1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device, a display program storage medium, and a display method for displaying a list of data to which dates/times are caused to correspond.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, image pick-up devices can be carried with ease because most compact equipment such as mobile phones and the like, which are carried at all times, have an image pick-up device mounted thereon in addition to that digital cameras are rapidly made compact. Since image pick-up devices mounted on digital cameras and compact equipment can acquire digital picked-up images, the picked-up images can be instantly displayed on a liquid crystal display and the like in a field for confirmation, and unnecessary picked-up images can be deleted before they are printed out. Further, when plural picked-up images are collectively recorded on a recording medium and the like, the picked-up images can be stored in high image quality without taking up much space.
Further, recently, applications for album are widely used to put picked-up images in order using personal computers. The personal computers are advantageous in that they can store a lot of picked-up images without paying any heed to a remaining capacity because they have a large capacity hard disc device and that jobs for copying picked-up images and attaching them to an electronic mail and the like can be easily executed. Accordingly, many users temporarily store all the picked-up images, and thus there is a case that a lot of picked-up images are accumulated in a hard disc device of a personal computer without being browsed, from which a problem arises in that it is very difficult to search a desired picked-up image from the lot of picked-up images.
Japanese Patent Application Publication Nos. 11-25541, 2002-84469, and 10-243309 disclose techniques for displaying a program guide in which the titles of programs to be delivered are disposed on a three-dimensional space which uses time, date, week, and the like as its axes. Although these techniques display a list of the programs to be delivered, when the list is used as a list for displaying picked-up images, the list can be used as a tool for recognizing when the images were picked up.
Further, since images picked up in events such as a school entrance ceremony, travel, and the like are collectively browsed often, it is preferable to display a lot of picked-up images stored to a hard disc device by classifying them to respective events. As a method of classifying picked-up images to plural groups, it is considered to classify them to respective image pick-up dates/times. However, in this method, since images picked up during travel of several days are classified to plural events, the method is disadvantageous in that it is difficult to confirm the picked-up images.
As to this point, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-172849 discloses a technique for displaying picked-up images by classifying them to plural groups based on a time elapsed from an image pick-up date and on the frequency of use of the picked-up images. According to the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-172849, since the images, which are picked-up at approximately the same time and browsed at the same frequency, are classified to the same group, it is possible to classify the images, which are picked up in travel and collectively browsed often, to the same group.
However, according to the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-172849, it is necessary to browse the picked-up images at least once and to gather the picked-up images having the same frequency of use from plural images picked up in one event, which also has a problem in that a job, which is as troublesome as the case that a user manually classifies picked-up images, is eventually required.
This problem not only arises when picked-up image data is classified to respective events but also generally arises when, for example, a lot of document data and the like are classified to respective projects.
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances and provides a display device, a display program storage medium, and a display method capable of displaying data after it is accurately classified to plural groups. The display device of the present invention includes:
a data acquisition section which acquires plural data with which dates and/or times are associated;
a date and/or time acquisition section which acquires dates and/or times associated with the plural data;
a data classification section which classifies the plural data to plural groups which belong to plural time regions which do not overlap with each other, based on the length of intervals between the dates and/or times acquired by the date and/or time acquisition section; and
a display section which classifies plural icons which show the plural data to the groups and displays the plural icons. Ordinarily, an image pick-up operation is executed at short intervals during an event such as a school entrance ceremony, travel, and the like, and a time between one event and another event is longer than that between image pick-up operations executed during one event in many cases. According to the display device of the present invention, since plural data are classified to plural groups based on the length of the intervals between dates and/or times which are associated with the plural data, the plural data can be accurately classified to the respective events.
In the display device of the present invention, it is preferable that the data is image data which represents images of subjects and with which the image pick-up dates and/or times of the images are associated, and the date and/or time acquisition section acquires the image pick-up dates and/or times.
Since it is often required to classify picked-up image data which shows picked-up images to respective events, it is suitable to classify them based on the intervals between image pick-up operations, and thus a significant advantage can be acquired by the display device of the present invention.
In the display device of the present invention, it is preferable that the data classification section classify the plural data to the plural groups based on the relative length of intervals between the dates and/or times acquired by the date and/or time acquisition section.
