AUTOMATED TEMPLATE LAYOUT SYSTEM

• US 20110261995A1
• Filed: 04/27/2010
• Published: 10/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Monument Peak Ventures, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Intellectual Ventures Fund 83 LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Cok, Ronald S.
• Granted Patent: US 8,406,461 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/50 of still image data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/53 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text

Abstract

A computer system having a processor and a memory for generating and storing a list of elements that are searched for in digital images. Occurrences of the elements in the images are indicative of a calendar season and, optionally, with a calendar month or another kind of season. The elements include weight values for indicating how strongly the element is associated with a season. The computer system automatically calculates a season determination value for each of the digital images and automatically selects images for use in a seasonal image product.

Claims

1. A computer system for producing image products, comprising:

storage for storing one or more digital templates and one or more digital images, each digital template having one or more digital openings and each digital image having pixels, each digital opening having stored in association therewith data indicating one of a plurality of seasons corresponding to said each digital opening and each digital image having stored in association therewith data indicating one of the plurality of seasons corresponding to said each digital image;

a processor for automatically analyzing the pixels of the one or more digital images to determine which one of a plurality of seasons is best depicted by each of the one or more digital images, for storing data in association with each of the one or more digital images for indicating its depicted season, for automatically digitally disposing one of said digital images into one of said digital openings whose associated season matches the season associated with said one of said digital images; and

means for producing one of said digital templates having said one of said digital images disposed in said one of said digital openings of said digital template.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the storage further includes date and location data corresponding to each of the one or more digital images.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more digital openings in one of the one or more digital templates each has stored in association therewith data indicating a common season corresponding to all of said one or more digital openings.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the means for producing the template is selected from the group consisting of a printer and an electronic display.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the data indicating the season corresponding to each said digital opening includes data for indicating seasons selected from the group consisting of winter, spring, summer, autumn (fall), dry season, harmattan season, rainy (wet) season, monsoon season, and holiday seasons.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the data indicating the season corresponding to each said digital opening includes data for indicating seasons selected from the group consisting of a birthday, an anniversary, Valentine'"'"'s Day, National Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year'"'"'s Day.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the storage includes storage locations corresponding to one or more seasons, and wherein the one or more digital images are stored in a storage location having a matching corresponding season.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the processor further ranks the one or more digital images stored in the storage location having the matching corresponding season in order of a determined quality of each of the one or more digital images.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the storage includes an association set that comprises items objects, colors, textures, and shapes, wherein each of said objects, colors, textures, or shapes includes data associating a season therewith.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the association set further comprises data output by the processor that indicates a strength of association between each of the one or more digital images and each of the plurality of seasons.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the association set further comprises confidence value data for each of the objects, colors, textures, or shapes for indicating a strength of association between each of the objects, colors, textures, or shapes and at least one of the plurality of seasons.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more digital templates includes a calendar template.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the calendar template includes the one or more digital openings each associated with one of the seasons and each having one of the one or more digital images composited therein and also associated with the one of the seasons.

14. A computer system comprising:

a processor and a memory coupled to the processor, the processor for generating and for storing in the memory a list of elements, each of the elements including data representing an associated season and a weight value indicating a strength of association between each element and its associated season, wherein the memory also includes a plurality of digital images; and

wherein the processor analyzes each of the digital images, detects a presence of one or more of the elements in each of the digital images, calculates a confidence value for each element detected in said each of the digital images, the confidence value indicating a likelihood that the detected element is actually an element in the list of elements, and calculates a season determination value for each of the digital images, the season determination value based on the weight value for each of said one or more of the elements found in each of the digital images and based on the confidence value for each element detected in said each of the digital images.

15. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the memory further comprises a season identifier stored with each of the digital images for identifying an associated season for said each of the digital images, the season identifier based on a magnitude of the season determination value.