ASSOCIATING CAMERAS WITH USERS AND OBJECTS IN A SOCIAL NETWORKING SYSTEM

• US 20150124107A1
• Filed: 01/14/2015
• Published: 05/07/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/06/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Muriello, Daniel Gregory, Heise, Stephen Charles, Chen, Jie
• Granted Patent: US 9,485,423 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/207.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/21 Design or setup of recognition systems or techniques; Extraction of features in feature space; Blind source separation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/22 Matching criteria, e.g. proximity measures
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/04 Inference or reasoning models
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44008 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in the video stream arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440263 by altering the spatial resolution, e.g. for displaying on a connected PDA
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/472 End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification, for manipulating displayed content end-user interfaces for retrieving video data from a database G06F16/739; network services for supporting unicast streaming H04L65/612
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/80 Camera processing pipelines; Components thereof

Abstract

Images uploaded by users of a social networking system are analyzed to determine signatures of cameras used to capture the images. A camera signature comprises features extracted from images that characterize the camera used for capturing the image, for example, faulty pixel positions in the camera and metadata available in files storing the images. Associations between users and cameras are inferred based on actions relating users with the cameras, for example, users uploading images, users being tagged in images captured with a camera, and the like. Associations between users of the social networking system related via cameras are inferred. These associations are used beneficially for the social networking system, for example, for recommending potential connections to a user, recommending events and groups to users, identifying multiple user accounts created by the same user, detecting fraudulent accounts, and determining affinity between users.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

maintaining, by a social networking system, a plurality of user accounts;

analyzing a first set of images associated with a first user account to identify a metadata attribute of each of the first set of images;

analyzing a second set of images associated with a second user account to identify a metadata attribute of each of the second set of images;

determining whether the metadata attribute of the first set of images matches the metadata attribute of the second set of images; and

sending, by the social networking system, a request to perform an action associated with the first user account and the second user account, if the metadata attribute of the first set of images matches the metadata attribute of the second set of images.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the metadata attribute represents a clock skew.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the metadata attribute represents information describing a file associated with an image.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the metadata attribute represents information describing a camera, the information comprising one of:

a serial number of the camera, a make of the camera, or a model of the camera.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the metadata attribute represents one of:

a time of capture of an image, a geographical location associated with a place where an image was captured, or a name of an image file.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the metadata attribute has a monotonically changing values for images taken consecutively from a camera.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the metadata attribute represents information describing one of:

lens scratches, lens dust, or camera artifacts.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the first user and the second user are not connected via the social networking system; and

wherein, the social networking system sends the request to perform the action if the first user and the second user are not connected via the social networking system.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether a faulty pixel identified in the first set of images matches a faulty pixel identified in the second set of images.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the action comprises recommending the second user as a potential friend to the first user.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the action comprises recommending a group to the first user, if the second user is a member of the group.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the action comprises recommending an event to the first user, if the second user is determined to be associated with the event.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the action comprises determining a measure of affinity between the first user and the second user.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the action comprises determining whether the first user account and the second user account are associated with the same user.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable code comprising instructions for:

maintaining a plurality of user accounts;

analyzing a first set of images associated with a first user account to identify a metadata attribute of each of the first set of images;

analyzing a second set of images associated with a second user account to identify a metadata attribute of each of the second set of images;

determining whether the metadata attribute of the first set of images matches the metadata attribute of the second set of images; and

sending a request to perform an action associated with the first user account and the second user account, if the metadata attribute of the first set of images matches the metadata attribute of the second set of images.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the metadata attribute represents a clock skew.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the metadata attribute represents information describing a file associated with an image.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the metadata attribute describes one of:

a time of capture of an image, a geographical location associated with a place where an image was captured, or a name of an image file.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the metadata attribute comprises information describing a camera, the information comprising one of:

a serial number of the camera, a make of the camera, or a model of the camera.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the action comprises at least one of:

recommending the second user as a potential friend to the first user,

recommending a group to the first user, if the second user is a member of the group,

recommending an event to the first user, if the second user is determined to be associated with the event, or

determining a measure of affinity between the first user and the second user.