PHOTO-BASED VIRTUAL WORLD CREATION SYSTEM FOR NON-PROFESSIONAL VOLUNTEERS

摘要

An image database device which stores images shot by a lot of people who have freely participated to generate a photo-based virtual world. An image database device receives images shot by a plurality of users through communication over a network. The received image has a shooting position represented by common coordinates used among the users, which represent the position where the image is shot, its shooting conditions, and its image attributes. Then, the received image is compared with an image stored in association with a domain including the shooting position of the received image. On condition that the shooting condition lies within a predetermined range and the degree of similarity of images determined is off a predetermined range as the results of the comparison, the domain is divided, and the received image is stored in association with the divided domain, thereby creating an image database.