Automatic Generation Of Metadata For A Digital Image Based On Ambient Conditions

• US 20070127833A1
• Filed: 11/30/2005
• Published: 06/07/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Scenera Mobile Technologies LLC (Scenera Research LLC)
• Original Assignee: Scenera Mobile Technologies LLC (Scenera Research LLC)
• Inventors: Singh, Munindar
• Granted Patent: US 8,842,197 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/254
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/583 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3253 Position information, e.g. geographical position at time of capture, GPS data

Abstract

A method and system is provided for automatically generating metadata for a digital image based on ambient conditions. Aspects of the preferred embodiment include determining a plurality of ambient conditions associated with a location of a subject of a digital image captured with a mobile image capture device, the ambient conditions existing at a time related to a time of capture of the digital image; aggregating the plurality of ambient conditions into at least one ambient environment descriptor based on user-definable aggregation rules; and associating the ambient environment descriptor with the digital image as metadata.

Claims

1. A method for automatically generating metadata for a digital image, comprising:

determining a plurality of ambient conditions associated with a location of a subject of the digital image captured with a mobile image capture device, the ambient conditions existing at a time related to a time of capture of the digital image;

aggregating the plurality of ambient conditions into at least one ambient environment descriptor based on user-definable aggregation rules; and

associating the ambient environment descriptor with the digital image as metadata.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the plurality of ambient conditions further comprises determining variations of the ambient conditions over time by receiving readings of the ambient conditions at a plurality of times including at least one of a time before the time of capture, at the time of capture, and after the time of capture.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the aggregating includes aggregating the variations of the ambient conditions determined over time, and the at least one ambient environment descriptor represents an ambient trend descriptor based on the user-definable aggregation rules.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein determining the variations of the ambient conditions over time occurs for at least one of;

a fixed location of the subject of the digital image, and

a location of the image capture device.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein determining the plurality of ambient conditions at the fixed location of the subject of the digital image further comprises receiving the ambient conditions from at least one of;

an online information source, and

from sensors of the image capture device.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein determining the plurality of ambient conditions at the location of the image capture device further comprises receiving the ambient conditions from sensors of the image capture device.

7. The method of claim 4 wherein determining the plurality of ambient conditions further comprises determining variations of the ambient conditions over time at the fixed location of the subject of the digital image even when the image capture device is in a different location.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the ambient conditions include weather-related ambient conditions and non-weather related ambient conditions.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the weather-related ambient conditions include any combination of temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, visibility, season, and wind.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the non-weather related ambient conditions include any combination of at least one of location, heading, elevation, and brightness level of at least one of the subject and the image capture device.

11. The method of claim 1 further including providing a user interface through which the aggregation rules are configured to define the at least one ambient environment descriptor.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the aggregation rules are configured for each individual end-user, thereby allowing subjective ambient environment descriptors to be defined.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the aggregation rules are configured for different demographic groups.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein aggregating the plurality of ambient conditions into an ambient environment descriptor further comprises,

receiving values for each of the ambient conditions within a specified time period before and after the time of capture;

and

for each of the ambient conditions,

summarizing the values of the ambient condition by applying an value descriptor to the ambient condition; and

summarizing changes in the values of the ambient condition by applying a trend descriptor to the ambient condition.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein aggregating the plurality of ambient conditions into an ambient environment descriptor further comprises,

aggregating related ones of the ambient conditions by,

summarizing the value descriptors applied to the related ambient conditions using the user-definable able rules as lookup table to apply a combination value descriptor;

and

summarizing the trend descriptors applied to the related ambient conditions using the user-definable rules as lookup table to apply a combination trend descriptor.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein aggregating the plurality of ambient conditions into an ambient environment descriptor further comprises storing the combination value descriptors and the combination trend descriptors as the image metadata.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein aggregating the plurality of ambient conditions into an ambient environment descriptor further comprises storing the value descriptors and the trend descriptors for each of the ambient conditions as the image metadata.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein determining the plurality of ambient conditions further comprises determining variations of the ambient conditions over time for both a fixed location of the subject of the digital image, and a location of the image capture device.

19. The method of claim 1 further comprising allowing searches to be performed for the digital image by specifying desired metadata including the at least one ambient environment descriptor.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising allowing searches to be performed for the digital image by specifying variations of the ambient conditions over time for both a fixed location of the subject of the digital image, and a location of the image capture device.

