Imaging method and system using affective information

• US 7,233,684 B2
• Filed: 11/25/2002
• Issued: 06/19/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Monument Peak Ventures, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
• Inventors: Fedorovskaya, Elena A., Parulski, Kenneth A., Telek, Michael J., Matraszek, Tomasz A., Endrikhovski, Serguei, Marino, Frank, Zacks, Carolyn A., Harel, Dan, Taxier, Karen M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Alavi; Amir
• Application Number:
  US10/304,127
• Publication Number:
  US 20040101212A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,667 Days
• Field of Search: 382/118, 382/123, 382/284, 382/305, 348/231.2, 348/231.3, 348/207.2, 348/335, 348/373, 348/322, 348/323, 358/302, 358/487, 355/18, 396/2, 705/10, 709/201, 707/3, 707/7, 707/101, 707/102, 707/104.1
• US Class Current: 382/118
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/256 of results relating to different input data, e.g. multimodal recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/00 Image analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/45 for generating image signals from two or more image sensors being of different type or operating in different modes, e.g. with a CMOS sensor for moving images in combination with a charge-coupled device [CCD] for still images
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/611 where the recognised objects include parts of the human body
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/772 the recording apparatus and the television camera being placed in the same enclosure

Abstract

Imaging methods and systems are provided that use affective information. In one aspect an image of a scene is captured. Affective information is collected. The affective information is associated with the image.

Claims

1. An imaging method comprising the steps of:

capturing an image of a scene;

collecting affective information at capture; and

associating the affective information with the scene image, wherein the step of collecting affective information comprises monitoring the physiology of a user and, wherein the step of collecting affective information comprises the steps of interpreting the collected physiological information to determine the relative degree of importance of the scene image.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

collecting user identification data; and

associating the affective information and the user identification data with the scene image.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

collecting user identification information;

identifying a user based on the user identification data; and

associating the affective information and the scene image with the user.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of associating the affective information with the image comprises storing the scene image, the affective information and user identification data in a common digital file.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of associating the affective information with the image comprises storing the affective information within the scene image.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the affective information and user identifier are stored in association with the scene image.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of using the collected affective information and user identification data to build a personal user profile.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising the step of:

identifying a user based on the user identification data.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of collecting affective information at capture comprises collecting an image of a user from which affective information can be obtained.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein an electronic image of at least a part of a face of the user is captured and affective information is derived therefrom.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of collecting affective information at capture comprises determining a relative degree of importance.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of associating the affective information with the image comprises storing the relative degree of importance in association with the scene image.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the relative degree of importance of the image is established at least in part based upon the personal user profile.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of automatically collecting affective information includes monitoring the eye gaze of the user.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of obtaining non-affective information at capture.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising the step of interpreting the affective information and non-affective information to determine the relative degree of importance of the scene image.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the non-affective information includes the captured image and the relative degree of importance is at least in part determined by analysis of the scene image.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of collecting affective information comprises collecting manually entered affective information.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of collecting affective information at capture comprises detecting composition of an image, and collecting affective information during composition.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of collecting affective information at capture comprises detecting verification of a scene image and collecting affective information during verification.

21. An imaging method comprising the steps of:

capturing a stream of images;

collecting a stream of affective information during image capture; and

associating the stream of affective information with the stream of images, wherein the stream of affective information comprises is examined to determine when relevant changes in affective information occur and the step of associating the affective information with the corresponding stream of images comprises associating data representing relevant changes in the affective information with the stream of images at a points in the stream of images that correspond to the occurrence of the relevant changes.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the stream of affective information includes user identification data.