Since plural data are classified based on the relative length of the intervals between dates and/or times, the images picked up in travel of several days can be classified to the same group.
In the display device of the present invention, it is preferable that when the data classification section classifies the plural data to the groups, the data classification section time-sequentially confirms intervals between the dates and/or times associated with the data, and the two data, with which are associated two dates and/or times across an interval whose length is changed in excess of a predetermined degree with respect to an interval immediately before the interval, are classified to different groups.
The sections of events can be accurately confirmed by using the change of the intervals between dates and/or times which are associated with the respective data.
In the display device of the present invention, it is preferable that the display section display a three-dimensional space having an axis of the groups and dispose the icons of the data to the position of the group, to which the data is classified, on the three-dimensional space.
What data belongs to which group can be easily confirmed by the positions of icons disposed on the three-dimensional space.
It is preferable that the display device of the present invention include an auxiliary display section for displaying a two-dimensional space having an axis of the groups and disposing a mark to the position corresponding to a group to which the data is classified on the two-dimensional space to show that data exists in the group.
When the icons of a lot of data are disposed and displayed, there is a possibility that whether these icons are present or not cannot be confirmed because they are overlapped. The existence of data can be easily recognized by disposing and displaying the marks on the two-dimensional space in addition to the icons displayed on the display section.
It is preferable that the display device of the present invention further include:
a designation section which designates a group on the two-dimensional space by displaying a designation frame along an axis different from the axis of the groups on the two-dimensional space, and moving the designation frame along the axis of the groups; and
a display control section which causes the display section to dispose the icons in a three-dimension display space with the group designated by the designation section displayed on a foremost surface.
The display on the three-dimensional space can be easily switched by moving the designation frame on the two-dimensional space.
It is preferable that the display device of the present invention further include a data number display section for displaying the number of data classified to the group designated by the designation section.
According to the preferable display device, the number of data classified to the group designated by the designation section can be easily confirmed.
In the display device of the present invention, it is preferable that the data acquisition section acquire the plural data from a storage section in which the plural data are stored.
According to the preferable display device, a lot of data stored to a hard disc device and the like can be classified to the plural groups and displayed.
A display program storage medium of the present invention stores a display program which is executed and constructs in a computer:
a data acquisition section which acquires plural data with which dates and/or times are associated;
a date and/or time acquisition section which acquires the dates and/or times associated with the plural data;
a data classification section which classifies the plural data to plural groups belonging to plural time regions which do not overlap with each other, based on the length of intervals between the dates and/or times acquired by the date and/or time acquisition section; and
a display section which classifies plural icons showing the plural data to the groups and displays the icons.
Note that only the basic feature of the display program storage medium is described here, but this is only to avoid a duplication, and the display program storage medium according to the present invention is not limited to the above basic feature and includes various additional features corresponding to the additional features of the display device described above.
Further, in the elements such as the date and/or time acquisition section and the like which are constructed on a computer system by the display program of the present invention, one element may be constructed by one program part or plural elements may be constructed by one program part. Further, these elements may be constructed so as to execute the operations thereof by themselves or may be constructed so as to execute the operations by instructing other program or a program part assembled to the computer system.
Further, a display method of the present invention includes:
a data acquisition step which acquires plural data with which dates and/or times are associated;
a date and/or time acquisition step which acquires the dates and/or times associated with the plural data;
a data classification step which classifies the plural data to plural groups belonging to plural time regions which do not overlap with each other, based on the length of intervals between the dates and/or times acquired in the date and/or time acquisition step; and
a display step which classifies plural icons showing the plural data to the groups and displays the icons.
According to the display method of the present invention, data such as picked-up image data showing picked-up images and the like can be accurately classified to the plural groups.
Note that only the basic feature of the display method is also described here, but this is only to avoid a duplication, and the display method according to the present invention is not limited to the above basic feature and includes various additional features corresponding to the additional features of the display device described above.
According to the present invention, picked-up images can be accurately classified to the respective events and displayed.
An embodiment of the present invention will be described below referring to the drawings.
