KR20060127586A - Image pattern recognition system and method using present position of mobile terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

A system and a method for searching an image pattern according to the current location of a mobile terminal are provided to shorten a processing time and improve a recognition rate by searching a database region of a certain area based on the current location of a user. An image which has been transmitted from a camera phone is received through a mobile communication network(S301). The image pattern of the received image is extracted(S302). The current location of a service requester is detected(S303). A search area including the detected current location of the service requester is detected(S304,S305). A connection index corresponding to the detected search area is detected(S306). An image pattern searching is performed by applying the extracted image pattern to a corresponding memory region of an image pattern database that stores image pattern information corresponding to the detected connection index(S308).

Description

Image pattern recognition system and method using present position of mobile terminal}

1 is a network diagram showing a network environment to which the present invention is applied.

2 is a block diagram of an image pattern search system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of searching for an image pattern according to a current position of a mobile terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawings

100: image pattern recognition server 200: image pattern DB

110: data transmission and reception unit 120: image pattern extraction unit

130: control unit 140: location detection unit

150: location information DB 160: search location determiner

170: access index DB

The present invention relates to an image pattern retrieval service, and more particularly, to classify and store image patterns related to a corresponding area (place) for each specific area (place) to be identified, and to a specific area (place) where the caller's current location is identified. An image pattern search system and method for performing an image pattern search for image patterns related to a region.

With the advent of the Internet, a content search method for searching for information desired by a user is provided.

Since information provided by wired and wireless Internet is provided based on sentences, a text search method using text-based natural language has been commonly used since the beginning. In the text search method, when a user provides a natural language of text as a search word, a search engine searches for a sentence, a document, or a multimedia including the natural language and provides the same to the user terminal.

However, as the information has gradually increased, the amount of results obtained by text search has gradually increased, so that users can check many search results one by one to find the information they want, or re-search within additional results provided by search providers. Using the item, the search results were further searched for the search results.

For this reason, a search method for searching for a specific type of content among the content information has emerged, and the image search method is such. The image search method is a method of searching for image content among contents, and there is a method of searching for image content corresponding to an image provided by a user.

Such image search methods include a barcode image search method and an image pattern search method. In the barcode search method, if a barcode image imaged by a method such as shooting, scanning, or screen capture is provided, the barcode is decoded from the barcode image to obtain coding information, and URL (Uniform Resource Locator) information corresponding to the coding information or Finding content from a database and providing it to the user. The image pattern retrieval method is a method of extracting an image pattern corresponding to a feature of the image by providing a photographed, scanned or screen-captured image, finding image contents corresponding to the image pattern, and searching the database for a user.

As such, the image retrieval method uses a database that stores barcode information or image pattern information for retrieval.

However, in the conventional image search method, in particular, the image pattern search method searches the entire database to find the corresponding content.

Therefore, the conventional image pattern retrieval method has a problem in that processing time increases as the number of data stored in the database increases, and the retrieval speed and recognition rate decrease.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve a conventional problem, and aims to shorten the processing time and improve the recognition rate by dividing image pattern information by region and searching a database of the region based on the current location of the user.

The present invention according to one aspect for achieving the above object, the first step of receiving an image transmitted from the camera phone via a mobile communication network; Extracting an image pattern for the received image; A third step of identifying the current location of the service requester; A fourth step of identifying a search area including the identified current location of the service requester; A fifth step of identifying a connection index corresponding to the identified search area; And a sixth step of applying the extracted image pattern to the corresponding memory area in the image pattern database storing the image pattern information corresponding to the identified connection index, to perform an image pattern search according to the current position of the mobile terminal. Provide a search method.

