Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080297589 | EYE GAZING IMAGING FOR VIDEO COMMUNICATIONS - Video communication systems and methods for communicating between an individual in a local environment, and a remote viewer in a remote environment are provided. The system has an image display device; at least one image capture device which acquires video images for fields of view of a local environment, and any individuals therein; an audio system having an audio emission device and an audio capture device; a computer, which includes a contextual interface having a gaze adapting process, and image processor; and a communication controller which transmits and receives video images of the local environment and the remote environment, and data regarding video scene characteristics thereof across a network between the local environment and the remote environment; wherein the gaze adapting process identifies video scene characteristics of the local environment indicative of eye gaze image capture and altering the video images when the characteristics are indicative. | 12-04-2008 |
20090042168 | TOOTH LOCATING WITHIN DENTAL IMAGES - In a method, computer program, and system a dental target, such as a tooth, is located within a digital dental image. A reference object that was placed in the patient's mouth is segmented within a digital dental image to provide a segmented reference. The reference object has a predetermined size dimension. A window is segmented in the dental image at the position of the dental target. The segmented reference defines the relative size and location of the window, prior to the segmenting of the window. | 02-12-2009 |
20090190797 | RECOGNIZING IMAGE ENVIRONMENT FROM IMAGE AND POSITION - A method of recognizing the environment of an image from an image and position information associated with the image includes acquiring the image and its associated position information; using the position information to acquire an aerial image correlated to the position information; identifying the environment of the image from the acquired aerial image; and storing the environment of the image in association with the image for subsequent use. | 07-30-2009 |
20090192967 | DISCOVERING SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS FROM PERSONAL PHOTO COLLECTIONS - A method of categorizing the relationship of individuals from a collection of photos taken in multiple sets of events includes: searching the photo collection to identify individuals in the photo collection, determining the gender and age range of the identified individuals; and using the identified individuals, their occurrences and co-occurrences, their gender, and their ages to infer social relationships between the individuals based on a set of rules. | 07-30-2009 |
20090257663 | IMAGE CLASSIFICATION USING CAPTURE-LOCATION-SEQUENCE INFORMATION - Classification of a group of temporally related images is disclosed, wherein a capture-location sequence is identified from the group of temporally related images. The capture-location-sequence information, which is associated collectively with the capture-location sequence, is compared with each of a plurality of sets of predetermined capture-location-sequence characteristics. Each set is associated with a predetermined classification. An identified classification associated with the group of temporally related images is identified based at least upon results from the comparing step; and the identified classification is stored in a processor-accessible memory system. | 10-15-2009 |
20100106573 | ACTION SUGGESTIONS BASED ON INFERRED SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS - A method of categorizing a social relationship between individuals in a collection of images to suggest a possible course of action, includes searching the collection to identify individuals and determining their genders and their age ranges; using the gender, and age ranges of the identifies individuals to infer at least one social relationship between them; and using at least one inferred social relationship to suggest a possible course of action. | 04-29-2010 |
20100121566 | GENERATING PHOTOGENIC ROUTES FROM STARTING TO DESTINATION LOCATIONS - A method of computing at least one photogenic route from a starting location to a destination location, including; computing photogenic values for images in a large collection representing a geographic region that includes the starting location and the destination location; computing a photogenic index for each route segment based on computed photogenic values of images taken along the route segment; computing at least one photogenic route from the starting location to the destination location and presenting the route(s) to a user | 05-13-2010 |
20100171837 | VARYING CAMERA SELF-DETERMINATION BASED ON SUBJECT MOTION - In a method and digital camera, an initial set of evaluation images are captured. A plurality of characteristics of the initial set of evaluation images are assessed to provide a first assessment. The characteristics include subject motion between the initial set of evaluation images. When the subject motion is in excess of a predetermined threshold, a final capture state of the camera is set responsive to the first assessment. When the subject motion is less than the predetermined threshold, the evaluation images are analyzed to provide analysis results and the final capture state of the camera is set responsive to the first assessment and the analysis results. | 07-08-2010 |
20100226566 | PRODUCING OBJECT CUTOUTS IN TOPICALLY RELATED IMAGES - A method for extracting an object out of each image in a group of digital images that contain the object, includes providing a group of digital images, each containing the object with a background; selecting a seed image from the group of digital images, and displaying the seed image to a user; the user providing at least one marking for the seed image, which corresponds to a subset of pixels in the seed image that indicates whether the set of pixels belongs to a part of object of interest or a part of the background; producing from the seed image and the marking a statistical model that can be used for separating the object of interest from the background in the group of images; and applying the statistical model to each image in the group of digital images to produce a cutout of the object of interest from each digital image. | 09-09-2010 |
