Face detection and recognition

• US 9,721,148 B2
• Filed: 11/12/2014
• Issued: 08/01/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: 11967134 Canada Limited
• Original Assignee: Applied Recognition Inc.
• Inventors: Ganong, Ray, Man Ro, Yong, Waugh, Donald Craig, Plataniotis, Konstantinos, Studholme, Chris
• Primary Examiner(s): Lefkowitz, Sumati
• Assistant Examiner(s): PERLMAN, DAVID S
• Application Number:
  US15/036,313
• Publication Number:
  US 20160292494A1
• Time in Patent Office: 993 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/30 in albums, collections or shared content, e.g. social network photos or video
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/172 Classification, e.g. identification
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/179 metadata assisted face recognition

Abstract

The present invention provides, in at least one aspect, methods and systems that detect at least one face in at least one digital image, determine and store area co-ordinates of a location of the at least one detected face in the at least one digital image, apply at least one transformation to the at least one detected face to create at least one portrait of the at least one detected face, rotate the at least one portrait at least until the at least one portrait is shown in a vertical orientation and a pair of eyes of the at least one face shown in the at least one portrait are positioned on a horizontal plane; and store the rotated at least one portrait.

Claims

1. A method performed by at least one computer, the method comprising:

detecting at least one face in at least one digital image by a first processing run on the at least one digital image to detect a candidate face and a second processing run processing on a reduced region of the at least one digital image at one or more incremental rotation angles of the at least one digital image, the second processing run detecting the at least one face if the candidate face is detected in two or more of the incremental rotation angles;

determining and storing area co-ordinates of a location of the at least one detected face in the at least one digital image;

applying at least one transformation to the at least one detected face to create at least one portrait of the at least one detected face;

rotating the at least one portrait at least until the at least one portrait is shown in a vertical orientation and a pair of eyes of the at least one face shown in the at least one portrait are positioned on a horizontal plane; and

storing the rotated at least one portrait.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the at least one detected face corresponds to a person.

3. The method of claim 1 comprising extracting the at least one detected face from the at least one digital image prior to the applying.

4. The method of claim 1 comprising inserting the at least one stored portrait in a marketing image.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the marketing image is an advertisement.

6. The method of claim 4 comprising applying at least one additional transformation to the at least one stored portrait for matching a portrait size requirement of the marketing image.

7. The method of claim 1 comprising:

receiving a selection of at least one face to be suppressed;

masking the area co-ordinates corresponding to the location of the at least one face to be suppressed in the at least one digital image.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the masking comprises overlaying a selected image over the area co-ordinate corresponding to the location of the at least one face to be suppressed.

9. The method of claim 8 comprising adjusting the selected image to correspond to size of the area co-ordinates to be masked.

10. The method of claim 8 comprising adjusting edges of the overlayed image to blend with image characteristics of the at least one digital image.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the image characteristics may include one or more of color, intensity, brightness, and texture.

12. The method of claim 7 wherein the selection of the at least one face to be suppressed comprises a command to suppress a particular individual from being displayed in any digital image, the method comprising identifying any digital image comprising a face corresponding to the particular individual to be suppressed and flagging the identified digital images to mask the area co-ordinates corresponding to the location of the at least one face to be suppressed.

13. The method of claim 7 wherein the masking comprises applying a permanent mask to the digital image.

14. The method of claim 7 wherein the masking comprises modifying metadata of the digital image to cause the digital image to be masked when displayed.

15. The method of claim 1 comprising associating date data with the digital image;

and displaying stored portraits corresponding to a common person in accordance with the respective associated date data.

16. The method of claim 15 comprising generating an animated representation of an evolution of the stored portraits corresponding to the common person over time.

17. The method of claim 1 comprising associating an identification of a person with the at least one stored portrait.

18. The method of claim 17 comprising associating relationships between identified persons based at least partly on respective identified persons being included in the digital image.

19. The method of claim 18 comprising populating an interactive computer game with the stored portraits and relationships.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the interactive computer game comprises a photo reminiscence therapy game.

21. The system of claim 1 wherein the processing instructions when executed by the at least one processor cause the computer to extract the at least one detected face from the at least one digital image prior to the applying.

22. The system of claim 1 wherein the processing instructions when executed by the at least one processor cause the computer to insert the at least one stored portrait in a marketing image.

23. The system of claim 1 wherein the processing instructions when executed by the at least one processor cause the computer to:

receive a selection of at least one face to be suppressed;

mask the area co-ordinates corresponding to the location of the at least one face to be suppressed in the at least one digital image.

24. A system comprising at least one computer comprising at least one processor and a non-transitory computer readable memory comprising processing instructions, that when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computer to:

detect at least one face in at least one digital image by a first processing run on the at least one digital image to detect a candidate face and a second processing run processing on a reduced region of the at least one digital image at one or more incremental rotation angles of the at least one digital image, the second processing run detecting the at least one face if the candidate face is detected in two or more of the incremental rotation angles;

determine and store area co-ordinates of a location of the at least one detected face in the at least one digital image;

apply at least one transformation to the at least one detected face to create at least one portrait of the at least one detected face;

rotate the at least one portrait at least until the at least one portrait is shown in a vertical orientation and a pair of eyes of the at least one face shown in the at least one portrait are positioned on a horizontal plane; and

store the rotated at least one portrait.