Information provision apparatus, print system and information provision program storage medium

• US 7,626,720 B2
• Filed: 01/19/2006
• Issued: 12/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Nakagawa, Tomohiro
• Primary Examiner(s): EBRAHIMI DEHKORDY, SAEID
• Application Number:
  US11/334,459
• Publication Number:
  US 20060164686A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,412 Days
• Field of Search: 358/1.15, 358/1.18, 358/1.9, 358/527, 358/3.26, 358/1.13, 382/167, 382/266, 382/255, 382/275, 382/263, 396/78, 396/106, 396/311, 396/315, 355/40, 355/41, 355/32, 355/77, 348/333.12, 348/E7.09, 348/E5.069
• US Class Current: 358/1.18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32101 Display, printing, storage or transmission of additional information, e.g. ID code, date and time or title
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3253 Position information, e.g. geographical position at time of capture, GPS data

Abstract

There are provided an information provision apparatus capable of identifying a particular place with a high accuracy and providing information about the place, a print system for printing the acquired information on recording paper and providing it, an information provision program for causing a computer to operate as the information provision apparatus, and an information provision program storage medium in which the information provision program is stored. There are provided an area determination section which determines a particular search area including an image taking position indicated by position information, and a shop determination section which determines one shop from among one or more shops within the search area which are included in multiple shops, each of the multiple shops being associated with one or more reference images and one or more pieces of shop-related information, based on the degree of similarity between the reference image associated with the each of multiple shops and the taken image.

Claims

1. An information provision apparatus comprising:

an acquisition section which acquires a taken image obtained by image taking and position information indicating the image taking position in the image taking;

an area determination section which determines a particular search area including the image taking position indicated by the position information;

a place determination section which determines one place from among one or more places within the search area which are included in multiple places, each of the multiple places being associated with one or more reference images and one or more pieces of shop-related information, based on the degree of similarity between the image associated with the each of the multiple places and the taken image; and

an output section which outputs information associated with the one place determined by the place determination section.

2. The information provision apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the output section outputs the information associated with the one place to a printer.

3. The information provision apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the acquisition section acquires the taken image and the position information from a provision source via a communication network, and

the output section outputs the information associated with the one place to the provision source via the communication network.

4. The information provision apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the position information indicates the longitude, the latitude and the altitude of the image taking position;

and

the area determination section identifies a building located at a place indicated by the latitude and the longitude indicated by the position information, and furthermore determines one or more floors of the identified building corresponding to the altitudes indicated by the position information as the search area.

5. The information provision apparatus according to claim 1, comprising:

an overhead view creation section which creates an overhead view showing the one place determined by the place determination section;

wherein

the output section outputs the overhead view created by the overhead view creation section in addition to the information.

6. A print system comprising:

an information provision apparatus comprising;

an acquisition section which acquires a taken image obtained by image taking and position information indicating the image taking position in the image taking;

an area determination section which determines a particular search area including the image taking position indicated by the position information;

a place determination section which determines one place from among one or more places within the search area which are included in multiple places, each of the multiple places being associated with one or more reference images and one or more pieces of shop-related information, based on the degree of similarity between the image associated with the each of the multiple places and the taken image; and

an output section which outputs information associated with the one place determined by the place determination section; and

a printer which prints the taken image acquired by the acquisition section on one surface of recording paper and prints the information outputted by the output section on the backside of the surface.

7. An information provision program storage medium in which an information provision program is stored, the information provision program being incorporated in a computer and constructing on the computer:

an acquisition section which acquires a taken image obtained by image taking and position information indicating the image taking position in the image taking;

an area determination section which determines a particular search area including the image taking position indicated by the position information;

a place determination section which determines one place from among one or more places within the search area which are included in multiple places, each of the multiple places being associated with one or more reference images and one or more pieces of shop-related information, based on the degree of similarity between the image associated with the each of the multiple places and the taken image; and

an output section which outputs information associated with the one place determined by the place determination section.