JP2011087072A - Image providing server device, control method thereof, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a thumbnail image in response to a request for a thumbnail image from an information user to a server device when the server device increases the free space of the server device itself by moving an original image to an external device. The purpose is to reduce the waiting time of information users.
When a server device moves an original image to an external device, it stores a thumbnail image corresponding to the original image in an internal storage device. When there is a thumbnail image acquisition request from the client device, the request target thumbnail image is transmitted to the storage device of the server device to the client device.
[Selection] Figure 4

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for providing an image from a server device to a client device on a network.

  Upload images stored by the information owner with a digital camera to a server device on the Internet, or access the server device using a communication device when the information user desires, and download the stored images. (See Patent Document 1).

JP 2008-217376 A

  In recent years, as the quantity and file size of images held by information owners have increased, it has been required to increase the storable capacity of an upload destination server device. On the other hand, it is conceivable that the free space of the server device itself is increased by moving the image to the external device. However, in such a case, every time there is an image acquisition request from the information user, the server device must acquire the image again from the external device and transmit it to the information owner's device. This is the same when a low-resolution image acquisition request is received from an information user. The server device re-acquires an image from an external device, generates a lower-resolution image than the image, and obtains the information owner's information. I had to send it to the device. Therefore, since it takes time for the server device to communicate with the external device and generate the requested image, there is a problem in that the time for the information user to wait until receiving the desired image increases, and convenience decreases.

  In order to solve the above problem, the present invention reads an original image stored in a storage device, moves to a file management server device via a network, and moves the original image by the moving unit. Generation means for generating a thumbnail image from the original image to be moved, storage means for storing the generated thumbnail image, deletion means for deleting the moved original image from the storage device, and the client device In response to a thumbnail image acquisition request, the image processing apparatus includes: a transmission unit that reads a thumbnail image stored in the storage unit and transmits the thumbnail image to the client device.

  As described above, according to the present invention, when the free space of the server device is increased by moving the original image from the server device to the external device, it is possible to promptly respond to the thumbnail image acquisition request from the information user. To reduce the waiting time of the information user.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the whole system which concerns on one Example of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the computer apparatus which concerns on one Example of this invention. It is a figure which shows the transition of the screen displayed on the window which concerns on one Example of this invention. It is a flowchart figure which shows the operation | movement of the movement of the image performed in the image provision server apparatus which concerns on one Example of this invention. It is a figure which shows the information management master which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart figure which shows the operation | movement of the production | generation of the thumbnail image performed in the image provision server apparatus which concerns on one Example of this invention. It is a flowchart figure which shows the operation | movement of the production | generation of a thumbnail image performed in the image provision server apparatus which concerns on one Example of this invention. It is a flowchart figure which shows the operation | movement of the download of the thumbnail image performed in the image provision server apparatus which concerns on one Example of this invention. It is a flowchart figure which shows the operation | movement of deletion of the thumbnail image performed in the image provision server apparatus which concerns on one Example of this invention.

Example 1
Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, the components described in this embodiment are merely examples, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention.

(The entire image processing system)
The overall configuration of the online photo system of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. A client apparatus 101 captures and holds an image captured by the digital camera 102. An image providing server device 104 stores an image uploaded from a client device. Further, when there is a download request from the client apparatus 101, the image providing server apparatus 104 reads the stored image and downloads it to the client apparatus 101. Here, the image providing server device 104 can communicate with a plurality of client devices 101, and the client device from which the image is uploaded and the client device from which the image is downloaded may be different. Reference numeral 105 denotes an external file management server device. The image providing server device 104 of this embodiment increases the free space of its own storage device by moving the stored image to the file management server device 105.

(Computer device)
The configuration of the computer device constituting the server device and client device of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. Note that each of the server device and the client device may be realized by a single computer device, or may be realized by distributing each function to a plurality of computer devices as necessary. When configured by a plurality of computer devices, they are connected by a local area network (LAN) or the like so that they can communicate with each other. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 201 denotes a control unit that controls the entire computer device 200, for example, a central processing unit (CPU). A Read Only Memory (ROM) 202 stores programs and parameters that do not need to be changed. Reference numeral 203 denotes a random access memory (RAM) that temporarily stores programs and data supplied from an external device or the like. Reference numeral 204 denotes an external storage device including a hard disk or a memory card fixedly installed on the computer device 200, or an optical disk, a magnetic or optical card, an IC card, or the like that can be detached from the computer device 200. Reference numeral 205 denotes an interface with an input device such as a pointing device or a keyboard 209 for receiving various operations and inputting various data. Reference numeral 206 denotes an interface with the display device 210 for displaying data held by the computer device 200 and supplied data. Reference numeral 207 denotes a network interface connected to a network line such as the Internet 103. Reference numeral 208 denotes an interface with the image input device 212. A system bus 211 connects the devices 201 to 208 so that they can communicate with each other.

