IMAGE ALTERATION TECHNIQUES

• US 20110037777A1
• Filed: 08/14/2009
• Published: 02/17/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Lindahl, Aram, Chiu, Kelvin
• Granted Patent: US 8,933,960 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/619
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1626 with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/1637 Sensing arrangement for detection of housing movement or orientation, e.g. for controlling scrolling or cursor movement on the display of an handheld computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 13/00 Animation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72403 with means for local support of applications that increase the functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72442 for playing music files
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/22 including a touch pad, a touch sensor or a touch detector
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42202 environmental sensors, e.g. for detecting temperature, luminosity, pressure, earthquakes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42203 sound input device, e.g. microphone
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47205 for manipulating displayed content, e.g. interacting with MPEG-4 objects, editing locally
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8153 comprising still images, e.g. texture, background image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/62 Control of parameters via user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/2621 Cameras specially adapted for the electronic generation of special effects during image pickup, e.g. digital cameras, camcorders, video cameras having integrated special effects capability

Abstract

Various techniques relating to the alteration of image data are provided herein. In generally, disclosed embodiments may provide techniques for applying on or more image alteration effects to image data that is displayed on an electronic device. In certain disclosed embodiments, the application of such image alteration effects may be triggered based upon various detected device operation events, which may include audio-related events, motion-related events, location-related events, and/or events relating the imaging properties. The selection of a triggering device event and a corresponding image alteration affect may be defined by a user through a set of user preference settings on the electronic device.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving image data for viewing on an electronic device;

detecting the occurrence of at least one device operation event configured to trigger alteration of the image data;

applying at least one image alteration effect to the image data upon the detection of the at least one device operation event, wherein the application of the at least one image alteration effect alters the image data; and

displaying the altered image data on the electronic device using a display device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one device operation event comprises an audio event, a motion event, a location event, or an imaging event, or any combination thereof.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein altering the image data in response to a detected audio event comprises:

analyzing an audio signal to determine one or more audio properties of the audio signal; and

applying the image alteration effect based upon the determined one or more audio properties;

wherein the determined one or more audio properties comprises at least one of a key, a tempo, frequency data, spectral content, an RMS level, genre information, or artist information, or any combination thereof.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein applying the at least one image alteration effect comprises varying the depth of the displayed image data in response to changes in a level of a particular frequency range of the audio signal.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein applying the at least one image alteration effect comprises:

identifying a treble-range, a mid-range, and a bass-range of frequencies in which frequency content of the audio may be concentrated;

applying a first image alteration effect if the frequency content of the audio signal is generally concentrated in the bass range;

applying a second image alteration effect if the frequency content of the audio signal is generally concentrated in the mid-range; and

applying a third image alteration effect if the frequency content of the audio signal is generally concentrated in the treble-range.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the audio signal comprises stored audio data being played back on the electronic device or an external audio signal received by the electronic device using one or more audio input devices.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein altering the image data in response to a location event comprises:

determining a first geographic position of the electronic device at a first time; and

applying a first image alteration effect based upon the first geographic position;

8. The method of claim 7, comprising:

determining a second geographic position of the electronic device at a second time; and

applying a second image alteration effect based upon the second geographic position;

wherein the first and second geographic positions are different geographic positions.

9. The method of claim 2, wherein receiving the image data comprises receiving live image data captured by the electronic device using an imaging device, and wherein altering the live image data in response to an imaging event comprises:

determining one or more imaging properties using the imaging device;

applying the at least one image alteration effect to the live image data based upon the one or more imaging properties.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the image data comprises retrieving the image data from an image file stored on the electronic device, receiving live image data captured by the electronic device using an imaging device, or receiving streaming image data on the electronic device via a network connection, or some combination thereof.

11. A method for altering image data on an electronic device, comprising:

detecting motion experienced by the electronic device;

altering the image data by applying an image alteration effect to the image data in response to the detected motion, wherein the image alteration effect is determined based upon an image alteration rule stored on the electronic device; and

displaying the altered image data on the electronic device.

