Perfecting the optics within a digital image acquisition device using face detection

Within a digital acquisition device with an adjustable optical system having an auto focusing mechanism, a method of perfecting said auto focus member of said adjustable optical system as part of an image capture process using face detection in said image capture process to achieve one or more desired image acquisition parameters comprising:

• (a) identifying a plurality of groups of pixels that correspond to an image of a face within a digitally-captured image, and determining corresponding image attributes to said group of pixels;
• and
• (b) perfecting said auto focus by performing said auto focus on said plurality of groups of pixels that correspond to said image of said face, and
• (c) wherein the face pixels identifying step being automatically performed by an image processing apparatus, the method further comprising manually removing an indication as a face of at least one of said plurality of groups of pixels detected as a face by increasing a sensitivity level of said face identifying.

Within a digital camera having a lens system, a method of adjusting a digitally-detected image based on detection of faces within the image to achieve a desired image parameter, comprising the steps of:

• (a) identifying a group of pixels that correspond to a face within the digitally-detected image;
• (b) determining initial values of one or more parameters of the pixels of the group of pixels;
• (c) automatically adjusting values of the one or more parameters of the pixels of the group of pixels based upon a comparison of the initial parameter with the desired parameter;
• and
• (d) wherein the one or more parameters of pixels of the group of pixels comprising a location of the face within the digitally-detected image.

Within a digital camera having a lens system, a method of adjusting a digitally-detected image based on detection of faces within the image to achieve a desired image parameter, comprising the steps of:

• (a) identifying a group of pixels that correspond to a face within the digitally-detected image;
• (b) determining initial values of one or more parameters of pixels of the group of pixels;
• (c) automatically providing an option for adjusting values of the one or more parameters of the pixels of the group of pixels based upon a comparison of the initial parameter with the desired parameter;
• and
• (d) wherein the one or more parameters of pixels of the group of pixels comprising a location of the face within the digitally-detected image.

Within a digital acquisition device with an adjustable optical system having an auto focusing mechanism, one or more processor readable storage devices having processor readable code embodied thereon, said processor readable code for programming one or more processors to perform a method of perfecting said auto focus mechanism of said adjustable optical system as part of an image capture process using face detection in said image capture process to achieve one or more desired image acquisition parameters, the method comprising:

• (a) automatically identifying a plurality of groups of pixels that correspond to an image of a face within a digitally-captured image, and determining corresponding image attributes to said group of pixels using an image processing apparatus which receives a relative value as to an estimated importance of said detected regions, and
• (b) perfecting said auto focus by performing said auto focus on said plurality of groups of pixels that correspond to said image of said face, and
• (c) wherein said performing said auto focus on said plurality of groups being done by calculating a weighted average on the individual object of said groups, and
• (d) wherein the face pixels identifying step being automatically performed by an image processing apparatus which receives a relative value as to an estimated importance of said detected regions,
• (e) wherein the estimated importance of said detected regions of faces comprising at least one parameter including size of said faces or relative exposure of said faces, or both, wherein calculating a weighted average being done based on said relative values as to the estimated importance.

Within a digital acquisition device with an adjustable optical system having an auto focusing mechanism, one or more processor readable storage devices having processor readable code embodied thereon, said processor readable code for programming one or more processors to perform a method of perfecting said auto focus mechanism of said adjustable optical system as part of an image capture process using face detection in said image capture process to achieve one or more desired image acquisition parameters, the method comprising:

• (a) identifying a plurality of groups of pixels that correspond to an image of a face within a digitally-captured image, and determining corresponding image attributes to said group of pixels;
• and
• (b) perfecting said auto focus by performing said auto focus on said plurality of groups of pixels that correspond to said image of said face, and
• (c) wherein the face pixels indentifying step being automatically performed by an image processing apparatus, the method further comprising manually removing an indication as a face of at least one of said plurality of groups of pixels detected as a face and wherein the method being performed by increasing a sensitivity level of said face identifying step.