Methods for navigating through a set of images

A computer-implemented method for navigating through a set of images depicting a scene, the method comprising:

• receiving the set of images from one or more mobile devices, the images captured by the one or more mobile devices;
• providing a graph representation of correlations of the images, the graph representation comprising nodes and edges, wherein the images are stored on a data storage unit and shared by multiple applications, wherein each node of a first set of nodes among the nodes represents an image and comprises image information including at least a geographical position of an image capturing sensor when acquiring the image, image content information describing an object depicted in the image, and image property information, and wherein each edge of a first set of edges among the edges represents a transition between two images and comprises similarity information providing a plurality of measures of similarities between the two images, the plurality of measures of similarities being pre-defined and comprising a geographical distance measure, a measure of difference in image content, and a measure of difference in an image property, the providing of the graph representation comprising analyzing the two images in relation to each other to derive the pre-defined plurality of measures of similarities;
• receiving input from at least one of the multiple applications for navigation through the set of images, the input comprising an indication of a start geographical position, an indication of a target geographical position, and weight information to control weights to be given to the plurality of measures of similarities of each edge of the first set of edges in the graph representation;
• accessing the graph representation, wherein the start geographical position is used to determine a set of possible start nodes in the graph representation, the possible start nodes each having a geographical position within a distance of the start geographical position that is smaller than a set threshold, and wherein the target geographical position is used to determine a set of possible target nodes in the graph representation, the possible target nodes each having a geographical position within a distance of the target geographical position that is smaller than a set threshold;
• and
• determining, through data processing on a data processing unit, a path among a set of possible paths, each of the possible paths leading from a start node within the set of possible start nodes to a target node within the set of possible target nodes, and comprising one or more edges among the first set of edges connecting the start node to the target node, the determining comprising
• using the weight information to weigh the plurality of measures of similarities for forming a combined measure of similarity for each of the edges of the possible paths;
• determining a sum of the combined measures of similarity for the one or more edges of each of the possible paths;
• and
• selecting the path based on a comparison of the sum of the combined measures of similarity for each of the possible paths.

A computer-implemented method of adding an image to a set of images depicting a scene, the method comprising:

• receiving the set of images from one or more mobile devices, the images captured by the one or more mobile devices;
• providing a graph representation of correlations of the images, the graph representation comprising nodes and edges, wherein the images are stored on a data storage unit and shared by multiple applications, wherein each node of at least a first set of nodes among the nodes represents an image and comprises image information including at least a geographical position of an image capturing sensor when acquiring the image, image content information describing an object depicted in the image, and image property information, and wherein each edge of at least a first set of edges among the edges represents a transition between two images and comprises similarity information providing a plurality of measures of similarities between the two images, the plurality of measures of similarities being pre-defined and comprising a geographical distance measure, a measure of difference in image content, and a measure of difference in an image property, the providing of the graph representation comprising analyzing the two images in relation to each other to derive the pre-defined plurality of measures of similarities;
• receiving a current image that is to be added to the set of images and information of a geographical position and a viewing angle of an image capturing sensor when acquiring the current image;
• extracting, through data processing on a data processing unit, image content information and image property information from the current image;
• forming, through data processing on the data processing unit, a current node in the graph representation, the current node representing the current image and including at least the geographical position of an image capturing sensor when acquiring the current image, image content information describing an object depicted in the current image, and image property information of the current image;
• determining, through data processing on the data processing unit, a subset of the set of images in the graph representation to which the current image is related, the determining of the subset comprising:
• finding a candidate image in the set of images that is related to the current image based on at least a determination that a difference between the current image and the candidate image according to a first pre-defined measure of similarity is smaller than a first set threshold;
• determining a second pre-defined measure of similarity between the current image and the candidate image;
• selecting the candidate image as part of the subset based on a determination that the difference between the current image and the candidate image according to at least the second pre-defined measure of similarity is smaller than a second set threshold;
• and
• for each image in the subset:
• determining similarity information between the current image and the image in the subset, wherein the similarity information includes transition classifier information specifying which of a predefined, finite number of classes that the transition between the current image and the image in the subset belongs to, and wherein each of the predefined, finite number of classes defines a type of transition between two images according to a difference in the geographical position of each of the two images and a difference in a viewing angle of the image capturing sensor when acquiring each of the two images;
• and
• forming an edge in the graph representation representing the transition between the current image and the image in the subset, the edge comprising the determined similarity information between the current image and the image in the subset.