• The KIPS Transactions:PartB
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• v.14B no.5
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• pp.329-336
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• 2007

In this paper we propose both the construction of image DB including information on the shooting location and direction of the captured outdoor images and the efficient retrieval method from the DB. Furthermore, for the automatic extraction of the location and direction information, we suggest to have the Digital Camera equipped with an expandable GPS modulo which has a function to calculate the location and direction and also to utilize GPS IFD tags in the EXIF. Then that will make it possible for us to retrieve quickly and precisely the target image with its geography and other objects on the ground included. In the previous retrieval method based only on the location, we eel some extra useless images due to the fact that all the images in the ROI(Region Of Interest) are searched on one condition, radius. However, with the proposed method in this paper, we can not only retrieve all the images selectively within the ROI but also achieve nearly 100% of precision when we search for the target images within DOI(Direction Of Interest) with another condition, direction, added. Applying this method to an image retrieval system, we can classify or retrieve natural images based on the location and direction information, which, in turn, will be vitally useful to diverse industrial fields such as disaster alarm system, fire and disaster prevention system, traffic information system, and so forth.