Systems and methods for media privacy

• US 9,990,700 B2
• Filed: 07/01/2016
• Issued: 06/05/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Privowny, Inc. (Assurant Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Privowny, Inc. (Assurant Incorporated)
• Inventors: Le Jouan, Herv
• Primary Examiner(s): Lefkowitz, Sumati
• Assistant Examiner(s): Perlman, David
• Application Number:
  US15/201,015
• Publication Number:
  US 20170004602A1
• Time in Patent Office: 704 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/70 Denoising; Smoothing
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 2201/10 Recognition assisted with metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/16 Human faces, e.g. facial parts, sketches or expressions

Abstract

A system comprises a picture and metadata captured by a content capture system; a recognizable characteristic datastore configured to store recognizable characteristics of different users; a module configured to identify a time and a location associated with the picture based on the metadata, and to identify one or more potential target systems within a predetermined range of the location at the time; a characteristic recognition module configured to retrieve the recognizable characteristics of one or more potential users associated with the potential target systems, and evaluate whether the picture includes one or more representations of at least one actual target user from the potential users based on the recognizable characteristics of the potential users; a distortion module configured to distort a feature of the representations of the least one actual target user in response to the determination; a communication module configured to communicate the distorted picture to a computer network.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a picture and associated metadata captured by a content capture system, the associated metadata including a picture time when the picture was taken and a picture location where the picture was taken, the picture possibly including a captured representation of a target user;

a recognizable characteristic datastore configured to store recognizable characteristics of a plurality of target users, the recognizable characteristics of each respective target user of the plurality of target users capable of assisting in identifying captured representations of the respective target user in pictures, each respective target user of the plurality of target users associated with a respective mobile device;

a datastore configured to store user preferences of each respective target user of the plurality of target users, the user preferences defining when the respective target user of the plurality of target users wishes to distort or wishes not to distort captured representations of the respective target user of the plurality of target users in pictures;

a location identification module configured to capture a target location of each respective mobile device associated with each respective target user of the plurality of target users at a plurality of target times in a day;

a module configured to;

identify from the associated metadata the picture time when the picture was taken and the picture location where the picture was taken, and

evaluate the target locations of the plurality of mobile devices associated with the plurality of target users to identify any particular mobile devices that were at or near the picture location at or near the picture time to identify a set of one or more potential target users of the plurality of target users who might have been captured in the picture;

a characteristic recognition module configured to;

retrieve the recognizable characteristics of each potential target user of the set of one or more potential target users,

evaluate the picture to try to identify any captured representation of any potential target user of the set of one or more potential target users who was captured in the picture, by searching the picture for the recognizable characteristics of each potential target user of the set of one or more potential target users, and

define each potential target user of the set of one or more potential target users who was identified to have been captured in the picture as an actual target user;

a distortion module configured to;

retrieve the user preferences of any actual target user,

determine whether the user preferences of any actual target user indicate a wish to distort at least a portion of the captured representation of the actual target user in the picture, and

in response to the user preferences, initiate a process to distort the at least a portion of the captured representation of the actual target user to generate a distorted picture; and

a communication module configured to communicate at least a portion of the distorted picture to a computer network.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the recognizable characteristics comprises one or more images.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the recognizable characteristics is derived from one or more images.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the recognizable characteristics comprises a wearable item.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the communication module is further configured to communicate the at least a portion of the distorted picture to the content capture system.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least a portion of the captured representation that is distorted comprises one or more facial features.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a profile generation module configured to determine distortion preferences for the actual target user, wherein the distortion module configured to distort the at least a portion of the captured representation comprises the distortion module configured to distort the at least a portion of the captured representation based on the distortion preferences.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the distortion module configured to distort the at least a portion of the captured representation comprises the distortion module configured to blur the at least a portion of the captured representation.

9. A method, comprising:

receiving a picture and associated metadata, the picture and the associated metadata captured by a content capture system, the associated metadata including a picture time when the picture was taken and a picture location where the picture was taken, the picture possibly including a captured representation of a target user;

storing recognizable characteristics of a plurality of target users, the recognizable characteristics of each respective target user of the plurality of target users capable of assisting in identifying captured representations of the respective target user in pictures, each respective target user of the plurality of target users associated with a respective mobile device;

storing user preferences of each respective target user of the plurality of target users, the user preferences defining when the respective target user of the plurality of target users wishes to distort or wishes not to distort captured representations of the respective target user of the plurality of target users in pictures;

capturing a target location of each respective mobile device associated with each respective target user of the plurality of target users at a plurality of target times in a day;

identifying from the associated metadata the picture time when the picture was taken and the picture location where the picture was taken;

evaluating the target locations of the plurality of mobile devices associated with the plurality of target users to identify any particular mobile devices that were at or near the picture location at or near the picture time to identify a set of one or more potential target users of the plurality of target users who might have been captured in the picture;

retrieving the recognizable characteristics of each potential target user of the set of one or more potential target users;

