JP2013011955A - Information processing device, control method therefor, program, and computer-readable program recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To designate a position to be a reference and search for a page in which a character string exists in its vicinity.SOLUTION: An information processing device that selects an image in which a requested object is arranged from among search target images, comprises: a position information input unit 101 that inputs position information with respect to the search target images; a specifying information input unit 102 that inputs specifying information for specifying the requested object in the images; a distance acquisition unit 105 that acquires distances between positions at which the specified objects are arranged in the target images and a reference position; and an image selection unit 106 that selects an image on the basis of the acquired distances.

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus that performs a search using a distance between a position designated by a user and an object, a control method thereof, a program, and a computer-readable program recording medium.

Conventionally, a method for retrieving a character string designated by a user from presentation materials and document files is known. For example, when a user selects a certain page, a page including a character string searched by the above search method is set as a candidate, and a desired page is selected from the candidates.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-228561 discloses that a search character string is designated by speech recognition to search for a desired page from presentation materials. Here, pages including the search character string are displayed as a list of reduced images, and the user selects a desired page from the list.

JP 2002-268667 A

However, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-228867, even for an image that the user has seen in the past, even if the location where an object such as a character string included in the image is stored is stored, that position is effectively used. I am not searching.
The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a technique for efficiently retrieving an image when the approximate position of an object included in the image is stored.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, the invention according to claim 1 is directed to position information indicating a reference position serving as a reference in an image to be searched and identification information for specifying an object required in the image. And an input means for inputting an image, and a selection means for selecting an image based on a distance between the position where the specified object is arranged and the reference position in the image to be searched. To do.

  According to the present invention, when an approximate position of an object included in an image is stored, the image can be efficiently searched.

Block diagram showing configuration of functions and control Search process flowchart Schematic diagram showing one slide of presentation material to be searched Figure showing an example of a presentation material Diagram showing an example of search condition input processing Schematic diagram showing distance acquisition Schematic diagram showing an example of adding position information and size information for each character of content Flowchart of processing for obtaining the minimum distance between the reference position and the character string Flowchart of processing when searching for multiple images Schematic diagram showing each distance when the distance between the reference position and the character string position is obtained for multiple images The figure which shows an example of the display of the search result selected as a candidate Schematic diagram showing one page of the document file to be searched Schematic diagram showing an example in which one page of a document file is divided into a plurality of areas and managed by area identification bits Flowchart of processing for determining a group of images in which the distance between the reference position and the character string position is close by collating area identification bits Schematic diagram showing an example in which one page of a document file is divided into a plurality of areas and managed by area identification bits Flowchart of processing for obtaining the distance between the reference position and the character string Flowchart of processing for defining the distance from the reference position for each area

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1A is a block diagram showing the configuration of the embodiment of the present invention.

  The position information input unit 101 inputs a reference position for the search target image. The specific information input unit 102 inputs information for specifying the requested object.

The search processing unit 103 detects an image in which the identified object is arranged from the search target images held in the image database (DB) 104.
The distance acquisition unit 105 acquires the distance between the position where the identified object is placed on the image detected by the search processing unit 103 and the reference position input to the position information input unit 101.

  The image selection unit 106 selects an image based on the distance acquired by the distance acquisition unit 105. The result display unit 107 displays the image selected by the image selection unit 106 as a search result.

  FIG. 1B is a block diagram showing a control configuration when the configuration of FIG. 1A is realized by a computing system which is a typical embodiment of the present invention.

  A CPU 109 in the computer apparatus 108 generally controls each device connected via the system bus 112. The CPU 109 reads and executes processing steps and programs stored in the read-only memory (ROM) 110 or the hard disk (HD) 119 or supplied from the external memory disk drive 120. Similarly, the CPU 109 can execute the steps shown in the flowcharts of FIGS. 2 and 9 and functions as the search processing unit 103, the distance acquisition unit 105, and the image selection unit 106. At that time, the random access memory (RAM) 111 is used as a temporary storage area such as a main memory and a work area of the CPU 109 that can be accessed at high speed.

  Here, the HD 119 stores a process executable by a computer in a data file such as an image, an operating system, and an application as a program, and stores a device driver executed by the computer apparatus 108.

