Apparatus for selecting video content for augmented reality and user terminal for augmented reality

An apparatus for selecting video content for augmented reality, the apparatus comprising:

• a communication interface;
• and
• an operation processor configured to perform:
• (a) collecting a plurality of video contents through the Internet;
• (b) extracting feature information and metadata for each of the plurality of video contents, and generating a hash value corresponding to the feature information by using a predetermined hashing function;
• (c) managing a database to include at least the hash value and the metadata of each of the plurality of video contents;
• (d) receiving object information corresponding to an object in a real-world environment from a user terminal through the communication interface;
• (e) searching the database based on the object information and selecting the video content corresponding to the object information from among the plurality of video contents;
• and
• (f) transmitting the metadata of the video content to the user terminal through the communication interface,
• wherein the metadata of each of the plurality of video contents includes a hashtag indicating at least one of a uniform resource identifier, region information, or time information,
• wherein the database further includes at least one of a number of views or a degree of preferences of each of the plurality of video contents,
• wherein the object information includes a hash value of an image of the object in the real-world environment and location information of the user terminal, the hash value included in the object information being generated using the predetermined hashing function, and
• wherein (e) further comprises:
• if none of the plurality of video contents has the same hash value as the hash value included in the object information, selecting from among the plurality of video contents, the video content whose current time or region information corresponds to the time information or the location information included in the object information or whose number of views or degree of preferences is equal to or greater than a preset value while the region information of the video content corresponds to the location information included in the object information.

A user terminal for augmented reality, comprising:

• a communication interface;
• an image acquisition unit;
• an image display unit;
• and
• an operation processor configured to perform:
• (a) acquiring an image of a real-world environment by the image acquisition unit;
• (b) extracting object information corresponding to an object in the real-world environment from the image of the real-world environment;
• (c) transmitting the object information to a video content selecting apparatus for augmented reality through the communication interface;
• (d) receiving metadata of a video content from the video content selecting apparatus through the communication interface;
• (e) displaying at least a part of the metadata of the video content by the image display unit such that the at least the part of the metadata of the video content is superimposed on the object in the real-world environment;
• and
• (f) playing the video content based on a user input,
• wherein (e) further comprises:
• displaying a thumbnail by the image display unit such that the thumbnail included in the metadata is superimposed on the object in the real-world environment,
• wherein (e) further comprises:
• enlarging the thumbnail and displaying the thumbnail for a preset time period such that the thumbnail is superimposed not only on the object in the real-world environment but also on portions other than the object in the real-world environment for the preset time period.