A personal computer 100 includes a main body device 101, an image display device 102, a keyboard 103, and a mouse 104. The image display device 102 displays an image on a display screen 102a in response to an instruction from the main body device 101, the keyboard 103 inputs various types of information to the main body device 101 in response to a key operation, and the mouse 104 designates an arbitrary position on the display screen 102a and inputs an instruction according to, for example, an icon and the like displayed at the position. Further, although not shown, the main body device 101 has a CD/DVD mounting port, to which DVD and CD-ROM are mounted, and an FD mounting port to which a flexible disc (hereinafter, abbreviated as FD) is mounted.
As shown in
The CD-ROM 300 stores a list display program to which an embodiment of a display program storage medium of the present invention is applied. The CD-ROM 300 is mounted on the CD/DVD drive 114, and the list display program stored to the CD-ROM 300 is uploaded to the personal computer 100 and stored to the hard disc device 113. When the list display program is started and executed, a list display device 500, to which an embodiment of a display device of the present invention is applied, is constructed in the personal computer 100 (refer to
Next, the list display program executed in the personal computer 100 will be described.
The list display program 400 includes an instruction section 411, a capture section 412, a registration section 413, a picked-up image information/image acquisition section 414, an event classification section 415, a position calculation section 416, a two-dimensional image creation section 417, a three-dimensional image creation section 418, a display section 419, an emphasis display section 420, an image storage section 421, a number display section 422, and a control section 423. The respective sections of the list display program 400 will be described in detail together with the operations of the respective sections of the list display device 500.
Note that although the CD-ROM 300 storing the list display program in
The list display device 500 shown in
The respective elements of
The respective elements of the list display device 500 shown in
The list display device 500 shown in
When a digital camera or a recording medium, to which picked-up images are recorded, is connected to the personal computer 100 shown in
The registration section 513 creates thumbnail images by reducing the picked-up images represented by the picked-up image data transmitted from the capture section 512 and stores the picked-up image data to the storage section 501 together with the picked-up image information and the thumbnail images.
The hard disc device 113 shown in
The list display device 500 of the embodiment has an “image pick-up date/time mode” and an “event mode”. In the “image pick-up date/time mode”, the picked-up images stored to the storage section 501 are arranged and displayed based on image pick-up dates/times, and, in the “event mode”, the picked-up images stored to the storage section 501 are classified to event groups based on the relative intervals between the image pick-up dates/times as well as the picked-up images in the same event group are classified to scene groups based on the intervals between the image pick-up dates/times and displayed. An image pick-up date/time button for executing the “image pick-up date/time mode” and an event button for executing the “event mode” are previously prepared. First, how a list of the picked-up images is displayed by the “image pick-up date/time mode” will be described.
When the user selects the image pick-up date/time button using the mouse 104 and the like, the instruction section 511 of
When it is instructed to display the list, the picked-up image information/image acquisition section 514 acquires the thumbnail images and the picked-up image information stored to the storage section 501 (steps S1 and S2 of
The position calculation section 515 calculates a three-dimensional position, to which the image pick-up date/time included in the picked-up image information transmitted from the picked-up image information/image acquisition section 514 correspond, on a three-dimensional space, which has three axes, that is, an axis sectioning one day to each four hours, an axis further sectioning the four hours to each one hour, and an axis showing one day and calculates a two-dimensional position, which corresponds to the three-dimensional position, on a two-dimensional space having two axes, that is, an axis sectioning one day to each four hours and an axis showing one day (step S3 of
As shown in
Values 2, 3, 4 starting from 1 are sequentially allocated to the X-axis of the three-dimensional space, and a value, which is acquired by adding 1 to the value acquired by dividing the “HH o'clock” of an image pick-up date/time (YYYY year, MM month, DD date, PP minutes past HH o'clock) by 4 is acquired, is obtained as a value on the X-axis.
Respective four hours of 19 o'clock to 16 o'clock, 7 o'clock to 4 o'clock, 3 o'clock to 0 o'clock are sequentially allocated to the Y-axis of the three-dimensional space using the four hours from 23 o'clock to 20 o'clock as a start point. A value acquired by dividing the “HH o'clock” of the image pick-up date/time (YYYY year, MM month, DD date, PP minutes past HH o'clock) by 4 is obtained as a value on the Y-axis.
