Apparatus, program, and method for managing images

• US 20030053091A1
• Filed: 08/20/2002
• Published: 03/20/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 08/20/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Tanaka, Hiroshi, Watanabe, Mikio, Tsubaki, Hisayoshi
• Granted Patent: US 7,289,236 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/1.9
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00127 Connection or combination of a still picture apparatus with another apparatus, e.g. for storage, processing or transmission of still picture signals or of information associated with a still picture
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00204 with a digital computer or a digital computer system, e.g. an internet server programmed control between transmitter and receiver or between image input and image output device H04N1/32561
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00307 with a mobile telephone apparatus constructional features of portable telephone sets H04M1/0202; mobile radio systems H04W84/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/2112 using still video cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/2158 using a detachable storage unit
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32128 attached to the image data, e.g. file header, transmitted message header, information on the same page or in the same computer file as the image for information embedded in the image H04N1/32144
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0039 Connection via a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0041 Point to point H04N2201/0039 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0053 Optical, e.g. using an infrared link
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0055 By radio
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0058 Docking-station, cradle or the like
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0065 Converting image data to a format usable by the connected apparatus or vice versa
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3214 of a date
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3215 of a time or duration
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3226 of identification information or the like, e.g. ID code, index, title, part of an image, reduced-size image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3243 of type information, e.g. handwritten or text document
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/325 Modified version of the image, e.g. part of the image, image reduced in size or resolution, thumbnail or screennail
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3252 Image capture parameters, e.g. resolution, illumination conditions, orientation of the image capture device H04N2201/3256 and subgroups take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3253 Position information, e.g. geographical position at time of capture, GPS data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3277 The additional information being stored in the same storage device as the image data

Abstract

The image management apparatus, image management program, and image management method are provided for obtaining image and sending it to a communication device or recording it in a recording medium if the image to be obtained has a larger amount of information than a prerecorded image and is closer to the original image. There are provided a recording device for associating and recording an image with the identification and image properties of the image, a sending and receiving device for obtaining an image, the identification and image properties of the image from a communication apparatus through a communication device, an information processing device for reading image properties stored in the recording device based on the identification of the image obtained by the sending and receiving device and comparing them with the obtained image properties, and a sending and receiving device for outputting the obtained image to the communication apparatus if the comparison by the information processing device shows that the obtained image properties have a larger amount of information than that of the recorded image properties.

Claims

1. An image management apparatus which obtains an image from a communication apparatus through a communication device or from a recording medium and outputs the image to another communication apparatus through a communication device or to a recording medium, the image management apparatus comprising:

a recording device which associates and records an image with an identification of the image and an image property of the image, such as information on a number of pixels, a compression rate of the image, information indicating whether the image is compressed or not, an amount of information contained in the image after RGB or YCC sampling is applied to the image or an amount of image data;

an obtaining device which obtains the image and the identification and the image property of the image from the communication apparatus through the communication device or the recording medium;

a comparison device which reads the image property recorded in the recording device based on the identification of the image obtained by the obtaining device to compare the read image property with the obtained property; and

an output device which outputs the obtained image to a communication apparatus through the communication device or to a recording medium if it is determined as a result of the comparison by the comparison device that the obtained image property indicates a larger number of pixels, a lower compression rate, a non-compressed image, a larger amount of sampled information, or a larger amount of image data.

2. The image management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the output device outputs an image to the recording medium and deletes an image associated and recorded in the recording medium with the same identification as the identification of the image to be output when outputting the image to the recording medium.

3. The image management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the output device outputs an image to the recording medium and, if it is not determined as the result of the comparison by the comparison device that the obtained image property indicates a smaller number of pixels, a higher compression rate, a compressed image, a smaller amount of sampled information, or a smaller amount of image data, outputs the obtained image to another communication apparatus through the communication device or to the recording medium and retains the image associated and recorded in the recording medium with the same identification as the identification of the outputted image.

4. An image management apparatus which obtains an image from a communication apparatus through a communication device or from a recording medium and outputs the image to another communication apparatus through a communication device or to a recording medium, the image management apparatus comprising:

an obtaining device which obtains an image and an identification of the image from a communication apparatus through a communication device or from the recording medium;

an image conversion device which applies, to the obtained image, image conversion such as pixel count change, compression rate change, image compression, image sampling criterion change such as RGB or YCC, or aspect ratio change;

an identification assigning device which retains the identification of the image obtained by the obtaining device and assigns the identification to the converted image after the image conversion is applied to the image; and

an output device which outputs the image converted by the image conversion device and the identification of the image assigned to the image by the identification assigning device to a communication apparatus through the communication device or to a recording medium.

5. The image management apparatus according to claim 4, wherein if a new image is generated or created by shooting a subject, combining a plurality of images, or trimming the length and width of an original image, the identification assigning device generates a new identification and assigns the new identification to the image, and

the output device outputs the generated or created image and the identification of the image assigned to the image by the identification assigning device to the communication apparatus through the communication device or to the recording medium.

