Privacy camera

A computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions for using a camera including a privacy mode, comprising:

• determining a region of interest in a foreground of a scene obtained by the camera;
• determining a privacy mode from privacy modes comprising a background blur and a background replacement;
• when the determined privacy mode is the background blur, creating an image by setting a limited depth of field for the camera such that the objects of interest in the scene in the foreground appears in focus and any objects within the background of the scene appear to not be in focus;
• when the determined privacy mode is the background replacement, creating the image by automatically setting a foreground depth for the camera used in determining the foreground to include the region of interest in the scene based at least in part on a number of people in the scene and their respective depths and replacing the background with at least one of an image and a fill;
• and
• displaying the image.

A system, comprising:

• a processor and memory;
• an operating environment executing using the processor;
• a privacy camera comprising:
• one of:
• an array of at least four cameras disposed on a base having at least a five millimeter spacing between a center of each of the at least four cameras;
• or an RGBZ camera;
• and
• a camera manager that is configured to perform actions comprising:
• automatically determining a region of interest in a foreground of a scene obtained by the privacy camera;
• determining a privacy mode from privacy modes comprising a background blur and a background replacement;
• when the determined privacy mode is the background blur, creating an image by setting a limited depth of field for the privacy camera such that the objects of interest in the scene in the foreground appears in focus and any objects within the background of the scene appear to not be in focus;
• when the determined privacy mode is the background replacement, creating the image by setting a foreground depth for the privacy camera used in determining the foreground to include the region of interest in the scene and replacing the background with at least one of an image and a fill;
• and
• displaying the image.