Method and system for attaching a metatag to a digital image

• US 9,465,817 B2
• Filed: 11/23/2014
• Issued: 10/11/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Motorola Solutions, Inc.
• Original Assignee: 9051147 Canada Incorporated
• Inventors: Shah, Alex, Myers, Charles A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Nirav G
• Application Number:
  US14/551,035
• Publication Number:
  US 20150081712A1
• Time in Patent Office: 688 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/56 having vectorial format
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5838 using colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/23 Clustering techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/231 Hierarchical techniques, i.e. dividing or merging pattern sets so as to obtain a dendrogram
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/10 Terrestrial scenes scenes under surveillance with static cameras G06V20/52; scenes perceived from the exterior of a vehicle G06V20/56; scenes perceived from the interior of a vehicle G06V20/59
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/30 in albums, collections or shared content, e.g. social network photos or video
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/70 Labelling scene content, e.g. deriving syntactic or semantic representations
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/16 Human faces, e.g. facial parts, sketches or expressions
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/165 using facial parts and geometric relationships
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/171 Local features and components; Facial parts eye characteristics G06V40/18; Occluding parts, e.g. glasses; Geometrical relationships
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/172 Classification, e.g. identification
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/174 Facial expression recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/179 metadata assisted face recognition

Abstract

A system and method for tagging an image of an individual in a plurality of photos is disclosed herein. A feature vector of an individual is used to analyze a set of photos on a social networking website such as Facebook® to determine if an image of the individual is present in a photo of the set of photos. Photos having an image of the individual are tagged preferably by listing a URL or URI for each of the photos in a database.

Claims

1. A system for organizing a plurality of photos, the system comprising:

a database comprising a first plurality of photos of an image of an individual;

a server engine for processing the first plurality of photos to generate a feature vector for the image of the individual;

a second plurality of photos located on a social networking web site;

wherein the server engine is configured to analyze the second plurality of photos to determine if an image of the individual is present in a photo of the second plurality of photos, the analysis comprising determining if an image in each of the photos of the second plurality of photos matches the feature vector for the individual;

wherein the server engine is configured to identify each of the photos of the second plurality of photos having an image of the individual to create a third plurality of photos of an image of the individual; and

wherein the server engine is configured to determine a location of each image of the individual in a photo of the third plurality of photos by;

determining X and Y coordinates of each image of the individual in the photo of the third plurality of photos;

determining a size of each image of the individual in the photo of the third plurality of photos; and

determining a tilt of each image of the individual in the photo of the third plurality of photos;

wherein the server engine is configured to store an identifier and the location of each image in each photo of the third plurality of photos in a database; and

wherein the server engine is configured to organize each photo of the third plurality of photos.

2. The system according to claim 1 wherein the server is configured to list a URL or URI for each photo of the third plurality of photos in a database.

3. The system according to claim 1 wherein the server is configured to insert a tag code on each photo of the third plurality of photos.

4. The system according to claim 1 wherein the image of the individual is a facial image of the individual.

5. The system according to claim 1 wherein the social networking web site is Facebook®

and the tag code is a Facebook®

identifier.

6. The system according to claim 1 wherein the feature vector is based on a plurality of factors comprising facial expression, hair style, hair color, facial pose, eye color, texture of the face, color of the face and facial hair.

7. A method for tagging an image of an individual in a plurality of photos, the method comprising:

creating a feature vector for an individual from a plurality of reference photos;

analyzing a second plurality of photos to determine if an image of the individual is present in a photo of the second plurality of photos, the analysis comprising determining if an image in each of the photos of the second plurality of photos matches the feature vector for the individual;

identifying each of the photos of the second plurality of photos having an image of the individual to create a third plurality of photos;

tagging each of the photos of the third plurality of photos to identify the image of the individual in each photo of the third plurality of photos, wherein tagging includes determining a location of the image of the individual in each photo of the third plurality of photos by;

determining X and Y coordinates of the image of the individual in each photo of the third plurality of photos;

determining a size of the image of the individual in each photo of the third plurality of photos; and

determining a tilt of the image of the individual in each photo of the third plurality of photos; and

organizing each photo of the third plurality of photos.

8. The method according to claim 7 wherein the step of tagging further comprises:

storing the location of the image in each photo of the third plurality of photos in a database;

storing an identifier for each photo of the third plurality of photos in the database; and

storing an identifier for the individual in the database.

9. The method according to claim 7 wherein each of the second plurality of photos is located on a social networking web site.

10. The method according to claim 7 wherein organizing each photo of the third plurality of photos comprises:

identifying a plurality of faces in the third plurality of photos;

converting each face identified in the third plurality of photos into a feature vector to create a plurality of feature vectors, each feature vector of the plurality of feature vectors having n-dimensions;

clustering each feature vector of the plurality of feature vectors;

separating each face of the plurality of faces into a facial cluster based on a cluster of the feature vectors;

creating a plurality of albums for each facial cluster, wherein each album of the plurality of albums includes one or more photos of each face;

arranging each of the plurality of photos in each album of the plurality of albums; and

choosing a face as an album cover for each album.