Digital Image Acquisition Control and Correction Method and Apparatus

• US 20070201725A1
• Filed: 07/26/2006
• Published: 08/30/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: FotoNation Limited (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Tessera Technologies Ireland Limited (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: Steinberg, Eran, Bigioi, Petronel, Corcoran, Peter
• Granted Patent: US 7,804,983 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/98 Detection or correction of errors, e.g. by rescanning the pattern or by human intervention; Evaluation of the quality of the acquired patterns
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/993 Evaluation of the quality of the acquired pattern
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/161 Detection; Localisation; Normalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/175 Static expression
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/611 where the recognised objects include parts of the human body
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/64 Computer-aided capture of images, e.g. transfer from script file into camera, check of taken image quality, advice or proposal for image composition or decision on when to take image

Abstract

An unsatisfactory scene is disqualified as an image acquisition control for a camera. An image is acquired. One or more mouth regions are determined. The mouth regions are analyzed to determined whether they are frowning, and if so, then the scene is disqualified as a candidate for a processed, permanent image while the mouth is completing the frowning.

Claims

1. A method of disqualifying an unsatisfactory scene as an image acquisition control for a camera, comprising:

(a) acquiring a present image of a scene including a face region;

(b) identifying one or more groups of pixels corresponding to a mouth region within the face region;

(c) determining whether the mouth has a frowning configuration; and

if so, then

(d) disqualifying the scene as a candidate for a processed, permanent image while the mouth has the frowning configuration.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the present image comprises a preview image, and the disqualifying comprises delaying full resolution capture of an image of the scene.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the delaying comprises ending the disqualifying after a predetermined wait time.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining whether the mouth is frowning comprises determining a degree to which one or both lips are turned downward at the edges.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising performing a shape analysis of the mouth and analyzing pixels corresponding to one or both lips, dimple, crease, tongue, teeth, gums, or combinations thereof.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the present image comprises a full resolution capture image and the disqualifying comprises foregoing further processing of the present image.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the present image comprises a full resolution capture image, and the method further comprises assembling a combination image including pixels from the present image and non-frowning mouth pixels corresponding to the mouth that is frowning from a different image.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the different image comprises a preview image or a post-view image.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the different image comprises a lower resolution than the present image, and the assembling comprises upsampling the different image or downsampling the present image, or a combination thereof.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising aligning the present image and the different image, including matching a non-frowning mouth region to a frowning mouth region in the present image.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising aligning the present image and the different image, including matching a non-frowning mouth pixel region to a frowning mouth region in the present image.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying of the mouth region comprises identifying the face region, and analyzing the face region to determine the mouth region therein.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising capturing a new image due to the disqualifying to replace the present image.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a warning signal regarding the frowning.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying a second mouth region of a second face within the scene;

determining whether the second mouth region is in a frowning process; and

if so, then disqualifying the scene as a candidate for a processed, permanent image while the second mouth is completing the frowning.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising delaying capturing a full resolution image until the mouth regions of each face region within the scene comprise no frowning mouth.

17. An image acquisition apparatus including an imaging optical system and digital image detector and storage medium, and having stored therein program instructions for programming one or more processors to perform a method of disqualifying an acquired image as unsatisfactory for permanent storage based on facial expression, the method comprising:

(a) acquiring a present image of a scene including a face region;

(b) identifying one or more groups of pixels corresponding to a mouth region within the face region;

(c) determining whether the mouth has a frowning configuration; and

if so, then

(d) disqualifying the scene as a candidate for a processed, permanent image while the mouth has the frowning configuration.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the present image comprises a preview image, and the disqualifying comprises delaying full resolution capture of an image of the scene.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the delaying comprises ending the disqualifying after a predetermined wait time.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, the method further comprising performing a shape analysis of the mouth and analyzing pixels corresponding to one or both lips, dimple, crease, tongue, teeth, gums, or combinations thereof.

21. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the present image comprises a full resolution capture image and the disqualifying comprises foregoing further processing of the present image.

22. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the present image comprises a full resolution capture image, and the method further comprises assembling a combination image including pixels from the present image and non-frowning mouth pixels corresponding to the mouth that is frowning from a different image.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, the method further comprising aligning the present image and the different image, including matching a non-frowning mouth pixel region to a frowning mouth region in the present image.

24. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the identifying of the mouth region comprises identifying the face region, and analyzing the face region to determine the mouth region therein.

25. The apparatus of claim 17, the method further comprising capturing a new image due to the disqualifying to replace the present image.

