Automated Acquisition of Facial Images

• US 20110170739A1
• Filed: 01/12/2010
• Published: 07/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/12/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Gillam, Michael, Gillotte, John Christopher, Feied, Craig Frederick, Cazangi, Renato Reder, Zhang, Cha, Zhang, Zhengyou, Handler, Jonathan Alan, Hegde, Rajesh Kutpadi
• Granted Patent: US 9,536,046 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/103
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/253 visually
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/27 with central registration
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records

Abstract

Described is a technology by which medical patient facial images are acquired and maintained for associating with a patient'"'"'s records and/or other items. A video camera may provide video frames, such as captured when a patient is being admitted to a hospital. Face detection may be employed to clip the facial part from the frame. Multiple images of a patient'"'"'s face may be displayed on a user interface to allow selection of a representative image. Also described is obtaining the patient images by processing electronic documents (e.g., patient records) to look for a face pictured therein.

Claims

1. In a computing environment, a method performed on at least one processor, comprising,

receiving an image of a patient;

obtaining information for the image that indicates a bounded region where the patient'"'"'s face appears within the image;

clipping the region from the image to obtain a patient facial image; and

maintain the patient facial image in association with other data associated with the patient.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the image of a patient comprises sampling frames provided by a camera.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising, receiving at least one other image of the patient, obtaining information for the other image that indicates a bounded region where the patient'"'"'s face appears within the other image, clipping the region from the image to obtain another patient facial image, presenting both the patient facial image and the other patient facial image for selection via a user interface.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the image of a patient comprises processing electronic documents.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising outputting the patient facial image to a user interface that shows data of the patient in association with the patient facial image.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising, outputting a previously saved patient facial image on the user interface, or outputting a current camera shot on the user interface, or both outputting a previously saved patient facial image on the user interface and outputting a current camera shot on the user interface.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising printing the patient facial image to an item associated with the patient.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising, outputting the patient facial image to a user interface along with a patient facial image of a different patient, each patient facial image accompanied by data by which the patients are able to be differentiated from one another.

9. In a computing environment, a system comprising, an acquisition mechanism coupled to a source of patient images, the acquisition mechanism further coupled to a face detection algorithm that locates a facial image within each image, the acquisition mechanism clipping the facial image from each image based upon data received from the face detection algorithm, and for each patient, maintaining at least one facial image of that patient in a data store in association with information about that patient.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the source of patient images comprises a data store of electronic documents.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the source of patient images comprises a camera.

12. The system of claim 11 further comprising a user interface that displays a plurality of available facial images for a patient captured by the camera, and detects interaction to select one of the available facial images as a selected patient facial image for maintaining in the data store.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the user interface further includes at least one interactive control for recapturing at least one new patient facial image.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein the user interface shows medical data of the patient in association with the patient facial image.

15. The system of claim 9 further comprising, a user interface that shows the patient facial image in association with medical information associated with that patient facial image, and further shows at least one other patient facial image in association with medical information associated with each other patient facial image.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the patient facial image and each other patient facial image are arranged in a column in different rows of a grid, the rows containing the medical information in other columns.

17. The system of claim 9 further comprising, means for printing the patient facial image to an item associated with the patient.

18. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions, which when executed perform steps, comprising:

obtaining a plurality of camera shots of a patient;

displaying images comprising at least part of each camera shot in association with medical information of the patient;

detecting interaction to select an image from among the displayed images as a selected image; and

maintaining the selected image in association with data by which the patient is identifiable.

19. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 18 having further computer-executable instructions comprising, providing the camera shots to a face detection algorithm, and receiving information from the face detection algorithm by which the images are clipped from the camera shots.

20. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 18 having further computer-executable instructions comprising, printing the selected patient facial image to an item associated with the patient.