Album generating apparatus, album generating method and computer readable medium

• US 20080089590A1
• Filed: 09/13/2007
• Published: 04/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fuji Photo Film Co Limited (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Funakura, Hiroyuki, Isomura, Ayumu, Kaneko, Yasuhiko, Ono, Shuji, Yoshihara, Hideaki, Matsushita, Masahiro, Tachikawa, Kimiko, Zetsu, Shinsuke, Nenoki, Yasuyo
• Granted Patent: US 8,055,080 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00135 Scanning of a photographic original
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00137 Transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00169 Digital image input
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00193 to a portable storage medium, e.g. a read-writable compact disk
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00196 Creation of a photo-montage, e.g. photoalbum H04N1/0019 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00198 Creation of a soft photo presentation, e.g. digital slide-show
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0039 Connection via a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0084 Digital still camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3225 of data relating to an image, a page or a document
• 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

Abstract

There is provided an album whose contents of images is well balanced. An album generating apparatus has an image storing section for storing a plurality of images, an image sorting section for sorting the plurality of images stored in the image storing section per event based on image capturing environments, a main image selecting section for selecting a main image that is to be a primary image in the album out of the plurality of images stored in the image storing section per event sorted by the image sorting section, a subsidiary image selecting section for selecting subsidiary images that are to be images subsidiary to the main image selected by the main image selecting section in the album out of the plurality of images stored in the image storing section per event sorted by the image sorting section based on the contents of the main image selected by the main image selecting section and a layout determining section for determining a layout of the main image selected by the main image selecting section and the subsidiary images selected by the subsidiary image selecting section based on the contents of the main image selected by the main image selecting section and the subsidiary images selected by the subsidiary image selecting section.

Claims

1. An album generating apparatus, comprising:

an image storing section for storing a plurality of images;

a main image selecting section for selecting a main image that is to be a primary image in an album out of the plurality of images stored in said image storing section;

a subsidiary image selecting section for selecting subsidiary images that are to be images subsidiary to the main image selected by said main image selecting section in the album out of the plurality of images stored in said image storing section based on the contents of the main image selected by said main image selecting section; and

a layout determining section for determining a layout of the main image selected by said main image selecting section and the subsidiary images selected by said subsidiary image selecting section based on the contents of the main image selected by said main image selecting section and the subsidiary images selected by said subsidiary image selecting section.

2. The album generating apparatus as set forth in claim 1, further comprising:

an image sorting section for sorting the plurality of images stored in said image storing section per event based on image capturing environments;

wherein

said main image selecting section selects each main image per event sorted by said image sorting section; and

said subsidiary image selecting section selects the subsidiary images respectively per event sorted by said image sorting section.

3. The album generating apparatus as set forth in claim 2, wherein

said image sorting section sorts the plurality of images stored in said image storing section per page in the album in accordance to image capturing times.

4. The album generating apparatus as set forth in claim 2, wherein

said image sorting section sorts the plurality of images stored in said image storing section per page in the album in accordance to image capturing positions.

5. The album generating apparatus as set forth in claim 2, further comprising:

a similarity calculating section for calculating similarity of the main image selected by said main image selecting section with each of other images sorted in the same event with the main image selected by said main image selecting section;

wherein

said subsidiary image selecting section selects images whose similarity with the main image selected by said main image selecting section is small as subsidiary images per event sorted by said image sorting section.

6. The album generating apparatus as set forth in claim 2, wherein

said subsidiary image selecting section selects images containing a subject different from a subject of the main image selected by said main image selecting section as subsidiary images.

7. The album generating apparatus as set forth in claim 2, wherein

said subsidiary image selecting section selects as subsidiary images, images containing a person different from a person in the main image selected by said main image selecting section as a subject.

8. The album generating apparatus as set forth in claim 2, wherein

said subsidiary image selecting section selects more subsidiary images when a number of images belonging to the event sorted by said image sorting section is large.

9. The album generating apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein

said layout determining section has a size determining section for determining sizes of the main image selected by said main image selecting section and of subsidiary images selected by said subsidiary image selecting section in the album.