  Note that the storage device 204 of the server device stores a Web application program, an operating system (OS), images, and various settings. The storage device 204 of the client device stores a Web browser program, an OS, and an image.

(Screen transition)
The client apparatus 101 according to the present exemplary embodiment activates a Web browser program and inputs a predetermined URL (Uniform Resource Locator) including the host name of the image providing server apparatus 104 to communicate with the image providing server apparatus 104. Then, a plurality of resource files are sequentially received from the image providing server device 104 and displayed on the Web browser program window. Note that the type of the markup language when describing the resource file is not particularly limited, and may be HTML or may be described in another language. The URL is a description method for specifying or identifying the location of information resources such as documents and images, and is an address in the Internet 103.

  First, the album list screen 310 of FIG. 3A is displayed in the window. On the album list screen 310, a thumbnail image 312 of the first size corresponding to the cover image of each album 311 is displayed. When any one of a plurality of albums 311 displayed on the album list screen 310 is selected, an image list screen 320 in FIG. 3B is displayed on the window. On the image list screen 320, a thumbnail image 321 of the second size corresponding to the image belonging to the album 311 selected on the album list screen 310 is displayed. When any one of the plurality of thumbnail images 321 displayed on the image list screen 320 is selected, the image editing screen 330 of FIG. 3C is displayed on the window. The image editing screen 330 includes a third-size thumbnail image 331 of an image belonging to the album 311 selected on the album list screen 310 and a fourth-size thumbnail image corresponding to the thumbnail image 321 selected on the image list screen 320. 332 is displayed. The image editing screen 330 also displays attribute information such as shooting information and comments of the original image corresponding to the thumbnail image 332. When the thumbnail image 332 on the image editing screen 330 is selected, the original image display screen 340 shown in FIG. 3D is displayed in another window. On the original image display screen 340, the original image 351 of the thumbnail image 332 is displayed.

  Here, the thumbnail images 312, 321, 331, and 332 are generated by reducing the original image in the image providing server device 104, and the size of each thumbnail image is very small compared to the size of the original image. . The thumbnail images 312, 321, 331, and 332 have the same aspect ratio and different vertical and horizontal sizes. In the present embodiment, the fourth size is the largest, and then the second size, the third size, and the first size become smaller in this order.

  In the image editing screen 330, an editing process such as a rotation process or a red-eye correction process is instructed for the original image corresponding to the selected thumbnail image 332. When the editing process is instructed, the thumbnail image 333 reflecting the editing result is displayed on the image editing screen 330, and the editing result is reflected on the original image display screen 340 as shown in FIG. The original image 351 is displayed.

(Move original image)
Next, an operation in which the image providing server device 104 moves the original image to the file management server device 105 will be described with reference to FIG. The following processing is realized by the CPU 201 of the image providing server device 104 reading out and starting a Web application program or OS from the storage device 204 and controlling various devices in accordance with them.

  The CPU 201 determines whether or not to move the original image stored in the storage device 204 of the image providing server device 104 (S401). In step S401, the CPU 201 determines that the access frequency 847 of the original image becomes smaller than the predetermined frequency when the free space of the storage device 204 becomes smaller than the predetermined size or when a predetermined time has elapsed from the last access date 846 to the original image. When the original image is moved. If it is determined in S401 that the original image is to be moved, the CPU 201 determines whether a thumbnail image corresponding to the original image is stored in the storage device 204 (S402). If it is determined in S402 that the image is not stored, the CPU 201 generates a thumbnail image from the original image (S403) and stores it as a cache in the storage device 204 (S404). Then, the CPU 201 reads the original image from the storage device 204 and uploads it to the file management server device 105 (S405). Further, the URL (movement destination URL) indicating the storage location in the file management server apparatus 105, which is the movement destination of the original image, is acquired from the file management server apparatus 105. Next, the CPU 201 deletes the internal file path 844 of the original image, stores the movement destination URL in the external file path 845 (S406), and updates the setting of the access destination of the original image. Thus, even if the image providing server device 104 receives a request for downloading the original image from the client device 101, the image providing server device 104 does not go to read the original image in the storage device 204 of the image providing server device 104. Thereafter, the CPU 201 deletes the original image from the storage device 204 of the image providing server device 104 (S407). In this way, by moving the original image to the file management server device 105, the free capacity of the storage device 204 of the image providing server device 104 increases. Note that the deletion process of S407 may be performed any time after the upload process of S405 is normally performed, may be performed immediately after the upload process of S405, or after the elapse of a predetermined period or after a predetermined period. It may be done at daytime.

