Information processing apparatus, method and program

• US 20080089593A1
• Filed: 09/18/2007
• Published: 04/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Ohwa, Tsunayuki
• Granted Patent: US 8,041,154 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/225
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually

Abstract

An information processing apparatus includes clustering means for performing clustering on multiple images so as to more strongly connect the images at a closer distance based on the distances determined by metadata of the images, and grouping means for grouping the images such that the number of images of each group can be equal to or lower than a predetermined number of images in accordance with the strength of connection among the images.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus comprising:

clustering means for performing clustering on multiple images so as to more strongly connect the images at a closer distance based on the distances determined by metadata of the images; and

grouping means for grouping the images such that the number of images of each group can be equal to or lower than a predetermined number of images in accordance with the strength of connection among the images.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the metadata describes the shot times when the images are shot;

the distance refers to the time interval between the shot times;

the clustering means performs clustering on the multiple images by connecting the images in a binary tree structure so as to reduce the number of nodes among the images with smaller time intervals between the shot times based on the shot times when the images are shot; and

the grouping means groups the images by dividing the binary tree to which the images are connected into subtrees to which a predetermined or smaller number of images are connected.

3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising:

correcting means for correcting the numbers of images contained in adjacent subtrees of the divided subtrees when the numbers of images, which are shot within a predetermined time range and are contained in the adjacent subtrees, are unbalanced.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein;

the metadata describes shot places where the images are shot; and

the distance refers to the physical distance between/among the shot places.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the metadata describes a keyword relating to each of the images; and

the distance refers to the degree of similarity between/among the keywords.

6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

creating means for creating contents in which the grouped images are laid out in groups.

7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the creating means defines the layout of the images in the contents to display the contents based on the number of the grouped images.

8. The information processing apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising:

display control means for controlling the display of contents.

9. An information processing method comprising the steps of:

performing clustering on multiple images so as to more strongly connect the images at a closer distance based on the distances determined by metadata of the images; and

grouping the images such that the number of images of each group can be equal to or lower than a predetermined number of images in accordance with the strength of connection among the images.

10. A program comprising the steps of:

performing clustering on multiple images so as to more strongly connect the images at a closer distance based on the distances determined by metadata of the images; and

grouping the images such that the number of images of each group can be equal to or lower than a predetermined number of images in accordance with the strength of connection among the images.

11. An information processing apparatus comprising:

a clustering section performing clustering on multiple images so as to more strongly connect the images at a closer distance based on the distances determined by metadata of the images; and

a grouping processing section grouping the images such that the number of images of each group can be equal to or lower than a predetermined number of images in accordance with the strength of connection among the images.