Presenting information based on whether a viewer corresponding to information is stored is present in an image

• US 8,744,142 B2
• Filed: 05/25/2010
• Issued: 06/03/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/25/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Murakami, Masatoshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Jayesh A
• Application Number:
  US12/787,307
• Publication Number:
  US 20100296707A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,470 Days
• Field of Search: 382/103, 382115-118
• US Class Current: 382/118
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3231 Monitoring the presence, absence or movement of users
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/32 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

According to one embodiment, an information reproducing method including, fetching facial image data of a viewer, extracting feature points on a face of the viewer from the fetched facial image data, and coding the feature points, comparing the coded feature points with viewer feature-point information stored in a management table, and presenting different pieces of information depending upon whether a viewer corresponding to the viewer feature-point information stored in the management table is present or not.

Claims

1. An information reproducing apparatus comprising:

a recorder configured to record viewer information based on information on a face recognized by a face recognizing processor;

a setting processor configured to set information to be displayed on a display in accordance with the viewer information;

an information reproducing processor configured to reproduce first information set by the setting processor on the display, if a face of a user recognized by the face recognizing processor is associated with the viewer information; and

reproduce second information differing from the first information on the display, if a face of a user recognized by the face recognizing processor is not associated with the viewer information; and

a reproduction position setting processor configured to permit a user to set a reproduction position of the first information or the second information on the display,

wherein in a first time zone, the information reproducing processor reproduces information as the first information or the second information with a plurality of first applications, and in a second time zone differing from a first time zone, the information reproducing processor reproduces information with a plurality of second applications differing from the plurality of first applications, as the first information or the second information,

wherein one or more applications are provided to reproduce information as the first information in the first time zone, the one or more applications being included in the plurality of first applications, and an application is provided to reproduce information as the second information in the first time zone, the application differing from the one or more applications included in the plurality of first applications,

wherein one or more applications are provided to reproduce information as the first information in the second time zone, the one or more applications being included in the plurality of second applications, and an application is provided to reproduce information as the second information in the second time zone, the application differing from the one or more applications included in the plurality of second applications,

wherein the plurality of first applications or the plurality of second applications are selectively operated in accordance with (i) whether a time zone in which the information reproducing processor reproduces the information is the first time zone or the second time zone, and (ii) whether the face recognizing processor recognizes a face of a viewer associated with the viewer information recorded by the recorder or a face of a viewer who is not associated with the viewer information,

wherein a selectively operated one or ones of the plurality of first applications or the plurality of second applications are stopped when the viewer whose face is recognized by the face recognizing processor goes away from the display so that the face recognizing processor becomes unable to recognize the face of the viewer, and

wherein the reproduction position setting processor include;

a processing unit configured to enable, in a case of setting the reproduction position of said one of the first information and the second information, a user to set the reproduction position if a user moves a user'"'"'s finger off an image of the first information or the second information at a desired position on a screen of the display after touching the image with the finger and dragging the image.

2. The information processing apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a second setting processor configured to set a specific application, and specific viewer information on a second user, the second user being specified as a user to be prevented from viewing the specific application.

3. The information processing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the information reproducing processor reproduces different applications for a father and mother of a family, respectively, on the display.

4. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon a computer program which is executable by a computer, the computer program being provided to control the computer to execute the functions of:

recording viewer information based on information on a face recognized by a face recognizing processor;

setting first information to be displayed on a display in accordance with the viewer information;

reproducing the first information on the display, if a face of a user recognized by the face recognizing processor is associated with the viewer information;

reproducing second information differing from the first information on the display, if a face of a user recognized by the face recognizing processor is not associated with the viewer information;

reproducing, in a first time zone, information with a plurality of first applications as the first information or the second information, and in a second time zone differing from the first time zone, information with a plurality of second applications differing from the plurality of first applications, as the other of the first information and the second information;

wherein one or more applications are provided to reproduce information as the first information in the first time zone, the one or more applications being included in the plurality of first applications, and an application is provided to reproduce information as the second information in the first time zone, the application differing from the one or more applications included in the plurality of first applications,

wherein one or more applications are provided to reproduce information as the first information in the second time zone, the one or more applications being included in the plurality of second applications, and an application is provided to reproduce information as the second information in the second time zone, the application differing from the one or more applications included in the plurality of second applications,

wherein the plurality of first applications or the plurality of second applications are selectively operated in accordance with (i) a time zone in which the information reproducing processor reproduces the information is the first time zone or the second time zone, and (ii) whether the face recognizing processor recognizes a face of a viewer associated with the viewer information recorded by the recorder or a face of a viewer who is not associated with the viewer information, and

wherein a selectively operated one or ones of the plurality of first applications or the plurality of second applications are stopped if the viewer whose face is recognized by the face recognizing processor goes away from the display so that the face recognizing processor becomes unable to recognize the face of the viewer,

at time of setting the reproduction position of the first information or the second information, comprising;

enabling the reproduction position to be set when a user moves a user'"'"'s finger off an image of the first information or the second information at a desired position on a screen of the display after touching the image with the finger and dragging the image on the screen.

5. The computer readable medium of claim 4, further controlling the computer to execute the function of setting a specific application and specific viewer information on a second user, the second user being specified as a user to be prevented from viewing the specification specific application.

6. The computer readable medium of claim 4, further controlling the computer to cause the display to reproduce different applications for a father and a mother of a family, respectively.

7. An information reproducing method comprising:

recording viewer information based on face feature point information recognized by a face recognizing processor;

setting first information to be displayed on a display in accordance with the viewer information;

reproducing the first information on the display, if a face of a user recognized by the face recognizing processor is associated with the viewer information;

reproducing second information differing from the first information on the display, if a face of a user recognized by the face recognizing processor is not associated with the viewer information; and

reproducing, in a first time zone, information with a plurality of first applications as the first information or the second information, and in a second time zone differing from the first time zone, information with a plurality of second applications differing from the plurality of first applications, as the first information or the second information,

wherein one or more applications are provided to reproduce information as the first information in the first time zone, the one or more applications being included in the plurality of first applications, and an application is provided to reproduce information as the second information in the first time zone, the application differing from the one or more applications included in the plurality of first applications,

wherein one or more applications are provided to reproduce information as the first information in the second time zone, the one or more applications being included in the plurality of second applications, and an application is provided to reproduce information as the second information in the second time zone, the application differing from the one or more applications included in the plurality of second applications,

the plurality of first applications or the plurality of second applications are selectively operated in accordance with (i) whether a time zone in which the information reproducing processor reproduces the information is the first time zone or the second time zone, and (ii) whether the face recognizing processor recognizes a face of a viewer associated with the viewer information recorded by the recorder or a face of a viewer who is not associated with the viewer information,

wherein a selectively operated one or ones of the plurality of first applications or the plurality of second applications are stopped if the viewer whose face is recognized by the face recognizing processor goes away from the display so that the face recognizing processor becomes unable to recognize the face of the viewer, and

wherein at time of setting the reproduction position of the first information or the second information, the reproduction position is enabled to be set when a user moves a user'"'"'s finger off an image of the first information or the second information at a desired position on a screen of the display after touching the image with the finger and dragging the image on the screen.

8. The information reproducing method of claim 7, further comprising:

setting a specific application and specific viewer information on a second user, the second user being specified as a user to be prevented from viewing the specification specific application.

9. The information reproducing method of claim 7, wherein different applications are reproduced for a father and a mother of a family, respectively, on the display.