  The disk drive 120 is an interface for reading data from a disk device inserted therein and writing data to the disk device. Using this disk drive 120, data files such as processing steps and images that can be executed by the computer are taken into the computer device 108 and stored in the HD 119. Therefore, the recording medium inserted into the HD 119 or the disk drive 120 functions as the image DB 104.

  ROM 110 stores invariant processing steps that can be executed by a computer for basic system functions such as basic I / O, startup, or keystroke acceptance from keyboard 115.

  A keyboard controller (KBC) 113 controls input of instructions from a pointing device 114 such as a keyboard (KB) 115, a mouse, a touch panel, and a laser pointer. Therefore, it functions as the position information input unit 101 and the specific information input unit 102.

  The display controller (DSPC) 116 functions as the result display unit 107 by controlling the display on the display (DSP) 117. A disk controller (DKC) 118 controls access to the HD 119 and the disk drive 120.

  The basic processing contents in which the present embodiment having the configuration shown in FIG. 1 selects an image based on the distance between the reference position and the position of the object on the image will be described according to a specific embodiment.

<First Embodiment>
In the first embodiment, an example is shown in which a desired slide is selected from presentation material composed of a plurality of slides.

  FIG. 3 schematically shows one slide of the presentation material to be searched in the first embodiment. Reference numeral 301 denotes a screen on which one slide is displayed on the display device, and reference numeral 306 denotes XML data of a document corresponding to the screen 301. Images 302 to 305 are components of the slide, and correspond to paragraphs 307 to 310, respectively. The component (title, figure) has attribute information such as the type (type), coordinates (offset), size (size), and layer (layer) of the component and content. The layer attribute is an overlapping order from the back side of the component to the front side. Here, it is assumed that the smaller the numerical value is, the more the rear surface is arranged. Instead of providing the layer attribute, the overlapping order may be expressed in the description order of the constituent elements. In the screen 301 of FIG. 3, the upper left corner of the slide is the origin (0, 0) when the slide is a coordinate plane.

  Next, a selection process for selecting a slide desired by the user will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  FIG. 4 shows an example of the presentation material to be searched. Each of the slides 401 to 408 indicates a slide included in the presentation material, and it is assumed that the slides 401 to 408 are the first to eighth sheets in order. Here, the character string “road map” is included in the slides 402, 403, 404, 406, and 407. In the present embodiment, a case is considered in which a user uses a character string “road map” as a search condition and wants to search for a slide on which the character string is arranged. It is assumed that the user wants to search for the slide 406 and stores that the character string “road map” is at the upper right portion.

  In step S01 of FIG. 2, the input of the position information input unit 101 and the specific information input unit 102 as the function units of the keyboard controller 113 is accepted, and the process proceeds to step S02.

  An example of search condition input processing in step S01 of FIG. 2 is shown in FIG. First, the user inputs the approximate position where the search condition object (character string or the like) was placed in the desired image as the reference position information, relying on the memory. That is, the reference position here is a position where the user remembers that the object of the search condition has been arranged in the desired image. In other words, in the image obtained as a result of the search, it is the reference position of the position where the object of the search condition is required to be arranged. In other words, the user desires an image in which the object is arranged near the reference position. doing. In FIG. 5A, by setting the mouse cursor 501 at the upper right position where the character string “road map” is arranged on the slide 406 desired by the user, the reference position information is input. The position information is stored as coordinates. Note that the pointing device 114 can be used to input position information. In addition, the keyboard 115 may be used for operation, or “right” or the like may be spoken and input from a microphone. In (b), a menu 502 is displayed by right clicking. When search is selected from the menu 502, a form 503 for inputting a search character string is displayed. A search is executed by inputting a road map in the form 503 and pressing the enter key or return key. An execution button may be provided in the menu 502 or other display portion, and execution may be instructed by a click operation with the mouse cursor 501.

  Next, in step S02, the CPU 109 (the search processing unit 103 as its functional unit) refers to the image DB 104 in which the search target image is stored, and the object indicated by the specific information input to the specific information input unit 102 Detect the image where is placed. Further, the CPU 109 (distance acquisition unit 105 as its functional unit) acquires the distance between the arrangement position of the object included in the detected image and the input reference position, and proceeds to step S03.

