Information processing method, first terminal, second terminal, and server

• US 10,694,074 B2
• Filed: 04/12/2018
• Issued: 06/23/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tencent Technology Company Limited (Tencent Holdings Limited)
• Original Assignee: Tencent Technology Company Limited (Tencent Holdings Limited)
• Inventors: Chen, Pinlin
• Primary Examiner(s): Dinh, Minh
• Application Number:
  US15/952,080
• Publication Number:
  US 20180234588A1
• Time in Patent Office: 803 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6209 to a single file or object, e.g. in a secure envelope, encrypted and accessed using a key, or with access control rules appended to the object itself
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/367 involving electronic purses or money safes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/166 using acquisition arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/172 Classification, e.g. identification
• CPC Class Codes: G09C 5/00 Ciphering apparatus or methods not provided for in the preceding groups, e.g. involving the concealment or deformation of graphic data such as designs, written or printed messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/088 Usage controlling of secret information, e.g. techniques for restricting cryptographic keys to pre-authorized uses, different access levels, validity of crypto-period, different key- or password length, or different strong and weak cryptographic algorithms network architectures or network communication protocols for using time-dependent keys in a packet data network H04L63/068
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3297 involving time stamps, e.g. generation of time stamps
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/4486 using digital data encryption
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide an information access control method performed by a computer server, the method including: receiving an image sharing request from a first terminal, the image sharing request including a first image to be shared among a user group of a social networking application; identify one or more faces in the first image through face recognition; randomly selecting one of the faces in the first image; applying a mask to the first image except a predefined portion of the randomly-selected face; sending the partially masked first image to a second terminal; receiving an image viewing request from the second terminal in response to a user selection of the partially masked first image and a user-initiated resource transfer from the second user account to the first user account; and returning a version of the first image not being partially masked to the second terminal.

Claims

1. An information access control method performed at a computer server having one or more processors and memory storing one or more programs to be executed by the one or more processors, the method comprising:

receiving an image sharing request from a first terminal, wherein the first terminal is associated with a first user account of a social networking application and the image sharing request includes a first image to be shared among a user group of the social networking application of which the first user account is a member;

identifying a plurality of faces in the first image through face recognition;

randomly selecting one of the plurality of identified faces in the first image;

applying a mask to the first image except a predefined portion of the randomly-selected face;

sending the partially masked first image to a second terminal, wherein the second terminal is associated with a second user account of the social networking application that is also a member of the user group;

receiving an image viewing request from the second terminal, wherein the image viewing request is generated by the second terminal in response to a user selection of the partially masked first image at the second terminal and a user-initiated resource transfer from the second user account to the first user account; and

returning a version of the first image not being partially masked to the second terminal.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

encrypting the first image using an encryption key to obtain a second image that is an encrypted version of the first image; and

returning the second image and a decryption key to the second terminal, wherein the second terminal is configured to restore the first image from the second image using the decryption key.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the encryption key is the same as the decryption key.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the restored first image has an associated expiration timestamp after which the restored first image is replaced by the partially masked first image at the second terminal.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the expiration timestamp of the restored first image is dependent upon the user-initiated resource transfer from the second user account to the first user account.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the image sharing request from the first terminal further includes a text message and the text message is sent to the second terminal along with the preview version of the first image.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the applying a mask to the first image except a predefined portion of the randomly-selected face further comprises:

defining a distribution region of the first image including the randomly-selected face and a neighboring region that is within a predefined distance from the randomly-selected face; and

generating a low-resolution preview version of the first image not including the distribution region as the partially masked first image.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the distribution region of the first image further includes a randomly-selected portion of the first image outside the plurality of identified faces in the first image.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the mask comprises at least one of the following:

blurring processing, direct blackout, and voiding.

10. A computer server, comprising:

one or more processors;

memory; and

one or more programs stored in the memory, wherein the one or more programs, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer server to perform a plurality of operations including;

receiving an image sharing request from a first terminal, wherein the first terminal is associated with a first user account of a social networking application and the image sharing request includes a first image to be shared among a user group of the social networking application of which the first user account is a member;

identifying a plurality of faces in the first image through face recognition;

randomly selecting one of the plurality of identified faces in the first image;

applying a mask to the first image except a predefined portion of the randomly-selected face;

sending the partially masked first image to a second terminal, wherein the second terminal is associated with a second user account of the social networking application that is also a member of the user group;

receiving an image viewing request from the second terminal, wherein the image viewing request is generated by the second terminal in response to a user selection of the partially masked first image at the second terminal and a user-initiated resource transfer from the second user account to the first user account; and

returning a version of the first image not being partially masked to the second terminal.

11. The computer server according to claim 10, wherein the plurality of operations further comprise:

encrypting the first image using an encryption key to obtain a second image that is an encrypted version of the first image; and

returning the second image and a decryption key to the second terminal, wherein the second terminal is configured to restore the first image from the second image using the decryption key.

12. The computer server according to claim 11, wherein the encryption key is the same as the decryption key.

13. The computer server according to claim 11, wherein the restored first image has an associated expiration timestamp after which the restored first image is replaced by the partially masked first image at the second terminal.

14. The computer server according to claim 13, wherein the expiration timestamp of the restored first image is dependent upon the user-initiated resource transfer from the second user account to the first user account.

15. The computer server according to claim 10, wherein the image sharing request from the first terminal further includes a text message and the text message is sent to the second terminal along with the preview version of the first image.

16. The computer server according to claim 10, wherein the operation of applying a mask to the first image except a predefined portion of the randomly-selected face further comprises:

defining a distribution region of the first image including the randomly-selected face and a neighboring region that is within a predefined distance from the randomly-selected face; and

generating a low-resolution preview version of the first image not including the distribution region as the partially masked first image.

17. The computer server according to claim 16, wherein the distribution region of the first image further includes a randomly-selected portion of the first image outside the plurality of identified faces in the first image.

18. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a plurality of computer executable instructions, wherein the plurality of computer executable instructions, when executed by one or more processors of a computer server, cause the computer server to perform a plurality of operations including:

receiving an image sharing request from a first terminal, wherein the first terminal is associated with a first user account of a social networking application and the image sharing request includes a first image to be shared among a user group of the social networking application of which the first user account is a member;

identifying a plurality of faces in the first image through face recognition;

randomly selecting one of the plurality of identified faces in the first image;

applying a mask to the first image except a predefined portion of the randomly-selected face;

sending the partially masked first image to a second terminal, wherein the second terminal is associated with a second user account of the social networking application that is also a member of the user group;

receiving an image viewing request from the second terminal, wherein the image viewing request is generated by the second terminal in response to a user selection of the partially masked first image at the second terminal and a user-initiated resource transfer from the second user account to the first user account; and

returning a version of the first image not being partially masked to the second terminal.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 18, wherein the plurality of operations further comprise:

encrypting the first image using an encryption key to obtain a second image that is an encrypted version of the first image; and

returning the second image and a decryption key to the second terminal, wherein the second terminal is configured to restore the first image from the second image using the decryption key.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 19, wherein the restored first image has an associated expiration timestamp after which the restored first image is replaced by the partially masked first image at the second terminal.