Digital Life Recorder Implementing Enhanced Facial Recognition Subsystem for Acquiring Face Glossary Data

• US 20090174787A1
• Filed: 12/31/2008
• Published: 07/09/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/03/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Wilson, John David, Grim, Clifton E. III, Stevens, Mark B., Marzke, Rex Edward
• Granted Patent: US 8,005,272 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/222.100
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/173 face re-identification, e.g. recognising unknown faces across different face tracks
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/179 metadata assisted face recognition

Abstract

Identifying individual facial images that are broadcast to enable optimized indexing and storage of facial information. Frames of data including faces are continually captured from a stream of incoming data. The facial frame data is extracted and processed into individual facial images. The individual facial images may be compared to existing facial image data in a database or cache to determine the identity of a facial image. The individual facial images may also be compared to facial images and metadata describing the facial images that are broadcast from external recording subsystems. The individual facial images stored to the glossary may be indexed based on the metadata received in the broadcast from an external recording subsystem or by metadata received from the continuous face frame capture.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for updating a face glossary repository with face glossary data, the computer implemented method comprising:

capturing, from a continuous stream of images, data that includes facial frames;

responsive to capturing data that includes facial frames, identifying individual faces based on metadata associated with the facial frames;

indexing the identified individual faces in a glossary based on the associated metadata.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, the identifying comprising:

processing the facial frames to extract a set of single face images and metadata describing the set of single face images; and

comparing each face image in the set of single face images to facial image data broadcast from an external recording subsystem.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 2, further comprising:

responsive to the comparing, determining an existence of a match;

responsive to the existence of a match, determining if an immediate identification is required; and

responsive to an immediate identification being required, transmitting identification information to a monitor;

responsive to an immediate identification not being required, transmitting identification information to a data processed queue.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 3, wherein responsive to determining that a match does not exist, comparing the processed facial frames to facial data in the glossary.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 4, further comprising:

responsive to the comparing, determining whether an identification match exists;

responsive to the existence of a match, determining if an immediate identification is required; and

responsive to an immediate identification being required, transmitting identification information to a monitor;

responsive to an immediate identification not being required, transmitting identification information to a data processed queue.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a connectivity of an external recording subsystem;

determining if identification information exists in the external recording subsystem;

responsive to an existence of identification information, receiving facial and metadata information from the external recording subsystem.

7. A computer program product comprising a computer recordable storage medium tangibly embodying executable program instructions that update a face glossary repository with face glossary data, the computer program product comprising:

first program instructions that capture from a continuous stream of images, data that includes facial frames;

second program instructions that, responsive to capturing data that includes facial frames, identify individual faces based on metadata associated with the facial frames; and

third program instructions that index the identified individual faces in a glossary based on the associated metadata.

8. The computer program product of claim 7, wherein the second program instructions comprise:

program instructions that process the facial frames to extract a set of single face images and metadata describing the set of single face images; and

program instructions that compare each face image in the set of single face images to facial image data broadcast from an external recording subsystem.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, further comprising:

responsive to the comparing, determining an existence of a match;

responsive to the existence of a match, determining if an immediate identification is required; and

responsive to an immediate identification being required, transmitting identification information to a monitor;

responsive to an immediate identification not being required, transmitting identification information to a data processed queue.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein responsive to determining that a match does not exist, comparing the processed facial frames to facial data in the glossary.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising program instructions that:

responsive to the comparing, determine whether an identification match exists;

responsive to the existence of a match, determine if an immediate identification is required; and

responsive to an immediate identification being required, transmit identification information to a monitor;

responsive to an immediate identification not being required, transmit identification information to a data processed queue.

12. The computer program product of claim 7, further comprising program instructions that:

detect a connectivity of an external recording subsystem;

determine if identification information exists in the external recording subsystem; and

responsive to an existence of identification information, receive facial and metadata information from the external recording subsystem.

13. An apparatus comprising:

a bus system;

a memory connected to the bus system, wherein the memory includes a computer usable program code; and

a processing unit connected to the bus system, wherein the processing unit executes the computer usable program code in the memory to perform actions comprising;

capturing, from a continuous stream of images, data that includes facial frames;

responsive to capturing data that includes facial frames, identifying individual faces based on metadata associated with the facial frames; and

indexing the identified individual faces in a glossary based on the associated metadata.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the identifying comprises:

processing the facial frames to extract a set of single face images and metadata describing the set of single face images; and

comparing each face image in the set of single face images to facial image data broadcast from an external recording subsystem.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, the actions further comprising:

responsive to the comparing, determining an existence of a match;

responsive to the existence of a match, determining if an immediate identification is required; and

responsive to an immediate identification being required, transmitting identification information to a monitor;

responsive to an immediate identification not being required, transmitting identification information to a data processed queue.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, the actions further comprising:

responsive to determining that a match does not exist, comparing the processed facial frames to facial data in the glossary.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, the actions further comprising:

further comprising;

responsive to the comparing, determining whether an identification match exists;

responsive to the existence of a match, determining if an immediate identification is required; and

responsive to an immediate identification being required, transmitting identification information to a monitor;

responsive to an immediate identification not being required, transmitting identification information to a data processed queue.

18. The apparatus of claim 14, the actions further comprising:

detecting a connectivity of an external recording subsystem;

determining if identification information exists in the external recording subsystem; and

responsive to an existence of identification information, receiving facial and metadata information from the external recording subsystem.