21. A system for automatically generating metadata for a digital image, comprising:

a mobile image capture device for capturing the digital image;

means for determining a plurality of ambient conditions associated with a location of a subject of the digital image, the ambient conditions existing at a time related to a time of capture of the digital image; and

a metadata application component for automatically generating the metadata for the digital images by aggregating the plurality of ambient conditions into at least one ambient environment descriptor based on user-definable aggregation rules, and for associating the ambient environment descriptor with the digital image as metadata.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the means for determining a plurality of ambient conditions determines variations of the ambient conditions over time by receiving readings of the ambient conditions at a plurality of times including at least one of a time before the time of capture, at the time of capture, and after the time of capture.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the means for determining a plurality of ambient conditions determines weather-related ambient conditions and non-weather related ambient conditions, wherein the weather-related ambient conditions include any combination of temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, visibility, season, and wind, and the non-weather related ambient conditions include any combination of location, heading, elevation, and brightness level of at least one of the subject and the image capture device.

24. The system of claim 23 wherein the means for determining a plurality of ambient conditions further comprises location-determining means for recording changing locations of the image capture device over time.

25. The system of claim 24 wherein location-determining means comprise at least one of comprises a global positioning system within the image capture device and network triangulation.

26. The system of claim 23 wherein the means for determining a plurality of ambient conditions further comprises ambient condition determining means for determining at least one of,

variations of ambient conditions over time at the fixed location of the subject of the digital image, referred to as picture location (PICLOC) data, and

variations of ambient conditions over time at the location of the image capture device, referred to camera location (CAMLOC) data.

27. The system of claim 26 wherein the ambient condition determining means include at least one of,

an ambient conditions site on a network that provides the PICLOC data based on a specified time and location, and

sensors in the image capture device for sensing ambient condition values in real-time and for storing the ambient condition as the CAMLOC data.

28. The system of claim 26 wherein the means for determining a plurality of ambient conditions determines the variations of the ambient conditions over time at the fixed location of the subject of the digital image even when the image capture device is in a different location.

29. The system of claim 21 wherein the metadata application component includes a user interface for allowing a user to configure the aggregation rules to define the at least one ambient environment descriptor, and to perform searches for the digital image by specifying desired metadata including the at least one ambient environment descriptor.

30. The system of claim 29 wherein the metadata application component is implemented as a photosharing site on a network.

31. The system of claim 28 wherein the metadata application component is run on a user'"'"'s computer.

32. The system of claim 22 wherein the metadata application component further aggregates the variations of the ambient conditions determined over time, and the at least one ambient environment descriptor represents an ambient trend descriptor based on the user-definable aggregation rules.

33. The system of claim 32 wherein the metadata application component aggregates the plurality of ambient conditions into an ambient environment descriptor by,

receiving values for each of the ambient conditions within a specified time period before and after the time of capture;

and

for each of the ambient conditions,

summarizing the values of the ambient condition by applying an value descriptor to the ambient condition; and

summarizing changes in the values of the ambient condition by applying a trend descriptor to the ambient condition.

34. The system of claim 33 wherein the metadata application component aggregates the plurality of ambient conditions into an ambient environment descriptor by,

aggregating related ones of the ambient conditions by,

summarizing the value descriptors applied to the related ambient conditions using the user-definable able rules as lookup table to apply a combination value descriptor;

and

summarizing the trend descriptors applied to the related ambient conditions using the user-definable rules as lookup table to apply a combination trend descriptor.

35. The system of claim 34 wherein the metadata application component aggregates the plurality of ambient conditions into an ambient environment descriptor by storing the combination value descriptors and the combination trend descriptors as the image metadata.

36. The system of claim 35 wherein the metadata application component aggregates the plurality of ambient conditions into an ambient environment descriptor by storing the value descriptors and the trend descriptors for each of the ambient conditions as the image metadata.

37. An executable software product stored on a computer-readable medium containing program instructions for automatically generating metadata for a digital image, the program instructions for:

determining a plurality of ambient conditions associated with a location of a subject of the digital image captured with a mobile image capture device, the ambient conditions existing at a time related to a time of capture of the digital image;

aggregating the plurality of ambient conditions into at least one ambient environment descriptor based on user-definable aggregation rules; and

associating the ambient environment descriptor with the digital image as metadata.