  Note that the image providing server device 104 manages thumbnail images using a thumbnail storage information master 500 as shown in FIG. The record of the thumbnail storage information master 500 is newly added when the thumbnail image is stored in the storage device 204 in S404. When a thumbnail image is deleted from the storage device 204, the corresponding record in the thumbnail storage information master 500 is deleted. Reference numeral 501 denotes an original image ID, 502 denotes a thumbnail type, which will be described later, 503 denotes editing information indicating the presence / absence of editing instructions for the original image and editing contents, and 504 denotes a storage destination indicating a file path in the storage device 204 of the image providing server device. is there. Reference numeral 505 denotes a reference count indicating the frequency of the acquisition request from the client apparatus 101, and reference numeral 506 denotes a last access date indicating the date when the acquisition request from the client apparatus 101 was last responded. The editing information 503 sets information such as red-eye correction processing and rotation processing as editing contents. For example, the record 507 of the thumbnail storage information master 500 stores the original image ID 501 “1” and the thumbnail type 502 “maximum size”. In addition, values of editing information 503 “no editing”, storage destination 504 “path a”, reference count 505 “1 time”, and last access date 506 “2009/08/01” are stored.

  FIG. 5B shows a thumbnail type master 514 that manages thumbnail types indicating the types of thumbnail images generated by the image providing server device 104. 508 is the name of the thumbnail type, 509 is the vertical size of the thumbnail image, 510 is the horizontal size of the thumbnail, and 511 indicates the necessity. In the thumbnail type master 514, thumbnail types such as maximum size, intermediate size, and small size are set in the thumbnail type master 514, and the respective values are managed. For example, the thumbnail image of the maximum size is used as the thumbnail image 332 of the image editing screen 330. Further, the intermediate size thumbnail image is used as the thumbnail image 321 of the image list screen 320, and the small size thumbnail image is used as the thumbnail image 312 of the album list screen 310. In the necessity 511, information indicating that the thumbnail type “maximum size” is essential is set. This is because a thumbnail image having a smaller size is generated from the thumbnail image having the maximum size, as will be described later. For example, information indicating that the thumbnail type “small size” is essential may be set in the necessity 511. This is because the frequency of use is high because it is used for the thumbnail image 312 of the album list screen 310 that is displayed first when the screen changes as shown in FIG.

  In step S <b> 402, the CPU 201 searches the thumbnail storage information master 500 for a record of the maximum size using the original image ID as a key, and determines that the thumbnail image is stored in the storage device 204 if the record is searched.

  In step S404, the CPU 201 determines a storage destination of the thumbnail image generated in step S403, stores the file path in the storage destination 504, and stores the thumbnail image itself in the determined storage destination.

(Generation of thumbnail images)
A procedure in which the image providing server apparatus 104 generates a thumbnail image from an original image in S403 will be described with reference to a flowchart of FIG. The following processing is realized by the CPU 201 of the image providing server device 104 reading out and starting a Web application program or OS from the storage device 204 and controlling various devices in accordance with them.

  First, the CPU 201 acquires the vertical size and horizontal size of the original image (S601). Next, the CPU 201 acquires from the thumbnail type master a record whose thumbnail type 508 is “maximum size” (S602), and further acquires the value of the vertical size 509 and the value of the horizontal size 510 (S603). The CPU 201 compares the vertical size and horizontal size of the original image acquired in S601 with the values of the vertical size 509 and horizontal size 510 acquired in S603, respectively (S604). If the vertical size and the horizontal size of the original image are larger than the vertical size 509 and the horizontal size 510, it is determined that a thumbnail image of the maximum size can be generated from the original image. Then, the vertical size 509 value and the horizontal size 510 value of the thumbnail image of the maximum size are set as the reduced size (S605). On the other hand, if at least one of the vertical size and the horizontal size of the original image is smaller than the vertical size 509 and the horizontal size 510, it is determined that it is impossible to generate a thumbnail image of the maximum size from the original image. Then, the vertical size and horizontal size of the original image are set as reduced sizes (S606). Then, the CPU 201 reduces the original image based on the reduced size set in S605 or S606 to generate a thumbnail image of the maximum size (S607).