  In step S02, the search processing unit 103 first searches for an object such as a character string or a figure using a known search unit. The image to be searched is, for example, a slide or a page constituting a document such as a presentation material or a document file. The document is composed of one image or a plurality of images. A plurality of documents may exist. Information obtained as a result of the search is information on a document including the object, an image in the document, and an arrangement position of the object in the image. The position information may be coordinate information starting from any location in the image (for example, upper left), or may be coordinate information using information such as the number of lines and the number of characters in the case of a character string. . The distance acquisition unit 105 acquires the distance from the position information and the reference position information thus obtained. The distance here is the distance between the reference position coordinates and the coordinates of the position where the object is arranged on the coordinate plane.

  FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating distances acquired in the first embodiment. Further explanation will be made by using 301 in FIG. 3 again. A coordinate 601 is a position input by the user, and corresponds to, for example, a position where the mouse is right-clicked. A coordinate 602 is a coordinate of a component including the character string “road map”, and corresponds to position information indicated by a paragraph 309 in FIG. The distance acquisition unit 105 calculates a distance between two points of coordinates 601 and 602. Assuming that coordinates 601 are (x1, y1) and coordinates 602 are (x2, y2) as coordinates according to the X axis and Y axis, the distance D can be defined as follows.

D = √ {(x1-x2) * (x1-x2) + (y1-y2) * (y1-y2)}
The method for obtaining the distance D is not limited to the above. For example, using the slide layer structure obtained from the XML data 306 in FIG. 3 and the like, a distance that is weighted so that the distance between the reference position and the object arrangement position becomes larger as the component arranged on the back surface is defined. You can also

  Furthermore, FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing an example in which position information and size information are given for each component (here, a character) of an object included in the content. 701 is extracted from the content expressed in XML in 306 of FIG. On the other hand, reference numeral 702 denotes a part of the position information and size information given to each character of the content. For example, the position information (the coordinates of the upper left corner) of the character “B” is (140, 20), and the size is (8, 8). The position information and the size information may be given in advance, or may be performed just before the search by the search processing unit 103 or only for the object searched after the search. Further, existing technology can be used to extract position information and size information of each character.

  Thus, by providing position information and size information for each character of the content, detailed distance calculation based on the actual position of each character becomes possible. The processing in the first embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  In step S801 of FIG. 8, it is confirmed whether or not the last character constituting the object (character string) has been processed. If it has not been processed, the process proceeds to step S802, and if already processed, the process ends.

  In step S802, a character to be subjected to distance calculation processing is determined. When calculating all the characters constituting the character string, the next character may be selected in order from the top. In addition, it is also possible to devise a quick calculation process, such as thinning out characters as appropriate, or targeting only the first, middle, and last characters of a character string. As an example, it is assumed that the first character “B” of the character string “ROAD MAP” is determined as the target of the distance calculation process. When the character to be processed is determined, the process proceeds to step S803.

  In step S803, a distance D between the input position of the user and the position of the character to be processed is obtained. Like 702, the position information (coordinates) of the processing target character “b” is (140, 20), and the size is (8, 8). Accordingly, the distance D can be obtained from the reference position coordinates input by the user in step S01 and the coordinates (140, 20). The position information used for the calculation here is the coordinates of the upper left corner of the character, but is not limited to this. For example, if the character size is large, using the coordinates of the center of the character may be closer to the character position recognized by the user. In that case, the coordinates of the center of the character are obtained from the character size information and used for the calculation of the distance D. In the case of the character “B” as an example, since the character size is (8, 8), it can be seen that the center coordinates are (144, 24). Similarly, the coordinates of the four corners of the character are obtained using the information on the size of the character, the distance D from the reference position coordinates is calculated for each of the four corners or for some that are considered to be close to the reference position, and the smallest one is selected. You can also. When the distance D is obtained, the process proceeds to step S804.

  In step S804, the minimum value of the distance D obtained for the already processed character is compared with the distance D of the character being processed, the smaller one is held as a new minimum value, and the process returns to step S801. When the processing is completed, the held minimum value is set as the distance between the character string and the reference position.

  Finally, in step S03 of FIG. 2, the image selection unit 106 as a function unit of the CPU 109 selects the image in which the requested object is arranged based on the distance acquired by the distance acquisition unit 105, and the process ends. . For example, it is determined to select an image having the shortest distance. The reference position is a position where the user memorizes that a character string serving as a search condition is arranged in a desired image, and the user desires an image in which an object is arranged near the reference position. That is, by selecting an image having the smallest acquired distance, an image most suitable for the conditions desired by the user can be obtained. Accordingly, the slide 406 is selected in the first embodiment. In addition, as a modification, another method may be adopted, and for example, an image having a distance smaller than a certain threshold may be selected. In this case, a plurality of images can be selected, but an image in which an object is arranged within a certain allowable range can be appropriately selected with respect to the reference position input with the help of the user's memory.

