Image pickup device that cuts out a face image from subject image data

• US 7,787,025 B2
• Filed: 05/08/2007
• Issued: 08/31/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Sanno, Masato, Fujisawa, Takahiro
• Primary Examiner(s): VU, NGOC YEN T
• Application Number:
  US11/745,775
• Publication Number:
  US 20070263935A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,211 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 348/231.3
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2101/00 Still video cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/61 based on recognised objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/611 where the recognised objects include parts of the human body
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/632 for displaying or modifying preview images prior to image capturing, e.g. variety of image resolutions or capturing parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/635 Region indicators; Field of view indicators
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/675 comprising setting of focusing regions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/70 Circuitry for compensating brightness variation in the scene
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/71 Circuitry for evaluating the brightness variation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/74 by influencing the scene brightness using illuminating means

Abstract

An image pickup device includes an image pickup unit configured to convert a subject image to image data and to output the image data and a face image recognition unit configured to recognize a face image from the image data. When the face image is recognized by the face image recognition unit, the face image portion is cut out and stored as a separate image file.

Claims

1. An image pickup device comprising:

an image pickup unit configured to convert a subject image to image data and to output the image data; and

a face image recognition unit configured to recognize a face image from the image data of the subject image;

a face portion judgment unit configured to judge respective portions in the face image recognized by the face image recognition unit;

a face image cutting-out unit configured to cut out image data of the face image from the image data of the subject image based on respective portions of the face image judged by the face portion judgment unit; and

a recording unit configured to generate and to record a subject image file corresponding to the image data of the subject image and a face image file corresponding to the image data of the face image cut out by the face image cutting-out unit when the face image is recognized by the face image recognition unit.

2. The image pickup device according to claim 1, wherein the face image cutting-out unit is configured to cut out the image data of the face image so that a straight line connecting substantially central points of the respective portions judged by the face portion judgment unit becomes parallel with a vertical direction of an image frame which lays out the face image.

3. The image pickup device according to claim 1, wherein the face image cutting-out unit is configured to cut out the image data of the face image so that right, left, top and bottom blank spaces are at a certain ratio with respect to a size of a face on the cut-out face image face.

4. The image pickup device according to claim 1, wherein the recording unit is configured to record the subject image file and the face image file to be correlated with each other.

5. The image pickup device according to claim 1, wherein any portions other than a subject portion are painted over by a predetermined color, the subject portion including a face on the cut-out face image and body portions to be integrated with the face.

6. The image pickup device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a display unit configured to display contents of the image data, wherein when the face image is to be cut out by the face image cutting-out unit, the display unit is configured to display the cut-out face image with a frame, which lays out an area of the displayed face image.

7. The image pickup device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a display unit configured to display an image corresponding to the image data photographed by the image pickup unit; and

a selection unit configured to select recording or deletion of the image displayed by the display unit.

8. The image pickup device according to claim 1, wherein the recording unit is not configured to record the face image when an area of a face occupied by the face image displayed by the display unit is smaller than a predetermined area.

9. The image pickup device according to claim 8, wherein the area of the face is determined by a total number of pixels occupying the area.

10. The image pickup device according to claim 1, wherein the face portion judgment unit is configured to judge a mouth, a nose, and eyes from the face image recognized by the face image recognition unit.