Patent Publication Number: US-2010121852-A1

Title: Apparatus and method of albuming content

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 (a) from Korean Patent Application No. 10-2008-0111493, filed on Nov. 11, 2008, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. 
     BACKGROUND 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present general inventive concept relates to an apparatus and method of albuming content. More particularly, the present general inventive concept relates to an apparatus and method of automatically albuming content. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     As digital devices and the Internet have become widespread, the use of digital multimedia content has also exponentially increased. 
     Due to easy transmission and sharing of content, a vast amount of multimedia content is generated each day, and people can easily access multimedia content all the time, every place. In addition, wide distribution of miniaturized highly efficient digital cameras and camcorders enable people to record and edit their everyday life on digital pictures or digital movies. 
     According to the exponential growth of multimedia content, most people feel the need to album digital picture and digital movie content for effective management. However, the amount of time and effort needed to group and label a large amount of content one by one causes inconvenience. In order to address such a problem, many methods for automatically albuming content have been introduced but do not satisfy the demand of users in aspects of precision and convenience. 
     For example, a user may wish to classify and store pictures according to an event or a category, but while semantic concepts such as an “event” and a “category” are high level semantic concepts which can be recognized by people, so it is difficult to automatically extract such high level semantic concepts by machine. This is because there is a semantic gap between a low level semantic concept which can be recognized by a computer and a high level semantic concept which can be recognized by people, such as an event or a category. Therefore, it is difficult to give the user a satisfactory picture indexing result when automatically albuming content. 
     SUMMARY 
     The present general inventive concept provides an apparatus and method of albuming content using user information. 
     Additional features and utilities of the present general inventive concept will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the general inventive concept. 
     Exemplary embodiments of the present general inventive concept may be achieved by providing a content albuming apparatus including a storage unit to store user information and content, a clustering information generation unit to generate event-based clustering information to cluster the content into an album using the user information, and a clustering unit to cluster the content according to the event-based clustering information. 
     The content albuming apparatus may further include an albuming information storage unit to store albuming information including the event-based clustering information. 
     The content albuming apparatus may further include an identifier generation unit to generate an identifier for the album, wherein the identifier is included in the albuming information. 
     The clustering unit may perform clustering based on content-based clustering information including at least one of information regarding a generation time or copying time of the content, information regarding a situation in which the content has been generated, and information regarding a focus of the content. 
     The content albuming apparatus may further include a reference image storage unit to store at least one of a reference image, a reference background image, and a template for an event, wherein the identifier generation unit generates at least one of a cover and a name of the album based on the event-based clustering information and the reference image for the event. 
     The identifier generation unit may select the background image or the template to be used for the cover of the album based on the reference background image or the reference template for the event. 
     The content albuming apparatus may further include a terminology dictionary storage unit to store event-related terminology to cluster the content, wherein the clustering information generation unit generates the event-based clustering information based on the event-related terminology. 
     The content albuming apparatus may further include a user interface unit, wherein the clustering information generation unit generates the event-based clustering information based on event-related terminology which is input through the user interface unit. 
     The clustering information generation unit may update the event-based clustering information to correspond to the changed user information if the user information is changed. 
     The user information may include at least one of information regarding a user&#39;s schedule, information regarding the user&#39;s personal matters, and information regarding holidays. 
     The content may include at least one of digital pictures and digital movies. 
     The cover of the album may include at least one of a digital picture and an image from a digital movie. 
     Exemplary embodiments of the present general inventive concept may also be achieved by providing a method of albuming content, the method including storing user information and content, generating event-based clustering information to cluster the content using the user information, and clustering the content into an album according to the event-based clustering information. 
     The method may further include storing albuming information including the event-based clustering information. 
     The method may further include generating an identifier for an album, wherein the identifier is included in the albuming information. 
     Clustering the content may further include clustering the content based on content-based clustering information including at least one of information regarding a generation time or copying time of the content, information regarding a situation in which the content has been generated, and information regarding a focus of the content. 
     The method may further include storing at least one of a reference image, a reference background image, and a template for an event, wherein generating the identifier may further comprise generating at least one of a cover and a name of the album based on the event-based clustering information and the reference image for the event. 
     Generating the cover of the album may include selecting the background image or the template to be used for the cover of the album based on the reference background image or the reference template for the event. 
     The method may further include storing event-related terminology to cluster the content, wherein generating event-based clustering information may further comprise generating the event-based clustering information based on the event-related terminology. 
     Generating event-based clustering information may include generating the event-based clustering information based on event-related terminology which is input by a user. 
     The method may further include updating the event-based clustering information to correspond to the changed user information if the user information is changed. 
     The user information may include at least one of information regarding a user&#39;s schedule, information regarding the user&#39;s personal matters, and information regarding holidays. 
     The content may include at least one of digital pictures and digital movies. 
     The cover of the album may include at least one digital picture and digital movie. 
     Exemplary embodiments of the present general inventive concept may also be achieved by providing a computer-readable medium having executable code stored thereon to perform a method of albuming content, the method including storing user information and content, generating event-based clustering information to cluster the content using the user information, and clustering the content into an album according to the event-based clustering information. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       These and/or other features and utilities of the present general inventive will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the exemplary embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which: 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic block diagram illustrating a configuration of a content albuming apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present general inventive concept; 
         FIG. 2  is a schematic block diagram illustrating a detailed configuration of the exemplary content albuming apparatus of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIGS. 3A to 3D  illustrate diverse kinds of data to be stored and used according to an exemplary embodiment of the present general inventive concept; 
         FIG. 4  illustrates a method of generating event-based clustering information according to an exemplary embodiment of the present general inventive concept; 
         FIGS. 5A to 5C  illustrate a method of clustering content according to an exemplary embodiment of the present general inventive concept; 
         FIG. 6  illustrates the method of albuming content as illustrated in  FIGS. 5A to 5C  in a different manner according to an exemplary embodiment of the present general inventive concept; 
         FIG. 7  illustrates a method of generating an album identifier according to an exemplary embodiment of the present general inventive concept; 
         FIG. 8  illustrates diverse examples of the name of an album to be generated according to an exemplary embodiment of the present general inventive concept; 
         FIG. 9  is a flow chart illustrating a method of albuming content according to an exemplary embodiment of the present general inventive concept; 
         FIG. 10  is a flow chart illustrating the method of albuming content as illustrated in  FIG. 9  in greater detail; and 
         FIG. 11  is a schematic block diagram illustrating an electronic apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present general inventive concept. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS 
     Reference will now be made in detail to exemplary embodiments of the present general inventive concept, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout. The exemplary embodiments are described below in order to explain the present general inventive concept by referring to the figures. 
       FIG. 1  is a schematic block diagram illustrating a configuration of a content albuming apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present general inventive concept. As illustrated in  FIG. 1 , the content albuming apparatus  100  may include a storage unit  110 , a clustering information generation unit  120 , and a clustering unit  130 . 
     The content albuming apparatus  100  may be a multimedia device, such as a digital camera, a camcorder, a computer, and/or a portable terminal, which can generate, store, and use multimedia content, a module which can be mounted on the foregoing devices, or an external device which can be attached to the foregoing devices. 
     The storage unit  110  can store user information and content. User information may include the user&#39;s personal information, schedule information, and holiday information, which can be obtained, for example, from a Personal Information Management System (PIMS) such as a computer or a portable terminal. For example, the user&#39;s personal information may include the user&#39;s birthday, wedding anniversary, dates of employment, spouse&#39;s birthday, and parents&#39; birthdays. The user&#39;s schedule information may include, for example, dates for weddings or other special occasions, seminars, travel, meetings, and appointments. Holiday information may include national holidays such as Thanksgiving and Independence Day, as well as days off such as Saturday and Sunday. This classification of the user information is merely an exemplary embodiment, and the present general inventive concept is not limited thereto. The classification of the user information may vary according to a user preference. 