  In addition, when a plurality of images in which the requested object is arranged are included in the document, the image may be selected as a candidate in ascending order of the acquired distance. According to this configuration, even when the user's memory is ambiguous and the input of the reference position information is not optimal, the images are selected as candidates in order from the images that are likely to be the desired images. An image can be obtained. Processing steps of this embodiment when search character strings are detected in a plurality of slides will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

  FIG. 9A is a flowchart of the search process corresponding to FIG. 2. In step S902, the input of the position information input unit 101 and the specific information input unit 102 is accepted, and the process proceeds to step S902.

  In step S902, the search processing unit 103 refers to the image DB 104 in which the search target image is stored, and detects a plurality of images in which the object indicated by the specific information input to the specific information input unit 102 is arranged.

  Here, FIG. 9B is a flowchart for further explaining the processing in step S902. In step S902a, it is confirmed whether or not the processing for sequentially acquiring distances has been performed for all detected images. If unprocessed, the process proceeds to step S902b. If processed, the process ends, and the process proceeds to step S903. In step S902b, images to be processed next are sequentially determined, and the process proceeds to step S902c. In step S902c, the minimum distance between the reference position and the character string is acquired by the processing step of FIG. 8 in the determined current image, and the process returns to step S902a.

  In step S903, the image selection unit 106 sorts and holds the images in which the requested objects are arranged in ascending order of the distance in each slide acquired by the distance acquisition unit 105, and proceeds to step S904.

  In step S904, images are selected in the sorted order, and the process proceeds to step S905. In step S905, the image selected by the result display unit 107, which is a functional unit of the display controller (DSPC) 116, is displayed, and the process proceeds to step S906. In step S906, it is confirmed whether or not the selection is determined based on the displayed image. If not, the process returns to step S904, and if determined, the process ends.

  FIG. 10 schematically shows a distance (straight line with an arrow) between a user input position (black circle) and each character string when the distance is calculated based on the position of the character string. As a result of the search, attention is paid to the slide on which the character string “road map” is arranged.

  If a search is performed using the character string “road map” without using position information, slides including the “road map” are displayed in a predetermined page order as the search result. Accordingly, the slides 402, 403, 404, 406, and 407 are displayed in this order. In this case, the slide 406 desired by the user is not displayed first but is displayed fourth. In contrast, in the search according to the present embodiment, the distance is the smallest on the slide 406, and the distance increases in the order of the slides 403, 404, 407, and 402.

  In this way, by calculating the distance based on the position where the object (character string) exists, and selecting candidates in ascending order of the distance, a search result that matches the actual user's feeling can be provided.

  An example of the display of the search result in step S905 in FIG. 9A is shown in FIG. Here, a state where the slide 403 as the second candidate is displayed is shown. The operation button 1101 and the operation button 1102 are buttons for instructing a slide feed for sequentially browsing candidate slides. In step S906, when it is determined to be selected, for example, a process of returning to a normal slide browsing screen by a double click operation may be performed.

  In the first embodiment, an example in which a character string of content included in a slide is a requested object has been shown, but the object is not limited to a character string, and may be a graphic or image element such as an ellipse or a rectangle. I do not care. Even in this case, the coordinates of the four corners and the center position of the object can be obtained from the position information and size information obtained from the XML data, and the distance D between the reference position coordinates on the coordinate plane can be calculated. In addition, if identification information that can specify the content of an image is registered in advance, when an image such as a photograph is used as an object, it can be specified by the content.

<Second Embodiment>
The second embodiment shows an example in which a desired page is selected from a document file composed of a plurality of pages. FIG. 12 schematically shows one page of the document file to be searched. As in the first embodiment, a case where a character string “road map” is requested and used as a search condition is shown.

  Furthermore, in the second embodiment, one page of a document file is divided into a plurality of areas, and management is performed by assigning an area identification bit to each divided area. In the distance acquisition step, the reference position is compared with the identification bit of the area to which the requested character string belongs, and the difference is determined. Therefore, it is possible to obtain the distance more easily and faster than calculating the distance on the coordinate plane as in the first embodiment. An example of a method for assigning area identification bits to the divided areas is shown in FIG.

