IMAGE SHARING SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20090046954A1
• Filed: 08/14/2007
• Published: 02/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Original Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Inventors: Ishii, Kensuke
• Granted Patent: US 8,144,944 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/312
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/30 in albums, collections or shared content, e.g. social network photos or video
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/16 Human faces, e.g. facial parts, sketches or expressions

Abstract

An image capture device, includes a body; an image sensor in the body; a lens configured to focus a scene onto the image sensor; a communications interface in the body; an image processor coupled to receive an image from or to send an image to the communications interface; executable program code embodied in a computer readable medium and configured to cause the image processor to: process image data associated with a first facial area in a first image to determine a first data set of parameters associated with the first facial area; scan one or more subsequent images stored in memory accessible by the image processor; identify facial areas in the subsequent images and process image data associated with identified facial areas in the subsequent images to determine subsequent data sets of parameters associated with identified facial areas; and compare the first and subsequent data sets to determine whether the one or more subsequent images includes a same face as the face highlighted in the first image.

Claims

1. A digital camera, comprising:

a body;

an image sensor in the body;

a lens configured to focus a scene onto the image sensor;

a communications interface in the body;

an image processor coupled to receive an image from or to send an image to the communications interface; and

executable program code embodied in a computer readable medium and configured to cause the image processor to;

process image data associated with a first facial area in a first image to determine a first data set of parameters associated with the first facial area;

scan one or more subsequent images stored in memory accessible by the image processor;

identify facial areas in the subsequent images and process image data associated with identified facial areas in the subsequent images to determine subsequent data sets of parameters associated with identified facial areas; and

compare the first and subsequent data sets to determine whether the one or more subsequent images includes a same face as the face highlighted in the first image.

2. The digital camera of claim 1, wherein the executable program code, further comprises second code configured to cause the image processor determine the image data associated with a first facial area in a first image, the second code comprising code that, when executed by the image processor, further causes the image processor to:

scan a first image;

identify one or more faces in the scanned first image;

display the first image to a user with one or more facial areas associated with the identified one or more faces highlighted; and

to accept from the user a selection of a facial area.

3. The digital camera of claim 2, wherein the first image is received by the digital camera from another electronic device over the communication interface, and wherein subsequent images that are identified by the digital camera as including a same face as the face highlighted in the first image are sent over the communication interface to the other device.

4. The digital camera of claim 2, wherein the first image is received by the digital camera from another electronic device over the communication interface, and wherein subsequent images that are identified by the digital camera as including a same face as the face highlighted in the first image are sent over the communication interface to the other device.

5. The digital camera of claim 1, wherein executable program code is further configured to receive a predetermined data set of parameters associated with a facial area from another electronic device and the comparison comprises comparing the predetermined and subsequent data sets to determine whether the one or more subsequent images includes a same face as a face in an external image from which the predetermined data set was obtained.

6. The digital camera of claim 1, wherein the communication interface comprises an ultra wideband, WiFi, Bluetooth, 802.xx or other wireless communication interface.

7. The digital camera of claim 1, further comprising a memory configured to store a image data associated with a predetermined facial area.

8. A digital camera, comprising:

an image sensor;

a lens configured to focus a scene onto the image sensor;

an image processor coupled to receive data from the image sensor representing the scene and configured to create an image of the scene, wherein the image can be represented as a data file;

a memory coupled to the image processor;

a communication interface coupled to the image processor;

executable program code embodied in a computer readable medium and configured to cause the image processor to;

scan a first image received from another electronic device via the communication interface;

identify a face in the scanned first image;

process image data associated with facial area of the face to determine a first data set of parameters associated with the selected facial area;

scan one or more subsequent images stored in memory;

identify one or more facial areas in the one or more subsequent images and process image data associated with the one or more identified facial areas to determine one or more subsequent data sets of parameters associated with the one or more identified facial areas; and

compare the first and subsequent data sets to determine whether one or more images in memory include a same face as the face in the first image.

9. The digital camera of claim 8, wherein the memory further comprises storage area configured to store an image of the user'"'"'s face.

10. The digital camera of claim 8, wherein the executable program code further causes the processor to scan a plurality of subsequent images to identify facial areas in the subsequent images, process image data associated with the identified facial areas in the subsequent images to determine a subsequent data sets of parameters associated with the facial areas;

and compare the first and subsequent data sets to determine whether and which of the subsequent images include a same face as the face highlighted in the first image.

11. The digital camera of claim 8, wherein the executable program code further causes the processor to identify a plurality of faces in the scanned image;

display the image to the user with the plurality of faces highlighted; and

accept a user selection of a subset of the plurality of faces highlighted to arrive at the facial area to be processed.

12. A method of sharing selected images among digital cameras, wherein the digital cameras comprise an image processor configured to perform the method of:

scanning an image in a digital camera to identify one or more features in the image;

highlighting any identified features and displaying the image with the highlighted features to the user;

accepting from the user a selection of a highlighted feature;

processing image data associated with the selected feature to obtain a first dataset of parameters associated with the feature;

scanning one or more subsequent images in a data file;

identifying one or more features of the one or more subsequent images;

processing image data associated with the one or more features of the one or more subsequent images to determine one or more subsequent data sets of parameters associated with the one or more features; and

comparing the fist and subsequent data sets to determine whether the one or more scanned subsequent images contain the same feature selected by the user.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises sending subsequent images that contain the same feature to another digital camera.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises sending subsequent images that contain the same feature to a digital photo album or printer.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises storing a registered feature of a user in the digital camera for use in identifying subsequent images containing the registered feature.

16. A method of sharing selected images among digital cameras, wherein the digital cameras comprise an image processor configured to perform the method of:

receiving an image from another digital camera, the image containing a selected feature;

processing image data associated with the selected feature to obtain a first dataset of parameters associated with the feature;

scanning one or more subsequent images in a data file;

identifying one or more features of the one or more subsequent images;

processing image data associated with the one or more features of the one or more subsequent images to determine one or more subsequent data sets of parameters associated with the one or more features; and

comparing the fist and subsequent data sets to determine whether the one or more scanned subsequent images contain the same feature selected by the user.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the method further comprises sending subsequent images that contain the same feature to the other digital camera.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the method further comprises sending subsequent images that contain the same feature to a digital photo album or printer.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the method further comprises storing a registered feature of a user in the digital camera for use in identifying subsequent images containing the registered feature.

20. A computer program product wherein a computer program for causing a computer system to select and operate on images is embodied on a computer-readable medium, the computer program causing the computer system to perform operations comprising:

scanning a first image stored on the computer system;

highlighting any identified features and displaying the image with the highlighted features to the user;

accepting from the user a selection of a highlighted feature;

processing image data associated with the selected feature to obtain a first dataset of parameters associated with the feature;

scanning one or more subsequent images stored in memory accessible by the image processor;

identifying facial areas in the subsequent images and process image data associated with identified facial areas in the subsequent images to determine subsequent data sets of parameters associated with identified facial areas; and

comparing the first and subsequent data sets to determine whether the one or more subsequent images includes a same face as the face highlighted in the first image.

21. The computer program product of claim 20, further comprising sending one or more subsequent images containing the same face to a predetermined recipient.

22. The computer program product of claim 20, wherein the steps of scanning one or more subsequent images, identifying facial areas therein, comparing their datasets and sending images containing the same face to a predetermined recipient are performed automatically upon receipt of newly received subsequent images.

23. The computer program product of claim 20, wherein the steps of scanning one or more subsequent images, identifying facial areas therein, comparing their datasets and sending images containing the same face to a predetermined recipient are performed automatically at a predetermined time.