Furthermore, a procedure in which the image providing server device 104 generates a thumbnail image having a smaller size from the thumbnail image having the maximum size will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The following processing is realized by the CPU 201 of the image providing server device 104 reading out and starting a Web application program or OS from the storage device 204 and controlling various devices in accordance with them.
First, the CPU 201 acquires a record array from the thumbnail type master 514 (S702), sets “1” as a variable i for counting the processed record arrays, and records a record array as a variable N indicating the total number of record arrays to be processed. Is set (S703). Here, the total number of record arrays is three types of “maximum size”, “intermediate size”, and “small size”, and “3” is substituted. Then, the CPU 201 creates an array of thumbnail images having the same number of elements as the variable N set in S703 (S704). Next, the CPU 201 determines whether or not the variable i is smaller than the variable N (S705). If it is determined in step S705 that the variable i is smaller than the variable N, the CPU 201 acquires the thumbnail type [i] from the thumbnail type master 514 (S706), and determines whether the thumbnail type [i] indicates the maximum size. (S707).

  If it is determined in S707 that the thumbnail type [i] indicates the maximum size, the CPU 201 updates the thumbnail image [i] with the thumbnail image of the maximum size (S708), and increments the variable i by 1 ( S711). On the other hand, if it is determined in S707 that the thumbnail type [i] does not indicate the maximum size, the thumbnail image having the maximum size is reduced based on the vertical size 509 and the horizontal size 510 associated with the thumbnail type [i]. Then, a thumbnail image is generated (S709). The CPU 201 updates the thumbnail image [i] with the thumbnail image generated in S709 (S710), and increments the variable i by 1 (S711).

  If it is determined in step S705 that the variable i is not smaller than the variable N, the CPU 201 ends this process. That is, the CPU 201 generates all types of thumbnail images by repeating the processing from S706 to S711 while the variable i is smaller than the value of the variable N.

  In the above description, a case has been described in which a thumbnail image having the maximum size is prepared first and a thumbnail image having a smaller size is generated from the thumbnail image having the maximum size. However, in the flowchart of FIG. 7, all types of thumbnail images including the maximum size thumbnail image may be generated from the original image instead of the maximum size thumbnail image.

  In the above description, the case where all types of thumbnail images are generated has been described. Furthermore, the CPU 201 may not generate the corresponding types of thumbnail images according to the necessity 511 of the thumbnail type master 514. Good. In this case, it is determined whether the necessity 511 of the thumbnail image of the thumbnail type is essential, a thumbnail image of the thumbnail type determined to be essential is generated, and the thumbnail image of the thumbnail type that is not required is generated without being generated. To skip.

(Download thumbnail images)
Next, an operation when the image providing server apparatus 104 receives a thumbnail image acquisition request from the client apparatus 101 will be described with reference to FIG. The following processing is realized by the CPU 201 of the image providing server device 104 reading out and starting a Web application program or OS from the storage device 204 and controlling various devices in accordance with them.

  The CPU 201 determines whether a thumbnail image acquisition request has been received from the client device 101 (S801). In step S <b> 801, the CPU 201 determines that a thumbnail image acquisition request has been received when a client device 101 calls a thumbnail image acquisition command prepared in advance in the image providing server device 104. If the CPU 201 determines in S801 that a thumbnail image acquisition request has been received, the CPU 201 searches the thumbnail storage information master 500 for a record corresponding to the requested thumbnail image (S802). Based on the result of the search in S802, it is determined whether or not a record corresponding to the requested thumbnail image exists in the thumbnail storage information master 500, that is, whether or not the requested thumbnail image is stored in the storage device 204. (S803). If the CPU 201 determines in step S803 that the request target thumbnail image does not exist, the CPU 201 acquires a thumbnail image of the maximum size related to the request target thumbnail image (S804). Next, based on the vertical size 509 and the horizontal size 510 of the thumbnail image corresponding to the thumbnail type of the request target thumbnail image, the thumbnail image of the maximum size is reduced to generate a request target thumbnail image (S805). To do. Then, the CPU 201 determines a storage destination of the generated thumbnail image (S806), stores it as a cache (S807), and adds a record corresponding to the thumbnail image to the thumbnail storage information master 500 (S808). Then, the CPU 201 reads out the requested thumbnail image from the storage device 204 based on the storage destination 504 of the thumbnail storage information master 500 (S809). Then, the value of the reference count 505 corresponding thereto is counted up by one time, and the last access date 506 is updated (S810). Thereafter, the CPU 201 returns a thumbnail image to be requested to the client apparatus 101 (S811).

