System, program, and method for generating visual-guidance information

A visual-guidance-information generation system for generating visual-guidance information indicating how the line of sight is guided through segmented partial regions of an image, the system comprising:

• a saliency-feature calculation device to calculate saliency features indicative of a degree of focusing attention on the partial regions;
• a positional-information calculation device to calculate positional information indicative of a position of the partial regions in the image;
• and a visual-guidance-information generation device to generate the visual-guidance information based on the saliency features calculated by the saliency-feature calculation device and the positional information calculated by the positional-information calculation device;
• and
• a reference-point detection device to detect reference points of the partial regions from the visual-guidance feature space in which the saliency features and factors of the positional information are plotted in different axes;
• and a inter-reference-point-distance calculation device to calculate distances among the reference points detected by the reference-point detection device,
• the visual-guidance-information generation device generating the visual-guidance information based on the inter-reference-point distances calculated by the inter-reference-point-distance calculation device,
• the visual-guidance-information generation device generating visual-guidance information indicative of a visual guidance path that passes through the partial regions in sequence based on the inter-reference-point distances calculated by the inter-reference-point-distance calculation device, and
• the visual-guidance-information generation device forming the visual guidance path that passes through the partial regions in sequence, with a prescribed starting-point region of the multiple partial regions as a starting point and with a partial region having the shortest inter-reference-point distance from the preceding partial region as the following partial region, and generating visual-guidance information indicative of the formed visual guidance path.

A computer readable medium storing a visual-guidance-information generation program that when executed by a computer is operable to perform a method to generate visual-guidance information indicating how the line of sight is guided through the segmented multiple partial regions of an image, the method comprising:

• acquiring saliency features indicative of a degree of focusing attention on the partial regions;
• acquiring positional information indicative of a position of the partial regions in the image;
• and
• generating the visual-guidance information based on the acquired saliency features and the acquired positional information;
• detecting reference points of the partial regions from the visual-guidance feature space in which the saliency features and factors of the positional information are plotted in different axes;
• calculating distances among the detected reference points;
• generating the visual-guidance information based on calculated inter-reference-point distances;
• generating visual-guidance information indicative of a visual guidance path that passes through the partial regions in sequence based on the calculated inter-reference-point distances;
• forming the visual guidance path that passes through the partial regions in sequence, with a prescribed starting-point region of the multiple partial regions as a starting point and with a partial region having the shortest inter-reference-point distance from the preceding partial region as the following partial region, and
• generating visual-guidance information indicative of the formed visual guidance path.

A computer readable medium storing a visual-guidance-information generation program that when executed by a computer is operable to perform a method to generate visual-guidance information indicating how the line of sight is guided through segmented partial regions of an image, the method comprising:

• calculating saliency features indicative of a degree of focusing attention on the partial regions;
• calculating positional information indicative of a position of the partial regions in the image;
• generating the visual-guidance information based on the calculated saliency features and the calculated positional information;
• detecting reference points of the partial regions from the visual-guidance feature space in which the saliency features and factors of the positional information are plotted in different axes;
• calculating distances among the detected reference points;
• generating the visual-guidance information based on calculated inter-reference-point distances;
• generating visual-guidance information indicative of a visual guidance path that passes through the partial regions in sequence based on the calculated inter-reference-point distances;
• forming the visual guidance path that passes through the partial regions in sequence, with a prescribed starting-point region of the multiple partial regions as a starting point and with a partial region having the shortest inter-reference-point distance from the preceding partial region as the following partial region;
• and
• generating visual-guidance information indicative of the formed visual guidance path.

A visual-guidance-information generation method to generate visual-guidance information indicating how the line of sight is guided through the segmented multiple partial regions of an image, the method comprising:

• acquiring saliency features indicative of a degree of focusing attention on the partial regions;
• acquiring positional information indicative of a position of the partial regions in the image;
• and
• generating the visual-guidance information based on the saliency features acquired in the saliency-feature acquisition and the positional information acquired in the positional-information acquisition;
• detecting reference points of the partial regions from the visual-guidance feature space in which the saliency features and factors of the positional information are plotted in different axes;
• calculating distances among the detected reference points;
• generating the visual-guidance information based on calculated inter-reference-point distances;
• generating visual-guidance information indicative of a visual guidance path that passes through the partial regions in sequence based on the calculated inter-reference-point distances;
• forming the visual guidance path that passes through the partial regions in sequence, with a prescribed starting-point region of the multiple partial regions as a starting point and with a partial region having the shortest inter-reference-point distance from the preceding partial region as the following partial region;
• and
• generating visual-guidance information indicative of the formed visual guidance path.

A visual-guidance-information generation method to generate visual-guidance information indicating how the line of sight is guided through segmented partial regions of an image, the method comprising:

• calculating saliency features indicative of a degree of focusing attention on the partial regions;
• calculating positional information indicative of a position of the partial regions in the image;
• generating the visual-guidance information based on the calculated saliency features and the calculated positional information;
• detecting reference points of the partial regions from the visual-guidance feature space in which the saliency features and factors of the positional information are plotted in different axes;
• calculating distances among the detected reference points;
• generating the visual-guidance information based on calculated inter-reference-point distances;
• generating visual-guidance information indicative of a visual guidance path that passes through the partial regions in sequence based on the calculated inter-reference-point distances;
• forming the visual guidance path that passes through the partial regions in sequence, with a prescribed starting-point region of the multiple partial regions as a starting point and with a partial region having the shortest inter-reference-point distance from the preceding partial region as the following partial region;
• and
• generating visual-guidance information indicative of the formed visual guidance path.