Thumbnail Extraction by Cumulative Moving Distance
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Solution Overview
Problem
When generating thumbnails for moving images shot from a moving body, such as a camera on a vehicle, the small movement per unit time results in many similar thumbnails, making it cumbersome to find the desired location, as existing techniques do not efficiently organize or display these images based on the cumulative moving distance.
Innovation Solution
An image generating apparatus that acquires a series of moving images, calculates the cumulative moving distance for each frame, and generates thumbnail images arranged by this distance, allowing for efficient searching by displaying thumbnails at equal distance intervals, which can be adjusted based on the total traveling distance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If thumbnails are generated from moving images shot from a moving body with small movement per unit time, then the thumbnails can be extracted in real time, but many similar thumbnails are displayed making it cumbersome to find the desired location
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the parameter for organizing thumbnails from time-based to distance-based. Instead of extracting thumbnails uniformly in time (which causes similar thumbnails when movement is small), the system extracts thumbnails based on cumulative moving distance. This parameter change resolves the contradiction by maintaining real-time extraction capability while improving searchability through distance-interval organization.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the moving image into distance intervals rather than time intervals. By dividing the total moving distance into equal segments and extracting one thumbnail per segment, the system creates distinct, search-friendly thumbnails even when the moving body travels small distances between frames. This segmentation strategy maintains productivity while improving ease of operation.
2Ease of manufacture
If thumbnails are extracted at equal time intervals, then the extraction process is simple, but many similar thumbnails are generated when movement per unit time is small
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the extraction parameter from time interval to distance interval. This parameter change maintains the simplicity of the extraction process while ensuring that thumbnails represent distinct spatial positions. By using cumulative moving distance as the organizing parameter, the system preserves information about spatial distinctiveness even when temporal intervals are uniform.
3Device complexity
If thumbnails are displayed without organizing by cumulative moving distance, then the display is simple, but the user cannot efficiently search for desired locations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the thumbnail display into distance-based intervals, creating an organized structure where each thumbnail represents a specific distance segment. This segmentation increases device complexity slightly but dramatically reduces search time, as users can now search based on spatial location rather than scrolling through time-ordered thumbnails.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces cumulative moving distance as the organizing parameter for thumbnail display. This parameter change transforms the display from simple time-ordered sequences to distance-interval organized sets, enabling efficient spatial search while maintaining reasonable display complexity through systematic arrangement.
Data Source
AI summary
An image generating apparatus includes: a moving image acquisition unit that acquires a series of moving images of a landscape shot from a moving body; a moving distance acquisition unit that acquires a cumulative moving distance from a time when shooting of the series of moving images is started to a time when each of a plurality of frame images constituting the series of moving images is shot; a moving-distance retaining moving image generating unit that generates a moving-distance retaining moving image in which the cumulative moving distance is mapped to each of the plurality of frame images; and a thumbnail image generating unit that extracts a plurality of frame images from the moving-distance retaining moving image as a plurality of thumbnail images according to the cumulative moving distance and generates a thumbnail image group arranging the plurality of thumbnail images in an order of the cumulative moving distance.