Digital pictorial book system, pictorial book searching method, and machine readable medium storing thereon pictorial book searching program

• US 20050185861A1
• Filed: 02/09/2005
• Published: 08/25/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/20/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fuji Photo Film Co Limited (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Kudoh, Yoshimitsu
• Granted Patent: US 7,450,759 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/305
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/583 using metadata automatically derived from the content

Abstract

A digital pictorial book system for searching for and providing to a user with an explanation of an object captured by an image capturing module includes an image capturing module for taking an image; a main object selecting module for selecting a main object out of the image; a feature extracting module for extracting a feature of the main object; an image databases electing module for selecting an image database which stores a feature of a kind extracted by the feature extracting module out of a plurality of image databases which store explanations of objects corresponded to a plurality kinds of different features of the objects; and an explanation searching module for searching for the explanation of the main object in the selected image database.

Claims

1. A digital pictorial book system for searching for and providing to a user with an explanation of an object captured by a image capturing module comprising:

a image capturing module for taking an image;

a main object selecting module for selecting a main object out of the image;

a feature extracting module for extracting a feature of the main object;

an image database selecting module for selecting an image database which stores a feature of a kind extracted by said feature extracting module out of a plurality of image databases which store explanations of objects corresponded to a plurality kinds of different features of the objects; and

an explanation searching module for searching for the explanation of the main object in the image database selected by said image database selecting module by using the feature extracted by said feature extracting module.

2. A digital pictorial book system as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a second feature extracting module for extracting a feature of an object other than the main object out of the image,

wherein said database selecting module selects an image database further stores a feature of a kind extracted by said second feature extracting module for the object other than the main object out of a plurality of image databases storing explanations of objects further corresponded to features of a thing having a high relevance with the object, and

said explanation searching module searches for the explanation of the main object in the image database selected by said image database selecting module by further using a feature of the object other than the main object.

3. A digital pictorial book system as claimed in claim 1 further comprising annexed information acquiring module for acquiring annexed information annexed to the image,

wherein said image database selecting module selects the image database further storing the annexed information of the kind gotten by said annexed information acquiring module out of the plurality of image databases storing the explanation of the object further corresponded to the annexed information annexed to the image of the object, and

said explanation searching module searches for the explanation of the main object in the image database selected by said image database selecting module by further using the annexed information gotten by said annexed information acquiring module.

4. A digital pictorial book system as claimed in claim 3 wherein,

said annexed information acquiring module acquires the capture day and/or time as the annexed information,

said image database selecting module selects an image database storing the explanation of the object further corresponded to a range of capture day and/or time of the object out of the plurality of image database, and

said explanation searching module searches for the explanation of the object corresponded to the range comprising the capture day and/or time gotten by said annexed information acquiring module as that of the main object in the image database selected by the image database selecting module.

5. A digital pictorial book system as claimed in claim 4, wherein at least a part of the plurality of image databases stores the explanation of the only object corresponded to a predetermined range.

6. A digital pictorial book system as claimed in claim 5, wherein at least a part of the plurality of image databases stores the explanation of the only object corresponded to a predetermined season.

7. A digital pictorial book system as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a feature selecting module for selecting a feature of a predetermined kind out of all kinds of features extracted by said feature extracting module from the main object,

wherein said image database selecting module comprises:

a first image database selecting module for selecting a first image database storing the feature of the predetermined kind; and

a second image database selecting module for selecting a second image database storing the feature of another kind, and

said explanation searching module comprises;

a first searching module for searching for the explanation of the main object by using the feature of the predetermined kind in the first image database; and

a second searching module for searching for the explanation of the main object by the feature of another kind in the second image database.

8. A digital pictorial book system as claimed in claim 7, wherein said feature selecting module selects the feature of the predetermined kind out of features of at least a part of kinds extracted based on the certainty higher than a predetermined reference value out of all kinds of features extracted by feature extracting module from the main object, and selects a feature of a kind other than the feature of the predetermined kind out of features of at least the part of kinds as the feature of another kind.

9. A digital pictorial book system as claimed in claim 7, wherein

said first image database selecting module selects an image database, in which said first searching module can search for the explanation of the main object with higher accuracy by using the feature of the predetermined kind, as the first image database with higher priority out of the plurality of image databases, and

said second image database selecting module selects an image database, in which said second searching module can search for the explanation of the main object with higher accuracy by using the feature of another kind, as the second image database with higher priority out of the plurality of image databases.

10. A digital pictorial book system as claimed in claim 9, wherein

said first image database selecting module selects an image database storing more objects, of which explanations are stored there to be corresponded to the feature of the predetermined kind, than others as the first image database with higher priority out of the plurality of image databases, and

said second image database selecting module selects an image database storing more objects, of which explanations are stored there to be corresponded to the feature of another kind, than others as the second image database with higher priority out of the plurality of image databases.