     Content may be digital multimedia content such as digital pictures or digital movies. 
     The storage unit  110  may be an internal memory which is provided in the content albuming apparatus  100  or a portable memory which is externally mounted on the content albuming apparatus  100 . The internal memory may be implemented, for example, as read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, random access memory (RAM), or the like. The portable memory may be implemented as a Compact Flash Card (CF), a Multimedia Card (MMC), a Secure Digital Card (SD), a Smart Media Card (SMC), a Memory Stick (MS), an XD picture card (XD), a mini SD card, a T-Flash card, an RS-MMC card, or the like. In addition, an external device, such as an external hard drive or other external memory and/or a memory accessible over a network, such as a networked memory device or an external website which can provide and store data may function as the storage unit  110 , as the case may be. 
     The clustering information generation unit  120  generates event-based clustering information so as to cluster content using the user information stored in the storage unit  110 . For example, the clustering information generation unit  120  can extract information regarding an event to cluster the content from the user information, and can generate event-based clustering information, for example, regarding the name, time, and place of the event. 
     The clustering unit  130  can cluster content based on the event-based clustering information generated by the clustering information generation unit  120 . In addition, the clustering unit  130  may cluster content based on content-based clustering information, which can include at least one of information regarding the generation time or copying time of the content, which can be included in metadata of the content, information regarding the situation in which the content has been generated, which can be obtained by analyzing the content, and information regarding the focus of the content, such as a person, place, object, etc. in the content, other than the event-based clustering information. 
     The content albuming apparatus  100  may also include a controller  100   a  to control the above-described operations of the storage unit  110 , the clustering information generation unit  120 , and the clustering unit  130 . The content albuming apparatus  100  may also include an input unit (not illustrated) to permit the input of commands and information by a user. The input unit can include buttons, dials, sliders, a touch screen, and other appropriate user input devices. The input unit may communicate with the controller. The content albuming apparatus  100  may also include a display unit (not illustrated) to display content and information related to the operations of the content albuming apparatus  100 . The display unit may, for example, be an external display such as an LCD or CRT display, or it can be a display integral to the content albuming apparatus  100 . In addition, the input unit and the display unit may be implemented together, for example, as a touch screen which can both display information and receive an input. 
       FIG. 2  is a schematic block diagram illustrating a detailed configuration of the content albuming apparatus  200  of  FIG. 1 . Referring to  FIG. 2 , the content albuming apparatus  200  may include a storage unit  210 , a clustering information generation unit  220 , a clustering unit  230 , an albuming information storage unit  240 , an identifier generation unit  250 , a reference image storage unit  260 , a terminology dictionary storage unit  270 , and a display unit  280 . The content albuming apparatus  200  may include a controller  200   a  to control the operations of the storage unit  210 , the clustering information generation unit  220 , the clustering unit  230 , the albuming information storage unit  240 , the identifier generation unit  250 , the reference image storage unit  260 , the terminology dictionary storage unit  270 , and the display unit  280 . 
     The storage unit  210  can store user information and content. User information may include the user&#39;s personal information, schedule information, and holiday information, which can be obtained, for example, from a Personal Information Management System (PIMS) such as a computer and/or a portable terminal. For example, the user&#39;s personal information may include the user&#39;s birthday, wedding anniversary, dates of employments, spouse&#39;s birthday, and parents&#39; birthdays. The user&#39;s schedule information may include, for example, dates for weddings and other special occasions, seminars, travel, meetings, and appointments. Holiday information may include national holidays such as Thanksgiving and Independence Day, as well as days off such as Saturday and Sunday. 
     Content may be digital multimedia content such as digital pictures or digital movies. 
     The storage unit  210  may be internal memory which is provided in the content albuming apparatus  200  or portable memory which is externally mounted on the content albuming apparatus  200 . The internal memory may be implemented, for example, as read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, random access memory (RAM), or the like. The portable memory may be implemented, for example, as a Compact Flash Card (CF), a Multimedia Card (MMC), a Secure Digital Card (SD), a Smart Media Card (SMC), a Memory Stick (MS), an XD picture card (XD), a mini SD card, a T-Flash card, an RS-MMC card, or the like. In addition, an external device, such as an external hard drive or other external memory, and/or a memory accessible over a network, such as a networked memory device or an external website which can provide and store data may function as the storage unit  210 , as the case may be. 