Yesterday, the day before yesterday, . . . , are sequentially allocated to the Z-axis of the three-dimensional space from today as a start point, and a value on the Z-axis is calculated based on an image pick-up date/time (YYYY year, MM month, DD date, PP minutes past HH o'clock).
Further, as shown in
Likewise the Y-axis of the three-dimensional space shown in
Yesterday, the day before yesterday, . . . , are sequentially allocated to the Y-axis of the two-dimensional space from today as a start point, and the values on the Z-axis in the three-dimensional space are calculated as the values on the Y-axis in the two-dimensional space as they are.
When, for example, plural images are picked up in the same time zone of the same date, plural positions are calculated in correspondence to the “HH o'clock” the image pick-up date/time of the respective picked-up images as the positions on the three-dimensional space. However, the same position is calculated for the plural picked-up images as the position on the two-dimensional space. That is, a mark on the two-dimensional space shows that one or more picked-up images picked-up in the same time zone of the same date exist.
The position calculated on the two-dimensional space (two-dimensional position) is transmitted to the two-dimensional image creation section 516, and the position calculated on the three-dimensional space (three-dimensional position) is transmitted to the three-dimensional image creation section 517.
The two-dimensional image creation section 516 creates a two-dimensional image in which the mark showing that the picked-up image exist is disposed at the two-dimensional position on the two-dimensional space transmitted from the position calculation section 515 (step S4 of
The control section 522 instructs the display section 519 to display a scroll bar along the Y-axis on the two-dimensional space.
The three-dimensional image creation section 517 creates a three-dimensional image in which the thumbnail images transmitted from the picked-up image information/image acquisition section 514 are disposed at the positions transmitted from the position calculation section 515 on the three-dimensional space (step S5 of
Further, the number display section 523 calculates the number of the picked-up images to be displayed on the foremost surface on the three-dimensional image, and the calculated number of the picked-up images is transmitted to the display section 519.
The display section 519 displays the two-dimensional image transmitted from the two-dimensional image creation section 516, the three-dimensional image transmitted from the three-dimensional image creation section 517, the scroll bar instructed by the control section 522, and the number of the picked-up images transmitted from the number display section 523 on the display screen 102a (step S6 of
Note that in an initial state in which it is instructed to display the list as well as the three-dimensional image 600, the two-dimensional image 620, and the scroll bar 623 are displayed, only a region showing a period of one week from today as a start point is displayed on the three-dimensional image 600 and the two-dimensional image 620.
In the three-dimensional image 600 shown in
As described above, according to the list display device 500 of the embodiment, since the thumbnail images of the images picked up on the same date are arranged on the same surface in the three-dimensional image 600, the images picked up, for example, in a school entrance ceremony can be confirmed collectively.
Further, the two-dimensional image 620 shown in
As described above, according to the list display device 500 of the embodiment, whether or not images picked up on a predetermined date exist can be easily confirmed by looking at the two-dimensional image 620.
Further, the two-dimensional image 620 also displays the scroll bar 623, a frame 622, a number display section 624, a period change button 625, and a date change button 626. The scroll bar 623 extends along the Y-axis (date) and designates a date on the two-dimensional image 620, the frame 622 surrounds the range of the date selected by the scroll bar 623, the number display section 624 shows the number of the images picked up on the image pick-up date surrounded by the frame 622, the period change button 625 switches the period described above, and the date change button 626 switches the date.
The image pick-up date surrounded by the frame 622 is the image pick-up date of the picked-up images displayed on the foremost surface on the three-dimensional image 600, and the number of the images picked up on the same date can be easily recognized by confirming the number display section 624.
Further, when a right button of the mouse indicating a pointer 601 is clicked, a popup window 640 for selecting the thumbnail images is displayed.