20100226582 | ASSIGNING LABELS TO IMAGES IN A COLLECTION - A method of assigning semantic labels to images in a particular collection, includes acquiring seed labels for a subset of images; propagating the seed labels to other images according to a similarity metric; and storing the semantic labels, including both seed labels and propagated labels with the corresponding images. | 09-09-2010 |
20110085745 | SEAM CARVING FOR IMAGE RESIZING - A method for modifying an input digital image having input dimensions defined by a number of input rows and input columns to form an output digital image where the number of rows or columns is reduced by one, comprising an image energy map determined from the input image; determining a seam path responsive to the image energy map; imposing constraints on the seam path; and removing pixels along the seam path to modify the input digital image. | 04-14-2011 |
20110091132 | COMBINING SEAM CARVING AN IMAGE RESIZING - A method for resizing an input digital image to form an output digital image with an output aspect ratio, comprising: determining a number of rows or columns that need to be reduced from the input digital image; determining an image energy map for the input digital image; repeatedly determining a seam path responsive to the image energy map and removing pixels along the determined seam path to determine the output digital image, wherein the determined seam path satisfies a constraint that a directional image gradient is less than a gradient threshold for each pixel in the seam path, until either the determined number of rows or columns has been reduced or no valid seam path can be found; and cropping or scaling the output digital image to the output aspect ratio if the determined number of rows or columns was not reduced. | 04-21-2011 |
20110184949 | RECOMMENDING PLACES TO VISIT - A method for recommending places to visit, included using a processor to provide the following steps: assembling a collection of images, wherein each image has first and second tags with the first tag corresponding to the location where the image was taken, and the second tag corresponding to subject matter of the image; clustering the images in response to the first tags into a plurality of locations; using the images in each location to produce at least one representative image of the location; using the second tags of images of each location to produce a list of representative keywords for each location; providing a query in the form of an image or subject matter, or both; and using the query in the form of an image to search among the representative images to recommend a location to visit, or using the query in the form of subject matter to search among the keywords to recommend a location to visit. | 07-28-2011 |
20110184953 | ON-LOCATION RECOMMENDATION FOR PHOTO COMPOSITION - A method of providing at least one recommended view to a user at a current geographic location that the user can use in composing images, comprising using a processor to provide the following steps using the geographic location of the user to obtain, from a database, images that were previously taken around the current geographic location; grouping the obtained images into clusters that correspond to distinct scenes; selecting a recommended view for each distinct scene using an image; and presenting the recommended view(s) to the user for consideration in composing images. | 07-28-2011 |
20110188742 | RECOMMENDING USER IMAGE TO SOCIAL NETWORK GROUPS - A method of recommending social group(s) for sharing one or more user images, includes using a processor for acquiring the one or more user images and their associated metadata; acquiring one or more group images from the social group(s) and their associated metadata; computing visual features for the user images and the group images; and recommending social group(s) for the one of more user images using both the visual features and the metadata. | 08-04-2011 |
20120099793 | VIDEO SUMMARIZATION USING SPARSE BASIS FUNCTION COMBINATION - A method for determining a video summary from a video sequence including a time sequence of video frames, comprising: defining a global feature vector representing the entire video sequence; selecting a plurality of subsets of the video frames; extracting a frame feature vector for each video frame in the selected subsets of video frames; defining a set of basis functions, wherein each basis function is associated with the frame feature vectors for the video frames in a particular subset of video frames; using a data processor to automatically determine a sparse combination of the basis functions representing the global feature vector; determining a summary set of video frames responsive to the sparse combination of the basis functions; and forming the video summary responsive to the summary set of video frames. | 04-26-2012 |
20120113121 | ALIGNING AND SUMMARIZING DIFFERENT PHOTO STREAMS - A method for organizing individual collections of images or videos captured for the same event by different cameras into a master collection, wherein each individual collection forms a media stream in chronological order, includes using a processor to provide the following steps: extracting image features for each image or video of the media stream of each individual collection; analyzing the extracted features to align the media streams to form a master stream in chronological order of the event over a common timeline; producing a master collection of images or videos of the event from the master stream by removing redundant images or videos; and storing, displaying or transmitting the master collection. | 05-10-2012 |
20120114296 | METHOD FOR ALIGNING DIFFERENT PHOTO STREAMS - A method for organizing individual collections of images or videos captured for the same event by different cameras into a master collection, wherein each individual collection forms a media stream in chronological order. A processor for extracting image features for each image or video of the media stream of each collection; constructing a graph based on the extracted features to link the images or videos from the two media streams; finding on the graph at least a pair of images or videos, each from one of the two media streams, that corresponds to correlated captured content; aligning the remaining images or videos in response to the aligned pair so that the all images or videos from the two media streams are aligned over a common timeline; and producing a master stream in chronological order of the event over a common timeline by merging the aligned individual. | 05-10-2012 |