12. The method of claim 11, comprising increasing the intensity of the applied image alteration effect based upon the duration of time over which the detected motion continuously occurs or based upon the velocity of the detected motion, or based upon a combination thereof.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the intensity of the applied image alteration effect gradually subsides when the detected motion ends and the electronic device returns to a stationary position.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the detected motion comprises a rotational motion, a shaking motion, or a linear motion of the electronic device, or some combination thereof.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein, in response to a rotational motion, the orientation of the image data is adjusted such that the image data appears to remain generally stationary as the electronic device is rotated.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein, in response to the shaking motion, the image alteration effect is selected at random from a plurality of image alteration effects stored on the electronic device.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein, in addition to being responsive to the detected motion, the image alteration effect is simultaneously responsive to one or more of an audio event, a location event, or an imaging event.

18. An electronic device, comprising:

a display configured to display image data;

a storage device configured to store a set of user preferences defining one or more image alteration rules; and

image processing logic configured to receive image data, detect the occurrence of a device operation event, alter the image data using an image alteration effect associated with the detected device operation event in accordance with a corresponding image alteration rule, and output the altered image data to the display;

wherein the device operation event comprises at least one of an audio event, a motion event, a location event, or an imaging event.

19. The electronic device of claim 18, comprising at least one of an audio analysis logic configured to analyze an audio signal played back from audio data stored in the storage device or to analyze an external audio signal received by an audio input device, a motion sensing device configured to detect motion experienced by the electronic device, a positioning device configured to detect a geographic position of the electronic device, or an imaging subsystem configured to detect one or more imaging properties, or some combination thereof;

and

wherein the image processing logic is configured to detect the occurrence of the audio event, the motion event, the location event, or the imaging event based upon data provided by the audio analysis logic, the motion sensing device, the positioning device, or the imaging subsystem, respectively.

20. The electronic device of claim 19, wherein the motion sensing device comprises an accelerator or a gyroscope, or some combination thereof.

21. The electronic device of claim 19, wherein the positioning device comprises a global positioning device.

22. The electronic device of claim 19, wherein the imaging subsystem comprises:

a camera having a plurality of image sensors; and

an image signal processor configured to process image data captured by the plurality of image sensors and to detect the one or more imaging properties based upon the captured image data.

23. The electronic device of claim 22, wherein the one or more imaging properties comprises a brightness level, a lighting condition, an exposure value, or a sharpness level, or the detection of a subject entering or exiting an image frame defining the captured image data, or some combination thereof.

24. The electronic device of claim 18, wherein receiving the image data comprises retrieving the image data from an image file stored in the storage device, receiving live image data captured using the imaging subsystem, or receiving streaming image data from an external source through a network connection.

25. The electronic device of claim 18, comprising an encoder configured to encode the altered image data into an image file for storage on the storage device.

26. The electronic deice of claim 18, wherein the image alteration effect comprises at least one of a sepia effect, a black and white effect, a glow effect, a colored pencil effect, a thermal camera effect, an x-ray effect, a pop art effect, a comic book effect, a bulge effect, a dent effect, a twirl effect, a squeeze effect, a mirror effect, a light tunnel effect, a fisheye effect, a stretch effect, a water reflection effect, a spiral effect, a depth-changing effect, a brush-stroke effect, or a night-vision effect, or some combination thereof.

27. The electronic device of claim 18, wherein the one or more image alteration rules is configurable by a user of the electronic device through one or more screens of a graphical user interface.

28. A graphical user interface method comprising:

displaying a plurality of device operation categories on a display of an electronic device, wherein the plurality of device operation categories comprises at least one of an audio category, a motion category, a location category, or an imaging properties category;

selecting one of the device operation categories based upon a first set of user inputs;

displaying at least one selectable image alteration effect and at least one selectable device operation event corresponding to the selected device operation category;

selecting an image alteration effect and a device operation event based upon a second set of user inputs, wherein the selected device operation event is configured to trigger alteration of image data displayed on the electronic device using the selected image alteration effect; and

storing the selected image alteration effect and the selected device operation event on the electronic device as an image alteration rule.

29. The graphical user interface method of claim 28, comprising:

displaying a listing of programs to which the image alteration rule may be applied; and

for each of the listed programs, enabling or disabling the application of the image alteration rule in response to a third set of user inputs.

30. The graphical user interface method of claim 29, wherein the listing of programs comprises at least one of a media player application, an imaging application, or a photo browser application.