  When receiving an original image acquisition request from the client device 101, the image providing server device 104 starts communication with the file management server device 105 to re-acquire the original image and transmits it to the client device 101. As described above, the transmission of the original image takes more time than the image providing server device 104 reads out the thumbnail image from its own storage device 204 and transmits it to the client device 101, and makes the information user wait. . However, since the original image is less frequently used than the thumbnail image, there are few opportunities for an acquisition request from the client device 101. Therefore, in consideration of the capacity of the original image, the original image is moved to the file management server device 100, and only the thumbnail images are stored in the image providing server device 104, thereby preventing a decrease in convenience for the information user. The burden on the image providing server device 104 can be reduced.

(Delete image)
Next, an operation when the image providing server device 104 deletes the thumbnail image from the storage device 204 will be described with reference to FIG. The following processing is realized by the CPU 201 of the image providing server device 104 reading out and starting a Web application program or OS from the storage device 204 and controlling various devices in accordance with them.

  First, the CPU 201 determines whether or not the thumbnail images stored in the storage device 204 satisfy the deletion condition (S901). Here, the deletion condition is, for example, a predetermined date after the last access date 506 or a predetermined date such as the end of every month, and whether or not the deletion condition is satisfied by comparing with the current date and time when S901 is executed. judge. Further, the deletion condition is that the necessity 511 corresponding to the thumbnail type 502 is not essential. Further, the deletion condition may be, for example, that the current date and time is after a predetermined period from the generation date and time (not shown), and the reference count 505 is less than the predetermined count. The CPU 201 searches the thumbnail storage information master 500 for a record that satisfies the deletion condition, reads the thumbnail image from the storage device 204 based on the storage destination 504, and acquires it as an array (S902). The CPU 201 sets the initial value “1” to the variable i for counting the processed thumbnail image arrays, and sets the total number of thumbnail images acquired in S902 to the variable N indicating the total number of thumbnail image arrays to be processed ( S903). Next, the CPU 201 determines whether or not the variable i is smaller than the variable N (S904). If it is determined that the variable i is smaller than the variable N, the CPU 201 acquires a thumbnail image [i] (S905). Thereafter, the record corresponding to the thumbnail image [i] is deleted from the thumbnail storage information master 500 (S906), the thumbnail image [i] is deleted from the storage device 204 (S907), and the variable i is incremented by 1 (S908). ).

  If it is determined that the variable i is not smaller than the variable N, the CPU 201 ends this process. That is, the CPU 201 deletes the thumbnail image satisfying the deletion condition by repeating the processing from S905 to S908 while the variable i is smaller than the value of the variable N.

  In this way, by deleting unnecessary thumbnail images from the storage device 204 of the image providing server device 104, the free capacity of the storage device 204 of the image providing server device 104 can be further increased.

  The present invention has been described in detail based on the preferred embodiments thereof, but the present invention is not limited to these specific embodiments, and various forms within the scope of the present invention are also included in the present invention. included.

  The present invention can also be realized by executing the following processing. That is, software (program) for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or apparatus via a network or various storage media, and a computer (or CPU, MPU, etc.) of the system or apparatus reads the program. It is a process to be executed.

Claims (5)

Moving means for reading an original image stored in a storage device and moving the original image to a file management server device via a network;
Generating means for generating a thumbnail image from the original image to be moved when the original image is moved by the moving means;
Storage means for storing the generated thumbnail image;
Deleting means for deleting the moved original image from the storage device;
An image providing server device comprising: a transmission unit that reads out a thumbnail image stored in the storage unit and transmits the thumbnail image to the client device in response to a request for acquiring the thumbnail image from a client device. The generation means generates a thumbnail image of a predetermined maximum size,
The generation unit generates the request target thumbnail image from the maximum size thumbnail image when the size of the request target thumbnail image is different from the size of the thumbnail image stored in the storage unit. Item 4. The image providing server device according to Item 1.   The image providing server apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the deletion unit further deletes a thumbnail image satisfying a deletion condition among the thumbnail images stored in the storage unit. Reading an original image stored in a storage device and moving it to a file management server device via a network;
When moving the original image, generating a thumbnail image from the original image to be moved;
Storing the generated thumbnail image;
Deleting the moved original image from the storage device;
A method for controlling an image providing server device, comprising: a step of reading the stored thumbnail image in response to a request for acquiring the thumbnail image from a client device and transmitting the thumbnail image to the client device. On the computer,
Reading an original image stored in a storage device and moving it to a file management server device via a network;
When moving the original image, generating a thumbnail image from the original image to be moved;
Storing the generated thumbnail image;
Deleting the moved original image from the storage device;
In response to a request for obtaining the thumbnail image from a client device, the stored thumbnail image is read out and transmitted to the client device.

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