  In FIG. 13A, the page is first divided vertically into two, and area identification bits of 0 are assigned to the upper area and 1 to the lower area. Next, in (b), the page is further divided into two parts, and 0 is assigned to the left side, 1 is assigned to the right side, and an identification bit is assigned to the second digit. This operation is repeated for each of the divided areas as shown in (c) and (d). In the present embodiment, as an example, one page is divided into 16 and 4-digit area identification bits are assigned.

  The process of selecting a desired page by the user is executed according to the flowchart of FIG. 2 or FIG. 9 as in the first embodiment. The search condition input process can be performed by the process described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 13, the position where the mouse cursor 1301 is set in the present embodiment is an area 1302 with an identification bit of 1100 out of 16 areas to which a 4-digit area identification bit is assigned. In the second embodiment, this area identification bit 1100 is stored as reference position information.

  Next, processing for obtaining the distance between the reference position defined by the area identification bit and the position of the search character string will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In the second embodiment, the area identification bits are collated from the top, and the distance on the page is defined as being close based on the relationship that they belong to an area having many common digits.

  In step S1401 of FIG. 14, the area identification bit of the area to which the reference position and the position where the search character string is arranged in the page being processed belongs is acquired, and the process proceeds to step S1402. A method for searching for this character string can be based on a known search technique. When the detected character string extends over a plurality of areas, the position of the first character of the character string, the position of an intermediate character, or the like may be defined as the position of the search character string.

  In step S1402, 1 is assigned to variable n, and the process proceeds to the next. In step S1403, the reference position is compared with the area identification bit to which the search character string arrangement position belongs, and the process proceeds to step S1404.

  In step S1404, it is confirmed whether or not the nth digit of the collated area identification bits is common. If they are common, the process proceeds to step S1405, and if they are different, the process proceeds to step S1407. For the first time, make sure n = 1st digit.

  In step S1405, n is incremented by 1, and the process proceeds to the next step. In step S1406, if the last digit of the area identification bit has already been confirmed, the process proceeds to step S1407, and if not, the process returns to step S1404.

  In step S1407, the image currently being processed is defined as Level: n, the image is retained, and the process ends.

  In the image selection in step S02 in FIG. 2, the image held in step S1407 in FIG. 14 is selected. If a plurality of images are detected, they are sorted in descending order of n in step S903 in FIG. Accordingly, in the image selection step in step S904, candidates can be selected in the order of the high possibility of being the desired page. When a plurality of images are selected for a certain n, a list of reduced images may be displayed on the result display unit 107 and presented to the user, or may be selected as candidates in the order of page numbers.

<Third Embodiment>
In the third embodiment, as in the second embodiment, an example is shown in which a desired page is selected from a document file composed of a plurality of pages based on the distance acquired by the area identification bit.

  FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram showing an example in which one page of a document file is divided into a plurality of areas and managed by area identification bits in the third embodiment.

  FIG. 15 also shows an example in which one page is divided into 16 by 4 rows and 4 columns. In the third embodiment, the upper left corner is 0, and numbers up to 15 are assigned to each area in binary so that the right is large in the row direction and the bottom is large in the column direction. Therefore, a 4-digit area identification bit is assigned to each of the 16 divided areas. Even when divided arbitrarily into r rows and c columns, individual area identification bits in binary numbers can be assigned in order.

  The process of selecting a page that the user desires to browse is executed according to the flowchart of FIG. 2 or FIG. The search condition input process can be performed by the process described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 15, the identification bit is 1010 in the area where the mouse cursor 1501 is set. In the present embodiment, this area becomes the reference position area 1502.

  In the third embodiment, the reference position area 1502 in FIG. An annular area 1503 that touches the area 1502 so as to surround the eight directions is defined as a distance 1, and similarly, an annular area 1504 that touches the area 1502 so as to surround the 1503 is defined as a distance 2. In this way, if the relationship between the distances is defined in annular areas of different sizes centered on the reference position area, it is divided under the concept of the distance between the position where the search character string is arranged and the reference position. Can handle the area. That is, here, the area distance relationship is defined so as to increase with increasing distance from the reference position with respect to a plurality of annular areas having different sizes surrounding the eight directions with the reference position area as the center. Therefore, the distance between the position where the search character string is arranged and the reference position can be determined by the distance defined in the area to which the position where the search character string is arranged belongs.

