Electronic album display system, an electronic album display method, and a machine readable medium storing thereon a computer program for displaying an electronic album

• US 20060055977A1
• Filed: 09/12/2005
• Published: 03/16/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fuji Photo Film Co Limited (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Shiota, Kazuo, Ohtsuka, Shuichi, Nakajima, Kazuki
• Granted Patent: US 7,663,643 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/1.180
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5854 using shape and object relationship

Abstract

It is an object of an electronic album display system to select an image which a viewer wants to appreciate automatically and correctly and display the image. An electronic album display system for displaying a plurality of images included in an electronic album includes: an image storing unit for classifying each of the plurality of images into a plurality of groups and storing the image; an image selecting unit for selecting an image to be displayed out of the plurality of images; an image display unit for displaying the image selected by the image selecting unit; an operation unit for receiving an operation from a viewer when one image included in the plurality of images is being displayed by the image display unit; an interest detecting unit for detecting an interest of the viewer in the one image on the basis of the operation received by the operation unit; and an interest storing unit for storing the interest for each of the plurality of images, and the image selecting unit selects an image classified as a group including an image in which the viewer has a greater interest out of the plurality of images more frequently as the image to be displayed by the image display unit.

Claims

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

an image storing unit for classifying each of the plurality of images into a plurality of groups and storing the image;

an image selecting unit for selecting an image to be displayed out of the plurality of images;

an image display unit for displaying the image selected by said image selecting unit;

an operation unit for receiving an operation from a viewer when one image included in the plurality of images is being displayed by said image display unit;

an interest detecting unit for detecting an interest of the viewer in the one image on the basis of the operation received by said operation unit; and

an interest storing unit for storing the interest for each of the plurality of images, wherein

said image selecting unit selects an image classified as a group including an image in which the viewer has a greater interest out of the plurality of images more frequently as the image to be displayed by said image display unit.

2. The electronic album display system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said operation unit receives a display time setting operation for setting display time during which the one image is displayed by said image display unit, and said interest detecting unit detects a greater interest for an image of which display time is set longer by the display time setting operation out of the plurality of images.

3. The electronic album display system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said operation unit receives an image selecting operation for selecting the one image, and said interest detecting unit detects a greater interest for an image selected more frequently by the image selecting operation out of the plurality of images.

4. The electronic album display system as claimed in claim 1 further comprising an image capturing unit for capturing a face image of the viewer, wherein said interest storing unit stores an interest in each of the plurality of images for each viewer.

5. The electronic album display system as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a face image database for storing face images of a plurality of persons, and an image classifying unit for grouping each of the plurality of images by the kind of combination of a plurality of persons included in the image on the basis of each of the face images stored in said face image database and making the image stored in said image storing unit.

6. The electronic album display system as claimed in claim 5, wherein said operation unit receives a person selecting operation for selecting at least a part of persons included in the one image, and said interest detecting unit detects a greater interest for an image classified as a group of the kind of combination of persons including a person selected more frequently by the person selecting operation out of the plurality of images.

7. The electronic album display system as claimed in claim 5, wherein even in case a first image and a second image included in the plurality of images are different in the combination of persons, said image classifying unit classifies the first and second images as the same group if at least one of image capturing time and image capturing place of the first image shows a difference smaller than a predetermined reference value from that of the second image.

8. An electronic album display method for displaying a plurality of images included in an electronic album, wherein an image storing unit classifies each of the plurality of images into a plurality of groups and stores the image, the electronic album display method comprises:

an image selecting step of selecting an image to be displayed out of the plurality of images;

an image display step of an image display unit displaying the image selected in said image selecting step;

an operation step of receiving an operation from a viewer when one image included in the plurality of images is being displayed by the image display unit;

an interest detecting step of detecting an interest of the viewer in the one image on the basis of the operation received in said operation step; and

an interest storing step of storing the interest for each of the plurality of images, and,

in said image selecting step, an image classified as a group including an image in which the viewer has a greater interest is selected more frequently as the image to be displayed in said image display step out of the plurality of images.

9. A machine readable medium storing thereon a computer program which makes a computer function as an electronic album display system for displaying a plurality of images included in an electronic album, wherein the computer comprises:

an image storing unit for classifying each of the plurality of images into a plurality of groups and storing the image;

an image selecting unit for selecting an image to be displayed out of the plurality of images;

an image display unit for displaying the image selected by said image selecting unit;

an operation unit for receiving an operation from a viewer when one image included in the plurality of images is being displayed by said image display unit;

an interest detecting unit for detecting an interest of the viewer in the one image on the basis of the operation received by said operation unit; and

an interest storing unit for storing the interest for each of the plurality of images, and said image selecting unit selects an image classified as a group including an image in which the viewer has a greater interest out of the plurality of images more frequently as the image to be displayed by said image display unit.