KR20060007852A - Efficient image retrieval method of mobile communication terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an efficient image retrieval method of a mobile communication terminal, and an album provided for retrieving images stored in a conventional mobile communication terminal displays thumbnail images fixed to a predetermined size on a single screen. If the size is large, the search takes a long time, and if the size is small, many images are displayed on one screen, which makes it difficult to check the contents and the decoding time is long. In addition, in the case of a terminal that automatically sorts images by album, a large number of images may be stored in one album, and thus the search efficiency is low. In the case of a terminal that can manually store images in an arbitrary directory, a general image viewer may be used. When searching for images, all images in the corresponding directory are displayed. Therefore, when there are many images, a very long display time is required. In consideration of such a problem, the present invention provides a scrolling method when a picture of an image is larger than a screen while displaying an image of a storage area designated by a user on a screen at a predetermined size for a predetermined number of pages when searching for an image. By displaying thumbnail images of easy-to-check size, and enabling page-by-page switching at a constant loading speed, you can quickly check the images in the image storage area. It can work.

Description

Efficient Image SEARCHING METHOD FOR MOBILE COMMUNICATION TERMINAL}

1 is an exemplary view showing a user interface of an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a flow chart according to an embodiment of the present invention.

* Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings *

10: display area 11: thumbnail

20: scroll bar 30: directory selection

31: Selected directory name 41: Information display button

42: Delete button 43: View image button

51: Previous page select button 52: Next page select button

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an efficient image retrieval method of a mobile communication terminal. The present invention relates to an image retrieval function of a mobile phone capable of storing and displaying multimedia and a smart phone in which a telephone function and a personal digital assistant (PDA) function are combined. The present invention relates to an efficient image retrieval method of a mobile communication terminal that can apply a function to retrieve a built-in image quickly and effectively.

Recently, as the system performance of mobile communication terminals has increased and various multimedia files can be created and reproduced, it is often necessary to check images taken by a mobile communication terminal with a camera. In addition, as the resolution of the camera increases, a mobile communication terminal designed to use an external memory, such as a digital camera, has also emerged, so that images are frequently searched using the mobile communication terminal.

In addition to searching for images created using a camera like this, it is now possible to search these vast images with a mobile terminal to identify desired images due to the characteristics of a mobile terminal capable of downloading various image information through wireless communication or the Internet. It became a common thing.

Note that the term “mobile communication terminal” refers not only to a small communication terminal such as a mobile phone, but also to a smartphone that collectively implements a communication function and a personal digital assistant (PDA) function.

Such a mobile terminal provides an album function for identifying an image by itself, and an album has a function of automatically classifying a general image, a video, a special image, and the like to check images of a stored space. It also supports an integrated album function that can check them all at once.

The album function shows images one by one and takes a long time when the user presses the direction key and the images are cycled to find the desired photo.                         

Accordingly, terminals for providing an image display method that is equivalent to a thumbnail function called a multi-image display function have emerged in order to increase the efficiency of the image search and to search the image more quickly. This is a function that displays a fixed number of images on one screen and allows the user to check the images at a glance, thereby reducing the time for searching for a desired image. However, it is possible to check multiple images on one screen, but to proceed to the next screen, select all the images one by one, proceed to the final image, and then provide keystrokes for the next image selection or select the previous image from the original image. Because keystrokes must be provided, many keystrokes can be required to switch screens, which can take a long time to search.

The method of displaying a fixed number of images to fit on one screen may cause other problems in addition to the above-described problem when the number of images to be displayed on one screen is large. In other words, the size of the images is very small, so that it is difficult for a user to determine similar pictures, and it takes a long time because all the displayed images must be decoded in order to display thumbnails of one screen.

To prevent this, if the size of the image to be represented by the thumbnail is increased, the search speed is slowed because the number of images displayed on one screen is reduced.

In some cases, a smart phone may use a method in which thumbnails of all images are displayed on a scrollable screen (a method used in an image viewer of a personal computer), but due to characteristics of a mobile communication terminal having a limitation in processing speed If the number of is too large, a fatal problem arises, in which all the images have to wait for a long time to be decoded.