The present invention preferably further comprises the step of performing a search for all the image pattern information stored in the image pattern database if there is no search area including the current location of the service requester.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a service system connected to a mobile communication network includes a plurality of memory regions managed by different access indices, and each memory region includes pattern information of images related to different regions. A stored image pattern DB; A data transmission receiver in charge of an interface with a camera phone; An image pattern extracting unit extracting pattern information from an image received from the camera phone; A location information DB for storing the search area information including a current location of a subscriber; A location detecting unit for grasping the search area information by applying a current location of a service requester to the location information DB; A connection index DB storing the connection index information; A search location determining unit for grasping the connection index corresponding to the memory area of the image pattern DB 200 corresponding to the search area of the subscriber identified by the location detecting unit; And a controller configured to access a corresponding memory region of the image pattern DB through the connection index determined by the search position determiner and perform an image pattern search using the image pattern extracted by the image pattern extractor in the memory region. It provides an image pattern search system according to the current position of the mobile terminal.

The present invention further provides a computer readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for executing the method.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description of the present invention, detailed descriptions of well-known functions or configurations will be omitted if it is determined that the detailed description of the present invention may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention. Terms to be described later are terms defined in consideration of functions in the present invention, and may be changed according to intentions or customs of users or operators. Therefore, the definition should be made based on the contents throughout the specification.

Hereinafter, a network environment to which the present invention is applied will be described with reference to FIG. 1. 1 is a network diagram showing a network environment to which the present invention is applied.

As shown in FIG. 1, the network of the present invention includes a camera phone 10, an image pattern recognition server 100, and an image pattern DB 200.

The camera phone 10 is a user terminal having a camera function and a data communication or voice call function through a mobile communication network. The camera phone 10 may be a mobile phone, a digital camera, a PDA, or the like.

The image pattern recognition server 100 extracts the image pattern from the image provided by the camera phone 10, grasps the current location of the service requester, grasps the search location corresponding to the current location, and The search is performed in the memory area corresponding to the search position in the image pattern DB 200. The image pattern recognition server 100 provides the camera phone 10 with the result of the image pattern search.

The image pattern search performed by the image pattern recognition server 100 according to the present invention follows a normal image pattern search. In general, an image pattern search is a search in which the user searches for the most similar image order according to the similarity by comparing the target image and images previously stored in the image database.

An example of a typical image pattern search is as follows.

The components of the image pattern search to extract the features of the image include color content, shape content, texture, brightness structure, color structure, and aspect ratio. And many other components. Hue is the combination of colors that appear in the image, the shape is the overall shape that appears inside the image, the texture is the texture that appears in the image, the brightness is the contour characteristic according to the gray level, the color is the contour characteristic according to the color level, and the size is The aspect ratio of the image. The image pattern search extracts a pattern (specific vector) of an image using one or more elements of the components, binarizes the extracted specific vector in a database, and compares and searches the pattern of the image to be compared.

The image pattern DB 200 stores image pattern information for each image corresponding to all image information to be provided to the user and an image ID matched to the image pattern information. In this case, the image pattern DB 200 is preferably configured on the memory for fast image pattern comparison with the comparison object.

Although not shown in the drawing, image information corresponding to the image ID is stored in a database of a content provider or in a database locally connected to the image pattern recognition server 100.

Hereinafter, an image pattern search system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 2. 2 is a block diagram of an image pattern search system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

The image pattern search system of the present invention includes an image pattern recognition server 100 and an image pattern DB 200.

As shown in FIG. 2, the image pattern recognition server 100 may include a data transceiver 110, an image pattern extractor 120, a controller 130, a location detector 140, a location information DB 150, and a search. The location detecting unit 160 and the connection index DB 170 is included.

The data transmitting and receiving unit 110 is responsible for the interface with the camera phone 10, the image pattern extraction unit 120 extracts the pattern information of the image received from the camera phone (10).

The location detecting unit 140 grasps the current location information of the subscriber who requested the image pattern search service and uses the location information DB 150 to grasp the location information where the user is located by using the current location information. Since the local information grasped by the location detecting unit 140 is local information to be used in the image pattern search, hereinafter referred to as 'search area information'.

