INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING THE SAME, INFORMATION PROCESSING METHOD, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM

• US 20090125560A1
• Filed: 11/06/2008
• Published: 05/14/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Arai, Tsunekazu, Mori, Shigeki, Munekuni, Masaji
• Granted Patent: US 8,069,173 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 comprises, a storage unit configured to store image data and metadata of the image data, a reception unit configured to receive designation of at least two of the image data stored in the storage unit and designation of metadata to be newly added to the designated image data, a first selection unit configured to select, from the image data stored in the storage unit, other image data which has the same metadata as all metadata common to the designated image data, and a control unit configured to add the metadata to be newly added to the metadata of each of the designated image data and the selected other image data and storing the image data in the storage unit.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus comprising:

a storage unit configured to store image data and metadata of the image data;

a reception unit configured to receive designation of at least two of the image data stored in said storage unit and designation of metadata to be newly added to the designated image data;

a first selection unit configured to select, from the image data stored in said storage unit, other image data which has the same metadata as all metadata common to the designated image data; and

a control unit configured to add the metadata to be newly added to the metadata of each of the designated image data and the selected other image data and storing the image data in said storage unit.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a second selection unit configured to select image data of a first group added with first metadata and image data of a second group added with second metadata from the image data added with the metadata to be newly added; and

a comparison unit configured to compare first date data contained in the metadata of the image data of the first group with second date data contained in the metadata of the image data of the second group,

wherein said first selection unit selects, based on a comparison result of said comparison unit,

first other image data which has date data not later than date data of image data of a group having earlier date data and has the same metadata as all metadata common to the image data of the group except the date data, and

second other image data which has date data not earlier than date data of image data of a group having later date data and has the same metadata as all metadata common to the image data of the group except the date data,

when the group having the earlier date data is the first group, said control unit adds the first metadata to metadata of the first other image data and the second metadata to metadata of the second other image data and stores the image data in said storage unit, and

when the group having the earlier date data is the second group, said control unit adds the second metadata to the metadata of the first other image data and the first metadata to the metadata of the second other image data and stores the image data in said storage unit.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the date data is data of a shooting date of the image data.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the image data is image data generated by image sensing using a digital camera, and

the metadata contains Exif data containing at least one of a shooting date of the image data, a model name of the digital camera, an owner of the digital camera, a shutter speed, an aperture value, and information of a shooting location, and attribute information associated with the image data arbitrarily added by a user.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an object recognition unit configured to recognize an object contained in the designated image data,

wherein said first selection unit selects, from the image data stored in said storage unit, said other image data which has the same objects as all objects common to the designated image data.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said first selection unit selects said other image data by defining all metadata common to the designated image data as information of a shooting date and a shooting location of the image data.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising notification unit configured to notify a user of said other image data selected by said first selection means.

8. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein

said notification unit comprises cancel unit for canceling selection of image data selected as said other image data, and

said control unit adds the metadata to be newly added to metadata of said other image data whose selection is not canceled by said cancel unit and stores the image data in said storage unit.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising search unit configured to search for image data based on the metadata.

10. A method of controlling an information processing apparatus including a storage unit configured to store image data and metadata of the image data, comprising:

receiving designation of at least two of the image data stored in the storage unit and designation of metadata to be newly added to the designated image data;

selecting, from the image data stored in the storage unit, other image data which has the same metadata as all metadata common to the designated image data; and

adding the metadata to be newly added to the metadata of each of the designated image data and the selected other image data and storing the image data in the storage unit.

11. A computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program which causes a computer to function as an information processing apparatus comprising:

a storage unit configured to store image data and metadata of the image data;

a reception unit configured to receive designation of at least two of the image data stored in said storage unit and designation of metadata to be newly added to the designated image data;

a first selection unit configured to select, from the image data stored in said storage unit, other image data which has the same metadata as all metadata common to the designated image data; and

a control unit configured to add the metadata to be newly added to the metadata of each of the designated image data and the selected other image data and storing the image data in said storage unit.

12. An information processing apparatus comprising:

a data selection unit configured to select a plurality of data;

a common keyword extraction unit configured to extract a common keyword from the plurality of data selected by said data selection unit;

a data extraction unit configured to extract associated data based on the common keyword extracted by said common keyword extraction unit; and

a metadata candidate specifying unit configured to specify metadata candidates from metadata of the associated data extracted by said data extraction unit.

13. The apparatus according to claim 12, further comprising:

a candidate presentation unit configured to present the metadata candidates specified by said metadata candidate specifying unit;

a metadata selection unit configured to select, in accordance with a user operation, metadata from the metadata candidates presented by said candidate presentation unit; and

a metadata adding unit configured to add the metadata selected by said metadata selection unit to the plurality of data selected by said data selection unit.

14. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein said common keyword extraction unit extracts, as the common keyword, metadata common to the plurality of data selected by said data selection unit.

15. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein if metadata common to the plurality of data selected by said data selection unit does not exist, said common keyword extraction unit extracts each of the metadata of the plurality of data as the common keyword.

16. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein as the metadata candidates, said metadata candidate specifying unit specifies, out of metadata of the plurality of associated data extracted by said data extraction unit, metadata except metadata common to the plurality of associated data.

17. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein as the metadata candidates, said metadata candidate specifying unit specifies, out of metadata of the plurality of associated data extracted by said data extraction unit, metadata common to the plurality of associated data.

18. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein said metadata candidate specifying unit gives a priority order to, out of metadata of the plurality of associated data extracted by said data extraction unit, metadata common to the plurality of associated data in accordance with the number of associated data having the metadata, and specifies the metadata common to the plurality of associated data as the metadata candidates in accordance with the priory order.

19. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein as the metadata candidates, said metadata candidate specifying unit specifies, out of metadata of the plurality of associated data extracted by said data extraction unit, metadata common to all the plurality of associated data.

20. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein as the metadata candidates, said metadata candidate specifying unit specifies, out of metadata of the plurality of associated data extracted by said data extraction unit, metadata which are common to the plurality of associated data and common to some of the data selected by said data selection unit.

21. An information processing method of an information processing apparatus, comprising:

selecting a plurality of data;

extracting a common keyword from the plurality of data;

extracting associated data based on the common keyword; and

specifying metadata candidates from metadata of the associated data.

22. A computer-readable medium storing a program causing a computer to function as an information processing apparatus comprising:

a data selection unit configured to select a plurality of data;

a common keyword extraction unit configured to extract a common keyword from the plurality of data selected by said data selection unit;

a data extraction unit configured to extract associated data based on the common keyword extracted by said common keyword extraction unit; and

a metadata candidate specifying unit configured to specify metadata candidates from metadata of the associated data extracted by said data extraction unit.