Patent Publication Number: US-2013243249-A1

Title: Electronic device and method for recognizing image and searching for concerning information

Description:
BACKGROUND 
     1. Technical Field 
     The present disclosure relates to systems for processing images, and particularly to an electronic device and a method for recognizing an image and searching for concerning information. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     People can take out their smart phones to photograph pictures or access internet to search for information. However, people need to input key words to search for what they want, which consumes a lot of time and is an inconvenience. For example, when people see a strange building by chance, they may be interested in the building and want to have detail information, such as the architectural style of the building, and other related information. People can photograph the building, but it is difficult for people to search for the detail information about a strange building if the building itself is new to them. 
     Therefore, an electronic device and a method for recognizing an image and searching for concerning information are needed. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       Many aspects of the embodiments can be better understood with reference to the following drawings. The components in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale, the emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the present disclosure. Moreover, in the drawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the several views. 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram of an electronic device for recognizing an image and searching for concerning information, according to an embodiment. 
         FIG. 2  is a block diagram of a searchable database of the electronic device of  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 3  is another block diagram of the electronic device of  FIG. 1 , according to another embodiment. 
         FIG. 4  is a flowchart illustrating a method for recognizing an image and searching for concerning information. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Referring to  FIG. 1 , an electronic device  100  for recognizing an image of an object and searching for concerning information is illustrated. The electronic device  100  includes an image-capturing unit  20 , an image database  30 , a recognition unit  40 , a searching unit  50  and a display unit  60 . In the embodiment, the electronic device  100  includes, but is not limited to being, a smart phone, for example. 
     The image-capturing unit  20  is configured to capture an image of an object, and store the image in the image database  30 . The recognition unit  40  is configured to analyze a selected image, to extract characteristic from the selected image, and generate a request for searching for further information associated with the selected image. 
     The searching unit  50  is configured to search for further information associated with the selected image from a searchable database  70  according to the request and the extracted characteristic of the selected image. 
     Referring to  FIG. 2 , in the embodiment, the searchable database  70  includes an architectural style sub-database  701  and an architectural information sub-database  702 . The architectural style sub-database  701  pre-stores many images of buildings of a variety of architectural styles, such as French Classical style, Gothic style, and others. The architectural information sub-database  702  pre-stores detail information associated with each architectural style of buildings, such as the origin, the development history, typical representative works, and further information. 
     In the embodiment, the searching unit  50  searches for pre-stored images having characteristics similar to the extracted characteristic of the selected image within the architectural style sub-database  701 , so as to determine the architectural style of the selected image. 
     The searching unit  50  further searches for detail information associated with the determined architectural style within the architectural information sub-database  702 . 
     In one embodiment, the searchable database  70  is stored in the electronic device  100 . In an alternative embodiment, referring to  FIG. 3 , the searchable database  70  is stored in a network server  200 , and the searching unit  50  of the electronic device  100 ′ accesses the searchable database  70  via a network. 
     The display unit  60  is configured to display search result of the searching unit  50 . 
       FIG. 4  is a flowchart illustrating a method for recognizing an image of an object and searching for concerning information: 
     In step S 401 , the image-capturing unit  20  captures an image of an object. In the embodiment, the object is a building. 
     In step S 402 , the recognition unit  40  analyzes the image to extract characteristic from the image, and generates a request for searching for further information associated with the image. 
     In step S 403 , the searching unit  50  searches for further information associated with the image from a searchable database  70  according to the request and the extracted characteristic of the image. 
     In the embodiment, the searching unit  50  searches for pre-stored images which have characteristics similar to the extracted characteristic of the image within the architectural style sub-database  701 , so as to determine the architectural style of the image. The searching unit  50  further searches for detail information associated with the determined architectural style within the architectural information sub-database  702 . 
     In step S 404 , the display unit  60  displays all of the information found by the searching unit  50 . 
     This disclosure may be embodied in other forms without departing from the spirit thereof. Thus, the present examples and embodiments are to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, and the disclosure is not to be limited to the details given herein.