IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, IMAGE PROCESSING PROGRAM AND IMAGE PROCESSING SYSTEM

• US 20100293224A1
• Filed: 10/28/2009
• Published: 11/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Moriwaki, Kenichi
• Granted Patent: US 8,819,117 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/434 using image data, e.g. images, photos, pictures taken by a user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/54 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/00 Electrically-operated educational appliances working with questions and answers G09B7/00; simulators G09B9/00; advertising or displaying in general G09F
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/125 the stations being mobile

Abstract

There is provided an image processing apparatus including: a position information extraction unit that extracts position information from image data selected by a user; a communication control unit that exchanges data with various servers via a communication network; a map image acquisition unit that acquires a map image corresponding to the position information, extracted by the position information extraction unit, from a map information providing server; a landmark information acquisition unit that acquires landmark information corresponding to the position information, extracted by the position information extraction unit, from a landmark information providing server; an associated image acquisition unit that acquires an associated image corresponding to the landmark information, acquired by the landmark information acquisition unit, from an image sharing server; and a display unit that displays the image data selected by the user, the map image, the landmark information and the associated image.

Claims

1. An image processing apparatus comprising:

a position information extraction unit that extracts position information from image data selected by a user;

a communication control unit that exchanges data, via a communication network, with a map information providing server for providing map images, a landmark information providing server for providing landmark information on landmarks, and an image sharing server for providing a service of publicizing image data over the Internet;

a map image acquisition unit that transmits the position information extracted by the position information extraction unit to the map information providing server and acquires a map image corresponding to the extracted position information from the map information providing server, via the communication control unit;

a landmark information acquisition unit that transmits the position information extracted by the position information extraction unit to the landmark information providing server and acquires landmark information corresponding to the extracted position information from the landmark information providing server, via the communication control unit;

an associated image acquisition unit that transmits the landmark information acquired by the landmark information acquisition unit to the image sharing server and acquires an associated image corresponding to the acquired landmark information from the image sharing server, via the communication control unit; and

a display unit that displays the image data selected by the user, the map image acquired from the map information providing server, the landmark information acquired from the landmark information providing server and the associated image acquired from the image sharing server.

2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display unit displays the image data, the landmark information and the associated image to be overlapped on the map image acquired from the map information providing server at corresponding positions, respectively.

3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the display unit sequentially displays a plurality of associated images acquired by the associated image acquisition unit.

4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the display unit sequentially displays the associated images in an order from the nearest date to the photographing date of the image selected by the user, based on the photographing dates recorded in the associated images.

5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the landmark information acquired by the landmark information acquisition unit is information on landmarks present around the position corresponding to the position information extracted by the position information extraction unit.

6. The image processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the associated image acquired by the associated image acquisition unit is image data recording therein the landmark information acquired by the landmark information acquisition unit as tag information among the image data publicized over the Internet by the image sharing server.

7. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an image data upload control unit that adds the landmark information acquired by the landmark information acquisition unit to the image data selected by the user to transmit to the image sharing server and requests to publicize the image data with an image sharing service over the Internet provided by the image sharing server.

8. An image processing method comprising the steps of:

extracting a position information from image data selected by a user;

acquiring a map image, wherein the position information extracted in the step of extracting the position information is transmitted to a map information providing server for providing map images via a communication network and a map image corresponding to the extracted position information is acquired from the map information providing server;

acquiring a landmark information, wherein the position information extracted in the step of extracting the position information is transmitted to a landmark information providing server for providing landmark information on landmarks via the communication network and the landmark information corresponding to the extracted position information is acquired from the landmark information providing server;

acquiring an associated image acquisition, wherein the landmark information acquired in the step of acquiring the landmark information is transmitted to the image sharing server via the communication network and an associated image corresponding to the acquired landmark information is acquired from the image sharing server; and

displaying the image data selected by the user, the map image acquired in the step of acquiring the map information, the landmark information acquired in the step of acquiring the landmark information and the associated image acquired in the step of acquiring the associated image.

9. An image processing program for causing a computer to execute the processes of:

extracting a position information from image data selected by a user;

acquiring a map image, wherein the position information extracted by the process of extracting the position information is transmitted to a map information providing server for providing map images via a communication network and a map image corresponding to the extracted position information is acquired from the map information providing server;

acquiring a landmark information, wherein the position information extracted by the process of extracting the position information is transmitted to a landmark information providing server for providing landmark information on landmarks via the communication network and the landmark information corresponding to the extracted position information is acquired from the landmark information providing server;

acquiring an associated image, wherein the landmark information acquired by the process of acquiring the landmark information is transmitted to the image sharing server via the communication network and an associated image corresponding to the acquired landmark information is acquired from the image sharing server; and

displaying the image data selected by the user, the map image acquired by the process of acquiring the map information, the landmark information acquired by the process of acquiring the landmark information, and the associated image acquired by the process of acquiring the associated image.

10. An image processing system comprising:

an image processing apparatus including;

a position information extraction unit that extracts position information from image data selected by a user;

a communication control unit that exchanges data, via a communication network, with a map information providing server for providing map images, a landmark information providing server for providing landmark information on landmarks, and an image sharing server for providing a service of publicizing image data over the Internet;

a map image acquisition unit that transmits the position information extracted by the position information extraction unit to the map information providing server and acquires a map image corresponding to the extracted position information from the map information providing server, via the communication control unit;

a landmark information acquisition unit that transmits the position information extracted by the position information extraction unit to the landmark information providing server and acquires landmark information corresponding to the extracted position information from the landmark information providing server, via the communication control unit;

an associated image acquisition unit that transmits the landmark information acquired by the landmark information acquisition unit to the image sharing server and acquires an associated image corresponding to the acquired landmark information from the image sharing server, via the communication control unit; and

a display unit that displays the image data selected by the user, the map image acquired from the image information providing server, the landmark information acquired from the landmark information providing server and the associated image acquired from the image sharing server;

a map image providing server including;

a storage unit that stores map images corresponded to predetermined position information;

a map image retrieval unit that retrieves a map image corresponding to the position information transmitted from the image processing apparatus from among a plurality of map images recorded in the storage unit in response to a request from the image processing apparatus; and

a map image providing unit that transmits the map image retrieved by the map image retrieval unit to the image processing apparatus via a communication network;

a landmark information providing server including;

a storage unit that stores landmark information corresponded to predetermined position information;

a landmark information retrieval unit that retrieves landmark information corresponding to the position information transmitted from the image processing apparatus from among a plurality of landmark information recorded in the storage unit in response to a request from the image processing apparatus; and

a landmark information providing unit that transmits the landmark information retrieved by the landmark information retrieval unit to the image processing apparatus via a communication network; and

an image sharing server including;

a storage unit that stores image data recording therein predetermined tag information containing landmark information;

an associated image retrieval unit that retrieves image data, containing the landmark information transmitted from the image processing apparatus as the tag information, from among a plurality of image data recorded in the storage unit in response to a request from the image processing apparatus; and

an associated image providing unit that transmits the image data retrieved by the associated image retrieval unit as an associated image to the image processing apparatus via a communication network.