Design and Implementation of a Metadata Annotation Tool for Images

數位照片的技術發展快速，使用者拍攝照片後，通常都不再將照片洗出來保存，而是將其保存在電腦或網路相簿，以往照片收集成冊的習慣已經不合時宜。但隨著時間過去，所累積的大量數位相片也帶來搜尋上的困擾。在相片上加註解顯然是一種便於日後搜尋的一種做法。但現今的照片標記工具都是著重在人臉辨識，過於狹隘，缺乏針對整體照片的內容給予如:人事時地物等的註解。 本論文實作一個數位相片標記工具，讓使用者可以對照片加上多種詮釋資料(metadata)，藉由這些詮釋資料來做為有效管理照片的依據，並達到搜尋的目的。目前實作的工具可以將標記的註解(annotation)分為兩類：照片背景與照片內容。照片背景註解是關於整張照片，如：拍照時間、地點；內容是照片內部的註解，可以對照片中的人、事、物進行多個標記。每個註解給予類型(type)作為分類，在搜尋時候類型也會當作搜尋條件來增加精準度。目前的結果，本工具可以讓使用者對照片的詮釋資料執行新增、刪除，並依循詮釋資料協助使用者搜尋到正確的照片。As digital photos are widely used in cell phones and camera these days, now days people seldom develop photos but keep them in their own computers. Yet, as the volume of photos grows, it is not easy to search for specific photos. Conceivably, one can add annotations to digital photos to facilitate the task of searching. However, most photo annotation tools focus on people identification; no facility is provided for events, places, and time. This thesis presents a metadata annotation tool that enables users to add arbitrary annotations on digital photos to facilitate photo management and search. In this system, users add metadata to photos and then search photos by these added metadata. We classify theses annotation into two categories: background annotation and content annotation. Background annotation specifies information about the whole photo, such as date and location. By contrast, content annotation specifies information about the contents of a photo; there could be more than one content annotation associated with a photo. For example, we can put one annotation for each person occurred in a photo. Every annotation includes a type field to classify into four categories: who, which, when, and where. These types will help us to mange photos and search them. There are also a few other facilities that make annotations easy to manage