The popup window 640 shown in
When the user selects the thumbnail images 610 using the popup window 640 (step S7 of
When the user clicks the mouse 104 shown in
When the user selects an instruction displayed on the popup window using the pointer 601 (step S9 of
As described above, according to the “image pick-up date/time mode”, since a lot of picked-up image programs are stored to the storage section 501, even if the thumbnail images are overlapped on the three-dimensional image 600 in a depth direction, on which day an image pick-up operation is executed and the like can be easily recognized by confirming the two-dimensional image 620.
The flow of the processing according to the “image pick-up date/time mode” has been described above, and the flow of a processing according to the “event mode” will be described next.
Hereinafter, the embodiment will be described assuming that the storage section 501 stores picked-up images whose image pick-up dates/times are different from each other, that is, an image 200A picked-up on “Apr. 6, 2007, 9:00”, an image 200B picked-up on “Apr. 6, 2007, 9:05”, an image 200C picked-up on “Apr. 6, 2007, 9:15”, an image 200D picked-up on “Apr. 6, 2007, 10:30”, an image 200E picked-up on “Apr. 6, 2007, 10:40”, an image 200F picked-up on “Apr. 7, 2007, 10:00”, an image 200G picked-up on “Apr. 9, 2007, 9:00”, an image 200H picked-up on “Apr. 9, 2007, 9:10”, an image 200I picked-up on “Apr. 9, 2007, 9:20”, an image 200J picked-up on “Apr. 10, 2007, 15:00”, an image 200K picked-up on “Apr. 10, 2007, 20:00”, and an image 200L picked-up on “Apr. 10, 2007, 20:10”.
When the user selects the event button 632 shown in
When it is instructed to execute the “event mode”, the picked-up image information/image acquisition section 514 also acquires the thumbnail images and the picked-up image information stored in the storage section 501 (steps S1 and S2 of
Note that when the picked-up images are classified to event groups and scene groups in the embodiment, various types of classification conditions are preset.
The condition setting screen 650 shown in
The example will be described assuming that “10” is set as the reference period between events and “100 seconds” are set as the reference period in an event.
The event classification section 524 classifies the picked-up images to plural event groups based on the relative intervals between the image pick-up dates/times included in the picked-up image information and on a preset reference period between events as well as classifies the picked-up images in the same event group to plural scene groups based on the intervals between the image pick-up dates/times and on a preset reference period in an event (step S3_1 of
Here, the description of
When the picked-up images 200A to 200L shown in
Subsequently, the picked-up image 200A having the oldest image pick-up date/time and the picked-up image 200B having the second oldest image pick-up date/time are classified to a first event group 1 (step S12 of
Further, the intervals between the image pick-up dates/times of the picked-up images sorted at step S11 are calculated in the sequence of an older image pick-up date/time, and the picked-up images 200C to 200L, which are not yet classified, are classified to the plural event groups based on the relative change of the intervals (step S13 of
Evaluation value (n)=(Image pick-up date/time (n)−Image pick-update/time (n−1))/(Image pick-up date/time (n−1)−Image pick-up date/time (n−2)) (1)
In
Ordinarily, although images are picked-up at short intervals in the events such as travel, the events occur at a certain degree of intervals. As shown in the expression (1), the images picked up in travel of several days can be accurately classified to the same event group by classifying the picked-up images to the event group using the relative intervals between image pick-up dates/times.
Subsequently, the sections between the classified event groups are adjusted as described below (step S14 of
Image pick-update (n)−Image pick-up date (n−1)<Image pick-up date (n+1)−Image pick-up date (n) (2)
where, (n−1) shows the image pick-up date/time of the newest picked-up image in the old event group (N-1), (n) shows the image pick-up date/time of the oldest picked-up image in the new event group N, and (n+1) shows the image pick-up date/time of the second oldest picked-up image in the new event group N. In the example of
When the picked-up images are classified based on the relative intervals between the image pick-up dates/times, there is a possibility, when a subject is continuously picked up, an image, which is picked up in several minutes after the subject is continuously picked up, is classified to an event group different from the event group to which the continuously picked up subject is classified. When the sections of the respective classified event groups are adjusted according to the expression (2), the picked-up images can be more accurately classified.
