INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS, INFORMATION PROCESSING METHOD, AND PROGRAM

• US 20110122153A1
• Filed: 10/20/2010
• Published: 05/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/26/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Ikeda, Takuo, OKAMURA, Yuki, Mochizuki, Daisuke, Terayama, Akiko, Mori, Eijiro, Noda, Takuro
• Application Number:
  US12/908,779
• Publication Number:
  US 20110122153A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/629
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/54 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/904 Browsing; Visualisation therefor for navigating the web G06F16/954; browsing optimisation for the web G06F16/957
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/00 General purpose image data processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 29/106 using electronic means

Abstract

An information processing apparatus includes a transformed-coordinate calculating section that calculates transformed coordinates for each of a plurality of superimposed images associated with coordinates in a background image, by transforming coordinates of other superimposed images with respect to one superimposed image as a reference image in such a way that coordinate intervals within a predetermined area with respect to the reference image become denser with increasing distance from the reference image toward the boundary, a coordinate setting section that sets coordinates of the reference image on the basis of a mean value obtained by calculating a mean of the calculated coordinates of the other superimposed images with respect to the reference image, and a display control section that displays the background image and the plurality of superimposed images on a display section in such a way that the reference image is placed at the set coordinates in the background image.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus comprising:

a transformed-coordinate calculating section that calculates transformed coordinates for each of a plurality of superimposed images associated with coordinates in a background image, by taking one superimposed image of the plurality of superimposed images as a reference image, and transforming coordinates of other superimposed images on the basis of corresponding coordinates of the reference image in the background image, distances in the background image from the reference image to the other superimposed images, and a distance in the background image from the reference image to a boundary within a predetermined area with respect to the reference image, the coordinates of the other superimposed images being transformed in such a way that coordinate intervals within the predetermined area become denser with increasing distance from the reference image toward the boundary within the predetermined area;

a coordinate setting section that sets coordinates of the reference image on the basis of a mean value obtained by calculating a mean of the calculated coordinates of the other superimposed images with respect to the reference image; and

a display control section that displays the background image and the plurality of superimposed images on a display section in such a way that the reference image is placed at the set coordinates in the background image.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a second transformed-coordinate calculating section that calculates transformed coordinates for each of the superimposed images by transforming the set coordinates on the basis of a size of the background image on a display screen of the display section, the number of the superimposed images, and distances between the superimposed images in the background image, the set coordinates being transformed in such a way that the distances between the superimposed images increase under a predetermined condition in accordance with the distances between the superimposed images in the background image,

wherein the display control section displays the background image and the plurality of superimposed images in such a way that the superimposed images are placed at the coordinates in the background image calculated by the second transformed-coordinate calculating section.

3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising:

a magnification/shrinkage processing section that magnifies or shrinks the coordinates calculated by the second transformed-coordinate calculating section with reference to a specific position on the display screen, on the basis of a coordinate size subject to coordinate transformation by the second transformed-coordinate calculating section, and a size of the background image on the display screen of the display section,

wherein the display control section displays the background image and the plurality of superimposed images in such a way that the superimposed images are placed at the coordinates in the background image magnified or shrunk by the magnification/shrinkage processing section.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the background image is an image representing a map; and

the superimposed images are images representing a plurality of contents with each of which positional information indicating a position in the map is associated.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising:

a group setting section that sets a plurality of groups by classifying the plurality of contents on the basis of the positional information; and

a mark generating section that generates marks representing the groups on the basis of the positional information associated with each of contents belonging to the set groups,

wherein the display control section displays a listing of the marks representing the groups as the superimposed images.

6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the mark generating section generates maps as the marks representing the groups, the maps each corresponding to an area including a position identified by the positional information associated with each of the contents belonging to the set groups.

7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the mark generating section generates the marks representing the groups by changing a map scale for each of the set groups so that each of the maps becomes an image with a predetermined size.

8. The information processing apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising:

a background map generating section that generates a background map corresponding to each of the groups at a scale determined in accordance with a scale of each of maps generated as the marks representing the groups; and

the display control section displays, as the background image, the background map generated with respect to a group corresponding to a map selected from among the displayed listing of maps.

9. An information processing method comprising the steps of:

calculating transformed coordinates for each of a plurality of superimposed images associated with coordinates in a background image, by taking one superimposed image of the plurality of superimposed images as a reference image, and transforming coordinates of other superimposed images on the basis of corresponding coordinates of the reference image in the background image, distances in the background image from the reference image to the other superimposed images, and a distance in the background image from the reference image to a boundary within a predetermined area with respect to the reference image, the coordinates of the other superimposed images being transformed in such a way that coordinate intervals within the predetermined area become denser with increasing distance from the reference image toward the boundary within the predetermined area;

setting coordinates of the reference image on the basis of a mean value obtained by calculating a mean of the calculated coordinates of the other superimposed images with respect to the reference image; and

displaying the background image and the plurality of superimposed images on a display section in such a way that the reference image is placed at the set coordinates in the background image.

10. A program for causing a computer to execute the steps of:

calculating transformed coordinates for each of a plurality of superimposed images associated with coordinates in a background image, by taking one superimposed image of the plurality of superimposed images as a reference image, and transforming coordinates of other superimposed images on the basis of corresponding coordinates of the reference image in the background image, distances in the background image from the reference image to the other superimposed images, and a distance in the background image from the reference image to a boundary within a predetermined area with respect to the reference image, the coordinates of the other superimposed images being transformed in such a way that coordinate intervals within the predetermined area become denser with increasing distance from the reference image toward the boundary within the predetermined area;

setting coordinates of the reference image on the basis of a mean value obtained by calculating a mean of the calculated coordinates of the other superimposed images with respect to the reference image; and

displaying the background image and the plurality of superimposed images on a display section in such a way that the reference image is placed at the set coordinates in the background image.