Processing captured images having geolocations

• US 8,738,622 B2
• Filed: 12/01/2010
• Issued: 05/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Chan, Sammy
• Primary Examiner(s): SOMERS, MARC S
• Application Number:
  US12/958,082
• Publication Number:
  US 20110129120A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,273 Days
• Field of Search: 707/705, 707/736, 707/737, 707/781, 707/913, 707/915
• US Class Current: 707/737
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/00 Scenes; Scene-specific elements control of digital cameras H04N23/60
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/70 Labelling scene content, e.g. deriving syntactic or semantic representations

Abstract

Methods (105), apparatuses (600), and computer readable storage mediums for processing captured images having geolocations related to the captured images at the time of capture are disclosed. A representative geolocation is associated (110) with each group of images previously captured at the same location. For each representative geolocation, based on at least the timestamp of the images associated with the representative geolocation, the probability is determined (120) that a further image will be captured at or near the representative geolocation. For representative geolocations with a determined probability above a predetermined threshold, the respective representative geolocation is associated (130) with at least one personal place.

Claims

1. A method of processing captured images having geolocations related to the captured images at the time of capture, said method comprising the steps of:

associating a representative geolocation with a group of images previously captured at or near the same location; and

for the representative geolocation, determining, based on timestamps associated with the capture of the images, whether the representative geolocation is a predetermined place where at least one further image is predicted to be captured within a time interval associated with the predetermined place.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the predetermined place is a personal place.

3. A method of processing captured images having geolocations related to the captured images at the time of capture, said method comprising the steps of:

associating a representative geolocation with each group of images previously captured at the same location;

for each representative geolocation, determining, based on at least timestamps of the images associated with the representative geolocation, a probability that a further image will be captured at or near the representative geolocation within a time interval; and

for representative geolocations with a determined probability above a predetermined threshold and based on said time interval, associating the representative geolocations with at least one predetermined place.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3, further comprising the step of capturing an image having a geolocation related to the captured image at the time of capture.

5. The method as claimed in claim 3 or 4, further comprising the step of suppressing at least one metadata value of a captured image when the geolocation related to the captured image is at or near at least one predetermined place.

6. The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the at least one metadata value is suppressed by at least one of storing the metadata value in an external data store separately from the captured image and encrypting the metadata value.

7. The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the at least one metadata value is suppressed by replacing the metadata value with a different value.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the different value is a blank value or a value reducing resolution of the metadata value.

9. The method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the captured image is captured using an image capturing apparatus adapted to acquire a geolocation related to the captured image at the time of image capture.

10. The method as claimed in claim 4, further comprising the step of suppressing at least one metadata value of a captured image when the geolocation related to the captured image is at or near at least one personal place.

11. The method as claimed in claim 3, further comprising the step of specifying the representative geolocation as a personal location.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein specifying the representative geolocation as a personal location comprises inputting textual addresses, or importing addresses from a contact list, or manually entering the representative geolocation.

13. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the geolocations and at least the timestamps of the images are stored for further processing, the images being downloaded separately.

14. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the predetermined place is a personal place.

15. An apparatus for processing captured images having geolocations related to the captured images at the time of capture, said apparatus comprising:

at least one processor and memory, cooperating to function as;

a first association unit which associates a representative geolocation with each group of images previously captured at the same location;

a determination unit which, for each representative geolocation, determines, based on at least timestamps of the images associated with the representative geolocation, a probability that a further image will be captured at or near the representative geolocation within a time interval; and

a second association unit which, for representative geolocations with a determined probability above a predetermined threshold and based on said time interval, associates the representative geolocations with at least one predetermined place.

16. The apparatus as claimed in claim 15, further comprising a suppression unit which suppresses at least one metadata value of a captured image when the geolocation related to the captured image is at or near at least one predetermined place.

17. The apparatus as claimed in claim 16, wherein the at least one metadata value is suppressed by at least one of storing the metadata value in an external data store separately from the captured image and encrypting the metadata value.

18. The apparatus as claimed in claim 16, wherein the at least one metadata value is suppressed by replacing the metadata value with a different value.

19. The apparatus as claimed in claim 18, wherein the different value is a blank value or a value reducing resolution of the metadata value.

20. The apparatus as claimed in claim 15, further comprising an image capturing apparatus adapted to acquire a geolocation related to a captured image at the time of image capture.

21. The apparatus as claimed in claim 15, wherein the geolocations and at least the timestamps of the images are stored in a memory of said image capturing apparatus for further processing, allowing the images to be downloaded from said image capturing apparatus and removed from the memory.

22. The apparatus as claimed in claim 15, wherein the predetermined place is a personal place.

23. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having recorded therein a computer program for causing a computer to execute a method, said method comprising the steps of:

associating a representative geolocation with each group of images previously captured at the same location;

for each representative geolocation, determining, based on at least timestamps of the images associated with the representative geolocation, a probability that a further image will be captured at or near the representative geolocation within a time interval; and

for representative geolocations with a determined probability above a predetermined threshold and based on said time interval, associating the representative geolocations with at least one predetermined place.

24. The storage medium as claimed in claim 23, said method further comprising a step of suppressing at least one metadata value of a captured image when the geolocation related to the captured image is at or near at least one predetermined place.

25. The storage medium as claimed in claim 23, wherein the at least one metadata value is suppressed by at least one of storing the metadata value in an external data store separately from the captured image and encrypting the metadata value.

26. The storage medium as claimed in claim 23, wherein the images are captured using an image capturing apparatus adapted to acquire a geolocation related to a captured image at the time of image capture.

27. The storage medium as claimed in claim 23, wherein the geolocations and at least the timestamps of the images are stored for further processing, allowing the images to be downloaded.