Grouping Digital Media Items Based on Shared Features

• US 20110235858A1
• Filed: 09/27/2010
• Published: 09/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Shah, Hemal, Hanson, Eric, Fagans, Joshua David
• Granted Patent: US 8,611,678 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/23 Clustering techniques

Abstract

Methods, apparatuses, and systems for grouping digital media items based on shared features. Multiple digital images are received. Metadata about the digital images is obtained either by analyzing the digital images or by receiving metadata from a source separate from the digital images or both. The obtained metadata is analyzed by data processing apparatus to identify a common feature among two or more of the digital images. A grouping of the two or more images is formed by the data processing apparatus based on the identified common feature.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving a plurality of digital images;

obtaining metadata about the digital images either by analyzing the digital images or by receiving metadata from a source separate from the digital images or both;

analyzing, by data processing apparatus, the obtained metadata to identify a common feature among two or more of the digital images; and

forming, by the data processing apparatus, a grouping of the two or more images based on the identified common feature.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating a digital composite media presentation of the plurality of digital images, wherein the two or more images, grouped based on the identified common feature, are presented concurrently.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the analyzing, the forming, and the creating are performed automatically without input.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata about the digital images identifies a time of capture of each of the digital images, wherein the identified common feature among the two more of the digital images is a time of capture corresponding to each of the two or more of the digital images.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein a difference between a time of capture of a first digital image and a second digital image, both included among the two or more of the digital images, is within a threshold.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata about the digital images identifies a location of capture of each of the digital images, wherein the identified common feature among the two more of the digital images is a location of capture corresponding to each of the two or more of the digital images.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the location of capture includes Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates that include latitude/longitude/altitude information, wherein a difference between a GPS coordinate of a first digital image and a second digital image, both included among the two or more of the digital images, is within a threshold.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining image information about the digital images by analyzing the digital images, wherein for each image, the image information includes pixel information identifying a content captured in the digital image.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

analyzing image information about a first digital image to determine that content in the first digital image includes a plurality of faces;

analyzing image information about a second digital image to determine that content in the first digital image includes a face included in the plurality of faces in the first digital image; and

forming a grouping of the first digital image and the second digital image in response to the determining.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

presenting the first digital image; and

zooming in on the face included in the second digital image that is also included in the plurality of faces in the first digital image.

11. A computer-readable medium tangibly encoding computer software instructions executable by data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving a plurality of digital images;

receiving features associated with the plurality of digital images, each digital image being associated with corresponding features, wherein two or more digital images of the plurality of digital images share a feature;

identifying each of the two or more digital images that share the feature, and the feature that is shared by the two or more digital images;

grouping the two or more digital images that share the feature to form a cluster of related digital images; and

presenting the cluster of related digital images.

12. The medium of claim 11, the operations further comprising selecting a presentation template from a plurality of presentation templates, each presentation template associated with at least one feature associable with a digital image, the selected presentation template associated with the feature shared by the digital images in the cluster, wherein the cluster of related digital images are presented according to the selected presentation template.

13. The medium of claim 11, wherein the plurality of digital images are received as a sequence, and wherein the digital images included in the cluster are out of sequence.

14. The medium of claim 11, wherein the features associated with the plurality of digital images include metadata associated with the digital images, wherein the two or more digital images grouped to form the cluster share at least a portion of the metadata.

15. The medium of claim 14, wherein the metadata includes times of capture and geographic locations of capture of the plurality of the digital images, wherein the operations for identifying each of the two or more digital images that share the feature further include:

identifying digital images having times of capture within a duration of time; and

forming a first cluster of the digital images having the times of capture within the duration.

16. The medium of claim 15, the operations further comprising:

identifying, from among the first cluster, digital images having geographic locations of capture within a region; and

forming a second cluster of the digital images within the first cluster, wherein the digital images in the second cluster having the geographic locations of capture within the region.

17. The medium of claim 16, wherein the operations for presenting the cluster of related digital images further comprises:

presenting the digital images in the first cluster in a first sequence; and

presenting the digital images in the second cluster in a second sequence within the first sequence.

18. The medium of claim 11, wherein the features associated with the plurality of digital images include pixel information representing faces of persons, the operations further comprising:

analyzing a first digital image to identify a plurality of faces included in the first image;

analyzing a second digital image to identify a face included in the second image;

determining that the face included in the second digital image is included among the plurality of faces in the first digital image; and

grouping the first digital image and the second digital image to form the cluster of related digital images in response to the determining.

19. A system comprising:

data processing apparatus; and

a computer-readable medium tangibly encoding instructions executable by the data processing apparatus to perform operations including;

monitoring digital images by tracking differences between metadata associated with successively captured digital images;

determining that differences between metadata associated with successive images included in a first plurality of successively captured digital images is less than differences between metadata associated with successive images included a second plurality of successively captured digital images;

grouping the first plurality of successively captured digital images, in response to the determining.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the metadata associated with the successive images includes a time of capture of each of the digital images, wherein each difference between times of capture associated with two successively captured digital images in the first plurality is greater than or equal to one day and each difference between times of capture associated with two successively captured digital images in the second plurality is less than one day.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the metadata associated with the successively captured digital images includes a location of capture of each of the digital images, wherein the operations for monitoring the digital images by tracking differences between the locations of capture associated with the successively captured digital images includes:

identifying a reference location;

determining a difference between a location of capture of each successively captured digital image and the reference location; and

including the digital images having locations of capture within a threshold distance from the reference location in the first plurality.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein the operations for monitoring digital images includes:

receiving the digital images; and

receiving the metadata associated with the digital images.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the digital images are received from a first source, a first portion of the metadata associated with the digital images is received from the first source, and a second portion of the metadata associated with the digital images is received from a second source.

24. The system of claim 19, wherein the first plurality of successively captured digital images is captured after the second plurality of successively captured digital images.