DIGITAL IMAGE CAPTURING DEVICE PROVIDING PHOTOGRAPHING COMPOSITION AND METHOD THEREOF

• US 20110187882A1
• Filed: 09/10/2010
• Published: 08/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: KIM, Seung-hun, KIM, Jong-sun
• Granted Patent: US 8,400,532 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/222.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/46 Descriptors for shape, contour or point-related descriptors, e.g. scale invariant feature transform [SIFT] or bags of words [BoW]; Salient regional features colour feature extraction G06V10/56
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/00 Cameras or camera modules comprising electronic image sensors; Control thereof

Abstract

A digital image capturing device detecting a face in an input image and providing a photographing composition, and a method using the digital image capturing device are provided. An embodiment of the digital image capturing device includes: a face detecting unit for detecting a face in the input image; an extracting unit for extracting tilt information of the detected face and a gaze direction; an establishing unit for establishing a photographing composition according to the tilt information or gaze direction of the face; and a providing unit for providing a change of the photographing composition according to the established photographing composition.

Claims

1. A digital image capturing device including a screen on which an input image is displayed, the digital image capturing device comprising:

a face detecting unit for detecting a face in the input image;

an extracting unit for extracting tilt information of the detected face and a gaze direction;

an establishing unit for establishing a photographing composition according to at least one of the tilt information and the gaze direction of the face; and

a providing unit for providing a change of the photographing composition according to the established photographing composition.

2. The digital image capturing device of claim 1, wherein the extracting unit comprises:

a gaze direction extracting unit for extracting the gaze direction of the face, and

if the gaze direction of the face is frontward, a tilt information extracting unit for detecting a tilt vector based on the face and for extracting a coordinate of the tilt vector based on a coordinate plane corresponding to the face.

3. The digital image capturing device of claim 2, wherein the tilt information extracting unit detects the tilt vector extending from a nose to a forehead, and extracts a coordinate of the tilt vector based on a coordinate plane in which a horizontal direction of the screen is an X axis and a direction perpendicular to the X axis is a Y axis.

4. The digital image capturing device of claim 1, wherein when the gaze direction of the face is frontward, the establishing unit establishes a photographing composition according to the extracted tilt information.

5. The digital image capturing device of claim 3, wherein when the coordinate of the tilt vector corresponds to a first quadrant of the coordinate plane, the establishing unit establishes a photographing composition such that the face is located in a first region of the screen;

when the coordinate of the tilt vector corresponds to a second quadrant of the coordinate plane, the establishing unit establishes a photographing composition such that the face is located in a second region of the screen;

when the coordinate of the tilt vector corresponds to a third quadrant of the coordinate plane, the establishing unit establishes a photographing composition such that the face is located in a third region of the screen; and

when the coordinate of the tilt vector corresponds to a fourth quadrant of the coordinate plane, the establishing unit establishes a photographing composition such that the face is located in a fourth region of the screen.

6. The digital image capturing device of claim 1, wherein when the gaze direction of the face is not frontward, the establishing unit establishes a photographing composition according to the extracted gaze direction.

7. The digital image capturing device of claim 5, wherein the establishing unit establishes a photographing composition such that the face is located in one region from among the first through fourth regions of the screen, and the one region is a region where the extracted gaze direction is toward the center of the screen.

8. The digital image capturing device of claim 1, wherein the establishing unit establishes the photographing composition such that the face is located in one region from among four regions divided according to a rule of thirds.

9. The digital image capturing device of claim 1, wherein the providing unit provides a change of the photographing composition by displaying a screen region corresponding to the established photographing composition.

10. A digital image capturing device comprising:

a face detecting unit that detects a face in an image;

an extracting unit that determines a gaze direction of the face and if the gaze direction is frontward, determines tilt information of the face;

an establishing unit that determines a photographing composition based on the tilt information of the face if the gaze direction is frontward and the gaze direction of the face if the gaze direction is not frontward; and

a providing unit that indicates where on a display of the digital image capturing device the face should be located based on the photographing composition.

11. A digital image capturing method comprising:

detecting a face in an input image;

extracting tilt information and a gaze direction of the detected face;

establishing a photographing composition according to at least one of the tilt information and the gaze direction of the face; and

providing a change of the photographing composition according to the established photographing composition.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the extracting of the tilt information and the gaze direction comprises;

if the gaze direction of the face is frontward, extracting a tilt vector based on the face and extracting a coordinate of the tilt vector based on a coordinate plane corresponding to the face.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the extracting of the tilt information and the gaze direction comprises;

detecting the tilt vector extending from a nose to a forehead, and

extracting a coordinate of the tilt vector based on a coordinate plane in which a horizontal direction of the screen is an X axis and a direction perpendicular to the X axis is a Y axis.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the establishing of the photographing composition comprises, when the gaze direction of the face is frontward, establishing a photographing composition according to the extracted tilt information.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the establishing of the photographing composition comprises:

when the coordinate of the tilt vector corresponds to a first quadrant of the coordinate plane, establishing a photographing composition such that the face is located in a first region of the screen;

when the coordinate of the tilt vector corresponds to a second quadrant of the coordinate plane, establishing a photographing composition such that the face is located in a second region of the screen;

when the coordinate of the tilt vector corresponds to a third quadrant of the coordinate plane, establishing a photographing composition such that the face is located in a third region of the screen; and

when the coordinate of the tilt vector corresponds to a fourth quadrant of the coordinate plane, establishing a photographing composition such that the face is located in a fourth region of the screen.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the establishing of the photographing composition comprises, when the gaze direction of the face is not frontward, establishing a photographing composition according to the extracted gaze direction.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the photographing composition is established such that the face is located in one region from among the first through fourth regions of the screen, and the one region is a region where the extracted gaze direction is toward the center of the screen.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein the photographing composition is established such that the face is located in one region from among four regions divided according to a rule of thirds.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the photographing composition is established such that the face is located in one region from among the first through fourth regions divided according to a rule of thirds.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein the providing of the photographing composition comprises providing a change of the photographing composition by displaying a screen region corresponding to the established photographing composition.