Retrieving system and retrieving method
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorSatoru Nakajima
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A retrieving system includes a requesting device and a plurality of storage devices. The requesting device includes an input unit configured to input image data, an extracting unit configured to extract a retrieval key from the image data input by the input unit, a selecting unit configured to select at least one retrieval device from the storage devices according to a characteristic of the image data input by the input unit, and a requesting unit configured to request the retrieval device selected by the selecting unit to perform a retrieval based on the retrieval key extracted by the extracting unit.
Claims10
An apparatus configured to communicate with a plurality of storage devices, wherein each storage device stores a plurality of image data, the apparatus comprising:
- an input unit configured to input image data;
- an extracting unit configured to extract a retrieval key from the image data input by the input unit;
- a selecting unit configured to select a storage device from the plurality of storage devices according to a characteristic of the image data input by the input unit;
- and
- a requesting unit configured to request the storage device selected by the selecting unit to retrieve, from the plurality of image data stored in the storage device selected by the selecting unit, image data corresponding to the retrieval key extracted by the extracting unit.
A method to communicate with a plurality of storage devices, wherein each storage device stores a plurality of image data, the method comprising:
- inputting image data;
- extracting a retrieval key from the input image data;
- selecting a storage device from the plurality of storage devices according to a characteristic of the input image data;
- and
- requesting the selected storage device to retrieve, from the plurality of image data stored in the selected storage device, image data corresponding to the extracted retrieval key.
A non-transitory computer-executable program stored in a computer-readable storage medium, including instructions which, when executed by an apparatus, causes the apparatus to perform operations comprising:
- inputting image data;
- extracting a retrieval key from the input image data;
- selecting a storage device from the plurality of storage devices according to a characteristic of the input image data;
- and
- requesting the selected storage device to retrieve, from the plurality of image data stored in the selected storage device, image data corresponding to the extracted retrieval key.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.