US 6,636,648 B2 · Albuming method with automatic page layout

Abstract

An albuming method includes the automatic adaptation of the page layout of a plurality of images to a boundary condition of an event. The method includes the steps of receiving a plurality of images having event-determining information that relates to one or more events to which the images pertain and the generation of an event boundary based on the on the event-determining information. The images for each event are then laid out into a page format adapted to the event boundary determined for that event. For example, if the page format is determined to have a maximum number of images per page, and if the number of images remaining for the last page are fewer than the maximum number, the page layout of the last or more pages of the event is automatically adapted to the event boundary by, e.g., adjusting the arrangement of the pictures on the last page.

Claims28

Dependent claims

A method for automatically adapting the page layout of a plurality of images to a boundary condition of an event, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving a plurality of images having event-determining information including at least one of time and date as well as content information that relates to an event to which the images pertain;
(b) automatically generating an event boundary and a sub-event boundary for the plurality of images based on the event-determining information, wherein time and date event boundaries are determined by clustering analysis and content sub-event boundaries are determined by block-based histogram correlation;
and
(c) automatically laying out the images for the event into a page layout wherein the page layout of the images comprising the event is adapted to both the event boundary and the sub-event boundary determined for the event, wherein at least some adjacent sub-events are separated by page at sub-event boundaries.

1 more element

A method for automatically adapting the page layout of a plurality of images to a boundary condition of an event, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving a plurality of images having event-determining information that relates to an event to which the images pertain;
(b) automatically identifying and eliminating low quality images among the plurality of images using one or more of sharpness, noise, exposure and contrast quality measures to determine quality of the images, whereby a user is able to vary one or more of the quality measures in order to determine a level of image quality that is acceptable, thereby generating a plurality of acceptable images;
(c) automatically generating an event boundary for the plurality of acceptable images based on the event-determining information;
(d) automatically identifying duplicate images in an event using a histogram correlation content analysis;
(e) interfacing with the user to eliminate duplicate images in the event, whereby the user is able to vary a duplicate threshold in order to determine a level of similarity between a set of duplicate images;
and
(f) automatically laying out the images for the event into a page layout according to a parametric model wherein the page layout of the images comprising the event is adapted to the event boundary determined for the event, wherein the parametric model is based on a number of rules that are applied to an image space divided into a number of grid components, and wherein a combined area of two or more grid components is used to lay out at least some of the images.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Albuming method with automatic page layout

Life of this patent

Albuming method with automatic page layout

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims28