107. That is, the controller 180 may display the image file searched for A based on the face recognition information and the image file including A in the file name as shown in FIG. 3E.

However, when the controller 180 determines that there is no face recognition information corresponding to the search word among thumbnails of the phone book in step S104, the controller 180 searches for an image file including the search word in a name in step S108. That is, the controller 180 checks whether the search word is included in the file name among the image files stored in the mobile terminal 100 and proceeds to step S106.

Here, the image search method of the mobile terminal 100 according to the present invention has been described as an example in which a user requests an image search from an image search menu, but is not limited thereto. That is, in the image search method of the mobile terminal 100 according to the present invention, when a user requests a search from a search menu of the mobile terminal 100, for example, a integrated search or an internet search menu, the user inputs the image using the face recognition function. You can also search for image files for a search term. For example, when a user enters a search word in the integrated search menu, the controller 180 not only searches all data and files stored in the mobile terminal 100 but also applies an image search method according to an embodiment of the present invention. An image file matching the search word may also be searched.

As described above, in the detailed description of the present invention has been described with respect to specific embodiments, various modifications are possible without departing from the scope of the invention. Therefore, the scope of the present invention should not be limited to the described embodiments, but should be determined not only by the claims below, but also by the equivalents of the claims.

As described above, the mobile terminal and the image retrieval method proposed by the present invention detect face recognition information corresponding to a search word input in a search word input box and display an image file matching the search word when the image is searched using the mobile terminal. . The present invention allows a user to search for images more conveniently and efficiently.

Claims (8)

In the search method, Receiving a search request and entering a search term; Searching for a thumbnail corresponding to the search term; Detecting facial recognition information in the thumbnail when the thumbnail exists; And searching for an image file matching the face recognition information. delete The method of claim 1, wherein the image file search process is performed by: And searching for an image file having a name including the search word.  The method of claim 3, wherein And displaying the image files when an image file matching the face recognition information or an image file whose search word is included in a name exists. In a mobile terminal, A storage unit which stores image files and thumbnails; A display unit which displays the image file; And And a controller configured to control the storage unit and the display unit, and to search for an image file matching the face recognition information by detecting face recognition information corresponding to the input search word in the thumbnail when a search request is made. Mobile terminal. delete The method of claim 5, wherein the control unit, And displaying image files matching the face recognition information on the display unit. The method of claim 7, wherein the control unit, And searching for an image file including the search word in a name among the image files stored in the storage unit, and displaying an image file including the search word on the display unit.

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