Method and apparatus for image retrieval

• US 6,961,724 B1
• Filed: 11/08/2000
• Issued: 11/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Yoshida, Hideyuki, Shida, Takehiko, Oka, Natsuki, Kindo, Toshiki
• Primary Examiner(s): ROBINSON, GRETA LEE
• Application Number:
  US09/708,083
• Time in Patent Office: 1,819 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1, 707/3, 707/4, 707/104.1, 707/10, 707/5, 345/974, 345/968, 345/700, 382/305
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/968 interface for database querying and retrieval

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for retrieving images which allows easy retrieval of a desired image from an image database stored in an electronic or optical recording medium or a communication network. As the first step of searching, through the menu entry section, the user enters multi-leveled retrieval requests for the keywords associated with an image. Received the requests, the retrieval section evaluates the user'"'"'s necessity for the image based on at least the entered requests and the number of the requests. Then the retrieved image is displayed on the screen, according to the calculated necessity. The method and apparatus thus provide the user with a much-needed image in order of precedence by qualifying the user'"'"'s necessity for the image.

Claims

1. A method of retrieving an image from at least one of an information-storage medium and an information network, said method comprising:

a) setting a retrieval request containing a degree of importance for a plurality of keywords by assigning a degree of importance to each keyword;

b) calculating a necessity signal for an image based on the retrieval request and a number of said plurality of keywords, each of said plurality of keywords being tagged to the image; and

c) searching for the image from at least one of an information-storage medium and an information network and displaying the image, based on the necessity signal.

2. The method of retrieving an image as defined in claim 1, wherein each keyword is classified into a class and each class comprises a plurality of keywords.

3. The method of retrieving an image as defined in claim 1, wherein the image is displayed in order of priority of the degree of importance.

7. The method of retrieving an image as defined in claim 2, wherein the degree of importance of the image is evaluated according to a degree of necessity by each class for the image.

9. The method for retrieving an image as defined in claim 7, wherein:

the degree of importance by each class is obtained depending on i) a first value having a larger value as a number of the tags tagged to the image increases, ii) a second value having a larger value as a number of the tags tagged to the image decreases, and

contributions of the first value and the second value to the degree of importance by each class are determined by a number of non-zero components of a retrieval request signal by each class.

11. The method for retrieving an image as defined in claim 9, wherein:

when the number of the non-zero value is larger than a first predetermined value, the first value mainly contributes to the degree of importance by each class;

when the number of the non-zero value is smaller than the first predetermined value, the second value mainly contributes to the degree of importance by each class; and

which of the first value and the second value mainly contributes to the degree of importance by each class changes with rapidity determined by a second predetermined value in a neighborhood of a point that the number of no-zero components equals the first value.

13. The method of retrieving an image as defined in claim 2, wherein the image is displayed in order of priority of the degree of importance of the image.

4. An apparatus for retrieving an image from at least one of an information-storage medium and an information network, said apparatus comprising:

a) a menu entry section that allows an user to set a retrieval request containing a degree of importance for a plurality of keywords by assigning a degree of importance to each keyword;

b) a retrieval section calculating a necessity signal based on the retrieval request and a number of said plurality of keywords, each of said plurality of keywords being tagged to the image and serching for the image from at least one of an information-storage medium and an information network based on the necessity signal; and

c) a display section displaying the image output from the retrieval section according to the necessity signal.

5. The apparatus for retrieving an image as defined in claim 4, wherein each keyword is classified into a class and each class comprises a plurality of keywords.

6. The apparatus for retrieving an image as defined in claim 4, wherein the image is displayed in order of priority of the degree of importance.

8. The apparatus for retrieving an image as defined in claim 5, wherein the degree of importance of the image is evaluated according to a degree of necessity by each class for the image.

10. The apparatus for retrieving an image as defined in claim 8, wherein:

the degree of importance by each class is obtained depending on i) a first value having larger value as a number of the tags tagged to the image increases, ii) a second value having a larger value as a number of the tags tagged to the image decreases, and

contributions of the first value and the second value to the degree of importance by each class are determined by a number of non-zero components of a retrieval request signal by each class.

12. The apparatus for retrieving an image as defined in claim 10, wherein

when the number of the non-zero value is larger than a first predetermined value, the first value mainly contributes to the degree of importance by each class;

when the number of the non-zero value is smaller than the first predetermined value, the second value mainly contributes to the degree of importance by each class; and

which of the first value and the second value mainly contributes to the degree of importance by each class changes with rapidity determined by a second predetermined value in a neighborhood of a point that the number of no-zero components equals the first value.

14. The apparatus for retrieving an image as defined in claim 5, wherein the image is displayed in order of priority of the degree of importance of the image.