Electronic album display system, an image grouping apparatus, an electronic album display method, an image grouping method, and a machine readable medium storing thereon a computer program

• US 7,477,805 B2
• Filed: 07/08/2005
• Issued: 01/13/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Shiota, Kazuo, Ohtsuka, Shuichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Ahmed; Samir A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Koziol; Stephen R
• Application Number:
  US11/176,316
• Publication Number:
  US 20060056737A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,285 Days
• Field of Search: 382/209, 382/305, 348/231.2, 707/E17.029
• US Class Current: 382/305
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/54 Browsing; Visualisation therefor

Abstract

It is an object to improve convenience of browse and search of a plurality of images. an electronic album display system for displaying a plurality of images included in an electronic album is provided, wherein the system includes: an image storing unit in which the plurality of images are stored; a person recognizing unit for recognizing a plurality of persons included in each of the plurality of images; an image grouping unit for classifying the plurality of images into a plurality of groups by the kind of a combination of persons included in an image on the basis of the recognition result by the person recognizing unit; a representative image selecting unit for selecting a representative image from each of the plurality of groups; and an image display unit for displaying each of the selected representative images consecutively.

Claims

1. An electronic album display system for displaying a plurality of images included in an electronic album comprising:

an image storing unit in which the plurality of images are stored;

a person recognizing unit for automatically identifying, by face recognition, a plurality of persons included in each of the plurality of images, each of the persons corresponding to a person identification number, the result of the person recognition comprising image identification numbers that correspond to different combinations of a plurality of person identification numbers;

an image grouping unit for classifying all of the plurality of images into a plurality of different groups based on the result of the person recognition, the images that belong to the same group including persons that correspond to the same combination of the person identification numbers, the result of the image grouping comprising group identification numbers, each of which corresponding to each of the combinations of the person identification numbers;

a representative image selecting unit for selecting a representative image from the images that correspond to the same group identification number; and

an image display unit for displaying each of the selected representative images consecutively.

2. The electronic album display system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the number of representative images selected from images belonging to a first group that includes more images is greater than the number of representative images selected from images belonging to a second group that includes images.

3. The electronic album display system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said representative image selecting unit selects a representative image for each of the groups, while selecting no representative image when the number of the images belonging to said each group is less than a predetermined reference number.

4. The electronic album display system as claimed in claim 1, wherein a ratio of the number of representative images selected from images belonging to a first group that includes less images to the number of the images of the first group is greater than a ratio of the number of representative images selected from images belonging to a second group that includes more images to the number of the images of the second group.

5. The electronic album display system as claimed in claim 1, wherein, for each group, said representative image selecting unit selects images as representative images of the each group when a difference between said images in at least one of an image capturing date and time and an image capturing place is greater than a predetermined reference value.

6. The electronic album display system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said image grouping unit classifies the plurality of images on the basis of the combinations of the person identification numbers, the persons corresponding to which being selected by excluding a person the number of images including whom is smaller than a predetermined reference number from all the persons included as objects in any of said plurality of images.

7. The electronic album display system as claimed in claim 6, further comprising an image processing unit for performing blurring on a part of each representative image showing a person the number of images including whom is smaller than a predetermined reference number, wherein said image display unit displays the representative image on which blurring is performed.

8. An image grouping apparatus for classifying a plurality of images comprising:

an image storing unit in which the plurality of images are stored;

a person recognizing unit for automatically identifying, by face recognition, a plurality of persons included in each of the plurality of images, each of the persons corresponding to a person identification number, the result of the person recognition comprising image identification numbers that correspond to different combinations of a plurality of persons identification numbers; and

an image grouping unit for classifying all of the plurality of images into a plurality of different groups based on the result of the person recognition, the images that belong to the same group including persons that correspond to the same combination of the person identification numbers, the result of the image grouping comprising group identification numbers, each of which corresponding to each of the combinations of the person identification numbers.

9. An electronic album display method for displaying a plurality of images included in an electronic album comprising:

a person recognizing step of automatically identifying, by face recognition, a plurality of persons included in each of the plurality of images, each of the persons corresponding to a person identification number, the result of the person recognition comprising image identification numbers that correspond to different combinations of a plurality of person identification numbers;

an image grouping step of classifying all of the plurality of images into a plurality of different groups based on the result of the person recognition, the images that belong to the same group including persons that correspond to the same combination of the person identification numbers, the result of the image grouping comprising group identification numbers, each of which corresponding to each of the combination of the person identification numbers;

a representative image selecting step of selecting a representative image from the images including the same group identification number; and

an image display step of displaying each of the selected representative images consecutively.

10. A computer readable medium storing thereon a computer program for making a computer display a plurality of images included in an electronic album, wherein the computer comprises:

an image storing unit in which the plurality of images are stored;

a person recognizing unit for automatically identifying, by face recognition, a plurality of persons included in each of the plurality of images, each of the persons corresponding to a person identification number, the result of the person recognition comprising image identification numbers that correspond to different combinations of a plurality of person identification numbers;

an image grouping unit for classifying all of the plurality of images into a plurality of different groups based on the result of the person recognition, the images that belong to the same group including persons that correspond to the same combination of the person identification numbers, the result of the image grouping comprising group identification numbers, each of which corresponding to each of the combinations of the person identification numbers;

a representative image selecting unit for selecting a representative image from the images that correspond to the same group identification number; and

an image display unit for displaying each of the selected representative images consecutively.

11. An image grouping method for grouping a plurality of images comprising:

a person recognizing step of automatically identifying, by face recognition, a plurality of persons included in each of the plurality of images, each of the persons corresponding to a person identification number, the result of the person recognition comprising image identification numbers that correspond to different combinations of a plurality of person identification numbers; and

an image grouping step of classifying all of the plurality of images into a plurality of different groups based on the result of the person recognition, the images that belong to the same group including persons that correspond to the same combination of the person identification numbers, the result of the image grouping comprising group identification numbers, each of which corresponding to each of the combinations of the person identification numbers.

12. A computer readable medium storing thereon a computer program for making a computer classifies a plurality of images, wherein the computer comprises:

an image storing unit in which the plurality of images are stored;

a person recognizing unit for automatically identifying, by face recognition, a plurality of persons included in each of the plurality of images, each of the persons corresponding to a person identification number, the result of the person recognition comprising image identification numbers that correspond to different combinations of a plurality of person identification numbers; and

an image grouping unit for classifying all of the plurality of images into a plurality of different groups based on the result of the person recognition, the images that belong to the same group including persons that correspond to the same combination of the person identification numbers, the result of the image grouping comprising group identification numbers, each of which corresponding to each of the combinations of the person identification numbers.