IMAGE INFORMATION SEARCH

• US 20130132414A1
• Filed: 11/12/2012
• Published: 05/23/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Tsumura, Tadashi, Hayato, Kiriyama, Shioya, Tomohiro
• Granted Patent: US 9,336,243 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/758
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/532 Query formulation, e.g. graphical querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually

Abstract

To inform a user that image data including an image of the user or the like is posted on a network, an information providing apparatus includes an acquisition unit for acquiring an action log including a history of a set of a user'"'"'s positions and dates and times when the user was at the positions. The apparatus further includes a search unit for searching for image data that has been captured at a location and a date and time corresponding to a position of the user and a date and time included in the action log from image data posted on a network. The apparatus also includes a matching unit for detecting image data that includes an image relating to the user from pieces of image data found by the search unit.

Claims

1. An information providing apparatus comprising:

a computer readable storage medium storing computer readable program code executable by a processor, the computer readable program code comprising;

an acquisition unit acquiring an action log comprising a history of a user'"'"'s positions;

a search unit searching for image data that has been captured at a location corresponding to a position of the user in the action log from network image data posted on a network; and

a matching unit detecting image data that comprises an image relating to the user from pieces of image data found by the search unit.

2. The information providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the action log comprises a history of a set of the user'"'"'s positions and dates and times when the user was at the user'"'"'s positions, and

the search unit searches for image data that has been captured at a location and a date and time corresponding to a position of the user and a date and time of the position in the action log.

3. The information providing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the search unit expands the position of the user and the date and time in the action log into a spatial range and a time range, respectively, according to a preset interpolation policy and searches for image data that has been captured in the spatial range and in the time range.

4. The information providing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the search unit expands the position of the user and the date and time included in the action log into the spatial range and the time range, respectively, according to the interpolation policy to change a degree of expansion according to weather determined from the position of the user and the date and time.

5. The information providing apparatus according to claim 4, the computer readable program code further comprising a determination unit determining a user'"'"'s means of transportation, wherein the search unit expands the position of the user and the date and time included in the action log into the spatial range and the time range, respectively, according to the interpolation policy to change the degree of expansion according to the user'"'"'s means of transportation.

6. The information providing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the determination unit acquires the user'"'"'s means of transportation from a terminal apparatus.

7. The information providing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the determination unit acquires a velocity of the user from a terminal apparatus, and

the search unit estimates the user'"'"'s means of transportation based on the velocity.

8. The information providing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the determination unit acquires an acceleration of the user from the terminal apparatus and estimates the user'"'"'s means of transportation based on the acceleration.

9. The information providing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the determination unit acquires audio data representing an ambient sound around the user and determines the user'"'"'s means of transportation based on the audio data.

10. The information providing apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the search unit searches the network image data by extracting a data part representing the location and the date and time.

11. The information providing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the acquisition unit acquires an image data detection exemption range from the user, and the search unit does not search for image data that has been captured within the detection exemption range.

12. The information providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the matching unit detects whether each piece of image data found by the search unit includes an image of the face of the user.

13. The information providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the search unit searches motion picture data and the matching unit detects whether an image relating to the user is in a time range corresponding to the date and time of the motion picture data.

14. A method for image information search comprising:

acquiring an action log comprising a history of a user'"'"'s positions;

searching for image data that has been captured at a location corresponding to a position of the user in the action log from network image data posted on a network; and

detecting image data that comprises an image relating to the user from pieces of image data found by the search unit.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the action log comprises a history of a set of the user'"'"'s positions and dates and times when the user was at the positions, and the method further comprises searching for image data that has been captured at a location and a date and time corresponding to a position of the user and a date and time included in the action log.

16. The method according to claim 15, the method further comprising expanding the position of the user and the date and time in the action log into a spatial range and a time range, respectively, according to a preset interpolation policy and searching for image data that has been captured in the spatial range and in the time range.

17. The method according to claim 16, the method further comprising expanding the position of the user and the date and time included in the action log into the spatial range and the time range, respectively, according to the interpolation policy to change the degree of expansion according to weather determined from the position of the user and the date and time.

18. The method according to claim 17, the method further comprising determining a user'"'"'s means of transportation and expanding the position of the user and the date and time included in the action log into the spatial range and the time range, respectively, according to the interpolation policy to change the degree of expansion according to the user'"'"'s means of transportation.

19. A computer program product for image information search, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program code embodied therein, the program code readable/executable by a processor to:

acquire an action log comprising a history of a user'"'"'s positions;

search for image data that has been captured at a location corresponding to a position of the user in the action log from network image data posted on a network; and

detect image data that comprises an image relating to the user from pieces of image data found by the search unit.

20. A system comprising:

a computer readable storage medium storing computer readable program code executable by a processor, the computer readable program code comprising;

an acquisition unit acquiring an action log comprising a history of a user'"'"'s positions;

a search unit searching for image data that has been captured at a location corresponding to a position of the user in the action log from network image data posted on a network;

a matching unit detecting image data that comprises an image relating to the user from pieces of image data found by the search unit; and

a terminal apparatus connected to the information providing apparatus via a network.