evaluating the picture to try to identify any captured representation of any potential target user of the set of one or more potential target users who was captured in the picture, by searching the picture for the recognizable characteristics of each potential target user of the set of one or more potential target users;

defining each potential target user of the set of one or more potential target users who was identified to have been captured in the picture as an actual target user;

retrieving the user preferences of any actual target user;

determining whether the user preferences of any actual target user indicate a wish to distort at least a portion of the captured representation of the actual target user in the picture;

in response to the user preferences, initiating a process to distort the at least a portion of the captured representation of the actual target user to generate a distorted picture; and

providing at least a portion of the distorted picture to a computer network.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein at least one of the recognizable characteristics comprises one or more images.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein at least one of the recognizable characteristics is derived from one or more images.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein at least one of the recognizable characteristics comprises a wearable item.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising providing the at least a portion of the distorted picture to the content capture system.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least a portion of the captured representation that is distorted comprises one or more facial features.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising determining distortion preferences for the actual target user, wherein the distorting the at least a portion of the captured representation comprises distorting the at least a portion of the captured representation based on the distortion preferences.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein the distorting the at least a portion of the captured representation comprises blurring the at least a portion of the captured representation.

17. A system, comprising:

means for receiving a picture and associated metadata, the picture and the associated metadata captured by a content capture system, the associated metadata including a picture time when the picture was taken and a picture location where the picture was taken, the picture possibly including a captured representation of a target user;

means for storing recognizable characteristics of a plurality of target users, the recognizable characteristics of each respective target user of the plurality of target users capable of assisting in identifying captured representations of the respective target user in pictures, each respective target user of the plurality of target users associated with a respective mobile device;

means for storing user preferences of each respective target user of the plurality of target users, the user preferences defining when the respective target user of the plurality of target users wishes to distort or wishes not to distort captured representations of the respective target user of the plurality of target users in pictures;

means for capturing a target location of each respective mobile device associated with each respective target user of the plurality of target users at a plurality of target times in a day;

means for identifying from the associated metadata the picture time when the picture was taken and the picture location where the picture was taken;

means for evaluating the target locations of the plurality of mobile devices associated with the plurality of target users to identify any particular mobile devices that were at or near the picture location at or near the picture time to identify a set of one or more potential target users of the plurality of target users who might have been captured in the picture;

means for retrieving the recognizable characteristics of each potential target user of the set of one or more potential target users;

means for evaluating the picture to try to identify any captured representation of any potential target user of the set of one or more potential target users who was captured in the picture, by searching the picture for the recognizable characteristics of each potential target user of the set of one or more potential target users;

means for defining each potential target user of the set of one or more potential target users who was identified to have been captured in the picture as an actual target user;

means for retrieving the user preferences of any actual target user;

means for determining whether the user preferences of any actual target user indicate a wish to distort at least a portion of the captured representation of the actual target user in the picture;

means for, in response to the user preferences, initiating a process to distort the at least a portion of the captured representation of the actual target user to generate a distorted picture; and

means for providing at least a portion of the distorted picture to a computer network.

18. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising executable instructions, the instructions being executable by a processor to perform a method, the method comprising:

receiving a picture and associated metadata, the picture and the associated metadata captured by a content capture system, the associated metadata including a picture time when the picture was taken and a picture location where the picture was taken, the picture possibly including a captured representation of a target user;

storing recognizable characteristics of a plurality of target users, the recognizable characteristics of each respective target user of the plurality of target users capable of assisting in identifying captured representations of the respective target user in pictures, each respective target user of the plurality of target users associated with a respective mobile device;

storing user preferences of each respective target user of the plurality of target users, the user preferences defining when the respective target user of the plurality of target users wishes to distort or wishes not to distort captured representations of the respective target user of the plurality of target users in pictures;

capturing a target location of each respective mobile device associated with each respective target user of the plurality of target users at a plurality of target times in a day;

identifying from the associated metadata the picture time when the picture was taken and the picture location where the picture was taken;

evaluating the target locations of the plurality of mobile devices associated with the plurality of target users to identify any particular mobile devices that were at or near the picture location at or near the picture time to identify a set of one or more potential target users of the plurality of target users who might have been captured in the picture;

retrieving the recognizable characteristics of each potential target user of the set of one or more potential target users;

evaluating the picture to try to identify any captured representation of any potential target user of the set of one or more potential target users who was captured in the picture, by searching the picture for the recognizable characteristics of each potential target user of the set of one or more potential target users;

defining each potential target user of the set of one or more potential target users who was identified to have been captured in the picture as an actual target user;

retrieving the user preferences of any actual target user;

determining whether the user preferences of any actual target user indicate a wish to distort at least a portion of the captured representation of the actual target user in the picture;

in response to the user preferences, initiating a process to distort the at least a portion of the captured representation of the actual target user to generate a distorted picture; and

providing at least a portion of the distorted picture to a computer network.