     The clustering information generation unit  220  can generate event-based clustering information so as to cluster content using the user information stored in the storage unit  210 . For example, the clustering information generation unit  220  can extract information regarding an event to cluster the content from the user information, appropriately classify the extracted information, and generate event-based clustering information regarding, for example, the name, time, and place of the event. 
     The terminology dictionary storage unit  270  can store terminology regarding the event to cluster the content. In an exemplary embodiment, the terminology dictionary storage unit  270  is a database including reference terminology which is used to analyze the meaning of the user information. For example, the terminology dictionary storage unit  270  may store schedule terminology, anniversary terminology, and holiday terminology. 
     In an exemplary embodiment, the clustering information generation unit  220  can generate the event-based clustering information based on the terminology regarding the event stored in the terminology dictionary storage unit  270 . 
     The albuming information storage unit  240  can store albuming information to express clustered content as an album. That is, the albuming information storage unit  240  can store the event-based clustering information generated by the clustering information generation unit  220  as well as the content-based clustering information. In addition, the albuming information storage unit  240  can store information to album the content such as an album identifier generated by the identifier generation unit  250 . 
     The clustering unit  230  can cluster content based on the event-based clustering information generated by the clustering information generation unit  220 . In addition, the clustering unit  230  may cluster content based on at least one of information regarding the generation time or copying time of the content, which can be included in metadata of the content, information regarding a situation (such as a place, a background, composition, or the like) in which the content has been generated, which can be obtained by analyzing the content, and information regarding the focus of the content, such as a person, place, object, etc. in the content, other than the event-based clustering information. For convenience of explanation, the information regarding the time, a situation, and the focus of the content which can be obtained from the content is referred to hereinafter as “content-based clustering information.” The content-based clustering information may be stored and managed in the albuming information storage unit  240  or in a separate database. 
     According to an exemplary embodiment of the present general inventive concept, a method of the clustering unit  230  clustering content (for example, picture data) using information regarding a time and place is described. 
     The clustering unit  230  can arrange picture data using time information, which can be extracted from metadata (such as exchangeable image file format (EXIF) information) of the picture data. In addition, if there is Global Positioning System (GPS) information indicating a place in which the picture was taken other than the time information regarding, the GPS information can be used together with the time information. The clustering unit  230  can extract information regarding a boundary between pictures using the albuming information stored in the albuming information storage unit  240 , the time information, and the GPS information, and can determine whether an interval between pictures is a boundary between albums. 
     In order to determine the boundary between the albums according to the time, a time boundary threshold value can first be determined. For example, a threshold value to be used to extract the time boundary can be determined using albuming information manually divided by a user. In this case, a time interval between albums, a time interval of each album, and/or the number of pictures in each album may be used. 
     If the threshold value to extract the time boundary is determined, a time interval between two successive pictures is compared with the threshold value. If the time interval between the two successive pictures is lower than the threshold value, the two successive pictures can be determined to belong to the same group. If a time interval between two successive pictures is higher than the threshold value, the two successive pictures can be determined to not belong to the same group. 
     Alternatively, if the information regarding a place in which the picture was taken is used, it is determined whether places in which two successive pictures were taken are the same. If the places in which the two successive pictures were taken are the same, the two successive pictures can be determined to belong to the same group. If the places in which the two successive pictures were taken are not the same, a boundary between groups can be determined by comparing a time boundary between the pictures using the time information. The pictures can be clustered by applying the aforementioned process to all of the pictures. 
     A cover or title of an album may be automatically generated using identifier information from among the albuming information. Information regarding diverse situations (such as background, composition, or the like) in which a picture was taken, and information regarding the focus of the picture, other than the time information and the place information, can be used to extract the boundary between the pictures, as the case may be. 
     If the pictures are grouped according to the time information or the place information, the pictures can be grouped again using the event-based clustering information, that is, the name, time, and/or place of the event, generated by the clustering information generation unit  220 . Following this process, clustering for albuming the pictures can be completed. 
     The identifier generation unit  250  can generate an identifier regarding an album. The identifier generation unit  250  can obtain a reference image for corresponding event information from the reference image storage unit  260  and can generate a cover of an album. The identifier generation unit  250  can select a background image and a template to be used for the cover of the album based on a reference background image for an event stored in the reference image storage unit  260 . For example, the identifier generation unit  250  can select and combine a picture and a reference background image corresponding to a reference image of a corresponding event so as to generate the cover of the album. In addition, the identifier generation unit  250  can generate the name of the album based on, for example, the name, place, and/or time of the event. The identifier can be included in the albuming information to express the clustered content as an album. 
     The identifier generation unit  250  can measure the similarity to a reference image for an event stored in the reference image storage unit  260 , and can select the most similar image as a representative image so as to generate the cover of the album. In an exemplary embodiment, the identifier generation unit  250  may select a plurality of representative images so as to generate the cover of the album. The pre-stored reference image for an event indicates an image which represents the event and which can be generated by training, for example, by comparison with image which have been previously selected as a representative image. In addition, a reference background image for an event and a template may be used as a background of a cover of an album. Furthermore, the name of the album may be generated by taking into consideration information regarding the name, time, and place of the event, or the central focus of the event. 
     If user information stored in the storage unit  210  is changed, the clustering information generation unit  220  may update event-based clustering information which is to cluster the content and is stored in the storage unit  210  so as to correspond to the changed user information. 
     The content albuming apparatus  200  may include a user interface unit (not shown), so clustering information of content can be generated based on an event-related terminology input through the user interface unit. That is, the clustering information generation unit  220  may generate clustering information of content based on event-related terminology input through the user interface unit as well as event-related terminology stored in the terminology dictionary storage unit  270 . 
     The content albuming apparatus  200  may include a display unit  280 . The display unit  280  may be installed on an outside or may be disposed outside of the content albuming apparatus  200  to display information to a user. Controller  200   a  may be connected to and may control the operations of the display unit  280  to display, for example, a user interface as described above. 
       FIGS. 3A to 3D  illustrate diverse kinds of data which can be stored and used according to an exemplary embodiment of the present general inventive concept. 
     Referring to  FIG. 3A , the storage unit  210  may store content such as digital pictures for albuming, and digital movies, and user information such as information regarding the user&#39;s personal information, schedule, and holidays. 
     Referring to  FIG. 3B , the albuming information storage unit  240  may store event-based clustering information regarding the name, time, place, and central focus of the event, which are generated based on the user information stored in the storage unit  210 , content-based clustering information regarding a content generation time, a content generation place, a content generation situation, and a person who generated the content, which can be extracted from the content, and an album identifier regarding a cover and the name of an album, which can be generated based on the event-based clustering information and a reference image for the event. 
     Referring to  FIG. 3C , the reference image storage unit  260  may store a reference image, a reference background image, and a template for an event, which can be generated by training. 
     Referring to  FIG. 3D , the terminology dictionary storage unit  270  may store diverse event terminology to generate event-based clustering information based on the user information, that is, may store schedule terminology, anniversary terminology, and holiday terminology. 
       FIG. 4  illustrates a method of generating event-based clustering information according to an exemplary embodiment of the present general inventive concept. 
     Referring to  FIG. 4 , event-based clustering information  430  for clustering content may be generated based on personal information  410  such as the user&#39;s birthday, wedding anniversary, and family member&#39;s birthdays, and from the user&#39;s schedule information  420  such as a family gathering and/or family trip, and holiday information, which can also include non-U.S. holidays such as Children&#39;s Day. As illustrated in  FIG. 4 , generated event-based clustering information  430  may include an event date of May 7, an event time of 11:00, the event name of a wedding day, and the event place of the hotel Shilla. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 2 and 4 , the controller  200   a  can generate a signal and send the signal to the display unit  280  to display an image representative of the event-based clustering information to display the image to a user. Through the image displayed on the display unit  280 , a user may review the event-based clustering information and/or the content, and in addition a user may also select, change or modify the content and/or the event-based clustering information. 
       FIGS. 5A to 5C  illustrate a method of clustering content according to an exemplary embodiment of the present general inventive concept. For convenience of explanation, it is assumed that contents are pictures, but this is not intended as a limitation thereto, and content may include any multimedia content, including videos. 
     Referring to  FIG. 5A , in an exemplary embodiment a row of pictures which are arranged in chronological order may be grouped based on a time interval threshold value  540 . In  FIG. 5A , pictures  1 ,  2 , . . . , and n indicate pictures which are arranged in chronological order, and the hatch marked bars indicate a time interval between pictures. As illustrated in  FIG. 5A , if a time interval between two successive pictures is higher than the time interval threshold value, the two successive pictures are divided into different groups. For example, a time interval between two successive pictures can be compared with the time interval threshold value  540 . If a time interval between two successive pictures (such as interval  530 ) is lower than the time interval threshold value  540 , the two successive pictures  1  and  2  can be determined to belong to the same group. If a time interval between two successive pictures (such as interval  510 ) is higher than the time interval threshold value, the two successive pictures  6  and  7  can be determined to not belong to the same group. 
     Referring to  FIG. 5B , a row of pictures which is arranged in chronological order may be grouped using event-based clustering information. That is, the row of pictures may be grouped according to the name and time of an event. For example, the pictures  1 - 6  may be associated with the schedule information  550  of the name of a Korean holiday, Children&#39;s Day, and accordingly pictures  1 - 6  may be grouped together. In addition, pictures  7 - 11  may be associated with different schedule information  560 , a friend&#39;s wedding, and accordingly pictures  7 - 11  may be grouped together, in a different group than pictures  1 - 6 . Pictures  12 -k, having no associated schedule information, may not be assigned to a group, or they may be grouped together into a group for pictures with no schedule information. 
       FIG. 5C  illustrates a row of clustered pictures which is grouped by combination of the time-based division illustrated in  FIG. 5A  and the event-based division illustrated in  FIG. 5B . As illustrated in  FIG. 5C , a time interval  580  between the 11 th  picture and the 12 th  picture is lower than the time interval threshold value  570 , but event information  590  of the 11 th  picture is different from event information  595  of the 12 th  picture, so the 11 th  picture is grouped into Album  2  and the 12 th  picture is grouped into Album  3 . 
     Images representing information including the time interval threshold value, groups of pictures, time intervals between pictures, and the event-based clustering information, as described above, may be displayed on the display unit  280 . The controller  200   a  can control the operation of the display unit  280  to display the images, and a user can review the images, and further can make selections, changes, and/or modifications to the information represented therein through the display unit  280 . 
       FIG. 6  illustrates a method of albuming content as illustrated in  FIGS. 5A to 5C  in a different manner. 
     Referring to (a) of  FIG. 6 , a row of pictures is divided into a plurality of groups  610 - 625  based on a time threshold value according to an exemplary embodiment of the present general inventive concept, as described above. Referring to (b) of  FIG. 6 , the row of pictures is divided into a plurality of groups  630 - 640  based on schedule information. Referring to (c) of  FIG. 6 , the row of pictures is divided into a plurality of albums based on division of the row of pictures in (a) and (b) of  FIG. 6 . As illustrated in  FIG. 6 , pictures  3  and  4  are associated with different time information and schedule information, so pictures  3  and  4  are grouped into different albums  645  and  650 , with picture  4  being an album change boundary photo. Pictures  6  and  7  are associated with different schedule information, so pictures  6  and  7  are grouped into different albums  650  and  655 , with picture  7  being an album change boundary photo. Also, pictures  9  and  10  are associated with no schedule information, but are associated with different time information  615  and  620 . Accordingly, pictures  9  and  10  are grouped into different albums  655  and  660 , with picture  10  being an album change boundary photo. 
     Images representing information including the pictures, the time information, the schedule information, and groups of pictures, as described above, may be displayed on the display unit  280 . The controller  200   a  can control the operation of the display unit  280  to display the images, and a user can review the images, and further can make selections, changes, and/or modifications to the information represented therein through the display unit  280 . 
       FIG. 7  illustrates a method of generating an album identifier according to an exemplary embodiment of the present general inventive concept. 
     Referring to  FIG. 7 , if a row of pictures is divided into a plurality of groups by the above-described methods, event-based clustering information of each album is compared with pre-stored reference image data, that is, training image data, so a picture having a high similarity can be generated as a cover of an album. In addition, the name of an album can be generated using the event-based clustering information and content-based clustering information. For example, for album  710 , which can be associated with schedule information such as “May 7, Friend&#39;s Wedding, Hotel Shilla” (see  FIG. 3 ), event-based clustering information can be compared with training image data  720  to select a picture  730  to be used as a cover  740  for the album  710 . Additionally, a name of the album  750  can be generated from the event-based clustering information and the event-based clustering information. Although the above description refers to the use of a picture as a cover image, this is not intended as a limitation, and, for example, an image selected from a digital movie may also be used as an image for an album cover. 
     Images representing information including the content, event-based clustering information, the pre-stored reference image data, albums, tags, and the name of an album, as described above, may be displayed on the display unit  280 . The controller  200   a  can control the operation of the display unit  280  to display the images, and a user can review the images, and further can make selections, changes, and/or modifications to the information represented therein through the display unit  280 . 
       FIG. 8  illustrates diverse examples of the name of an album to be generated according to an exemplary embodiment of the present general inventive concept. 
     Referring to  FIG. 8 , the name of an album can be generated, for example, by a combination of the time (YY/MM/DD)  810 , a central  FIG. 820 , the name of an event  830 , and a place  840 . That is, if an event is registered, the name of an album can be generated in the form of “time-central figure-name of event-place”  850 , “time-name of event-place”  860 , or the like. If an event is not registered, the name of an album can be generated in the form of “time-picture collection#-place”  870 , “time-picture collection#”  880 , or the like. Thus, the name of an album can be generated by information associated with content regardless of the amount or type of associated information. 
       FIG. 9  is a flow chart illustrating a method of albuming content according to an exemplary embodiment of the present general inventive concept. 
     Referring to  FIG. 9 , in operation S 910 , if user information and content are stored, in operation S 920 , event-based clustering information to cluster the content is generated using the user information. The user information may include information regarding the user&#39;s schedule, personal matters, and holidays. The content may include digital pictures and digital movies. 
     The event-based clustering information may include the name, time, place, and central focus of an event. 
     In operation S 930 , the content is clustered according to the event-based clustering information. In this case, in operation S 930 , clustering can be performed based on content-based clustering information including at least one of information regarding the generation time or copying time of the content, information regarding the situation in which the content has been generated, and information regarding the focus of the content, other than the event-based clustering information. 
     In addition, albuming information to express the clustered content as an album can be stored. In this case, the albuming information may include the event-based clustering information, the content-based clustering information, and an identifier of the album. 
     Furthermore, in operation S 920 , the event-based clustering information can be generated based on pre-stored event-related terminology or event-related terminology input by the user. The event-related terminology may include schedule terminology, anniversary terminology, and holiday terminology. 
     The identifier of the album can be generated using the event-based clustering information and a pre-stored reference image for an event, and may be at least one of the cover and name of the album. 
     If the user information is changed, the pre-stored event-based clustering information can be updated so as to correspond to the changed user information. 
       FIG. 10  is a flow chart illustrating the method of albuming content as illustrated in  FIG. 9  in greater detail. 
