Determining the location at which a photograph was captured

• US 8,417,000 B1
• Filed: 05/01/2012
• Issued: 04/09/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Mendis, Charles
• Primary Examiner(s): Bhatnagar, Anand
• Assistant Examiner(s): PARK, SOO JIN
• Application Number:
  US13/461,587
• Time in Patent Office: 343 Days
• Field of Search: 382/181, 382185-189, 382/118, 715/738, 715/751
• US Class Current: 382/118
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/176 Urban or other man-made structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/20 in augmented reality scenes
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/30 in albums, collections or shared content, e.g. social network photos or video
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 2201/02 Recognising information on displays, dials, clocks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/64 Computer-aided capture of images, e.g. transfer from script file into camera, check of taken image quality, advice or proposal for image composition or decision on when to take image

Abstract

To determine a location at which a photograph was captured using a camera, a time at which the photograph was captured is determined using an image depicted in the photograph. User location data indicative of respective locations of a user at a plurality of instances of time during a time period is received. The time period includes the determined time and a location of the user at the time the photograph was captured corresponds to the location of the camera at the time the photograph was captured. The location at which the photograph was captured is determined using the determined time and the user location data.

Claims

1. A method in a computing device for determining a location at which a photograph submitted by a user was captured using a camera, wherein the photograph is stored as data on a computer-readable medium, and wherein the photograph depicts an image that includes a first person who is the user and a second person, the method comprising:

determining a time at which the photograph was captured based on the image depicted in the photograph;

in response to determining that no location data at the determined time is available for the user, applying a facial recognition function to the photograph to identify the second person;

in response to identifying the second person, receiving location data indicative of respective locations of the second person at a plurality of instances of time during a time period, wherein the time period includes the determined time; and

determining the location at which the photograph was captured using the determined time and the location data, including associating a location of the second person at the time the photograph was captured corresponds with the location of the camera at the time the photograph was captured.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the photograph was captured using a film camera, wherein the image includes an indication of time projected onto the film at the time of capture;

and wherein determining the time at which the photograph was captured includes processing the indication of a time.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the photograph was captured using a digital camera, wherein the image includes an indication of time interleaved into the photograph at the time the photograph was captured;

and wherein determining the time at which the photograph was captured includes processing the indication of time.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the image further includes an indication of date interleaved into the photograph at the time the photograph was captured;

the method further comprising;

determining a date on which the which the photograph was captured based on the image;

wherein determining the location at which the photograph was captured further includes using the determined date.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the indication of the time includes:

recognizing a plurality of alphanumeric characters using optical character recognition (OCR),

comparing the recognized plurality of alphanumeric characters to a predetermined format of time indication, and

in response to determining that the recognized plurality of alphanumeric characters matches the predetermined format of time indication, interpreting the recognized plurality of alphanumeric characters as the indication of the time at which the photograph was captured.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein recognizing the plurality of alphanumeric characters includes recognizing numerals of a digital clock depicted in the photograph.

7. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

applying the facial recognition function to automatically identify the user based on the depicted image, determining that no location data at the determined time is available for the user is in response to identifying the user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the location at which the photograph was captured includes selecting an instance of time from the plurality of instances of time, wherein the selected instance of time is closest to the determined time;

wherein determining the location at which the photograph was captured includes selecting a location in the location data corresponding to the selected time.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the location at which the photograph was captured includes:

selecting two instances of time from the plurality of instances time that are closest to the determined time, and

interpolating the two selected instances of time to generate an interpolated time;

wherein determining the location at which the photograph was includes selecting a location in the location data corresponding to the interpolated time.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising updating metadata associated with the photograph to include an indication that the photograph is associated with the determined location, wherein the metadata is stored on a computer-readable medium.

11. A method in a computing device for determining a location at which a photograph submitted by a user was captured using a camera, wherein the photograph is stored as data on a computer-readable medium, wherein the photograph depicts an image that includes a first person who is the user and a second person, and wherein a location of the user at the time the photograph was captured corresponds to the location of the camera at the time the photograph was captured;

the method comprising;

automatically detecting a plurality of alphanumeric characters in the photograph;

in response to determining that the plurality of alphanumeric characters matches a format of time indication, automatically determining a time at which the photograph was captured using the detected plurality of alphanumeric characters;

in response to determining that no location data at the determined time is available for the user, applying a facial recognition function to the photograph to identify a second person;

in response to identifying the second person, automatically determining a location of the second person at the determined time using location data that is indicative of respective locations of the second person at a plurality of instances of time during a time period including the determined time; and

generating an electronic indication of the location at which a photograph was captured, wherein the indication indicates the determined location of the second person at the determined time.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein detecting the plurality of alphanumeric characters includes recognizing numerals of a digital clock depicted in the photograph.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising automatically determining a date on which the photograph was captured using the detected plurality of alphanumeric characters.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the photograph was captured using a film camera, and wherein an indication of time was projected, at the time of capture, onto a film associated with the photograph;

and wherein automatically detecting the plurality of alphanumeric characters in the photograph includes detecting the projected indication of time.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein automatically determining the location of the user at the determined time includes electronically receiving the location data including a plurality of data records, wherein each of the plurality of data records indicates a respective time and a respective location of the user at the indicated time;

the method further comprising;

selecting, from the plurality of data records, a data record indicating a time closest to the determined time, wherein the determined of the user corresponds to a location which the selected data record indicates.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising updating metadata associated with the photograph to include the indication of the location therein, wherein the metadata is stored as data on a computer-readable medium.

17. A tangible computer-readable medium storing instructions thereon for automatically determining a location at which a photograph was captured using a camera, wherein the photograph is stored as data on a computer-readable medium, and wherein the photograph depicts an image that includes a first person who is the user and a second person;

wherein the instructions, when executed on a processor, cause the processor to;

determine a time at which the photograph was captured based on at least one of;

(i) an objected depicted in the photograph, or (ii) alphanumeric characters superimposed on an image captured in the photograph;

in response to determining that no location data at the determined time is available for the user, apply a facial recognition function to the photograph to identify the second person;

in response to identifying the second person, receive location data indicative of respective locations of the second person at a plurality of instances of time during a time period, wherein the time period includes the determined time;

select, from the plurality of instances of time, a subset of instances of time most closely associated with the determined time;

determine the location at which the photograph was captured using the determined time and a subset of the location data corresponding to the selected subset of instances of time; and

associate a location of the second person at the time the photograph was captured with the location of the camera at the time the photograph was captured.

18. The tangible computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the object depicted in the photograph is a digital clock displaying current time.