11. A digital pictorial book system as claimed in claim 10, wherein

each of said first and second image database selecting modules gets the number of the objects, of which the image databases stores explanations corresponded to features of the objects, from each of the plurality of image databases for each of the plurality kinds of features.

12. A digital pictorial book system as claimed in claim 7, wherein

said feature selecting module selects the feature of the predetermined kind out of all kinds of features in case the image database storing all kinds of features is not comprised in the plurality of image databases.

13. A digital pictorial book system as claimed in claim 7, wherein

said feature selecting module selects the feature of the predetermined kind out of all kinds of features in case the object searched for by using all kinds of features does not exist in any of the plurality of image databases.

14. A digital pictorial book system as claimed in claim 7, wherein

said explanation searching module further comprises:

an overlapped object selecting module for selecting an overlapped object which is searched out by both the first and second image databases; and

an explanation retrieving module for retrieving an explanation of the overlapped object stored in both the first and second image databases and providing the user with the explanation.

15. A digital pictorial book system as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a display module for displaying the explanation, wherein said explanation searching module comprises:

a transmitting module for transmitting the feature to the image database provided outside; and

a receiving module for receiving the explanation searched out in the image database.

16. A digital pictorial book system for searching for and explaining a content of an object captured by a image capturing module comprising:

a image capturing module for taking an image;

a main object selecting module for selecting a main object out of the image;

a feature extracting module for extracting a feature of the main object;

a plurality of image databases which store explanations of objects corresponded to plurality kinds of different features of the objects;

an image database selecting module for selecting an image database which stores a feature of a kind extracted by said feature extracting module out of the plurality of image databases; and

an explanation searching module for searching for the explanation of the main object in the image database selected by said image database selecting module by using the feature extracted by said feature extracting module.

17. A digital pictorial book searching method for searching for and providing to a user with an explanation of an object captured by a image capturing module comprising:

a image capturing step of taking an image;

a main object selecting step of selecting a main object out of the image;

a feature extracting step of extracting a feature of the main object;

an image database selecting step of selecting an image database which stores a feature of a kind extracted by said feature extracting step out of a plurality of image databases which store explanations of objects corresponded to a plurality kinds of different features of the objects; and

an explanation searching module for searching for the explanation of the main object in the image database selected by said image database selecting step by using the feature extracted by said feature extracting step.

18. A digital pictorial book searching method as claimed in claim 17 further comprising a feature selecting step of selecting a feature of a predetermined kind out of all kinds of features extracted by said feature extracting step from the main object,

wherein said image database selecting step comprises:

a first image database selecting step of selecting a first image database storing the feature of the predetermined kind; and

a second image database selecting step of selecting a second image database storing the feature of another kind, and

said explanation searching step comprises;

a first searching step of searching for the explanation of the main object by using the feature of the predetermined kind in the first image database; and

a second searching step of searching for the explanation of the main object by the feature of another kind in the second image database.

19. A digital pictorial book searching method as claimed in claim 18, wherein, during said feature selecting step, the feature of the predetermined kind is selected out of all kinds of features in case the image database storing all kinds of features is not comprised in the plurality of image databases.

20. A machine readable medium storing thereon a computer program making a computer perform as a digital pictorial book system for searching for and providing to a user with an explanation of an object captured by an image capturing module, said digital pictorial book system comprising:

a image capturing module for taking an image;

a main object selecting module for selecting a main object out of the image;

a feature extracting module for extracting a feature of the main object;

an image database selecting module for selecting an image data base which stores a feature of a kind extracted by said feature extracting module out of a plurality of image databases which store explanations of objects corresponded to a plurality kinds of different features of the objects; and

an explanation searching module for searching for the explanation of the main object in the image database selected by said image database selecting module by using the feature extracted by said feature extracting module.

21. A machine readable medium as claimed in claim 20, wherein

said digital pictorial book system further comprises a feature selecting module for selecting a feature of a predetermined kind out of all kinds of features extracted by said feature extracting module from the main object,

said image database selecting module comprises:

a first image database selecting module for selecting a first image database storing the feature of the predetermined kind; and

a second image database selecting module for selecting a second image database storing the feature of another kind, and

said explanation searching module comprises;

a first searching module for searching for the explanation of the main object by using the feature of the predetermined kind in the first image database; and

a second searching module for searching for the explanation of the main object by the feature of another kind in the second image database.

22. A machine readable medium as claimed in claim 21, wherein

said feature selecting module selects the feature of the predetermined kind out of all kinds of features in case the image database storing all kinds of features is not comprised in the plurality of image databases.