20120114307 | ALIGNING AND ANNOTATING DIFFERENT PHOTO STREAMS - A method for organizing and annotating individual collections of images or videos captured for the same event by different cameras into a master collection, wherein each individual collection forms a media stream in chronological order, includes using a processor to provide the following steps: extracting image features for each image or video of the media stream of each individual collection; analyzing the extracted features to align the media streams in chronological order of the event over a common timeline; transferring annotation from one individual collection to another individual collection based on alignment of the media streams; and storing, displaying or transmitting the transferred annotation. | 05-10-2012 |
20120148157 | Video key-frame extraction using bi-level sparsity - A method for identifying a set of key frames from a video sequence including a time sequence of video frames, the method executed at least in part by a data processor, comprising: selecting a set of video frames from the video sequence; identifying a plurality of visually homogeneous regions from each of the selected video frames; defining a set of basis functions, wherein each basis function is associated with a different visually homogeneous region; determining a feature vector for each of the selected video frames; representing each of the determined feature vectors as a sparse combination of the basis functions; for each of the determined feature vectors, determining a sparse set of video frames that contain the visually homogeneous regions corresponding to the basis functions included in the corresponding sparse combination of the basis functions; and analyzing the sparse sets of video frames to identify the set of key frames. | 06-14-2012 |
20120154684 | METHOD FOR PRODUCING A BLENDED VIDEO SEQUENCE - A method for producing a blended video sequence that combines a still image and a video image sequence comprising: designating a first face in the still image, designating a second face in the video image sequence; detecting a series of video frames in the video image sequence containing the second face; identifying a video frame in the detected series of video frames suitable for transitioning from the first face into the second face; using a data processor to automatically produce a transition image sequence where the first face transitions into the second face, and a first background transitions into a second background; and producing the blended video sequence by concatenating the transition image sequence, and a plurality of video frames from the video image sequence starting from the identified video frame. | 06-21-2012 |
20120182391 | DETERMINING A STEREO IMAGE FROM VIDEO - A method of producing a stereo image from a digital video includes receiving a digital video including a plurality of digital images captured by an image capture device; and using a processor to produce stereo suitability scores for at least two digital images from the plurality of digital images. The method further includes selecting a stereo candidate image based on the stereo suitability scores; producing a stereo image from the selected stereo candidate image wherein the stereo image includes the stereo candidate image and an associated stereo companion image based on the plurality of digital images from the digital video; and storing the stereo image whereby the stereo image can be presented for viewing by a user. | 07-19-2012 |
20120189211 | RAPID IMAGE SEARCH IN A LARGE DATABASE - A method for searching in a large-scale database of images for images that are visually similar to query images is provided using a processor to perform the following steps: computing visual features for the database images; constructing an Image Anchor Graph that contains a plurality of anchors corresponding to a subset of images in the database, according to the computed visual features; computing visual features for the query images; and retrieving database images similar to one or more user query images using a ranking algorithm that uses the anchors in the Image Anchor Graph according to the computed visual features of both the query images and the database images on the Image Anchor Graph. | 07-26-2012 |
20120213493 | METHOD FOR MEDIA RELIVING PLAYBACK - A method for viewing a collection of images or videos, includes analyzing the collection to determine properties of the images or videos and using the determined properties to produce icons corresponding to such properties; providing a time-varying display of the images or videos in the collection following an ordering of the images or videos in the collection and at least one of the corresponding icons; receiving a user selection of an icon; changing the time-varying display of the images or videos in the collection following a reordering of the images or videos in the collection in response to the user selection; storing the sequence of the user selections and associated timing in a script in a processor accessible memory; and playing back the viewing of the collection of images or videos using the script. | 08-23-2012 |
20120242794 | PRODUCING 3D IMAGES FROM CAPTURED 2D VIDEO - A method of producing a stereo image from a temporal sequence of digital images, comprising: receiving a temporal sequence of digital images; analyzing pairs of digital images to produce corresponding stereo suitability scores, wherein the stereo suitability score for a particular pair of images is determined responsive to the relative positions of corresponding features in the particular pair of digital image; selecting a pair of digital images including a first image and a second image based on the stereo suitability scores; using a processor to analyze the selected pair of digital images to produce a motion consistency map indicating regions of consistent motion, the motion consistency map having an array of pixels; producing a stereo image pair including a left view image and a right view image by combining the first image and the second image responsive to the motion consistency map; and storing the stereo image pair in a processor-accessible memory. | 09-27-2012 |