     Referring to  FIG. 10 , in operation S 1010 , if user information and content are stored, in operation S 1020 , event-based clustering information needed for clustering the content is generated based on the user information and pre-stored event-related terminology. Alternatively, event-based clustering information may be generated based on event-related terminology input by the user. The user information may include information regarding the user&#39;s schedule, personal matters, and holidays. The content may include digital pictures and digital movies. 
     The event-based clustering information may include the name, time, place, and central figure of an event. 
     The event-related terminology may include schedule terminology, anniversary terminology, and holiday terminology. 
     In operation S 1030 , the content is clustered according to the event-based clustering information and the content-based clustering information. The content-based clustering information may include information regarding the generation time or copying time of the content, information regarding the situation in which the content has been generated, and information regarding a person in the content. 
     Subsequently, in operation S 1040 , the cover and name of an album are generated based on the event-based clustering information and a pre-stored reference image for an event. A plurality of representative images for the cover of the album may be selected. The background of the cover can be generated based on a reference background image and a template for an event. The pre-stored reference image for the event, and the reference background image and the template for the event indicate an image, a background image, and a template which have been generated by training and represent the event. 
     In addition, albuming information to express the clustered content as an album can be stored and used. In this case, the albuming information may include the event-based clustering information, the content-based clustering information, and an identifier of the album. 
     If the user information is changed, the pre-stored event-based clustering information can be updated so as to correspond to the changed user information. 
       FIG. 11  is a schematic block diagram illustrating an electronic apparatus  1100  according to an exemplary embodiment of the present general inventive concept. The electronic apparatus  1100  can include a processing unit  1110 , an input unit  1120 , an output unit  1130 , and a function unit  1140 . The electronic apparatus  1100  can be, for example, a personal computer, a laptop, palmtop, or other portable computing device, a mobile phone, an image processing device, or an image forming device. 
     The processing unit  1110  can process information according to the present general inventive concept, and can correspond, for example, to the configurations of a content albuming apparatus illustrated in  FIGS. 1 and 2 . 
     The input unit  1120  can receive input such as, for example, content data, and can communicate the input data with the processing unit  1110 . The input unit  1120  can be a component of, can be connected to, or can receive the input from a multimedia device, such as a digital camera, a camcorder, a computer and/or a portable computer, which can generate, store, and use multimedia content. The operations of the input unit  1120  can be controlled by the processing unit  1110 . 
     The output unit  1130  can output information which represents content and/or other information of the present general inventive concept, and can be a component of or can be connected to a device such as, for example, a display device or an image forming device. A display device could display the information for presentation to a user. An image forming device could permit the formation of an image of the information on an image forming medium. The operations of the output unit  1130  can be controlled by the processing unit  1110 . 
     The function unit  1140  is in communication with the processing unit  1110  and can provide, for example, a personal computer function, a mobile device function, and an image forming function. The operations of the function unit  1140  can be controlled by the processing unit  1110 . Accordingly the electronic apparatus  1100  can operate as a content albuming apparatus in accordance with the present general inventive concept. 
     As can be appreciated from the above description of the apparatus and method for automatically albuming content, precision and convenience can be provided. 
     The present general inventive concept can also be embodied as computer-readable codes on a computer-readable medium. The computer-readable medium can include a computer-readable recording medium and a computer-readable transmission medium. The computer-readable recording medium is any data storage device that can store data which an be thereafter read by a computer system. Examples of the computer-readable recording medium include read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), CD-ROMs, magnetic tapes, floppy disks, and optical data storage devices. The computer-readable recording medium can also be distributed over network-coupled computer systems so that the computer-readable code is stored and executed in distributed fashion. The computer-readable transmission medium can transmit carrier waves and signals (e.g., wired or wireless data transmission through the Internet). Also, functional programs, codes, and code segments to accomplish the present general inventive concept can be easily construed by programmers skilled in the art to which the present general inventive concept pertains. 
     Although various exemplary embodiments of the present general inventive concept have been illustrated and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these exemplary embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the general inventive concept, the scope of which is defined in the appended claims and their equivalents.