Broadcast Identifier Enhanced Facial Recognition of Images

• US 20120321143A1
• Filed: 06/17/2011
• Published: 12/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zhigu Holdings Limited
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Krupka, Eyal, Abramovski, Igor, KVIATKOVSKY, Igor
• Granted Patent: US 8,831,294 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/118
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/30 in albums, collections or shared content, e.g. social network photos or video
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/16 Human faces, e.g. facial parts, sketches or expressions

Abstract

A system may recognize faces within an image by using wireless identifiers captured at the time the image was taken to determine a list of candidates for facial recognition. A database may contain people associated with one or more wireless identifiers, which may be identifiers associated with various protocols, such as Bluetooth, cellular telephones, WiFi, or other protocols. In some cases, the list of candidates may be expanded by using candidate'"'"'s social networks. The recognized faces may be tagged in the image as metadata, then used in various scenarios. In one scenario, an album of images from an event may be created by matching people who were tagged in images. In another scenario, people may exchange business contact information or social network contacts by taking images of each other.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a database comprising broadcast identifiers associated with people;

a facial recognition system operable on a processor that;

receives an image comprising a face, said image being taken by a first user;

receives at least one broadcast identifier captured when said image was taken;

determines a set of candidates for facial recognition from said database based on said broadcast identifier; and

performs facial recognition on said image to match an image to one of said candidates.

2. The system of claim 1, said facial recognition system that further:

identifies a first person from said database associated with a first broadcast identifier associated with said image;

identifies a second person associated with said first person from a social network connection between said first person and said second person; and

adds said first person and said second person to said set of candidates.

3. The system of claim 2, said social network connection being an explicit social network connection.

4. The system of claim 2, said social network connection being an implied social network connection.

5. The system of claim 1, said facial recognition system that further:

tags said image with an identifier for said one of said candidates to create a tagged image.

6. The system of claim 5, said facial recognition system that further:

adds said tagged image to a first social network associated with said first user.

7. The system of claim 6, said facial recognition system that further:

adds said tagged image to a second social network associated with said one of said candidates.

8. The system of claim 5 further comprising:

a matching system that;

identifies a first tagged image being tagged with a first user, said first tagged image being taken by a second user;

identifies a second tagged image being tagged with said second user, said second tagged image being taken by said first user; and

establishes a social network relationship between said first user and said second user.

9. The system of claim 8, said matching system that further:

exchanges contact information between said first user and said second user.

10. The system of claim 1, said broadcast identifier being a personal area network device broadcast identifier.

11. A method performed by at least one computer processor, said method comprising:

receiving a first image having at least one broadcast identifier associated with said first image, said first image comprising a first face;

creating a set of candidate persons by looking up said at least one broadcast identifier in a user database to identify at least one candidate person, said user database comprising broadcast identifiers associated with persons;

attempting to match said first face with each person in said set of candidate persons and determining a first match; and

tagging said first image with a first person associated with said first match.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

identifying a second person using said broadcast identifier;

searching a social network to identify a plurality of candidate persons associated with said second person; and

adding said plurality of candidate persons to said set of candidate persons.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

identifying a first profile for said first person; and

transferring said tagged image to said first person.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

said first profile comprising a social network, and said transferring comprising providing a link to said first profile to said tagged image.

15. The method of claim 12, said first match being performed using facial recognition.

16. A method performed by at least one computer processor, said method comprising:

receiving a first image comprising first metadata, said first metadata comprising a first set of broadcast identifiers captured when said first image was taken;

looking up said first set of broadcast identifiers to determine a first set of candidate persons;

attempting to match a first face in said first image with faces from said first set of candidate persons to determine a first match comprising a first person;

tagging said first face in said first image with said first match;

receiving a second image comprising second metadata, said second metadata comprising a second set of broadcast identifiers captured when said second image was taken;

looking up said second set of broadcast identifiers to determine a second set of candidate persons;

attempting to match a second face in said second image with faces from said second set of candidate persons to determine a second match comprising a second person; and

tagging said second face in said second image with said second match.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

matching said first image to said second image when said first person took said second image and said second person took said first image.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising:

exchanging information about said first person with said second person based on said matching.

19. The method of claim 17, said matching being made when said first image has a first timestamp that is within a predefined time from a second timestamp being associated with said second image.

20. The method of claim 17, said matching being made when a first broadcast identifier for a first device that captured said first image is in said second set of broadcast identifiers and when a second broadcast identifier for a second device that captured said second image is in said first set of broadcast identifiers