Subsequently, when the intervals between the respective event groups are smaller than a predetermined threshold value (10 minutes in the embodiment), these event groups are coupled with each other (step S15 of
Since an event ordinarily occurs after several hours pass from the occurrence of a previous event, when the intervals between respective event groups are short, the picked-up images can be more accurately classified by coupling the event groups.
Finally, the intervals between the image pick-up dates/times of the picked-up images 200A to 200L of the respective event groups are calculated in the sequence of an older image pick-up date/time, and the picked-up images 200A to 200L, which are classified to the respective event groups, are further classified to plural scene groups based on the intervals (step S16 of
Evaluation value (n)=Image pick-up date/time (n)−Image pick-up date/time (n−1) (3)
In the example of
In travel and the like, an image pick-up operation is executed on arriving at a destination and interrupted during movement from the destination to another destination in many cases. When the picked-up images in one event group are classified to plural scene groups based on the intervals between image pick-up dates/times, the images picked up in travel can be classified to respective events.
The picked-up images 200A to 200L are classified to the event groups and the scene groups as described above.
Description will be continued returning to
A result of classification is transmitted from the event classification section 524 to the position calculation section 515.
The position calculation section 515 calculates the three-dimensional positions and times on the three-dimensional space, the axes of which show a time, a scene group, and an event group and to which the result of classification transmitted from the event classification section 524 correspond, and the two-dimensional positions, which correspond to the three-dimensional positions, on the two-dimensional space the axes of which shows a time and an event group (step S3_2 of
The calculated positions on the two-dimensional space (two-dimensional position) are transmitted to the two-dimensional image creation section 516, and the calculated positions on the three-dimensional space (three-dimensional positions) are transmitted to the three-dimensional image creation section 517.
The two-dimensional image creation section 516 creates a two-dimensional image (step S4 of
The display section 519 displays the two-dimensional image created by the two-dimensional image creation section 516, the three-dimensional image created by the three-dimensional image creation section 517, the scroll bar, and the number of the pick-up images calculated by the number display section 523 on the display screen 102a (step S6 of
In the three-dimensional image 710 shown in
As described above, according to the list display device 500 of the embodiment, since the thumbnail images of the images picked up in the same event group are arranged on the same surface in the three-dimensional image 710, the images picked up in travel can be collectively confirmed.
Further, plural marks 621′ extending along the X-axis (time axis) are disposed on the two-dimensional image 620, and the respective marks 621′ show the respective event groups. Further, the two-dimensional image 620 also displays the scroll bar 623, which extends along the Y-axis (event group axis) and designates an event group on the two-dimensional image 620, the frame 622, which surrounds the mark 621′ of the event group selected by the scroll bar 623, the number display section 624, which shows the number of the picked-up images classified to the event group selected by the scroll bar 623, and the like.
When the user scrolls the scroll bar 623, an instruction section 511 shown in
In
The user can easily switch the displayed three-dimensional image 710 making use of the scroll bar 623.
Further, when the user clicks the right button of the mouse indicating the pointer 601 as shown in
The popup window 640′ shown in
When the user selects the thumbnail images 610 using the popup window 640′ (step S7 of
Further, when the user clicks the mouse 104 shown in
When the user selects an instruction displayed on the popup window using the pointer 601 (step S9 of
As described above, according to the embodiment, plural picked-up images can be accurately classified to the plural event groups, and a list of the picked-up images can be displayed so that they can be viewed easily.
Although the example, in which the personal computer is applied as the display device, is described above, the display device of the present invention may be a video recorder and the like.
Although the example, in which the list of the picked-up image data showing the picked-up images is displayed, is described above, the data according to the present invention may be, for example, program data showing programs, document data showing documents, and the like as long as dates/times are associated with the data.
Although the example, in which the plural groups are arranged in the depth direction and the thumbnail images are three-dimensionally displayed, is described above, the display section according to the present invention may be, for example, a display section for two-dimensionally displaying plural picked-up images in the respective groups or displaying plural picked-up images in different colors as long as the plural picked-up images are classified to the respective groups and displayed.
Further, although the example, in which the thumbnail images are created when the picked-up images are recorded, is described above, the display section according to the present invention may create the thumbnail images when the list of the picked-up images is displayed.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2007-107221 | Apr 2007 | JP | national |