APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR DETERMINING TRENDS IN PICTURE TAKING ACTIVITY

• US 20150170039A1
• Filed: 12/05/2014
• Published: 06/18/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Hostyn, Tom, Spooren, Jan, Marivoet, Philip, Minnoy, Chris, Demarto, Olivier, Helsens, Kenny, Pohjola, Teemu Veikko Tapani, Wasowska, Magdalena, Aylward, Conor, De Brucker, Gaetan, Giard, Joachim
• Granted Patent: US 9,866,709 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00204 with a digital computer or a digital computer system, e.g. an internet server programmed control between transmitter and receiver or between image input and image output device H04N1/32561
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32128 attached to the image data, e.g. file header, transmitted message header, information on the same page or in the same computer file as the image for information embedded in the image H04N1/32144
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2101/00 Still video cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0084 Digital still camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3253 Position information, e.g. geographical position at time of capture, GPS data

Abstract

It is described an apparatus for determining trends in picture taking activity. The apparatus comprises a meta information accessing unit for accessing a set of meta information, each meta information in the set of meta information being associated with a picture having been taken with a camera device at a respective geographic location and at a respective time. The apparatus further comprises a processing unit for determining trends in picture taking activity based on the set of meta information accessible by the meta information accessing unit.

Claims

1. An apparatus for determining trends in picture taking activity comprising

a meta information accessing unit configured to access a set of meta information, each meta information in the set of meta information being associated with a picture and comprising location information and/or temporal information, the location information describing the geographic location at which an associated picture was taken and the temporal information describing the time at which an associated picture was taken;

and

a processing device configured to determine trends in picture taking activity based on the set of meta information accessible by the meta information accessing unit.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising

a picture storage configured to store a set of pictures, each picture having been taken with a camera device at a respective geographic location by one of a plurality of camera users;

and

a meta information database configured to store a set of meta information, each meta information being associated with a picture of the set of pictures.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, in which the processing device further comprises

a location base analysis unit configured to determine local picture taking activity based on the meta information stored in the meta information database;

and

a time base analysis unit configured to determine temporal picture taking activity based on the set of meta information stored in the meta information database.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, in which the processing device further comprises an trend detection unit configured to determine trends in picture taking activity based on local picture taking activity obtained by the location base analysis unit and/or based on temporal picture taking activity obtained by the time base analysis unit.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, in which the trend detection unit is configured to determine trends in picture taking activity based on pictures uploaded to the apparatus for determining trends in picture taking from a plurality of camera devices in real-time, and in which a determined trend corresponds to a current event taking place at a specific location which causes the number of uploaded pictures to be higher than a historical mean.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, in which the processing device comprises

a camera parameter reception unit configured to receive camera parameters of a camera device;

and

a recommendation providing unit configured to provide recommendations to the camera device based on the received camera parameters and based on detected trends in picture taking activity.

7. A cloud service comprising the apparatus for determining trends in picture taking activity of claim 1, the cloud service configured to provide recommendations to users of camera devices based on determined trends in picture taking activity.

13. A system comprising

an apparatus configured to determine trends in picture taking activity as defined in claim 1;

and

one or more camera devices, each camera device having

a picture sensor configured to sense pictures;

a picture taking unit configured to take pictures sensed by the picture sensor;

a meta information determination unit configured to determine meta information, each meta information being associated with a picture having been taken with the picture sensor at a respective geographic location and at a respective time;

a data communication interface configured to connect the camera device to a telecommunication network;

an uploading unit configured to upload pictures taken with the picture sensor, associated meta information determined by the meta information determination unit, and camera parameters to the apparatus for determining trends in picture taking activity;

a recommendation reception unit configured to receive recommendations from the apparatus for determining trends in picture taking activity; and

a recommendation notification unit configured to notify recommendations received from the apparatus for determining trends in picture taking activity.

8. A camera device, the camera device comprising

a recommendation reception unit configured to receive recommendations from an apparatus for determining trends in picture taking activity, the recommendations being based on trends in picture taking activity detected by the apparatus for determining trends in picture taking activity;

and

a recommendation notification unit configured to notify recommendations received from the apparatus for determining trends in picture taking activity.

9. The camera device of claim 8 in which the recommendations received by the recommendation reception unit are determined based on pictures and associated meta information uploaded to the apparatus for determining trends in picture taking activity by other camera devices in the vicinity of the camera device.

10. The camera device of claim 8, further comprising

a picture taking unit configured to take pictures sensed by a picture sensor;

a meta information determination unit configured to determine meta information, each meta information being associated with a picture having been taken with the picture taking unit at a respective geographic location and at a respective time;

a data communication interface configured to connect the camera device to a telecommunication network; and

an uploading unit configured to upload pictures taken with the picture sensor, associated meta information determined by the meta information determination unit, and camera parameters to the apparatus for determining trends in picture taking activity.

11. The camera device of claim 10 in which the uploading unit is configured to upload pictures to the apparatus for determining trends in picture taking activity in real-time.

12. The camera device of claim 8 in which the recommendation notification unit is configured to display to a user of the camera device a textual notification relating to an interesting event, a notification in form of an arrow which indicates a direction where an interesting event is going on, or an indication of a distance of an interesting event.

14. A method of determining trends in picture taking activity comprising

accessing a set of meta information, each meta information in the set of meta information being associated with a picture having been taken with a camera device at a respective geographic location and at a respective time;

and

determining trends in picture taking activity based on the set of meta information accessible by the meta information accessing unit.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising

storing in a picture storage a set of pictures, each picture having been taken with a camera device at a respective geographic location;

and

storing in a meta information database a set of meta information, each meta information being associated with a picture of the set of pictures, the meta information comprising location information and time information, the location information describing the geographic location at which an associated picture was taken and the temporal information describing the time at which an associated picture was taken.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the determining trends in picture taking activity comprises

determining local picture taking activity based on the meta information stored in the meta information database;

and

determining temporal picture taking activity based on the set of meta information stored in the meta information database.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the determining trends in picture taking activity comprises

determining trends in picture taking activity based on local picture taking activity and/or temporal picture taking activity;

and wherein the method further comprises

providing recommendations to camera devices based on detected trends in picture taking activity.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein determining local picture taking activity comprises performing a real-time collection and processing of geographically-tagged pictures into fixed rasters of a world map.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein determining temporal picture taking activity comprises regarding a recently taken picture to be more important than older pictures.

20. An apparatus for determining recommendations to a user of a camera device, comprising

a camera parameter reception unit configured to receive camera parameters from the camera device;

and

a processing unit configured to determine recommendations based on camera parameters and based on information derived from uploads by many different users which have taken photos in the past.

21. A cloud service comprising the apparatus determining recommendations to a user of a camera device of claim 20, the cloud service being configured to provide recommendations to users of camera devices based on camera parameters and based on information derived from uploads by many different users which have taken photos in the past.