In addition, since these albums need to select the type of albums that are automatically classified and stored according to the user's shooting before searching for images, when selecting an album related to a normal image among the automatically classified albums, a huge number of images are stored in one album. It can be stored, so the search can take a long time. In addition, if the image to be searched does not exist in the corresponding album, it is very inconvenient to operate since it is necessary to search all the images of the corresponding album after selecting another album out of the currently displayed album.

In some cases, a smartphone may store images in a specific directory (ie, a folder concept), and a search may be performed using an image viewer driven by a smartphone. However, as described above, one directory may be used in a general image viewer. Because thumbnails are displayed for all images in the, it takes a lot of time for thumbnail display if there are many stored images.

As described above, the album provided to search for images stored in the conventional mobile communication terminal displays thumbnail images fixed to a predetermined size on a single screen. If is small, many images are displayed on one screen, which makes it difficult to check the contents and takes a long decoding time. In addition, a terminal that automatically sorts images by album can have a large number of images stored in one album, so the search efficiency is low. In the case of a terminal that can manually store images in an arbitrary directory, a general image viewer is used. When searching for an image, thumbnails of all the images in the corresponding directory are displayed. Therefore, when there are many images, a very long display time is required.

In view of the above problems, the present invention supports scrolling when the image data of the photo is larger than that of the screen while displaying the image of the storage area designated by the user on the screen in a predetermined size for a predetermined number of pages when searching for an image. It provides an efficient image retrieval method of a mobile communication terminal that displays thumbnail images of easy-to-check sizes and enables page-by-page switching at a constant loading speed so that the images in the image storage area can be quickly confirmed. There is a purpose.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention decodes one page worth of images into a predetermined size and stores them in a screen display buffer while distinguishing a predetermined number of images from among the images stored in a predetermined storage area in page units. A first step of doing; A second step of automatically adding a scroll function to display the corresponding images on the screen when the size of the image stored in the screen display buffer is larger than the screen display area; A third step of selecting or confirming images displayed by the user; And a fourth step of proceeding to the first step to display images corresponding to the next or previous page of the storage area according to a user's manipulation.

When described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings an embodiment of the present invention according to the above configuration.

1 is a diagram illustrating a screen showing a user interface according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which the user interface of an album application that can be provided in a smartphone is shown. Naturally, a similar mobile phone album application may be provided in a general mobile phone.

Looking at the screen shown, it can be seen at a glance some features proposed in the present invention, the size of the thumbnail 11 corresponding to the thumbnail is large enough to facilitate user confirmation, and supports the scroll bar 20 Dots and directories are designated (30, 31), and the number of images displayed at once is fixed so that page switching is possible with page selection buttons 51, 52 by applying the page concept. It can also be seen.

That is, when the user selects the directory in which the image is stored through the directory selecting means 30, the selected directory name 31 is displayed with the index indicating the current page and the total number of pages, and among the images in the corresponding storage space. The set number (e.g. 10 images) is displayed in the display area as a relatively large thumbnail 11. In this case, if the total size of the image to be displayed is larger than the display area, the scroll bar 20 is supported and the image selection by scrolling is possible. And, if there is no desired image in the displayed images, by pressing the previous page selection button 51 or the next page selection button 52, page switching by the number of images displayed at once can be made.

At this time, since the number of images displayed at one time is fixed to a predetermined number, the time for decoding image information and storing it in the display buffer (global DC) is kept constant even when the total number of images in the corresponding directory is large.

In other words, the data loading time for parsing a defined number of images into the display buffer through the JPEG decoder is constant, so that the user can display page-by-page images at high speed through page switching. In addition, since the images of the unit page provide a relatively large scaled down image, the user can clearly recognize the images, which makes the image search very convenient. This can provide very fast page switching when using a JPEG decoder with thumbnail generation for image decoding, and even picked up by a terminal that separately reduces the actual image using a JPEG decoder without thumbnail generation. Allows you to maintain the display speed.