10. The album generating apparatus as set forth in claim 9, wherein

said size determining section determines the size of the main image selected by said main image selecting section to be bigger than the size of the subsidiary images selected by said subsidiary image selecting section.

11. The album generating apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein

said layout determining section has a disposition determining section for determining disposition of the main image selected by said main image selecting section and the subsidiary images selected by said subsidiary image selecting section.

12. The album generating apparatus as set forth in claim 1, further comprising:

a main person inputting section for causing one to input an image containing a main person in the album among the plurality of images stored in said image storing section and position of the main person in the image;

a main person specifying section for specifying an image of the main person from the images containing the main person and the position thereof inputted from said main person inputting section; and

a main person image selecting section for selecting images containing the main person out of the plurality of images stored in said image storing section by comparing the image of the main person specified by said main person specifying section with subjects contained in the plurality of images stored in said image storing section;

wherein

said main image selecting section selects a main image out of the images selected by said main person image selecting section.

13. The album generating apparatus as set forth in claim 12, wherein

said main person inputting section causes one to input an image containing a first main person and position of the first main person in the image as well as an image containing a second main person and position of the second main person in the image;

said main person specifying section specifies the images of the first and second main persons from the image containing the first main person and the position thereof and the image containing the second main person and the position thereof inputted from said main person inputting section;

said main person image selecting section selects images containing the first main person and images containing the second main person out of the plurality of images stored in said image storing section by comparing the images of the first and second main persons specified by said main person specifying section with the subjects contained in the plurality of images stored in said image storing section;

said main image selecting section selects a main image out of the images containing the first main person and the images containing the second main person selected by said main person image selecting section;

said subsidiary image selecting section selects a subsidiary image that is subsidiary to the main image selected by said main image selecting section in the album out of the plurality of images stored in said image storing section based on the contents of the subsidiary image selected by said subsidiary image selecting section; and

said layout determining section determines a layout of said main image and said subsidiary image so that a number of the first and second main persons contained in the plurality of images laid out in one and same page becomes almost equal.

14. The album generating apparatus as set forth in claim 12, wherein

said main person inputting section causes one to input an image containing a first main person and position of the first main person in the image as well as an image containing a second main person and position of the second main person in the image;

said main person specifying section specifies the images of the first and second main persons from the image containing the first main person and the position thereof and the image containing the second main person and the position thereof inputted from said main person inputting section;

said main person image selecting section selects images containing the first main person and images containing the second main person out of the plurality of images stored in said image storing section by comparing the images of the first and second main persons specified by said main person specifying section with the subjects contained in the plurality of images stored in said image storing section;

said main image selecting section selects a main image out of the images containing the first main person and the images containing the second main person selected by said main person image selecting section;

said subsidiary image selecting section selects a subsidiary image that is subsidiary to the main image selected by said main image selecting section in the album out of the plurality of images stored in said image storing section based on the contents of the subsidiary image selected by said subsidiary image selecting section;

said layout determining section determines a layout of said main image and said subsidiary image so that a number of the first and second main persons contained in the plurality of images laid out in one and same page becomes almost equal; and

said layout determining section determines such layout that an area of the first main person and an area of the second main person contained in the page of the album containing the first and second main persons become almost equal.

15. The album generating apparatus as set forth in claim 1, further comprising:

a template storing section for storing a template of the album containing said plurality of images;

a characteristic color sampling section for sampling a characteristic color out of a plurality of colors contained in the main image selected by said main image selecting section; and

a template coloring determining section for determining coloring of the template of the album containing said plurality of images based on the characteristic color sampled by said characteristic color sampling section.

16. The album generating apparatus as set forth in claim 1, further comprising:

an image sorting section for sorting the plurality of images stored in said image storing section per page in the album corresponding to image capturing conditions when the images were captured;

wherein

said main image selecting section selects each main image per image capturing conditions sorted by said image sorting section; and

said subsidiary image selecting section selects each subsidiary image per image capturing condition sorted by said image sorting section.

