Image display apparatus and image display method

An image display apparatus comprising:

• a display of a list control unit configured to display, on a display device, a list of a plurality of thumbnail images of the image data to which attribute information is added, the image data being stored in a storage device;
• a direction receiving unit configured to acquire a user selection for the image data;
• and
• a display control unit configured to:
• acquire, from the storage device, a predetermined number of sheets of image data including attribute information associated with the attribute information included in a selected image;
• arrange the predetermined number of sheets of image data within a virtual three-dimensional space;
• display, on the display device, a walk-through video of the predetermined number sheets of image data;
• stop the movement of the virtual viewpoint when the direction receiving unit acquires the direction that the movement of the virtual viewpoint should be stopped;
• and then display an image located at the closest position from the virtual viewpoint in the virtual three-dimensional space;
• wherein
• the list control unit is configured to display, on the display device, a list of a plurality of thumbnail images of the image data included in each of image groups generated by classifying image data to which attribution information is added into groups based on the attribute information, in a manner in which the plurality of thumbnail images are piled up into a bundle of images for every image group;
• the direction receiving unit is configured to receive a selection for one of the image groups;
• and
• the display control unit is configured to:
• acquire a predetermined number of sheets of image data from the selected image group received by the direction receiving unit;
• display, on the display device, the sheets of image data as a background image in which the sheets of image data are arranged;
• display each of the bundle of images on a belt-shaped region that is distinguishable from the background image;
• and
• display, together with the sheets of image data arranged as the background image, a thumbnail image of the image data included in the selected image group on the top surface of a bundle of the selected image group.

An image display method executable by a processor, comprising the steps of:

• generating one or more of image groups by classifying image data to which attribution information is added into groups based on the attribute information;
• displaying, on a display device, a list of a plurality of thumbnail images of the image data included in each of the generated image groups, in a manner in which the plurality of thumbnail images are piled up into a bundle of images for every image group;
• and
• receiving a selection for one of the image groups;
• wherein
• the displaying step comprises:
• acquiring a predetermined number of sheets of image data from the selected image group;
• displaying, on the display device, the sheets of image data as a background image in which the sheets of image data are arranged;
• displaying each of the bundle of images on a belt-shaped region that is t istinguishable from e background image;
• and
• displaying, together with the sheets of image data arranged as the background image, a thumbnail image of the image data included in the selected image group on the top surface of a bundle of the selected image group.

A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium encoded with a program, the program comprising:

• an image classification module configured to generate one or more of image groups by classifying image data to which attribute information is added into groups based on the attribute information;
• a display control module configured to display, on a display device, a list of a plurality of thumbnail images of the image data included in each of the generated image groups, in a manner in which the plurality of thumbnail images are piled up into a bundle of images for every image group;
• and
• a direction receiving module configured to receive a selection for one of the image groups generated by the image classification unit;
• wherein
• the display control module is configured to:
• acquire a predetermined number of sheets of image data from the selected image group;
• display, on the display device, the sheets of image data as a background image in which the sheets of image data are arranged;
• display each of the bundle of images on a belt-shaped region that is distinguishable from the background image;
• and
• display, together with the sheets of image data arranged as the background image, a thumbnail image of the image data included in the selected image group on the top surface of a bundle of the selected image group.