20120316660 | AUTOMATICALLY SELECTING THEMATICALLY REPRESENTATIVE MUSIC - A method for automatically selecting thematically representative music is disclosed. A processor is used for using a theme-related keyword to search a keyword-indexed video repository to retrieve videos associated with the theme-related keyword; analyzing the retrieved videos to select videos with music; and extracting music tracks and features from the selected videos. The method further includes selecting representative music related to the theme from the extracted music tracks using the extracted features; and storing the selected representative music in a processor accessible memory. | 12-13-2012 |
20130002814 | METHOD FOR AUTOMATICALLY IMPROVING STEREO IMAGES - A method for improving a stereo image including a left view image and a right view image, comprising: using a data processor to automatically analyze the stereo image to determine an original stereo quality score responsive to relative positions of corresponding points in the left view image and the right view image; specifying a set of one or more candidate modifications to the stereo image; determining revised stereo quality scores based on each of the candidate modifications to the stereo image; selecting a particular candidate modification that produces a revised stereo quality score which indicates a higher quality level than the original stereo quality score; forming an output stereo image corresponding to the selected particular candidate modification; and storing the output stereo image in a processor-accessible memory. | 01-03-2013 |
20130235275 | SCENE BOUNDARY DETERMINATION USING SPARSITY-BASED MODEL - A method for determining a scene boundary location dividing a first scene and a second scene in an input video sequence. The scene boundary location is determined responsive to a merit function value, which is a function of the candidate scene boundary location. The merit function value for a particular candidate scene boundary location is determined by representing the dynamic scene content for the input video frames before and after candidate scene boundary using sparse combinations of a set of basis functions, wherein the sparse combinations of the basis functions are determined by finding a sparse vector of weighting coefficients for each of the basis functions. The weighting coefficients determined for each of the input video frames are combined to determine the merit function value. The candidate scene boundary providing the smallest merit function value is designated to be the scene boundary location. | 09-12-2013 |
20130235939 | VIDEO REPRESENTATION USING A SPARSITY-BASED MODEL - A method for representing a video sequence including a time sequence of input video frames, the input video frames including some common scene content that is common to all of the input video frames and some dynamic scene content that changes between at least some of the input video frames. Affine transform are determined to align the common scene content in the input video frames. A common video frame including the common scene content is determined by forming a sparse combination of a first basis functions. A dynamic video frame is determined for each input video frame by forming a sparse combination of a second basis functions, wherein the dynamic video frames can be combined with the respective affine transforms and the common video frame to provide reconstructed video frames. | 09-12-2013 |
20140176803 | METHOD FOR PRODUCING A BLENDED VIDEO SEQUENCE - A method for producing a blended video sequence that combines a still image and a video image sequence comprising: designating a first face in the still image, designating a second face in the video image sequence; detecting a series of video frames in the video image sequence containing the second face; identifying a video frame in the detected series of video frames suitable for transitioning from the first face into the second face; using a data processor to automatically produce a transition image sequence where the first face transitions into the second face, and a first background transitions into a second background; and producing the blended video sequence by concatenating the transition image sequence, and a plurality of video frames from the video image sequence starting from the identified video frame. | 06-26-2014 |
20140286533 | Method And System For Recognizing And Assessing Surgical Procedures From Video - A Method and System For Recognizing and Assessing Surgical Procedures from a video or series of still images is described. Evaluation of surgical techniques of residents learning skills in areas such as cataract surgery is an important aspect of the learning process. The use of videos has become common in such evaluations, but is a time consuming manual process. The present invention increases the efficiency and speed of the surgical technique evaluation process by identifying and saving only information that is relevant to the evaluation, process. Using image processing techniques of the present invention, an anatomic structure of a surgical procedure is located on a video, timing of predefined surgical stages is determined, and measurements are taken from frames of the predefined surgical stages to allow the performance of a surgeon to be assessed in an automated and efficient manner. | 09-25-2014 |
20140314276 | SYSTEM AND METHOD OF MEASURING DISTANCES RELATED TO AN OBJECT - A system and method for measuring distances related to a target object depicted in an image and the construction and delivery of supplemental window materials for fenestration. A digital image is obtained that contains a target object dimension and a reference object dimension in the same plane. The digital image may contain a target object dimension identified by an ancillary object and a reference object dimension in different planes. Fiducial patterns on the reference and optional ancillary objects are used that are recognized by an image analysis algorithm. Information regarding a target object and its immediate surroundings is provided to an automated or semi-automated measurement process, design and manufacturing system such that customized parts are provided to end users. The digital image contains a reference object having a reference dimension and calculating a constraint dimension from the digital image based on a reference dimension. The custom part is then designed and manufactured based on a calculated constraint dimension. | 10-23-2014 |