  In the third embodiment, processing for acquiring the distance between the reference position and the search character string will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  In step S1601, the area identification bit of the area to which the reference position and the position where the search character string is arranged in the page being processed belongs is acquired, and the process proceeds to step S1602. A method of searching for a character string can be performed by a known search technique as in the other embodiments. When the detected character string extends over a plurality of areas, the position of the first character of the character string, the position of an intermediate character, or the like may be defined as the position of the search character string.

  In step S1602, the distance is defined based on the relationship between the 16 divided areas of the page being processed, and the flow advances to step S1603. A method for defining the distance will be described with reference to FIG.

  Returning to FIG. 16, in step S1603, 0 is substituted into the variable N and the process proceeds to the next. In step S1603, the area identification bit acquired in step S1601 is compared with the distance defined in step S1602, the distance of the area where the search character string is arranged is confirmed, and the process proceeds to step S1605.

  In step S1605, it is confirmed whether or not a search character string exists in the distance N area. In the first time, always check the reference position area of N = 0. As a result of the confirmation, if it exists, the process proceeds to step S1607, and if it does not exist, the process proceeds to step S1606. In step S1606, N is incremented by 1, and the process returns to step S1605. In this way, in order to check whether the search character string exists preferentially from the area close to the reference position, even if the search character string is included in a plurality of places in one page, the position closer to the reference position is set. The distance can be determined.

  In step S1607, the page being processed is defined as a distance N, and the process ends.

  Here, processing for defining the distance from the reference position in each area in the third embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Here, a case is considered in which one page is divided into areas of r rows and c columns.

  In step S1701, first, the area identification bit at the reference position is defined as distance 0, and the process proceeds to S1702. In step S1702, 0 is substituted for variable d, and the flow advances to step S1703.

  In step S1703, an area that is ± 1 in the distance d area is extracted by calculation of the identification bit by the binary method, defined as an area of the distance d + 1, and the process proceeds to step S1704.

  In step S1704, an area obtained by calculating ± c (c is the number of columns) by binary calculation is extracted from the identification bits of the undefined area at this time to the identification bits of the defined distance d and d + 1 area, and the distance is extracted. The area is defined as d + 1 area, and the process proceeds to step S1704.

  In step S1705, it is confirmed whether or not processing for defining distances has been performed for all areas in the page. If there is an unprocessed area, the process proceeds to S1706, and if all have been processed, the process ends. In step S1706, the variable d is incremented by 1, and the process returns to step S1703.

  In the image selection step in step S02 of FIG. 2, the page held in step S1607 of FIG. 16 is selected. If a plurality of pages are detected, the pages are sorted in ascending order of distance defined in step S903 in FIG. Therefore, in the page selection in step S904, candidates can be selected in the descending order of possibility of the desired page. When a plurality of images are selected for a group of a certain distance N, reduced images may be displayed as a list on the result display unit 107 and presented to the user, or may be selected as candidates in the order of page numbers.

  In the third embodiment, one of the divided areas is designated as the reference position area, but a plurality of areas can be designated as a modification. At this time, as an input to the position information input unit 101, for example, a graphic such as a straight line or a closed curve can be drawn by the pointing device 114. The reference position area defined as the distance 0 may be a plurality of areas over which the drawn figure extends, or may be an area surrounded by the figure. In the process of defining the distance to the reference position for each area, the area surrounding the area in which the distance is defined is sequentially selected according to the flowchart of FIG. 17, and the next largest distance may be defined.

<Other examples>
In the first to third embodiments, one point is input to the position information input unit 101 by the pointing device 114. However, a plurality of points may be input as reference positions. In that case, a common object may be specified for a plurality of reference positions, or different objects may be specified, and an image arranged near each reference position may be searched. These configurations are realized by, for example, narrowing down candidates based on the remaining search conditions from candidates selected based on one search condition.

  In addition, when only one image in which the requested object is arranged is detected by the search processing unit 103, the function of the image selection unit 106 determines whether the reference position and the position in which the object is arranged. Processing based on the distance may be further added. For example, when a threshold is provided for the distance between the reference position of the first embodiment and the position where the object is arranged, and the distance acquired by the distance acquisition unit 105 in the selected image is larger than the threshold, Alerts or errors can also be displayed. This is an effective configuration in the case where the detected image is not the desired image stored by the user even if it is the only detected image.

  As described above, the object of the present invention is also to supply a recording medium including a disk device that records software processing steps for realizing the present embodiment to the computer apparatus 108 by the disk drive 120. Achieved. In this case, the processing step itself read from the recording medium realizes the function of the above-described embodiment, and the recording medium storing the processing step constitutes the present invention. As the recording medium, for example, a flexible disk, a hard disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a CD-ROM, a CD-R, a magnetic tape, a nonvolatile memory card, a ROM, or the like can be used.

  In addition, the operating system or the like operating on the CPU 109 performs part or all of the actual processing based on the instruction of the processing step read by the CPU 109, and the functions of the above-described embodiments may be realized by the processing. Needless to say, it is included.

  Similarly, after the processing steps read from the recording medium are written in the memory provided in the function expansion board inserted into the computer device 108 or the connected function expansion unit, the CPU or the like provided in the processing step is subjected to the actual processing. This includes cases where some or all of them are performed.

  Furthermore, the information processing apparatus of the present invention is also realized by a portable terminal device that can display and operate a document as an electronic book on a screen. At this time, when a part of the entire document is displayed on the screen and the display range is recognized by the user as one page, the display range is set as one image and the image according to the present invention is displayed. Selection processing is realized. That is, an image to be displayed on the screen can be selected from the entire document that is the search target image.

  The range displayed on the screen of the entire document may be determined by a method of designating the size of characters to be displayed and the number of lines. In this method, when a document is displayed with a designated character size or number of lines, the range that fits on the screen of the display means is taken as a unit of one page, and the document is divided into a plurality of pages. In the present invention, each divided page is treated as one image, and the same processing as in the above-described embodiment is performed.

  Further, the range displayed on the screen of the entire document may be determined by a method in which the range displayed on the screen changes by scrolling the document. In this method, a range that does not fit on the screen is displayed by moving the document up and down or left and right, that is, by scrolling. Therefore, in the user's memory about where a certain object is arranged on the display screen, the position information in the direction parallel to the scroll differs depending on whether the scroll is performed. Therefore, when obtaining the distance between the reference position designated by the user and the required object arrangement position, the distance may be limited to the direction orthogonal to the scroll. When calculating the distance using the coordinates, the calculation is performed using the coordinates on the axis along the direction orthogonal to the scroll. Also, when dividing the area, among the areas obtained by dividing the direction perpendicular to the scroll into a plurality of areas, the area to which the reference position belongs and the area to which the identified object is located are obtained, and the distance is obtained. Can be sought.

Claims (11)

An input means for inputting position information indicating a reference position in the image and specific information for specifying an object required in the image for an image to be searched;
An information processing apparatus comprising: selection means for selecting an image based on a distance between a position where the identified object is arranged and the reference position in the search target image.   The search target image includes a plurality of images, and when a plurality of images in which the identified object is arranged are included, the selection unit includes the position where the identified object is arranged and the reference The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein images are selected in ascending order of distance from the position.   The distance is a distance between the coordinates of the reference position on the coordinate plane and the coordinates of the position where the specified object is arranged when the image to be searched is a coordinate plane. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information processing apparatus is characterized.   The selection unit divides the image to be searched into a plurality of areas, and among the divided areas, an area to which the reference position belongs and an area to which a position where the identified object is placed belong The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the distance is acquired from the relationship.   The distance is a distance defined so that the distance from the reference position increases with respect to a plurality of annular areas of different sizes surrounding the eight directions with the reference position area as the center. The information processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the distance is a distance defined in an area to which the position being assigned belongs.   6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image is a page constituting a document file, and the object is a character string. A display means for displaying the selected image;
A part of the search target image is displayed on the screen of the display means,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the selection unit selects a partial range displayed on the screen in the search target image.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein a part of the range of the search target image is displayed on the screen of the display unit by scrolling. The computer is loaded into the computer and executed to execute the computer.
A program that functions as the information processing apparatus according to claim 1.   A computer-readable program recording medium having the program according to claim 9 recorded thereon. An input step for inputting position information indicating a reference position in the image and specific information for specifying an object required in the image with respect to an image to be searched by an input unit;
And a selection step of selecting an image based on a distance between the position where the identified object is arranged and the reference position in the image to be searched by the selection means. Control method of the device.

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