In addition to the above-described functions, the illustrated user interface also includes an information display button 41 for viewing specific information (actual size, storage date, etc.) and a delete button 42 for deleting the corresponding image. This can be corrected according to the developer's intention. In addition, the process of specifying the number of images to be displayed at a time may be handled variably by allowing user selection, and the size of the reduced image to be displayed may also be specified by the user. However, it is noted that the present invention is not limited to these additional contents.                     

2 is a flowchart illustrating an operation process of an embodiment of the present invention, showing a procedure relating to basic image search.

The present embodiment is a case where a user can classify and store images by directory, and such a classification storage by directory is an additional function for effectively implementing the present invention, and a key part of the present invention maintains a constant screen display speed. In addition, by applying the concept of the page to increase the screen switching speed between pages, and to take a larger size of the thumbnail image corresponding to the provided thumbnail.

First, a user may generate image data such as a picture or a video by using a camera built in a mobile communication terminal and store the same in a predetermined directory. Alternatively, image data downloaded through wireless communication or a connection with a personal computer may be stored in a predetermined directory.

Then, when the user runs the album application to view the desired image, the album application requires the user to select a storage area for searching, that is, a directory selection process. In this case, a list of names of directories created by the user may appear, and a directory layout in a tree form may appear. This may be different depending on the operation method, the operating system, or the design method of the terminal.

If the user selects a desired directory, the user decodes a predetermined number of images according to a predetermined order (storing date, name, size, etc.) from the images stored in the directory to generate thumbnail images, and then stores the data in a display buffer (global Parse to DC). Here, the size of the thumbnail image also follows a predetermined size, which may be changed or fixed by a user or a designer.

If the size of the images stored in the display buffer is larger than the display area of the album application, a scroll function is automatically added, otherwise the scroll function is not used.

Now, the image stored in the display buffer is displayed on the display area of the album application. When the size of the image stored in the display buffer is large, hidden images can be checked by operating a scroll bar.

When the user checks the thumbnails of the images with or without the scroll bar, and if there is a desired content, selects the image, enlarges it to its original size, confirms it, exits it, and does not have any content or wants to search for other images. You can switch pages or change directories. Page transitions are performed via input means assigned for page transitions (before and after), and the previous x images of the image currently being displayed in units of a predetermined number of pages (e.g. x) After the x images are selected, the process proceeds again from the above procedure of decoding the corresponding images.

As mentioned above, the change of the directory is an additional matter, and the album application can be designed so that the user can switch directly to another directory through a predetermined selection means or a menu while displaying images in the album application. Page-based decoding is performed on the images stored in the changed directory.                     

As described above, when the present invention is applied to an image display method of a mobile communication terminal requiring various multimedia searches, such as a mobile phone or a smart phone, an image of a page unit can be expressed as a large scaled down image at a faster time. You can use page-by-page conversions to speed up your search. In addition, in the case of using the directory storage method, a more specific and rapid image search can be performed by changing the directory in the image search step, so that the present invention will be a very useful function in view of the rapidly increasing number of stored images. It is expected.

As described above, the efficient image search method of the mobile communication terminal according to the present invention displays image data of a picture rather than a screen while displaying an image of a storage area designated by a user on a screen in a predetermined size for a page number when searching an image. If is larger, it supports scrolling to display thumbnail images of easy-to-view size, and enables page-by-page switching at a constant loading speed to quickly check images in the image storage area. There is an effect that can quickly and easily perform the desired image search.

Claims (3)

A first step of dividing a predetermined number of images from among the images stored in a predetermined storage area in page units and decoding one page worth of images into a predetermined size and storing them in a screen display buffer; A second step of automatically adding a scroll function to display the corresponding images on the screen when the size of the image stored in the screen display buffer is larger than the screen display area; A third step of selecting or confirming images displayed by the user; And a fourth step of proceeding to the first step to display images corresponding to the next or previous page of the storage area according to a user's operation. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined storage area for performing image decoding in the first step is a directory area in which the user has stored an image, and the directory in which the image display is performed is performed by the user through directory selection means provided during image display. An arbitrary image directory is generated, and if the directory is changed, the process of the image retrieval of the mobile communication terminal, characterized in that proceeds again from the first step. The method of claim 1, wherein the position of the current page with respect to the entire page is indicated in a partial area of the screen displayed in the second step.

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