17. The album generating apparatus as set forth in claim 16, wherein said image sorting section sorts the plurality of images stored in said image storing section per page in the album in accordance to shutter speed when the images were captured.

18. The album generating apparatus as set forth in claim 2, further comprising:

a light source specifying section for specifying a type of a main light source when the image was captured from the contents of image of the plurality of images stored in said image storing section;

wherein

said image sorting section sorts the plurality of images stored in said image storing section per page of the album in accordance to the type of the light source specified by said light source specifying section.

19. The album generating apparatus as set forth in claim 1, further comprising:

a compositional similarity calculating section for calculating a degree of compositional similarity among the plurality of images stored in said image storing section; and

an image sorting section for sorting images whose similarity was calculated by said compositional similarity calculating section to be high in the same page in the album;

wherein

said layout determining section lays out the page by using images calculated by said compositional similarity calculating section to be low out of the plurality of images sorted in the same page by said image sorting section.

20. An album generating method, comprising:

an image storing step of storing a plurality of images;

a main image selecting step of selecting a main image that is to be a primary image in an album out of the plurality of images stored in said image storing step;

a subsidiary image selecting step of selecting subsidiary images that are to be images subsidiary to the main image selected in said main image selecting step in the album out of the plurality of images stored in said image storing step based on the contents of the main image selected in said main image selecting step; and

a layout determining step of determining a layout of the main image selected in said main image selecting step and the subsidiary images selected in said subsidiary image selecting step based on the contents of the main image selected in said main image selecting step and the subsidiary images selected in said subsidiary image selecting step.

21. A computer readable medium storing thereon a program for an album generating apparatus for generating an album, causing said album generating apparatus to function as:

an image storing section for storing a plurality of images;

a main image selecting section for selecting a main image that is to be a primary image in an album out of the plurality of images stored in said image storing section;

a subsidiary image selecting section for selecting subsidiary images that are to be images subsidiary to the main image selected by said main image selecting section in the album out of the plurality of images stored in said image storing section based on the contents of the main image selected by said main image selecting section; and

a layout determining section for determining a layout of the main image selected by said main image selecting section and the subsidiary images selected by said subsidiary image selecting section based on the contents of the main image selected by said main image selecting section and the subsidiary images selected by said subsidiary image selecting section.

22. An album generating apparatus, comprising:

an image storing section for storing a plurality of images;

a main person specifying section for specifying an image of a main person in the album out of the plurality of images stored in said image storing section;

a main person image sampling section for sampling a plurality of images of the main person which are subject images of the main person out of subject images contained in the plurality of images stored in said image storing section by comparing the image of the main person specified by said main person specifying section with the subject images contained in the plurality of images stored in said image storing section;

a posterization image selecting section for selecting an image suitable for a posterization process out of the plurality of images of the main person sampled by said main person image sampling section;

a posterization image generating section for generating a posterization image to be used in the album by applying the posterization process to the image selected by said posterization image selecting section; and

an album generating section for generating the album containing the image of the main person by using the posterization image generated by said posterization image generating section.

23. The album generating apparatus as set forth in claim 22, further comprising:

a main person inputting section for causing one to input an image containing a main person in the album out of the plurality of images stored in said image storing section and position of the main person in the image;

wherein

said main person specifying section specifies the image of the main person from the image containing the main person and the position thereof inputted from said main person inputting section.

24. The album generating apparatus as set forth in claim 22, further comprising:

a selection condition storing section for storing selection conditions for selecting an image suitable for posterization;

wherein

said posterization image selecting section selects a posterization image that conforms to the selection condition stored in said selection condition storing section.

25. The album generating apparatus as set forth in claim 24, wherein

said selection condition storing section stores selection conditions indicating a divergence of luminous distribution suitable for a posterization image;

and

said posterization image selecting section selects an image having a divergence of luminous distribution that conforms to the divergence of luminous distribution stored in said selection condition storing section.

