Organizing images captured by multiple image capture devices

• US 8,655,893 B2
• Filed: 02/23/2011
• Issued: 02/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/16/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Shutterfly, LLC
• Original Assignee: Shutterfly Incorporated (Shutterfly, LLC)
• Inventors: Wang, Wiley H., Chen, Eugene, Nathan, Preeti, Miller, Trynne Anne
• Primary Examiner(s): Pulliam, Christyann
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mahmood, Rezwanul
• Application Number:
  US13/033,513
• Publication Number:
  US 20120016892A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,091 Days
• Field of Search: 707/752, 707/802, 707/736, 707/758, 707/915, 348/159, 348/264
• US Class Current: 707/752
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/583 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5866 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, manually generated location and time information

Abstract

A method for organizing images from multiple image capture devices includes allowing the determination of an offset between image capture times recorded in a first image capture device and image capture times recorded in a second image capture device, adjusting the image capture times recorded in the second image capture device by the offset to produce adjusted image capture times by a computer processor, and sequencing images taken by the first image capture device and the second image capture device in an chronological order. The sequencing is based on the image capture times for the images captured by the first image capture device and the adjusted image capture times for the images captured by the second image capture device.

Claims

1. A method for organizing images from multiple image capture devices, comprising:

sequencing images captured by a first image capture device based on the image capture times recorded by the first image capture device;

sequencing images captured by a second image capture device based on the image capture times recorded by the second image capture device;

determining an offset between image capture times recorded in the first image capture device and image capture times recorded in the second image capture device, wherein the step of determining an offset comprises;

sampling image counts of images captured by the first image capture device at a first time interval to create a first image count distribution (ICD);

sampling image counts of images captured by the second image capture device at the first time interval to create a second ICD;

computing a first correlation function between the first ICD and the second ICD by a computer; and

using the first correlation function to determine a first value for the offset between image capture times in the first image capture device and the second image capture device; and

adjusting the image capture times recorded in the second image capture device by the first value for the offset to produce adjusted image capture times by a computer processor.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

after the step of adjusting, sequencing the images taken by the second image capture device based on the adjusted image capture times.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first value for the offset is determined by a maximum value in the first correlation function.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first time interval is in a range from about 2 minutes to about 45 minutes.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining an offset further comprises:

sampling image counts of images captured by the first image capture device at a second time interval to create a third image count distribution (ICD);

sampling image counts of images captured by the second image capture device at the second time interval to create a fourth ICD;

computing a second correlation function between the third ICD and the fourth ICD;

using the second correlation function to determine a second value for the offset between image capture times in the first and the second image capture devices; and

selecting one of the first value and the second value, wherein the image capture times recorded in the second image capture device are adjusted by the selected one of the first value and the second value.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining an offset further comprises:

allowing a user to select, using a computer device, a first image captured by the first image capture device and a second image captured by the second image capture device and to identify the first image and the second image as having been taken at about the same time; and

computing the offset based on image capture times of the first image and the second image.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first value for the offset is related to a difference between clock times in the first image capture device and the second image capture device.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

allowing a computer device to display the images taken by the first image capture device and the second image capture device in a chronological order.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the computer device is connected to the computer processor via a computer network.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the computer processor resides in the computer device.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first image capture device and the second image capture device comprise at least one of a digital camera, a camera phone, a video camera, a laptop computer, or a tablet computer.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

allowing the design of an image product to incorporate the images from the first image capture device and the second image capture device in a chronological order.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

allowing a web media to publish the images from the first image capture device and the second image capture device in a chronological order.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the web media comprises a blog page.

15. A computer system, comprising:

one or more computer processors configured to determine an offset between image capture times recorded in a first image capture device and image capture times recorded in a second image capture device, to sample image counts of images captured by the first image capture device at a first time interval to create a first image count distribution (ICD), to sample image counts of images captured by the second image capture device at the first time interval to create a second ICD, to compute a first correlation function between the first ICD and the second ICD, to use the first correlation function to determine a first value for the offset between image capture times in the first image capture device and the second image capture device, to adjust the image capture times recorded in the second image capture device by the first value for the offset to produce adjusted image capture times, and to sequence images taken by the second image capture device based on the adjusted image capture times.

16. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the first value for the offset is determined by a maximum value in the first correlation function.

17. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the first time interval is in a range from about 2 minutes to about 45 minutes.

18. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the one or more processors are configured to allow a user to identify a first image captured by the first image capture device and a second image captured by the second image capture device which are taken at about the same time, wherein the one or more processors are configured to compute the offset based on image capture times of the first image and the second image.