Apparatus and a method for retrieving image objects based on correlation with natural language sentence parameters
First Claim
1. An apparatus for retrieving image objects in accordance with a natural language sentence, comprising:
- an image database for storing a plurality of image objects, each of the plurality of the image objects comprising image attribute data selectively representative of a meaning of a single region and a combination of a plurality of regions making up a portion of an image;
input means for receiving a natural language sentence;
a knowledge base for defining a semantic structure of the natural language sentence;
extracting means for extracting at least one predicate and at least one case element from the natural language sentence;
judging means for judging whether the extracted predicate and the extracted case element are correlated with each other by referring to the knowledge base;
correlating means for correlating the extracted predicate and the extracted case element with each other in accordance with the judging result, so as to define an image retrieval key representing a partial meaning of the natural language sentence; and
retrieval means for retrieving at least one image object from the plurality of image objects stored in the image database based on a semantic similarity between the image retrieval key and the image attribute data, the retrieval means being selectively operative based on the semantic similarity to retrieve image objects representative of only portions of images.
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Abstract
An apparatus for retrieving image objects in accordance with a natural language sentence according to the present invention includes: an input section for receiving a natural language sentence; a language processing section for parsing the natural language sentence by referring to a dictionary for language analysis so as to obtain a syntactic structure of the natural language sentence; a situation element division section for converting the syntactic structure of the natural language sentence into a semantic structure of the natural language sentence and for dividing a situation represented by the semantic structure of the natural language sentence into at least one situation element by referring to a situation element division knowledge base; an image database for storing at least one image object corresponding to the at least one situation element; and a retrieval section for retrieving at least one image object from the image database by using the situation element as an image retrieval key.
112 Citations
13 Claims
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1. An apparatus for retrieving image objects in accordance with a natural language sentence, comprising:
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an image database for storing a plurality of image objects, each of the plurality of the image objects comprising image attribute data selectively representative of a meaning of a single region and a combination of a plurality of regions making up a portion of an image; input means for receiving a natural language sentence; a knowledge base for defining a semantic structure of the natural language sentence; extracting means for extracting at least one predicate and at least one case element from the natural language sentence; judging means for judging whether the extracted predicate and the extracted case element are correlated with each other by referring to the knowledge base; correlating means for correlating the extracted predicate and the extracted case element with each other in accordance with the judging result, so as to define an image retrieval key representing a partial meaning of the natural language sentence; and retrieval means for retrieving at least one image object from the plurality of image objects stored in the image database based on a semantic similarity between the image retrieval key and the image attribute data, the retrieval means being selectively operative based on the semantic similarity to retrieve image objects representative of only portions of images. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. An apparatus for retrieving image objects in accordance with a natural language sentence, comprising:
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an image database for storing a plurality of image objects, each of the plurality of image objects comprising image attribute data selectively representative of a meaning of a single region and a combination of a plurality of regions making up a portion of an image; input means for receiving a natural language sentence; parsing means for parsing the natural language sentence so as to obtain an analysis frame representing a meaning of the natural language sentence, the analysis frame including at least one element; correlating means for correlating the at least one element of the analysis frame with one another so as to define an image retrieval key representing a partial meaning of the natural language sentence; and
retrieval means for retrieving at least one image object from the plurality of image objects stored in the image database based on a semantic similarity between the image retrieval key and the image attribute data, the retrieval means being selectively operative based on the semantic similarity to retrieve image objects representative of only portions of images. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10)
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11. A method for retrieving image objects from an image database in accordance with a natural language sentence, the image database storing a plurality of image objects, each of the plurality of image objects including image attribute data selectively representative of a meaning of a single region and a combination of a plurality of regions making up a portion of an image, wherein the method comprises the steps of:
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a) receiving a natural language sentence; b) parsing the natural language sentence so as to obtain an analysis frame representing a meaning of the natural language sentence, the analysis frame including at least one element; c) correlating the at least one element of the analysis frame with one another so as to define an image retrieval key representing a partial meaning of the natural language sentence; and d) retrieving at least one image object from the plurality of image objects stored in the image database based on a semantic similarity between the image retrieval key and the image attribute data, such retrieving being selectively operative based on the semantic similarity to retrieve image objects representative of only portions of images. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13)
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Specification