APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR OUTPUTTING LAYOUT IMAGE

• US 20140013217A1
• Filed: 07/03/2013
• Published: 01/09/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/09/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Hashii, Yusuke, Umeda, Kiyoshi, Kunieda, Hiroyasu, Sakai, Hiroyuki, Sumi, Naoki
• Granted Patent: US 9,846,681 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/253
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing

Abstract

An apparatus includes an acquisition unit configured to acquire an image group including a plurality of images, a specifying unit configured to specify feature information of each of the images, a generation unit configured to generate a plurality of layout candidates by arranging images selected from the acquired image group, an evaluation unit configured to evaluate each of the layout candidates generated by the generation unit based on a plurality of evaluation standards including an image evaluation based on the feature information of each image arranged in the layout candidate and an overall evaluation of the layout candidate, and a determination unit configured to select and determine a layout to be output from the plurality of layout candidates based on a result of evaluation by the evaluation unit.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

an acquisition unit configured to acquire an image group including a plurality of images;

a specifying unit configured to specify feature information of each of the images;

a generation unit configured to generate a plurality of layout candidates by arranging images selected from the acquired image group;

an evaluation unit configured to evaluate each of the layout candidates generated by the generation unit based on a plurality of evaluation standards including an image evaluation based on the feature information of each image arranged in the layout candidate and an overall evaluation of the layout candidate; and

a determination unit configured to select and determine a layout to be output from the plurality of layout candidates based on a result of evaluation by the evaluation unit.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the overall evaluation of the layout candidate includes at least one of:

balance of the images arranged in the layout candidate, and degree of matching of the images to slots.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the evaluation unit is configured to change weights of the respective evaluation standards according to a theme of the layout to be output.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the acquisition unit comprises a filtering unit configured to evaluate each image based on the feature information of the image specified by the specifying unit and to not acquire an image that does not satisfy a predetermined standard.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the evaluation unit is configured to more highly evaluate the layout candidate as image similarity between the images arranged in the layout candidate increases, variations of a distribution of colors are greater, and/or variations of objects are greater.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a second acquisition unit configured to acquire a template including a plurality of image layout areas,

wherein the generation unit is configured to generate a layout candidate by arranging a plurality of images in the template.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the generation unit is configured to change layout candidates to be generated as (n+1)-th layout candidates according to a result of evaluation by the evaluation unit of the layout candidates generated as n-th layout candidates (n being a natural number).

8. A method comprising:

acquiring an image group including a plurality of images;

specifying feature information of each of the images;

generating a plurality of layout candidates by arranging images selected from the acquired image group;

evaluating each of the generated layout candidates based on the feature information of each image arranged in the layout candidate and similarity between the images arranged in the layout candidate; and

selecting and determining a layout to be output from the layout candidates based on a result of evaluation.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium that causes a computer to perform the method according to claim 8.