As a method of determining the current location information of the subscriber, at least one or more methods of determining the current location of the mobile phone are generally used. Typical methods for determining current location information include a method of using current location information (ie, base station information) of a subscriber registered in a home location register of a mobile communication network, and a GPS from a subscriber's camera phone 10 having a built-in GPS module. There is a method of acquiring coordinate information, and a method of determining the current location of a subscriber from a separate current location information repository that stores and manages base station information or GPS coordinate information, which is the current location information of the subscriber.

The location information DB 150 stores search area information including the current location of the subscriber. The search area information is based on the area information that divides the memory area of the image pattern DB 200, and may be a famous tourist attraction, a mountain, an ocean, a valley, an amusement park, a public place, a well-known building or a specific area, or an area in an administrative area. have.

The search location determiner 160 finds a memory area of the image pattern DB 200 corresponding to the location (search area) of the subscriber's current location identified by the location finder 140. The memory area information of the image pattern DB 200 is stored in the access index DB 170 and is matched with the search area information and displayed as a memory address (directory name) or a virtual IP address. Here, the directory name (or virtual IP address) indicating the memory address may be matched to one search area information or to a plurality of search area information having the same area environment.

The controller 130 controls the overall operation of each component, and in particular, performs an image pattern search for a directory name (or a virtual IP address) indicating a memory address identified by the search location detecting unit 160 and displays the result. Provided to the camera phone 10 through the data transmission and reception unit 110.

On the other hand, the image pattern DB 200 is a plurality of memory areas (DB # 0, DB # 1, DB # 2, DB) divided into regions having the same environment or one region to achieve the object of the present invention # 3, ..., DB # N), and each memory area (DB # 0, DB # 1, DB # 2, DB # 3, ..., DB # N) contains images related to the region. The information is stored. Each of the memory areas DB # 0, DB # 1, DB # 2, DB # 3, ..., DB # N is managed by a connection index, that is, a directory name (or virtual IP address) indicating a memory address.

For example, DB # 0 to DB # K is divided into parks such as Everland, Seoul Grand Park, Children's Grand Park, Incheon Grand Park, and Busan Grand Park, and the pattern information of related images for each park is stored, and DB # K + 1 to DB # M is divided into each mountain such as Jirisan, Seorak, Baekdu, and Halla, and the relevant image pattern information for each mountain is stored.

As another example, DB # 0 stores pattern information of images related to each park, such as Everland, Seoul Grand Park, Children's Grand Park, Incheon Grand Park, Busan Grand Park, and DB # 1 relates to each mountain such as Jirisan, Seorak, Baekdu, and Halla. Image pattern information is stored, and image pattern information related to each museum is stored in DB # 2.

Meanwhile, the present invention may use one memory area as a memory area for storing the entire image information in the image pattern DB 200 and use the remaining memory areas as the image information storage area for each search area as described above.

Hereinafter, an image pattern search method according to a current position of a mobile terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an image pattern search method according to a current position of a mobile terminal according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

The user selects an image pattern search service menu or uses a service special number to transmit a picture stored in the camera phone 10 or taken in real time to the image pattern recognition server 100. At this time, the camera phone 10 transmits the search request image as a service request message.

The image pattern recognition server 100 receives a service request message from the camera phone 10 and obtains an image (photo) from the received service request message (S301). In this case, when the service of the present invention is operated on a membership basis, a process of determining whether a service requester is a subscriber is added after the step S301.

Then, the image pattern recognition server 100 extracts the image pattern for the image for image search (S302), and grasps the current position of the service requester (sender) to determine the current position of the service requester (S303). .

Once the caller's current location is identified, the image pattern recognition server 100 performs a local search using the location information DB 150 to determine if there is a search area that includes the caller's current location, and if so. (S304).

If the image pattern recognition server 100 determines that the area information including the sender's current location is not stored in the location information DB 150 through the search (S305), the image pattern information extracted in the step S302 is a full image. Search for the pattern information on the target (S307). However, if the image pattern recognition server 100 determines that the local information including the sender's current location is stored in the location information DB 150 (S305), the access index (directory name informing the memory address) mapped to the corresponding local information. Or a virtual IP address) is found using the access index DB 170 (S306).

When the image pattern recognition server 100 finds a connection index for the corresponding search area, the image pattern search is performed on the corresponding memory area of the image pattern DB 200 managed by the connection index found in the image pattern information extracted in step S302. Perform (S308).

In addition, the image pattern recognition server 100 provides the camera phone 10 with the search result through the process S307 or S308, or provides the camera phone 10 with image information corresponding to the search result.

In the case where the image pattern search result is provided to the camera phone 10, the image pattern recognition server 100 itself does not have a database storing image information, and the image information corresponding to the image pattern search result is provided. In the case of providing the camera phone 10, the image pattern recognition server 100 itself constructs a database storing image information.

The technical spirit of the present invention has been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, but this is by way of example only and not intended to limit the present invention. In addition, it is obvious that any person skilled in the art can make various modifications and imitations without departing from the scope of the technical idea of the present invention.

The present invention divides the memory of the database storing the image pattern information by region and then searches the database region of the region based on the current location of the user, thereby shortening the processing time and improving the recognition rate, thereby improving user satisfaction. .

Claims (10)

A first step of receiving an image transmitted from a camera phone through a mobile communication network; Extracting an image pattern for the received image; A third step of identifying the current location of the service requester; A fourth step of identifying a search area including the identified current location of the service requester; A fifth step of identifying a connection index corresponding to the identified search area; And And a sixth step of applying the extracted image pattern to a corresponding memory area of the image pattern database storing the image pattern information corresponding to the identified connection index to perform an image pattern search. Image pattern search method according to the current position of the mobile terminal. The method of claim 1, And if the search area including the current location of the service requester does not exist, performing a search on all image pattern information stored in the image pattern database. Search method. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The current position of the service requester identified in the third step is one of the base station information or Global Positioning System (GPS) information, characterized in that the image pattern search method according to the current position of the mobile terminal. The method of claim 3, The access index is an image pattern search method according to the current position of the mobile terminal, characterized in that one of the directory name or a virtual IP address indicating the memory address of the image pattern database. In the service system connected to the mobile network, An image pattern DB including a plurality of memory regions managed by different access indices, each of which includes pattern information of images related to different regions; Data transmission and reception unit in charge of the interface with the camera phone; An image pattern extracting unit extracting pattern information from an image received from the camera phone; A location information DB for storing the search area information including a current location of a subscriber; A location detecting unit for grasping the search area information by applying a current location of a service requester to the location information DB; A connection index DB storing the connection index information; A search location determining unit for grasping the connection index corresponding to the memory area of the image pattern DB 200 corresponding to the search area of the subscriber identified by the location detecting unit; And A control unit for accessing a corresponding memory region of the image pattern DB through the access index determined by the search position determining unit and performing an image pattern search using the image pattern extracted by the image pattern extracting unit in the memory region; Image pattern search system according to the current position of the terminal. The method of claim 5, The access index is an image pattern search system according to the current position of the mobile terminal, characterized in that one of the directory name or a virtual IP address indicating the memory address of the image pattern database. The method of claim 6, The image pattern DB has an image pattern search system according to the current position of the mobile terminal, characterized in that it has a memory area for storing all the pattern information of the image related to each region. The method according to claim 1 or 7, The control unit performs a search for all image pattern information stored in the image pattern DB when it is determined from the output of the location detecting unit that the search area including the current location of the service requester does not exist in the location information DB. Image pattern search system according to the current position of the mobile terminal. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The current position of the service requester is one of the base station information or Global Positioning System (GPS) information, characterized in that the image pattern search system according to the current position of the mobile terminal. On the service server connected to the IP network, A first step of receiving an image transmitted from a camera phone through a mobile communication network; Extracting an image pattern for the received image; A third step of identifying the current location of the service requester; A fourth step of identifying a search area including the identified current location of the service requester; A fifth step of identifying a connection index corresponding to the identified search area; And A computer-readable program for executing a sixth step of performing an image pattern search by applying the extracted image pattern to a corresponding memory area of an image pattern database storing image pattern information corresponding to the identified connection index. Record carrier.

Images