Registering metadata apparatus

• US 9,076,069 B2
• Filed: 03/14/2011
• Issued: 07/07/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation), Toshiba Digital Solutions Corporation (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Mori, Kouichirou
• Primary Examiner(s): Bella, Matthew
• Assistant Examiner(s): TORRES, JOSE
• Application Number:
  US13/046,941
• Publication Number:
  US 20120062597A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,576 Days
• Field of Search: 382/190, 382/201, 382/294, 382/305, 345/636
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5866 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, manually generated location and time information
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/33 using feature-based methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/462 Salient features, e.g. scale invariant feature transforms [SIFT]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/21805 enabling multiple viewpoints, e.g. using a plurality of cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23109 by placing content in organized collections, e.g. EPG data repository details of retrieval of video data and associated meta data in video databases G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26603 for automatically generating descriptors from content, e.g. when it is not made available by its provider, using content analysis techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2665 Gathering content from different sources, e.g. Internet and satellite
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42224 Touch pad or touch panel provided on the remote control
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6547 comprising parameters, e.g. for client setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/44504 Circuit details of the additional information generator, e.g. details of the character or graphics signal generator, overlay mixing circuits

Abstract

An adding metadata apparatus includes a first acquisition unit which acquires a first image, first metadata, and a first position within the first image, the first position being for displaying the first metadata; an extraction unit which extracts local features from the first image; a calculation unit which searches for a group of the local features within a predetermined distance from the first position, and calculates a representative point of the group; a search unit which matches the first image with a plurality of images stored in a database by using the local features, and searches for a second image which coincides with the local features; and a registration unit which calculates a second position, within the second image, corresponding to the representative point, and registers the second position and the first metadata as metadata for the second image.

Claims

1. A registering metadata apparatus comprising:

a first acquisition unit which acquires a first image, first metadata, and a first position within the first image, the first position being for displaying the first metadata;

an extraction unit which extracts local features from the first image;

a calculation unit which searches for a group of the local features within a predetermined distance from the first position, and calculates a representative point of the group, the representative point being a center of gravity position of the group of the local features;

a search unit which matches the first image with a plurality of images stored in a database by using the local features, and searches for a second image which coincides with the local features; and

a registration unit which calculates at least one second position, within the second image, corresponding to the representative point, and registers the second position and the first metadata as metadata for the second image.

2. The registering metadata apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a second acquisition unit which acquires second metadata attached to the second image; and

a display unit which displays the second image, and wherein

said display unit displays the first metadata and the second metadata on the second image.

3. The registering metadata apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a second acquisition unit which acquires second metadata attached to the second image; and

a display unit which displays the first image, and wherein

said display unit displays the first metadata and the second metadata on the first image.

4. The registering metadata apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

an input unit inputting the first metadata or the first position by a user.

5. The registering metadata apparatus according to claim 4, wherein

said input unit specifies a position to which the user attaches metadata, by using said input device including a touch panel or a pointing device.

6. A registering metadata method comprising:

acquiring a first image, first metadata, and a first position within the first image, the first position being for displaying the first metadata;

extracting local features from the first image;

searching for a group of the local features within a predetermined distance from the first position;

calculating a representative point of the group by a calculation unit, the representative point being a center of gravity position of the group of the local features;

matching the first image with a plurality of images stored in a database by using the local features, and searching for a second image which coincides with the local features; and

calculating at least one second position, within the second image, corresponding to the representative point; and

registering the second position and the first metadata as metadata for the second image.

7. The registering metadata method according to claim 6, further comprising:

acquiring second metadata attached to the second image; and

displaying the second image; and

wherein

the first metadata and the second metadata on the second image are displayed.

8. The registering metadata method according to claim 6, further comprising:

acquiring second metadata attached to the second image; and

displaying the first image, and wherein

the first metadata and the second metadata on the first image are displayed.

9. The registering metadata method according to claim 6, further comprising

inputting the first metadata or the first position using an input unit by a user.

10. The registering metadata method according to claim 9, wherein

said inputting step further includes specifying a position to which the user attaches metadata, by using the input device including a touch panel or a pointing device.

11. An attaching metadata method comprising:

acquiring a first image, metadata to be attached to the first image and a target position of the first image into which the metadata is attached;

extracting local features of the first image

searching a model image having the local features similar to the local features extracted from the first image

acquiring a group of local feature points around the target point in the first image;

obtaining the local feature points in the model image searched as similar, said local feature points corresponding to the group of local feature points in the first image; and

attaching the metadata of the first image at the local feature points in the model image, said local feature points obtained by said obtaining step;

obtaining local feature points of a new image, the local feature points corresponding to the local feature points of the model image, when the new image is acquired and the new image is substantially similar to the model image;

obtaining a representative point of the local feature points of the new image, the representative point being a center of gravity position of the local features; and

attaching the metadata of the model image to the representative point of the new image.