6. An image management program running on an information processing device in an image management apparatus comprising a recording device which associates and records an image with an identification and image property of an image, an obtaining device which obtains the image, the identification and image property of the image, a comparison device which reads the image property recorded on the recording device to compare the read image property with the obtained image property, an output device which outputs an image obtained based on a result of the comparison, and the information processing device capable of controlling the recording device, obtaining device, comparison device, and output device, the image management program obtaining an image from a communication apparatus through a communication device or from a recording medium and outputting the image to another communication apparatus through a communication device or to a recording medium, wherein the image management program causes the image processing device to provide the functions of:

the recording device which associates and records an image with the identification of the image and an image property of the image, such as information on a number of pixels and a compression rate of the image, information indicating whether the image is compressed or not, an amount of information contained in the image after RGB or YCC sampling is applied to the image or an amount of image data;

the obtaining device which obtains the image, the identification of the image and the image property of the image from a communication apparatus through the communication device or a recording medium;

the comparison device which reads the image property recorded in the recording device based on the identification of the image obtained by the obtaining device to compare the read image property with the obtained property; and

the output device which outputs the obtained image to a communication apparatus through the communication device or to a recording medium if it is determined as the result of the comparison by the comparison device that the obtained image property indicates a larger number of pixels, a lower compression rate, a non-compressed image, a larger amount of sampled information, or a larger amount of image data.

7. An image management program running on an image processing device in an image management apparatus comprising an obtaining device which obtains an image and an identification of the image, an image conversion device which applies image conversion to the obtained image, an identification assigning device which retains the identification of the image and assigns the identification to the converted image after the image conversion is applied to the image, an output device which outputs the converted image and the identification of the image, and an information processing device which controls the obtaining device, image conversion device, identification assigning device, and output device, the image management program obtaining an image from a communication apparatus through a communication device or from a recording medium and outputting the image to another communication apparatus through a communication device or to a recording medium, wherein the image management program causes the image processing device to provide the functions of:

the obtaining device which obtains an image and the identification of the image from a communication apparatus through the communication device or from a recording medium;

the image conversion device which applies image conversion such as pixel count change, compression rate change, image compression, image sampling criterion change such as RGB or YCC, or aspect ratio change to the obtained image;

the identification assigning device which retains the identification of the image obtained by the obtaining device and assigns the identification to the converted image after the image conversion is applied to the image; and

the output device which outputs the image converted by the image conversion device and the identification of the image assigned to the image by the identification assigning device to a communication apparatus through the communication device or to a recording medium.

8. An image management method for obtaining an image from a communication apparatus through a communication device or from a recording medium and outputting the image to another communication apparatus through a communication device or to a recording medium, the method being performed in an information processing device in an image management apparatus comprising a recording device which associates and records an image with an identification and image property of an image, an obtaining device which obtains the image and the identification and image property of the image, a comparison device which reads the image property recorded on the recording device to compare the read image property with the obtained image property, and an output device which outputs an image obtained based on a result of the comparison, the method comprising the steps of:

associating and recording in the recording device an image with the identification of the image and an image property of the image, such as information on a number of pixels and a compression rate of the image, information indicating whether the image is compressed or not, an amount of information contained in the image after RGB or YCC sampling is applied to the image or an amount of image data;

obtaining by the obtaining device the image, the identification of the image and an image property of the image from a communication apparatus through the communication device or the recording medium;

reading by the comparison device the image property recorded in the recording device based on the identification of the image obtained by the obtaining device to compare the read image property with the obtained property; and

outputting the obtained image to a communication apparatus through the communication device or to a recording medium by the output device if it is determined as the result of the comparison by the comparison device that the obtained image property indicates a larger number of pixels, a lower compression rate, a non-compressed image, a larger amount of sampled information, or a larger amount of image data.

9. An image management method for obtaining an image from a communication apparatus through a communication device or from a recording medium and outputting the image to another communication apparatus through a communication device or to a recording medium, the method being performed in an information processing device in an image management apparatus comprising an obtaining device which obtains an image and an identification of the image, an image conversion device which applies image conversion to the obtained image, an identification assigning device which retains the identification of the image and assigns the identification to the converted image after the image conversion is applied to the image, and an output device which outputs the converted image and the identification of the image, the method comprising the steps of:

obtaining by the obtaining device an image and the identification of the image from a communication apparatus through the communication device or from a recording medium;

applying by the image conversion device image conversion such as pixel count change, compression rate change, image compression, image sampling criterion change such as RGB or YCC, or aspect ratio change to the obtained image;

retaining by the identification assigning device the identification of the image obtained by the obtaining device and assigning the identification to the converted image after the image conversion is applied to the image; and

outputting by the output device the image converted by the image conversion device and the identification assigned to the image by the identification assigning device to a communication apparatus through the communication device or to a recording medium.