26. The album generating apparatus as set forth in claim 25, further comprising:

a posterization gradation determining section for determining gradation of the posterization process;

wherein

said selection condition storing section stores selection conditions per gradation of posterization;

said posterization image selecting section selects a posterization image that conforms to the selection condition stored in said selection condition storing section by correlating with the gradation of the posterization image determined by said posterization gradation determining section; and

said posterization image generating section generates a posterization image to be used in the album by applying posterization to the image selected by said posterization image selecting section with the gradation determined by said posterization gradation determining section.

27. The album generating apparatus as set forth in claim 26, further comprising:

a color-to-be-used determining section for determining each character color to be used for characters defined by a template of each page of the album;

wherein

said posterization gradation determining section determines to increase the gradation of the posterization process when a number of colors to be used for the characters determined by said color-to-be-used determining section increases.

28. The album generating apparatus as set forth in claim 22, further comprising:

a color-to-be-used determining section for determining each character color to be used for characters defined by a template of each page of the album;

wherein

said posterization image generating section generates a posterization image having the character color determined by said color-to-be-used determining section by applying the posterization process to the image selected by said posterization image selecting section; and

said album generating section generates the album containing a page having a layout in which the posterization image generated by said posterization image generating section adjoins to the character for which the character color determined by said color-to-be-used determining section in each page is used.

29. The album generating apparatus as set forth in claim 22, further comprising:

an image-used-in-album selecting section for selecting a plurality of images to be used in the album out of the plurality of images stored in said image storing section;

wherein

said main person image sampling section samples a plurality of images of the main person which is subject images of the main person out of subject images contained in the plurality of images selected by said image-used-in-album selecting section; and

said posterization image selecting section selects an image suitable for posterization out of the plurality of images of the main person sampled by said main person image sampling section.

30. The album generating apparatus as set forth in claim 22, wherein

said album generating section disposes one posterization image generated by said posterization image generating section in a plurality of pages of the album.

31. The album generating apparatus as set forth in claim 30, wherein

said album generating section disposes one posterization image generated by said posterization image generating section at predetermined position of front cover and back cover pages of the album as well as of pages composing the album.

32. The album generating apparatus as set forth in claim 22, further comprising:

a characteristic value storing section for storing a characteristic value of the posterization image used in the album generated by said album generating section;

wherein

said posterization image generating section generates a posterization image having a characteristic value different from anyone of the characteristic value of posterization images stored in said characteristic value storing section when said album generating section generates a new album; and

said album generating section generates the new album by using the posterization image generated by said posterization image generating section.

33. An album generating method, comprising:

an image storing step of storing a plurality of images;

a main person specifying step of specifying an image of a main person in the album out of the plurality of images stored in said image storing step;

a main person image sampling step of sampling a plurality of images of the main person which are subject images of the main person out of subject images contained in the plurality of images stored in said image storing step by comparing the image of the main person specified in said main person specifying step with the subject images contained in the plurality of images stored in said image storing section;

a posterization image selecting step of selecting an image suitable for a posterization process out of the plurality of images of the main person sampled in said main person image sampling step;

a posterization image generating step of generating a posterization image to be used in the album by applying the posterization process to the image selected in said posterization image selecting step; and

an album generating step of generating the album containing the image of the main person by using the posterization image generated in said posterization image generating step.

34. A computer readable medium storing thereon a program for an album generating apparatus for generating an album, for causing said album generating apparatus to function as:

an image storing section for storing a plurality of images;

a main person specifying section for specifying an image of a main person in the album out of the plurality of images stored in said image storing section;

a main person image sampling section for sampling a plurality of images of the main person which are subject images of the main person out of subject images contained in the plurality of images stored in said image storing section by comparing the image of the main person specified by said main person specifying section with the subject images contained in the plurality of images stored in said image storing section;

a posterization image selecting section for selecting an image suitable for a posterization process out of the plurality of images of the main person sampled by said main person image sampling section;

a posterization image generating section for generating a posterization image to be used in the album by applying the posterization process to the image selected by said posterization image selecting section; and

an album generating section for generating the album containing the image of the main person by using the posterization image generated by said posterization image generating section.