26. The apparatus of claim 17, the method further comprising providing a warning signal regarding the frowning.

27. One or more processor readable storage devices having processor readable code embodied thereon, said processor readable code for programming one or more processors to perform a method of disqualifying an unsatisfactory scene as an image acquisition control for a camera, comprising:

(a) acquiring a present image of a scene including a face region;

(b) identifying one or more groups of pixels corresponding to a mouth region within the face region;

(c) determining whether the mouth has a frowning configuration; and

if so, then

(d) disqualifying the scene as a candidate for a processed, permanent image while the mouth has the frowning configuration.

28. The one or more storage devices of claim 27, wherein the present image comprises a preview image, and the disqualifying comprises delaying full resolution capture of an image of the scene.

29. The one or more storage devices of claim 28, wherein the delaying comprises predicting when the frowning will stop and ending the disqualifying at approximately the predicted frown stop time.

30. The one or more storage devices of claim 29, wherein the predicted frown stop time is programmed based on a predetermined average frown duration.

31. The one or more storage devices of claim 30, the method further comprising analyzing a temporal capture parameter of one or more previous preview images relative to that of the present preview image.

32. The one or more storage devices of claim 31, the method further comprising determining whether the mouth that is frowning is moving toward a deeper lesser frown in the present preview image, and a degree to which the mouth is frowning.

33. The one or more storage devices of claim 28, wherein the delaying comprises ending the disqualifying after a predetermined wait time.

34. The one or more storage devices of claim 27, wherein the determining whether the mouth is frowning comprises determining a degree to which one or both lips are turned downward at the edges.

35. The one or more storage devices of claim 34, the method further comprising performing a shape analysis of the mouth and analyzing pixels corresponding to one or both lips, dimple, crease, tongue, teeth, gums, or combinations thereof.

36. The one or more storage devices of claim 27, wherein the present image comprises a full resolution capture image and the disqualifying comprises foregoing further processing of the present image.

37. The one or more storage devices of claim 36, wherein the determining whether the mouth is frowning comprises determining a degree to which one or both lips are turned downward at the edges.

38. The one or more storage devices of claim 37, wherein the determining the degree to which the mouth is frowning comprises relatively analyzing the present preview image and one or more relatively acquired preview images.

39. The one or more storage devices of claim 37, wherein the determining whether the mouth is frowning comprises determining a degree of blurriness of one or both lips.

40. The one or more storage devices of claim 37, the method further comprising determining a portion of a dimple, crease, tongue, teeth, gums that is/are showing, or combinations thereof.

41. The one or more storage devices of claim 37, the method further comprising performing a color analysis of the mouth and differentiating pixels corresponding to a lip tone from pixels corresponding to dimple, crease, tongue, teeth, or gums, or combinations thereof.

42. The one or more storage devices of claim 37, the method further comprising performing a shape analysis of the mouth and differentiating pixels corresponding to a lip shape from pixels corresponding to dimple, crease, tongue, teeth, or gums, or combinations thereof.

43. The one or more storage devices of claim 27, wherein the present image comprises a full resolution capture image, and the method further comprises assembling a combination image including pixels from the present image and non-frowning mouth pixels corresponding to the mouth that is frowning from a different image.

44. The one or more storage devices of claim 43, wherein the different image comprises a preview image or a post-view image.

45. The one or more storage devices of claim 44, wherein the different image comprises a lower resolution than the present image, and the assembling comprises upsampling the different image or downsampling the present image, or a combination thereof.

46. The one or more storage devices of claim 45, the method further comprising aligning the present image and the different image, including matching a non-frowning mouth region to a frowning mouth region in the present image.

47. The one or more storage devices of claim 43, the method further comprising aligning the present image and the different image, including matching a non-frowning mouth pixel region to a frowning mouth region in the present image.

48. The one or more storage devices of claim 27, wherein the identifying of the mouth region comprises identifying the face region, and analyzing the face region to determine the mouth region therein.

49. The one or more storage devices of claim 27, the method further comprising capturing a new image due to the disqualifying to replace the present image.

50. The one or more storage devices of claim 27, the method further comprising providing a warning signal regarding the frowning.

51. The one or more storage devices of claim 27, the method further comprising identifying a second mouth region of a second face within the scene;

determining whether the second mouth region is in a frowning process; and

if so, then disqualifying the scene as a candidate for a processed, permanent image while the second mouth is completing the frowning.

52. The one or more storage devices of claim 51, the method further comprising delaying capturing a full resolution image until the mouth regions of each face region within the scene comprise no frowning mouth.