Thumbnail Summaries for Image Collections via Disjoint Crop Selection
Solution Overview
Problem
As the number of images in a digital collection increases, it becomes difficult to manage and browse through them effectively, as existing thumbnail systems often rely on uniformly scaled versions that fail to represent local regions of images, leading to redundancy and inefficiency in summarizing the collection.
Innovation Solution
A method for generating summarizing thumbnails that samples crops from images, iteratively selects representative but disjoint crops based on completeness and disjointedness metrics, and produces a set of thumbnails that are representative of the image collection as a whole, allowing for a smaller set of thumbnails to summarize a larger collection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If uniformly scaled thumbnails are used for all images, then the thumbnail generation process is simple, but the thumbnails fail to represent local regions and lead to redundancy
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides each image into multiple local regions (e.g., using a grid overlay) and generates separate thumbnails for each region. This segmentation allows the system to capture local content details that would be lost in uniformly scaled thumbnails, directly resolving the contradiction between simplicity and information representation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different processing to different regions of images by selecting representative local regions for thumbnail generation. Each thumbnail is derived from a specific local region rather than the entire image, ensuring that locally significant content is preserved while maintaining a manageable thumbnail set.
2Loss of information
If all images are included in the thumbnail set, then complete coverage is achieved, but the collection becomes difficult to manage and browse
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple images into a single thumbnail by selecting representative local regions from different images and combining them into a composite thumbnail. This merging reduces the total number of thumbnails while preserving diverse content representation, making the collection more manageable without losing information.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a simplified copy of the image collection in thumbnail form by selecting only the most representative local regions. This selective copying approach maintains the essential information content while reducing the volume of data that needs to be managed and browsed.
3Loss of information
If more thumbnails are generated to represent the collection, then better coverage is achieved, but redundancy increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a dynamic selection process that adaptively chooses which local regions to include in thumbnails based on their representativeness. The system dynamically evaluates and selects regions that provide the most information value, avoiding redundant thumbnails while ensuring comprehensive collection representation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the parameters of thumbnail generation by varying the number, size, and positioning of local regions based on image content characteristics. This parameter adjustment allows the system to optimize the balance between representation quality and thumbnail quantity, reducing redundancy while maintaining coverage.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and apparatuses for generating thumbnail summaries for image collections are described. Thumbnails summaries may be representative of the image collection while being disjoint from each other. In some embodiments, a method may sample crops from some or all images in an image collection. From these candidate crops, the method may select representative but disjoint crops. In some embodiments, a desired representativeness and/or disjointedness of the candidate crops may be defined by a user. The method may then generate and/or select thumbnail summaries for the collection of images based at least in part on the selected candidate crops.