CAMERA-FITTED INFORMATION RETRIEVAL DEVICE

• US 20090096875A1
• Filed: 01/15/2008
• Published: 04/16/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Tsukada, Yujin, Yoshimaru, Takashi
• Granted Patent: US 8,416,309 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/207.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/583 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/176 Urban or other man-made structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 2201/10 Recognition assisted with metadata
• 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 1/00424 using a list of graphical elements, e.g. icons or icon bar
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00427 using a menu list H04N1/00421, H04N1/00424, H04N1/00429 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/0044 for image preview or review, e.g. to help the user position a sheet
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00477 Indicating status, e.g. of a job for control or supervision between transmitter and receiver or between image input and image output device H04N2201/3219
• 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 2101/00 Still video cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3222 of processing required or performed, e.g. forwarding, urgent or confidential handling
• 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 2201/3252 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 2201/3254 Orientation, e.g. landscape or portrait; Location or order of the image data, e.g. in memory
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3274 Storage or retrieval of prestored additional information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3278 Transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/765 Interface circuits between an apparatus for recording and another apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/772 the recording apparatus and the television camera being placed in the same enclosure
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8205 involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the colour video signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8715 : involving the mixing of the reproduced video signal with a non-recorded signal, e.g. a text signal

Abstract

When instructions for retrieval is given in a portable information device, together with a camera image obtained by a camera, additional information including position information provided by a CPS device, orientation information of the camera provided by a geomagnetic sensor, lens focal length information and photographing magnification information of the camera is transmitted to a retrieval service server. The retrieval service server, based on the additional information, retrieves a target within a photographing range from the current position of the camera, and recognizes the target by image recognition or character recognition of the camera image, and returns these target-related information as a retrieval result to the portable information device. The portable information device, by specifying a desired target based on the retrieval result, can acquire contents of this target from a contents service server.

Claims

1. A camera-fitted information retrieval device comprising:

a camera for photographing;

a display section;

a position detector detecting a current position; and

an orientation detector detecting orientation of the camera,

further including;

means for transmitting to a server a camera image of the camera and additional information including position information detected by the position detector, orientation information detected by the orientation detector, and lens focal length information and photographing magnification information of the camera and then requesting for retrieval of at least one target within a photographing range of the camera image;

means for receiving from the server retrieval results related to a target within the photographing range of the camera detected based on the additional information or a target detected based on information in the camera image; and

a processor processing the received retrieval results and causing a retrieval screen for each of the targets to be displayed on a display screen of the display section,

wherein, on the retrieval screen, selection information corresponding to the target is displayed on an individual target basis and the selection information is selected, allowing acquiring detailed information related to the corresponding target.

2. The camera-fitted information retrieval device according to claim 1,

wherein, on the display screen, the camera image is displayed, and also item marks for the respective targets are arrayed and displayed as the selection information, and a target mark corresponding to the item mark is displayed at a position where the target is present in the camera image, so that the item mark and the target on the camera image corresponding to the item mark are associated with each other.

3. The camera-fitted information retrieval device according to claim 1,

wherein, on the display screen, the camera image is displayed, and item marks as the selection information are displayed for the respective targets, and

wherein the item marks for the respective targets are displayed at positions of the corresponding targets in the camera image.

4. The camera-fitted information retrieval device according to claim 1,

wherein, based on the retrieval results of the server, contents type indexes indicating contents types of the target corresponding to the selected selection information are arrayed and displayed, and any of the contents type indexes is selected, allowing retrieval of contents of the type corresponding to the selected contents type index.

5. The camera-fitted information retrieval device according to claim 2,

wherein, based on the retrieval results of the server, contents type indexes indicating contents types of the target corresponding to the selected selection information are arrayed and displayed, and any of the contents type indexes is selected, allowing retrieval of contents of the type corresponding to the selected contents type index.

6. The camera-fitted information retrieval device according to claim 3,

wherein, based on the retrieval results of the server, contents type indexes indicating contents types of the target corresponding to the selected selection information are arrayed and displayed, and any of the contents type indexes is selected, allowing retrieval of contents of the type corresponding to the selected contents type index.

7. The camera-fitted information retrieval device according to claim 1,

wherein a storage is provided which stores and saves the camera image and the additional information, or the camera image, the additional information, and the retrieval results provided by the server.

8. The camera-fitted information retrieval device according to claim 2,

wherein a storage is provided which stores and saves the camera image and the additional information, or the camera image, the additional information, and the retrieval results provided by the server.

9. The camera-fitted information retrieval device according to claim 3,

wherein a storage is provided which stores and saves the camera image and the additional information, or the camera image, the additional information, and the retrieval results provided by the server.

10. The camera-fitted information retrieval device according to claim 4,

wherein a storage is provided which stores and saves the camera image and the additional information, or the camera image, the additional information, and the retrieval results provided by the server.

11. The camera-fitted information retrieval device according to claim 7,

wherein the retrieval on the server can be performed by using the camera image and the additional information saved in the storage

12. The camera-fitted information retrieval device according to claim 7,

wherein means for transmitting the camera image and the additional information saved in the storage to another information retrieval device is provided.