US 6,819,783 B2 · Obtaining person-specific images in a public venue

Abstract

Collecting images of a patron in an entertainment venue is performed by facial recognition of the patron's face within the images, simplifying the storage and distribution of the images for a patron. In order to enhance the reliability of the facial recognition system, information about the patron that is not directly related to most facial recognition systems, including clothes, height, other associated people, use of glasses and jewelry, disposition of facial hair, and more, can be used. Some of the characteristics used can be specific to a particular date or event, and which will not be more generally characteristic of the patron. The facial recognition system can also be used to identify the patron requesting images to be collected. The present invention also relates to the use of facial recognition in sorting and collecting images from an electronically-stored image collection, enabling the easy retrieval of images that are related to a particular person or set of people.

Claims24

Dependent claims

A method of distributing to a user a specific electronic image comprising a representation of a specific person from among a collection of electronic images containing representations of many persons, the method comprising the steps of:

performing facial recognition analysis on each electronic image in the image collection by which a facial identifier is determined for each face represented within each electronic image;
storing each electronic image in association with the facial identifier of each person represented within the electronic image;
obtaining a reference facial identifier from a source electronic image in which the specific person is represented;
selecting the specific electronic image for distribution on the basis of the similarity of the reference facial identifier to a facial identifier associated with the specific electronic image in conjunction with additional information that can be derived from the collection of electronic images, wherein the additional information comprises the association of the specific electronic image for distribution with a facial identifier of a second person.

1 more element

A system for distributing to a user a specific electronic image comprising a representation of a specific person from among a colletion of electronic images containing representations of many persons, comprising:

a facial recognizer that generates a facial identifier for each facial representation within each image;
a storage device that stores each electronic image in association with the facial identifier of each person represented within the electronic image;
a reference facial identifier, which is obtained from a source electronic image in which the specific person is represented;
and
a selector which receives the facial identifiers associated wich each image from the storage device and which further receives the reference facial identifier and which determines which image to distribute, wherein the selector selects the specific electronic image for distribution on the basis of the similarity of the reference facial identifier to a facial identifier associated wich the specific electronic image in conjunction with additional information that can be derived from the collection of electronic images,
wherein the additional information comprises the association of the specific electronic image for distribution with a facial identifier of a second person.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Obtaining person-specific images in a public venue

Life of this patent

Obtaining person-specific images in a public venue

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims24