KR20100009065A - Method and apparatus for searching an image, digital photographing apparatus using thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: An image searching method, an apparatus thereof, and a digital photographing device using the same are provided to search images which a user wants by searching images through several conditions. CONSTITUTION: A condition input unit receives plural conditions from a user. An image searching part(73) refers to images corresponding to plural conditions. A controller(71) controls the image searching part to search the image corresponding to a second condition among plural conditions.

Description

Method and apparatus for image retrieval, digital photographing apparatus using same

The present invention relates to an image retrieval method and apparatus, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus capable of retrieving images corresponding to a plurality of conditions, and a digital photographing apparatus using the same.

With the recent widespread use of digital cameras and the increasing use of high capacity cards, the number of recordable images is increasing. Since the shooting space is secured, the user does not need to organize the image every time he takes a picture, and as the day passes, the image stored on the card increases. It is also difficult for the user to find the desired picture by viewing the image he / she has taken.

In general, the user can find the desired image as follows. First, move the images one by one by pressing the left and right navigation key button, and find the desired image by the second date, for example, by sorting in the calendar format, third, how to find 100 images jumping at a time, and the fourth thumbnail. (thumbnail) There is a way to find images by moving on the screen.

However, as described above, as the capacity of the memory card increases, the number of images that can be taken is increasing. As the number of images increases, it becomes more difficult to find an image desired by the user. In addition to allowing you to find the images shown in the previous example, the conventional method of finding images more quickly can be done by flipping 100 or 200 images instead of moving them one at a time, JPG, WAV, and video files. For example, the method of sorting by file or sorting by date is used. However, there is a limit in finding a desired image quickly.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned limitations or problems of the conventional image retrieval method, and when a user searches for an image, the user can quickly find an image with multiple overlapping conditions rather than simply searching with one condition. An object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for searching for an image.

Another object is to provide a digital photographing apparatus using the same.

In order to achieve the above technical problem, a method for searching for an image corresponding to a condition according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention receives a plurality of conditions from a user (a) to obtain an image corresponding to a first condition among the plurality of conditions. Searching; And (b) searching for an image corresponding to a second condition of the plurality of conditions from a search result corresponding to the first condition.

Advantageously, the method further comprises: (c) retrieving an image corresponding to a third of said plurality of conditions from a search result corresponding to said second condition, thereby outputting a result image corresponding to said plurality of conditions. It is characterized by including.

Preferably, the method is a condition for the date of photographing the image, a condition for the day of the week of photographing the image, a condition for the number of people included in the photographed image and a condition for the image color It characterized in that it comprises at least two or more.

Preferably, when the plurality of conditions are a condition for a date on which the image was captured and a condition for a day of the week on which the image was captured, the method may be further configured to generate an image based on the image photographing information of the image file generated when the image is captured. It is characterized by searching.

Preferably, when the plurality of conditions are a condition for the number of persons included in the captured image and a condition for the color of the image, searching is performed based on user setting information set by the user at the time of capturing the image. It is characterized by.

Preferably, when the plurality of conditions are conditions for the number of people included in the photographed image, the method may be configured to search for an image based on recognition information for recognizing the person by analyzing the photographed image. .

Preferably, when the plurality of conditions are conditions for the image color, the method may search for an image based on color information obtained by interpreting the image color.

Preferably, the step (c) is characterized in that for outputting a thumbnail image of the searched image corresponding to the plurality of conditions.

Preferably, the method further comprises the step of searching for an image corresponding to the new condition with respect to the output image after receiving the new condition after step (c).

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for searching for an image corresponding to a condition, the condition input unit receiving a plurality of conditions from a user; An image search unit for searching for an image corresponding to each of the plurality of conditions; And a controller configured to control the image search unit to search for an image corresponding to a second condition among the plurality of conditions from a search result corresponding to the first condition among the plurality of conditions.

Preferably, the plurality of conditions include at least two of a condition on a date of photographing the image, a condition on a day of the week on which the image is photographed, a condition on the number of people included in the photographed image, and a condition on the image color. It is characterized by including the above.

Preferably, when the plurality of conditions are conditions for a date of photographing the image and conditions for a day of the week of photographing the image, the image retrieval unit is based on the image photographing information of the image file generated when the image is taken. It characterized in that it comprises a shooting information search for searching for.

Preferably, when the plurality of conditions are a condition for the number of persons included in the captured image and a condition for the image color, the image retrieval unit is set by the user when the image is taken or the photographed information. A person searching unit for searching for an image based on recognition information for recognizing the person by analyzing the image; And a color search unit for searching for an image based on user setting information set by a user at the time of image capturing or image color information interpreting the color of the photographed image.

In order to achieve the still another technical problem, a digital photographing apparatus for searching for images corresponding to a plurality of conditions among images stored in a predetermined memory according to another embodiment of the present invention may have a date of photographing the stored image from a user. A condition input unit configured to receive a plurality of conditions including at least two of a condition for, a condition for a day of the week of photographing the image, a condition for the number of persons included in the photographed image, and a condition for the color of the image; Image capturing information of the image file generated when the image is taken, user setting information set by the user at the time of capturing the image, recognition information for recognizing a person by interpreting the photographed image, and image interpreted with the color of the captured image An image search unit for searching an image based on color information; And a controller configured to control the image search unit to search for an image corresponding to another one of the plurality of conditions from a search result corresponding to any one of the plurality of conditions.

In order to achieve the above another technical problem, a recording medium including a program for executing the method on a computer according to another embodiment of the present invention is recorded.

By using an image retrieval method and apparatus corresponding to a plurality of conditions according to an embodiment of the present invention, in order to find a desired image in a conventional camera, it is necessary to solve the inconvenience of looking for one by one, and through a plurality of conditions. By performing a search, the user only needs to find a desired image among the images searched for according to a plurality of conditions, thereby greatly reducing the time for searching for the image.

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

In addition, the terms or words used in the specification and claims described below are not to be construed as being limited to the ordinary or dictionary meaning, meaning that corresponds to the technical spirit of the present invention so as to best express the present invention To be interpreted as

1 is a block diagram of a digital camera according to one embodiment of a digital photographing apparatus of the present invention. 2, which will be described with reference to FIG. 1, is a block diagram illustrating a digital signal processor of the digital camera.

As shown in FIG. 1, the digital camera 100 includes an optical unit 10, an optical driver 11, an imaging device 15, an imaging device controller 16, an operation unit 20, a condition input unit 21, The program storage unit 30, the buffer storage unit 40, the data storage unit 50, the display control unit 60, the data driver 61, the scan driver 63, the display unit 65 and the digital signal processor (DSP, 70).

The optical unit 10 receives an optical signal from a subject and provides it to the imaging device 13. The optical unit 10 may include at least one lens, such as a zoom lens for controlling the view angle to be narrowed or widened according to a focal length, and a focus lens for focusing a subject. In addition, the optical unit 10 may further include an aperture for adjusting the amount of light.

The optical driver 11 adjusts the position of the lens, opening and closing of the iris, and the like. You can focus by shifting the position of the lens. In addition, the amount of light may be adjusted by adjusting the opening and closing of the iris. The optical driver 11 may control the optical unit 10 according to a control signal automatically generated by an image signal input in real time or a control signal manually input by a user's manipulation.

The optical signal transmitted through the optical unit 10 reaches the light receiving surface of the imaging element 15 to form an image of the subject. The imaging device 15 may use a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) or a Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor Image Sensor (CIS) that converts an optical signal into an electrical signal. Such an image pickup device 15 may be controlled by the image pickup device controller 16. The imaging device controller 16 may also control the imaging device 15 according to a control signal automatically generated by an image signal input in real time or a control signal manually input by a user's operation.

The operation unit 20 is a place that can input a control signal from the outside such as a user. The operation unit 20 is a shutter-release button for inputting a shutter-release signal for taking a picture by exposing the imaging device 15 to light for a predetermined time, a power button for supplying power, and an angle of view according to the input. There are a wide-angle zoom button and a tele-zoom button to widen or narrow the angle of view, and various function buttons such as selecting a text input or shooting mode, a playback mode, selecting a white balance setting function, and selecting an exposure setting function. The operation unit 20 may have the form of various buttons as described above, but is not limited thereto, and may be implemented in any form that a user can input, such as a keyboard, a touch pad, a touch screen, a remote controller, and the like.

The condition input unit 21 receives a plurality of conditions from a user. Here, the plurality of conditions are the date on which the picture was taken, the day of the week on which the picture was taken, the number of people included in the taken picture, the condition of the color of the picture, and the like. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, only the date, the day of the week, the number of people, and the color have been exemplified, but various conditions may be added without being limited thereto. In addition, in the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the condition input unit 21 and the operation unit 20 has been described separately, it may be implemented to perform the function of the condition input unit 21 together in the operation unit 20.

4 illustrates a search menu screen through which a user may input a plurality of conditions through the display unit 65 of the digital photographing apparatus. The user may enter the 'detailed search' menu through a menu or a shortcut key. In the detailed search menu, a user may input a date, day of the week, number of people, and color conditions. In addition, although FIG. 4 illustrates that only one item may be defined, a menu may be configured to allow a user to specify a range of the item. For example, the date can be specified from May 9, 2007 to May 8, 2008, and the number of people can be pointed out with 3 to 5 people.

In addition, since color input is inconvenient to select by inputting a direction / movement key, a color bar as shown in FIG. 5 is provided to the user, and the user can conveniently input a desired color by moving the color bar.

In addition, the digital camera 100 may include a program storage unit 30 for storing a program such as an operating system or an application system for driving the digital camera, and a buffer storage unit for temporarily storing data or result data necessary for performing an operation ( 40), a data storage unit 50 for storing a variety of information required for the program, including an image file containing a video signal.

In addition, the digital camera 100 is a display control unit 60 for controlling to display its operation state or the image information photographed by the digital camera 100, a data driver input from the display control unit 60 to transfer the display data And a display unit 65 for displaying a predetermined image according to signals input from the data driver 61 and the scan driver 63. The display unit 65 may be formed of a liquid crystal display panel (LCD), an organic light emitting display panel (OLED), an electrophoretic display panel (EDD), and the like.

The digital camera 100 includes a DSP 70 for processing the input image signal and controlling the components according to the input signal or the external input signal.

The DSP 70 will be described with reference to FIG. 2 together.

Referring to FIG. 2, the DSP 70 includes a controller 71, an image signal processor 72, and an image searcher 73.

The controller 71 controls the overall operation of the DSP 70. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the control unit 71 controls the image search unit 73 to search the stored image file according to a plurality of conditions provided from the condition input unit 21. Here, the plurality of conditions

The image signal processor 72 converts an image signal input from the image pickup device 15 into a digital signal, and performs gamma correction and color filter array interpolation to convert the image signal according to the human vision. Image signal processing such as color matrix, color correction, color enhancement, and the like. In addition, when the function is set, the image signal processor 72 may perform an auto white balance or auto exposure algorithm. In addition, the size of the image data is adjusted using a scaler and compressed to form an image file of a predetermined format. Conversely, image files can be extracted. The image signal processing unit 72 may perform the above image signal processing on the image signal input in real time in the live-view mode before the picture taking and the image signal input by the shutter-release signal. In this case, different video signal processing may be performed on each of the video signals.

The image retrieval unit 73 detects image shooting information of the image file generated when the image is taken, user setting information set by the user when the image is taken, recognition information for recognizing the person by interpreting the captured image, and color of the captured image. The image is searched based on the interpreted image color information.

Here, the image capturing information is information recorded in the EXIF that is basically generated at the time of capturing the photograph. The image capturing information is date information, and the day of the week information may be extracted based on the date information. Therefore, the image retrieval unit 73 may search for the date on which the user inputs the picture and the day of the week on which the picture was taken, based on the image shooting information. In addition, optionally, the user may search by using information on a date and day of the week directly input when the user takes a picture.

The user setting information refers to information input directly by the user when photographing the date, day, number of people, and color information. The user setting information is recorded in the EXIF area when the image file is stored.

The number of people and the color may be interpreted to recognize the person by analyzing the photographed image, and image color information may be obtained by interpreting the color of the photographed image. For example, the information about the number of people can know how many faces of a person appear in a particular picture through a commonly used face recognition algorithm, and can know what color picture is by analyzing the color of the image. In addition, the number and color of the person may be known not only through image analysis including face recognition or color analysis described above, but also through information directly input by the user at the time of photographing or afterwards.

The image retrieval unit 73 shown in FIG. 3 includes a shooting information retrieval unit 74, a person information retrieval unit 75, and a color information retrieval unit 76.

The shooting information retrieval unit 74 generates the image when the image is taken under the control of the control unit 71 when the plurality of conditions input by the user are a condition for the date on which the image was captured and a condition for the day when the image was captured. Based on the image photographing information of the image file, an image corresponding to the date and / or day of the week input by the user is searched.

When the plurality of conditions input by the user are conditions for the number of people included in the photographed image, the person information search unit 75 may directly input the number of persons directly input by the user at the time of image capture under the control of the controller 71. The image is searched based on the recognition information that recognizes the person by using information about the user or by analyzing the captured image. In the image analysis, a user recognizes the number of faces existing in an arbitrary image by using a conventional face recognition technique. Search for images that match the number of people you enter.

When the plurality of conditions are image color information, the color information retrieval unit 76 acquires color information by using color information set by the user at the time of image capturing or by interpreting the color of the captured image, and inputs the information by the user. Search for images matching the color criteria.

6 is a diagram for describing an output search result according to another exemplary embodiment.

In FIG. 6, when a user inputs a plurality of conditions and performs a search, only images satisfying the plurality of search conditions are displayed on the screen in a thumbnail manner. Here, the plurality of input conditions show the search result screen with the number of people being 1-2 and the color set to black.

In order to find a desired image in a conventional camera, the inconvenience of having to look through each image must be solved, and by searching through a plurality of conditions, the user can find a desired image among the images searched for a plurality of conditions. This can greatly reduce the time for searching for an image.

7 is a view for explaining a re-search in the search results according to another embodiment of the present invention.

7 illustrates a screen for re-searching within a result by entering a search menu again within a search result through a plurality of condition inputs. Through this, the user can search for and display images matching the preset conditions or a plurality of conditions in the search results.

Meanwhile, the present invention can be embodied as computer readable codes on a computer readable recording medium. The computer-readable recording medium includes all kinds of recording devices in which data that can be read by a computer system is stored.

Examples of computer-readable recording media include ROM, RAM, CD-ROM, magnetic tape, floppy disks, optical data storage devices, and the like, which may also be implemented in the form of carrier waves (for example, transmission over the Internet). Include. The computer readable recording medium can also be distributed over network coupled computer systems so that the computer readable code is stored and executed in a distributed fashion. And functional programs, codes and code segments for implementing the present invention can be easily inferred by programmers in the art to which the present invention belongs.

So far I looked at the center of the preferred embodiment for the present invention. Those skilled in the art will understand that the present invention can be embodied in a modified form without departing from the essential characteristics of the present invention. Therefore, the disclosed embodiments should be considered in descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation. The scope of the present invention is shown not in the above description but in the claims, and all differences within the scope should be construed as being included in the present invention.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a digital photographing apparatus 100 according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the digital signal processing unit 70 shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the image search unit 73 shown in FIG.

4 is a diagram for describing a plurality of condition inputs according to another embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a diagram for describing color condition input according to another exemplary embodiment.

6 is a diagram for describing an output search result according to another exemplary embodiment.

7 is a view for explaining a re-search in the search results according to another embodiment of the present invention.

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

100: digital photographing apparatus 21: condition input unit

70: digital signal processing unit 71: control unit

72: image signal processing unit 73: image search unit

74: shooting information search unit 75: person information search unit

76: color information search section

Claims (15)

In a method for searching for an image corresponding to a condition, (a) receiving a plurality of conditions from a user and searching for an image corresponding to a first condition among the plurality of conditions; And (b) retrieving an image corresponding to a second of the plurality of conditions from a search result corresponding to the first condition. The method of claim 1, (c) outputting a result image corresponding to the plurality of conditions by searching for an image corresponding to a third of the plurality of conditions from the search result corresponding to the second condition. Search method. The method of claim 2, The plurality of conditions, At least two or more of a condition for a date of photographing the image, a condition for a day of the week of photographing the image, a condition for the number of people included in the photographed image, and a condition for the color of the image. How to search for images. The method of claim 3, wherein When the plurality of conditions are a condition for the date of photographing the image and a condition for the day of the week of photographing the image, the image is searched based on the image photographing information of the image file generated at the time of photographing the image. How to search for images. The method of claim 3, wherein If the plurality of conditions are a condition for the number of persons included in the captured image and a condition for the color of the image, the image search is performed based on user setting information set by the user at the time of capturing the image. Way. The method of claim 3, wherein And searching for an image based on recognition information for recognizing a person by analyzing the photographed image when the plurality of conditions are a condition for the number of persons included in the captured image. The method of claim 3, wherein And searching for an image based on color information of the image color when the plurality of conditions are conditions for the image color. The method of claim 3, wherein In step (c), And displaying an image searched according to the plurality of conditions as a thumbnail image. The method of claim 3, wherein After step (c), And searching for an image corresponding to the new condition with respect to the output image by receiving a new condition. A recording medium having recorded thereon a program for executing a method according to any one of claims 1 to 9 on a computer. An apparatus for searching for an image corresponding to a condition, A condition input unit configured to receive a plurality of conditions from a user; An image search unit for searching for an image corresponding to each of the plurality of conditions; And And a controller configured to control the image search unit to search for an image corresponding to a second condition among the plurality of conditions from a search result corresponding to the first condition among the plurality of conditions. The method of claim 11, The plurality of conditions, At least two or more of a condition for a date of photographing the image, a condition for a day of the week of photographing the image, a condition for the number of people included in the photographed image, and a condition for the color of the image. How to search for images. The method of claim 12, When the plurality of conditions are a condition for the date on which the image was photographed and a condition for the day of the week on which the image was captured, And the image retrieval unit comprises a shooting information retrieval unit for retrieving an image based on image retrieval information of an image file generated at the time of taking the image. The method of claim 12, When the plurality of conditions are conditions for the number of persons included in the photographed image and conditions for the image color, The image search unit, A person information retrieval unit for retrieving an image based on user setting information set by a user at the time of taking the image or recognition information by recognizing the person by interpreting the captured image; And And a color information retrieval unit for retrieving an image based on user setting information set by a user when the image is taken or image color information obtained by analyzing the color of the captured image. A digital photographing apparatus for searching for images corresponding to a plurality of conditions among images stored in a predetermined memory. A plurality of conditions including at least two of a condition for a date of photographing the stored image, a condition for a day of the week of photographing the image, a condition for the number of people included in the photographed image, and a condition for the color of the image Condition input unit for receiving a condition of; Image capturing information of the image file generated when the image is taken, user setting information set by the user at the time of capturing the image, recognition information for recognizing a person by interpreting the photographed image, and image interpreted with the color of the captured image An image search unit for searching an image based on color information; And And a controller configured to control the image search unit to search for an image corresponding to another one of the plurality of conditions from a search result corresponding to any one of the plurality of conditions.

Images