PROCESSING CAPTURED IMAGES HAVING GEOLOCATIONS

• US 20110129120A1
• Filed: 12/01/2010
• Published: 06/02/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Chan, Sammy
• Granted Patent: US 8,738,622 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/00 Scenes; Scene-specific elements control of digital cameras H04N23/60
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/70 Labelling scene content, e.g. deriving syntactic or semantic representations

Abstract

Methods (105), apparatuses (600), and computer readable storage mediums for processing captured images having geolocations related to the captured images at the time of capture are disclosed. A representative geolocation is associated (110) with each group of images previously captured at the same location. For each representative geolocation, based on at least the timestamp of the images associated with the representative geolocation, the probability is determined (120) that a further image will be captured at or near the representative geolocation. For representative geolocations with a determined probability above a predetermined threshold, the respective representative geolocation is associated (130) with at least one personal place.

Claims

1. A method of processing captured images having geolocations related to the captured images at the time of capture, said method comprising the steps of:

associating a representative geolocation with a group of images previously captured at or near the same location; and

for the representative geolocation, determining whether the representative geolocation is a selected place based on the pattern of the timestamp of the images.

2. A method of processing captured images having geolocations related to the captured images at the time of capture, said method comprising the steps of:

associating a representative geolocation with each group of images previously captured at the same location;

for each representative geolocation, determining, based on at least the timestamp of the images associated with the representative geolocation, the probability that a further image will be captured at or near the representative geolocation; and

for representative geolocations with a determined probability above a predetermined threshold, associating the respective representative geolocation with at least one personal place.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2, further comprising the step of capturing an image having a geolocation related to the captured image at the time of capture.

4. The method as claimed in claim 2 or 3, further comprising the step of suppressing at least one metadata value of a captured image if the geolocation related to the captured image is at or near at least one personal place.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4, wherein said at least one metadata value is suppressed by at least one of storing the metadata value in an external data store separately from the captured image and encrypting the metadata value.

7. The method as claimed in claim 2, further comprising the step of specifying a geolocation as a personal location.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein specifying the geolocation of a personal location comprises inputting textual addresses, or importing addresses from a contact list, or manually entering the geolocation.

9. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the captured image is captured using an image capturing apparatus adapted to acquire a geolocation related to the captured image at the time of image capture.

10. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the geolocations and at least the timestamps of the images are stored for further processing, said images being downloaded separately.

11. An apparatus for processing captured images having geolocations related to the captured images at the time of capture, said apparatus comprising:

a memory for storing data and a computer program; and

a processor unit coupled to the memory for executing a computer program, said memory and said processor configured to process said captured images, the computer program comprising;

computer program code means for associating a representative geolocation with each group of images previously captured at the same location;

computer program code means for each representative geolocation, determining, based on at least the timestamp of the images associated with the representative geolocation, the probability that a further image will be captured at or near the representative geolocation; and

computer program code means for representative geolocations with a determined probability above a predetermined threshold, associating the respective representative geolocation with at least one personal place.

12. The apparatus as claimed in claim 11, further comprising computer program code means for suppressing at least one metadata value of a captured image if the geolocation related to the captured image is at or near at least one personal place.

13. The apparatus as claimed in claim 12, wherein said at least one metadata value is suppressed by at least one of storing the metadata value in an external data store separately from the captured image and encrypting the metadata value.

14. The apparatus as claimed in claim 11, further comprising an image capturing apparatus adapted to acquire a geolocation related to a captured image at the time of image capture.

15. The apparatus as claimed in claim 11, wherein the geolocations and at least the timestamps of the images are stored in the memory of the apparatus for further processing, allowing said images to be downloaded from the apparatus and removed from the memory.

16. A computer readable storage medium having recorded therein a computer program for processing captured images having geolocations related to the captured images at the time of capture for execution by a processing unit, the computer program comprising:

computer program code means for associating a representative geolocation with each group of images previously captured at the same location;

computer program code means for each representative geolocation, determining, based on at least the timestamp of the images associated with the representative geolocation, the probability that a further image will be captured at or near the representative geolocation; and

computer program code means for representative geolocations with a determined probability above a predetermined threshold, associating the respective representative geolocation with at least one personal place.

17. The computer readable storage medium as claimed in claim 16, further comprising computer program code means for suppressing at least one metadata value of a captured image if the geolocation related to the captured image is at or near at least one personal place.

18. The computer readable storage medium as claimed in claim 16, wherein said at least one metadata value is suppressed by at least one of storing the metadata value in an external data store separately from the captured image and encrypting the metadata value.

19. The computer readable storage medium as claimed in claim 16, wherein said images are captured using an image capturing apparatus adapted to acquire a geolocation related to a captured image at the time of image capture.

20. The computer readable storage medium as claimed in claim 16, wherein the geolocations and at least the timestamps of the images are stored for further processing, allowing said images to be downloaded.