METHOD OF ORDERING AND PRESENTING IMAGES WITH SMOOTH METADATA TRANSITIONS

• US 20080313214A1
• Filed: 12/03/2007
• Published: 12/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: DUHIG, JONATHAN ANTHONY, AMIELH, MYRIAM ELISA LUCIE
• Granted Patent: US 8,122,335 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/102
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4393 Multimedia presentations, e.g. slide shows, multimedia albums
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually

Abstract

A method (100) of generating an ordered sequence of items from a collection of items, at least one of the items of the collection having at least two annotations, is disclosed. The method (100) selects one or more of the annotations and forms a first plurality of groups of items from the collection of items, each item in a group having one or more of the selected annotations in common. The method (100) selects a second plurality of the groups of items to form a sequence of groups, each group in the sequence comprising an item having at least one annotation in common with an item of at least one adjacent group of the sequence. The items are ordered within each of the selected groups of the sequence based on the selected annotations.

Claims

1. A method of generating an ordered sequence of items from a collection of items, at least one of said items of said collection having at least two annotations, the method comprising the steps of:

selecting one or more of said annotations;

forming a first plurality of groups of items from said collection of items, each item in a group having one or more of said selected annotations in common;

selecting a second plurality of said groups of items to form a sequence of groups, each group in said sequence comprising an item having at least one annotation in common with an item of at least one adjacent group of said sequence; and

ordering the items within each of said selected groups of said sequence based on said selected annotations.

2. A method of claim 1, wherein said annotations comprise user-defined category-value pairs.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein said selected annotations each have an associated frequency score that is higher than a predetermined threshold.

4. A method according to claim 3, wherein a predetermined number of annotations having highest frequency scores are selected.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein said selected annotations match one or more predetermined category-specific conditions.

6. A method according to claim 1, wherein said selected annotations are selected based on a priority value assigned to each annotation category.

7. A method according to claim 1, wherein said selected annotations are selected using a relevance score associated with each of said annotations.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein an item of said collection is assigned to one of said first plurality of groups as soon as any annotations associated with the item match one of the annotations of said one group.

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein an item of the collection is assigned to one of said first plurality of groups as soon as any annotations associated with said item are similar to annotations associated with said one group.

10. A method according to claim 1, wherein each of said items belong to only one of said first plurality of groups.

11. A method according to claim 1, wherein the items within each of said selected groups are ordered based on a relevance score associated with each of the items.

12. A method according to claim 1, wherein the items within one of the groups are decreasingly expressive of one of said selected annotations.

13. A method according to claim 1, wherein the ordered items within one of the groups are increasingly expressive of one of said selected annotations.

14. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of removing items from said sequence of groups to match a predetermined number of items.

15. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of removing any item from said sequence of groups, which has one or more annotations different from said selected annotations of said adjacent groups.

16. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of removing any item from said sequence of groups, which has one or more annotations different from said selected annotations of said adjacent groups with respect to a particular category.

17. A method according to claim 1, wherein said ordered items within each of said selected groups are filtered by only keeping a number of most representative items.

18. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of eliminating any item from said sequence of groups that has a particular unwanted annotation.

19. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of eliminating a number of items from said sequence of groups based on the influence of the eliminated items on a resulting relevance distribution.

21. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of eliminating an arbitrary number of items from said sequence of groups, each of said eliminated items having relevance scores most departing from a reference Gaussian distribution.

22. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of removing repetitive items from said sequence of groups.

23. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of eliminating any poor quality items from said sequence of groups.

24. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of removing items from said sequence of groups in order to maximize diversity of said sequence

25. A method according to claim 1, wherein a graphical user interface (GUI) displays said sequence along with at least one of said selected annotations.

26. An apparatus for generating an ordered sequence of items from a collection of items, at least one of said items of said collection having at least two annotations, the apparatus comprising:

first selection mean for selecting one or more of said annotations;

forming means for forming a first plurality of groups of items from said collection of items, each item in a group having one or more of said selected annotations in common;

second selection means for selecting a second plurality of said groups of items to form a sequence of groups, each group in said sequence comprising an item having at least one annotation in common with an item of at least one adjacent group of said sequence; and

ordering means for ordering the items within each of said selected groups of said sequence based on said selected annotations.

27. A computer readable medium, having a program recorded thereon, where the program is configured to make a computer execute a procedure to generate an ordered sequence of items from a collection of items, at least one of said items of said collection having at least two annotations, the program comprising:

code for selecting one or more of said annotations;

code for forming a first plurality of groups of items from said collection of items, each item in a group having one or more of said selected annotations in common;

code for selecting a second plurality of said groups of items to form a sequence of groups, each group in said sequence comprising an item having at least one annotation in common with an item of at least one adjacent group of said sequence; and

code for ordering the items within each of said selected groups of said sequence based on said selected annotations.