Using relevance feedback in face recognition

A computer-useable medium storing a computer program, the computer program including instructions for causing a computer to perform the following operations:

• access at least one query image that includes at least one query face;
• determine a set of search result images, wherein a search result image includes an application-selected face that is determined to be the same as the query face;
• provide an indication of the search result images to a user;
• receive an indication that the user has accessed at least one of the provided search result images;
• determine that a face in the accessed search result image matches the query face;
• and
• update the set of search result images based on the determination that the face in the accessed search result image matches the query face.

A system comprising:

• a feature extractor configured to:
• access at least one query face,
• create a query feature vector for the query face, and
• form a set of search feature vectors by creating one or more search feature vectors for faces within a set of search faces;
• a face classifier configured to:
• determine distances between the query feature vector and the search feature vectors,
• select one or more search feature vectors that are within a selected distance of the query feature vector, and
• designate images that include faces that correspond to the selected search feature vectors as a set of search result images;
• an interface manager configured to:
• provide an indication of the search result images to a user, and
• receive an indication that the user has caused at least one of the provided search result images to be printed;
• and
• a feedback manager configured to determine that a face in the printed search result image matches the query face,
• wherein the face classifier is also configured to, update the set of search result images based on the determination that the face in the printed search result image matches the query face.

A computer-implemented method for recognizing faces within images, the method comprising:

• accessing at least one query face;
• determining a set of search result images, wherein a search result image includes an application-selected face that is determined to be the same as the query face;
• providing an indication of the search result images to a user;
• receiving an indication that the user has caused at least one of the provided search result images to be downloaded;
• determining that a face in the downloaded search result image matches the query face;
• and
• updating the set of search result images based on the determination that the face in the downloaded search result image matches the query face.