Device control apparatus and method

• US 20060193502A1
• Filed: 02/28/2006
• Published: 08/31/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Yamaguchi, Osamu
• Granted Patent: US 7,734,072 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/118
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/28 Determining representative reference patterns, e.g. by averaging or distorting; Generating dictionaries
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/772 Determining representative reference patterns, e.g. averaging or distorting patterns; Generating dictionaries
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/172 Classification, e.g. identification

Abstract

This is a system having a personal identification function to perform a registering operation not as an explicit one. The system simplifies the confirmation of an identification result thereby to improve dictionary updating conveniences. A device control apparatus is configured to include a face identification processor, a device setting unit and an interactive processor. The device control apparatus is configured to acquire personal data on the face image of a user, to identify a person matching the acquired personal data, by comparing the acquired personal data and registered personal dictionary data, to display the face image, as matching the identified person, at the registration time on the basis of the registered personal dictionary data, to receive such confirmation information from the user as to confirm whether or not the displayed person is identical to the user, and to set device environment parameters matching the confirmed person.

Claims

1. An apparatus for setting a configuration parameter on the state or action of a device to be operated by a user, comprising:

an image inputting unit configured to input a face image of the user;

an extracting unit configured to extract personal feature data from the face image;

a dictionary storage configured to store personal dictionary data of one or a plurality of registered persons, the personal dictionary data including a face image and a dictionary feature data of the each registered person;

a face identification processor configured to identify a person matching the personal feature data, by comparing the personal feature data and the personal dictionary data of the each registered person;

a device configuration parameter storage configured to store a configuration parameter of the device for the each registered person;

a display configured to display the face image of the identified person stored in the dictionary storage;

an interactive processor configured to receive, from the user, confirmation information to confirm whether or not the displayed face image is identical to the user; and

a device setting unit configured to set, to the device, the configuration parameter of the confirmed person stored in the device configuration parameter storage.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a dictionary storage updater configured to obtain similarity between plural ones of the personal dictionary data stored in the dictionary storage, and to integrate said plural ones of the personal dictionary data having the similarity higher than a threshold.

3. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an integration unit that is configured:

to obtain a similarity between plural ones of the personal dictionary data stored in the dictionary storage;

to call the configuration parameters corresponding to the plural ones of personal dictionary data having the similarity higher than a threshold, from the device configuration parameter storage;

to compare similarities between the called configuration parameters; and

to integrate said plural ones of the personal dictionary data with each other when the similarities between the called configuration parameters are higher than a threshold.

4. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a person estimating unit configured to detect modification of the device configuration parameter by operation of the device by the user, and to estimate a person corresponding to the modified configuration parameter from the registered person on basis of data on the device configuration parameter storage;

and

wherein said display is further configured to display the face image of the estimated person, which is stored in the dictionary storage.

5. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a person estimating unit configured to detect modification of the device configuration parameter by operation of the device by the user, and to estimate a person corresponding to the modified configuration parameter from the registered person on basis of data on the device configuration parameter storage;

and

wherein the face identification processor identifies using the personal dictionary data of the estimated person.

6. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a person estimating unit configured to detect modification of the device configuration parameter by operation of the device by the user, and to estimate a person corresponding to the modified configuration parameter from the registered person on basis of data on the device configuration parameter storage;

and

wherein said interactive processor assumes that it received the confirmation information from the user, in case the estimated person is estimated by the person estimating unit.

7. A method for setting a configuration parameter on the state or action of a device to be operated by a user, comprising:

inputting a face image of the user;

extracting personal feature data from the face image;

storing personal dictionary data of one or a plurality of registered persons in a dictionary storage, the personal dictionary data including a face image and a dictionary feature data of the each registered person;

identifying a person matching personal feature data, by comparing the personal feature data and the personal dictionary data of the each registered person;

storing a configuration parameter of the device for the each registered person, in a device configuration parameter storage;

displaying the face image of thus identified person, which has been stored in the dictionary storage;

receiving from the user, confirmation information to confirm whether or not the face image displayed at the displaying is identical to the user; and

setting onto the device the configuration parameter of thus confirmed person, which has been stored in the device configuration parameter storage.

8. A program product for setting a configuration parameter on the state or action of a device to be operated by a user, the program product comprising instructions of:

inputting a face image of the user;

extracting personal feature data from the face image;

storing personal dictionary data of one or a plurality of registered persons in a dictionary storage, the personal dictionary data including a face image and a dictionary feature data of the each registered person;

identifying a person matching personal feature data, by comparing the personal feature data and the personal dictionary data of the each registered person;

storing a configuration parameter of the device for the each registered person, in a device configuration parameter storage;

displaying the face image of thus identified person, which has been stored in the dictionary storage;

receiving from the user, confirmation information to confirm whether or not the face image displayed at the displaying is identical to the user; and

setting onto the device the configuration parameter of thus confirmed person, which has been stored in the device configuration parameter storage.