Image-related handling support system, information processing apparatus, and image-related handling support method

• US 9,338,311 B2
• Filed: 06/11/2012
• Issued: 05/10/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Kobayashi, Tomoyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Mehta, Bhavesh
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mistry, Oneal R
• Application Number:
  US13/493,710
• Publication Number:
  US 20120321131A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,429 Days
• 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: H04N 1/00183 Photography assistance, e.g. displaying suggestions to the user
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00244 with a server, e.g. an internet server fax-servers or the like for store and forward H04N1/324
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0084 Digital still camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/64 Computer-aided capture of images, e.g. transfer from script file into camera, check of taken image quality, advice or proposal for image composition or decision on when to take image

Abstract

An image handling support system extracts an image corresponding to a support target image from images associated with a user with use of information indicating association established between the user and the images, from a user'"'"'s activity on an SNS. Then, the image handling support system supports handling of the support target image based on the extracted image. The image handling support system provides support for acquisition of an output image that matches various image conditions and complies with a user'"'"'s preference without requiring a complicated operation to be performed in advance.

Claims

1. An information processing system comprising:

one or more computer-readable media; and

one or more processors that are coupled to the one or more computer readable media and that are configured to;

acquire association information indicating a plurality of images that are favorably evaluated by a second user who is associated with a first user, the association information defining an association graph in which each of a plurality of users including the first user and of the plurality of images uploaded onto an image sharing service is expressed as a respective node;

calculate degrees of association between the first user and a plurality of the nodes based on information indicating distances among the plurality of the nodes according to the information related to the association graph, wherein a distance between two nodes is based on a number of hops between the two nodes;

determine images within a predetermined degree of association with the first user;

extract an image to be presented to the first user from the determined images, the extracted image having a similar photographing condition under which photographing has been performed, such that images are sequentially extracted starting from an image corresponding to a node having a highest degree of association with the first user, or

extract an image to be presented for an image processing on a first image from the determined images, the extracted image being similar to the first image, such that images are sequentially extracted starting from an image corresponding to the node haying a highest degree of association with the first user;

re-extract an image that has a lower degree of association with the first user than the predetermined degree of association of the images in response to a message indicating that no image is selected by the first user; and

control an apparatus corresponding to the first user to display the extracted image or the re-extracted image, in a case that the first user performs photographing or the image processing on the first image.

2. The information processing system according to claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to select any of the extracted images.

3. The information processing system according to claim 2, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to

calculate degrees of association between the first user and the plurality of images based on the association information;

sort the extracted images into a sorting order based on the calculated degrees of association between the first user and the plurality of images; and

cause a display unit to display the extracted images in the sorting order,

wherein the one or more processors are further configured to select any of the displayed images.

4. The information processing system according to claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to

update the association information based on a displayed image in a case where the first user performs photographing or where the image processing that was executed on the first image is executed on the image which is displayed.

5. The information processing system according to claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to

acquire the photographing condition from a photographing apparatus to be used for photographing by the first user;

and

set a photographing parameter used when one of the extracted images selected by the first user was photographed by the photographing apparatus,

wherein the extracted images correspond to the photographing condition.

6. The information processing system according to claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to extract an image that includes an object that corresponds to an object in the first image.

7. The information processing system according to claim 1,

wherein the information processing system comprises at least a server apparatus and a client apparatus,

wherein the image sharing service is a social networking service,

wherein the association information indicates associations between the first user and images uploaded in the social networking service, and

wherein the one or more processors are further configured to extract an image that coincides with one of a photographing condition of the photographing apparatus used for photographing by the first user, a color tone of the first image, or an object of the first image.

8. The information processing system according to claim 1, wherein the image sharing service is a social networking service.

9. The information processing system according to claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to extract images and control the apparatus corresponding to the first user to superimpose and display a photography preview and extracted images sorted based on degrees of association between the first user and the extracted images or to superimpose and display the first image and extracted images sorted based on the degrees of association between the first user and the extracted images, wherein each of the images is obtained by executing the image processing that was executed on each of the extracted images on the first image.

10. The information processing system according to claim 1, wherein the distance between the two nodes is inversely related to the number of hops between the two nodes.

11. An information processing apparatus comprising:

one or more computer-readable media; and

one or more processors that are coupled to the one or more computer-readable media and that are configured to;

acquire association information indicating a plurality of images that are favorably evaluated by a second user who is associated with a first user, the association information defining an association graph in which each of a plurality of users including the first user and of the plurality of images uploaded onto an image sharing service is expressed as a respective node;

calculate degrees of association between the first user and a plurality of the nodes based on information indicating distances among the plurality of the nodes according to the information related to the association graph, wherein a distance between two nodes is based on a number of hops between the two nodes;

determine images within a predetermined degree of association with the first user;

extract an image to be presented to the first user from the determined images, the extracted image having a similar photographing condition under which the photographing has been performed, such that images are sequentially extracted starting from an image corresponding to a node having a highest degree of association with the first user, or

extract an image to be presented for an image processing on a first image from the determined images, the extracted image being similar to the first image such that images are sequentially extracted starting from an image corresponding to a node having the highest degree of association with the first user;

re extract an image that has a lower degree of association with the first user than the predetermined degree of association of the images in response to a message indicating no image is selected by the first user; and

transmit, to an apparatus corresponding to the first user, the extracted image or re-extracted image to be displayed, in a case that the first user performs photographing or the image processing on the first image.

12. The information processing system according to claim 11, wherein the distance between the two nodes is further based on respective weights that are assigned to each hop between the nodes.

13. The information processing system according to claim 12, wherein the distance between the two nodes is inversely related to the respective weights that are assigned to each hop between the nodes.

14. The information processing system according to claim 13, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to calculate the degree of association between the first user and a node of the plurality of the nodes according to

15. An information processing method comprising:

acquiring association information indicating a plurality of images that are favorably evaluated by a second user who is associated with a first user, the association information defining an association graph in which each of a plurality of users including the first user and of the plurality of images uploaded onto an image sharing service is expressed as a respective node;

calculating degrees of association between the first user and a plurality of the nodes based on information indicating distances among the plurality of the nodes according to the information related to the association graph, wherein a distance between two nodes is based on a number of hops between the two nodes;

determining images within a predetermined degree of association with the first user;

extracting an image to be presented to the first user from the determined images, the extracted image having a similar photographing condition under which the photographing has been performed, such that images are sequentially extracted starting from an image corresponding to a node having a highest degree of association with the first user, or

extracting an image to be presented for an image processing on a first image from the determined images, the extracted image being similar to the first image, such that images are sequentially extracted starting from an image corresponding to a node having the highest degree of association with the first user;

re extracting an image that has a lower degree of association with the first user than the predetermined degree of association of the determined images in response to a message indicating that no image is selected by the first user, thereby generating a re-extracted image; and

controlling an apparatus corresponding to the first user to display the extracted image or the re-extracted image, in a case that the first user performs photographing or the image processing on the first image.

16. A non-transitory storage medium storing a program causing a computer to execute the information processing method according to claim 15.