SAVING DEVICE FOR IMAGE SHARING, IMAGE SHARING SYSTEM, AND IMAGE SHARING METHOD

• US 20090248692A1
• Filed: 03/26/2009
• Published: 10/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Kon, Karin, Yokoyama, Yukinori, Furukawa, Yuto, TSUKAGOSHI, Kazuma
• Granted Patent: US 8,166,034 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/50 of still image data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/587 using geographical or spatial information, e.g. location
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/167 using comparisons between temporally consecutive images
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/173 face re-identification, e.g. recognising unknown faces across different face tracks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00209 Transmitting or receiving image data, e.g. facsimile data, via a computer, e.g. using e-mail, a computer network, the internet, I-fax
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00244 with a server, e.g. an internet server fax-servers or the like for store and forward H04N1/324
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/915 Image

Abstract

The saving device for image sharing includes an image acquiring unit configured to acquire the images offered by a sharer of the images, a sharee information storing unit configured to store sharee information with respect to at least one sharee, a subject assessing unit configured to assess whether or not a person subject is included in the acquired images, an image associating unit configured to associate the images assessed as not including a person subject with the images assessed as including a person subject, based on the sharee information, and a shared image determining unit configured to determine the images to be shared with the sharee or sharees from among the associated images and the images assessed as including a person subject, based on the sharee information. The image sharing system and an image sharing method use such a device.

Claims

1. A saving device for image sharing in which images offered by a sharer of the images for image sharing can be saved and accessibly shared among at least one sharee, comprising:

image acquiring means configured to acquire the images offered by said sharer;

sharee information storing means configured to store sharee information with respect to with respect to said at least one sharee;

subject assessing means configured to assess whether or not a person subject is included in the images acquired by said image acquiring means;

image associating means configured to associate images assessed as not including a person subject by said subject assessing means, with images assessed as including a person subject, based on said sharee information; and

shared image determining means configured to determine images to be shared with said at least one sharee from among the images associated by said image associating means and the images assessed as including a person subject by said subject assessing means, based on said sharee information.

2. The saving device for image sharing according to claim 1, wherein said subject assessing means further classifies said images assessed as including a person subject for each person subject and extracts them as included in identical subject groups.

3. The saving device for image sharing according to claim 2, wherein said sharee information includes a face image;

and said subject assessing means identifies a person subject based on an image in one of said identical subject groups and said face image of said sharee information.

4. The saving device for image sharing according to claim 3, wherein said subject assessing means automatically determines and maintains as said sharee information a level with respect to said identified person subject based on identification results of said person subject.

5. The saving device for image sharing according to claim 1, further comprising:

sharing rule storing means configured to store sharing rules which are conditions for determining images to be shared with said at least one share,

wherein said shared image determining means determines said images to be shared based on said sharee information and said sharing rules.

6. The saving device for image sharing according to claim 5, wherein said sharing rules are registered or updated by said at least one sharer of said images to be shared.

7. The saving device for image sharing according to claim 1, further comprising sharing information creating means configured to automatically create sharing information to be transmitted to said at least one sharee, based on said images to be shared and said sharee information.

8. The saving device for image sharing according to claim 7, wherein said sharing information includes a shared page in which said shared images are laid out in an album format, and access information for accessing said shared page.

9. The saving device for image sharing according to claim 8, wherein said sharee information includes layout information of said at least one sharee;

and said sharing information creating means lays out said images to be shared in accordance with said layout information.

10. The saving device for image sharing according to claim 7, further comprising sharing information storing means configured to store said sharing information.

11. The saving device for image sharing according to claim 7, further comprising sharing information sending means configured to send said sharing information to said at least one sharee.

12. The saving device for image sharing according to claim 11, further comprising completion reporting means configured to report completion of sharing to said at least one sharer after transmission of said sharing information to said at least one sharee.

13. The saving device for image sharing according to claim 12, wherein a completion report includes at least one of information related to shared images, information related to images not shared, and information related to said at least one sharee.

14. The saving device for image sharing according to claim 1, wherein said saving device for image sharing is an image sharing server in which said images uploaded by said sharer can be saved and accessibly shared among said at least one sharee;

and said image acquiring means acquires said images uploaded by said sharer.

15. The saving device for image sharing according to claim 1, further comprising:

shared image information collecting means configured to collect information on said images to be shared;

sharee information collecting means configured to collect said sharee information with respect to said at least one sharee;

sharing information extracting means configured to extract, from the information on said images to be shared that is collected by said shared image information collecting means and the information with respect to said at least one sharee that is collected by said sharee information collecting means, information concerning said images to be shared in which said at least one sharee has interest as sharing information specific to said at least one sharee; and

sharing information notifying means configured to notify said at least one sharee of said sharing information extracted by said sharing information extracting means.

17. An image sharing system in which a sharer of images offers said images for image sharing so that said images can be accessibly shared among at least one sharee, comprising:

the saving device for image sharing according to claim 1; and

a terminal of said at least one sharee that accesses images shared on said saving device for image sharing.

18. The image sharing system according to claim 17, further comprising:

a terminal of said sharer that saves and uploads onto said saving device for image sharing said images; and

a network on which said saving device for image sharing is disposed,

wherein the terminal of said sharer and the terminal of said at least one sharee are connected with said saving device for image sharing through the network.

16. A saving device for image sharing in which images offered by a sharer of the images for image sharing can be saved and accessibly shared among at least one sharee, comprising:

image sharing means configured to share the images offered by said sharer among said at least one sharee as images to be shared;

shared image information collecting means configured to collect information on said images to be shared;

sharee information collecting means configured to collect information on said at least one sharee;

sharing information extracting means configured to extract, from the information on said images to be shared that is collected by said shared image information collecting means and the information on said at least one sharee that is collected by said sharee information collecting means, information concerning said images to be shared in which said at least one sharee has interest as sharing information specific to said at least one sharee; and

sharing information notifying means configured to notify said at least one sharee of said sharing information extracted by said sharing information extracting means.

19. An image sharing method in which images offered by a sharer of said images for image sharing can be saved and accessibly shared among at least one sharee in a saving device for image sharing, comprising the steps of:

acquiring said images offered by said sharer;

assessing whether or not the acquired images include a person subject;

associating images assessed as not including a person subject with images assessed as including a person subject based on sharee information with respect to said at least one sharee that has been stored in advance; and

determining images to be shared with said at least one sharee from said associated images based on said sharee information.

20. The image sharing method according to claim 19, wherein said saving device for image sharing is an image sharing server disposed on a network, in which said images uploaded by said sharer can be saved and accessibly shared among said at least one sharee;

and, in the step of acquiring said images, said images uploaded by said sharer are acquired.

21. The image sharing method according to claim 19, further comprising the steps of:

collecting information on said images to be shared;

collecting information on said at least one sharee;

extracting, from the collected information on said images to be shared and the collected information on said at least one sharee, information concerning said images to be shared in which said at least one sharee has interest as sharing information specific to said at least one sharee; and

notifying said at least one sharee of said sharing information as extracted.

22. An image sharing method in which images offered by a sharer of said images for image sharing can be saved and accessibly shared among at least one sharee, comprising the steps of:

sharing the images offered by said sharer among said at least one sharee as images to be shared;

collecting information on said images to be shared;

collecting information on said at least one sharee;

extracting, from the collected information on said images to be shared and the collected information on said at least one sharee, information concerning said images to be shared in which said at least one sharee has interest as sharing information specific to said at least one sharee; and

notifying said at least one sharee of said sharing information as extracted.