Zooming to faces depicted in images

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9715751-B2
Application number	US-201113182409-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 13, 2011
Priority date	Jul 13, 2011
Publication date	Jul 25, 2017
Grant date	Jul 25, 2017

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, are described for zooming into a portion of an image that is associated with a specified feature, for example, a portion of an image that depicts a human or an animal face. In one aspect, the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods that include the actions of receiving user input requesting to zoom to faces depicted in one or more digital images, where the faces include either human faces or animal faces. Additionally, in response to said receiving the user input and for each of the one or more digital images, the methods include the actions of presenting a zoomed view of the digital image that shows an instance of a face depicted in the digital image, such that the zoomed view is presented at a zoom-level that is selected (i) to be less than or equal to a predetermined zoom-level and (ii) to maximize a fraction occupied by the depicted instance of the face within the zoomed view of the digital image.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method performed by one or more processes executing on a computer system, the method comprising:
presenting, on a user interface viewable on a display coupled to the computer system, one or more digital images;
receiving user input requesting to zoom to faces depicted in the one or more digital images, where the faces include either human faces or animal faces; and
in response to receiving the user input and for each of the one or more digital images, automatically presenting on the user interface a zoomed view of the digital image that displays an enlarged representation of a portion of the digital image showing an instance of a face depicted in the displayed portion of the digital image, the zoomed view of the digital image covering an area of the user interface configured to present the one or more digital images, the zoomed view being presented at a zoom-level that is selected to maximize a fraction of the displayed portion of the digital image occupied by the face, the zoomed view displaying a scaled representation of the portion of the digital image without generating a derivative image or altering the digital image.

2. The method of claim 1 , where the selected zoom-level is less than or equal to a predetermined zoom-level that is set at 100%.

3. The method of claim 1 , where the instance of the face is centered in the zoomed view of the digital image.

4. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
in response to receiving the user input, for each of the one or more digital images:
examining the digital image; and
upon examining the digital image, detecting an instance of at least one face depicted in the digital image.

5. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
for each of the one or more digital images, detecting an instance of at least one face depicted in the digital image prior to receiving the user request.

6. The method of claim 1 , where, for each of the one or more digital images, the zoomed view of the digital image is displayed in a predetermined region of the user interface.

7. A method performed by one or more processes executing on a computer system, the method comprising:
presenting, on a user interface viewable on a display coupled to the computer system, a digital image that depicts a first face and a second face;
receiving a first user input;
in response to receiving the first user input, automatically presenting on the user interface a first zoomed view of the digital image that displays an enlarged representation of a first portion of the digital image including an instance of the first face, the first zoomed view presented at a zoom-level that is selected to maximize a fraction of the displayed first portion of the digital image occupied by the first face, the first zoomed view displaying a scaled representation of the first portion of the digital image without generating a derivative image or altering the digital image;
receiving a second user input; and
in response to receiving the second user input, switching from the first zoomed view to automatically presenting on the user interface a second zoomed view of the digital image that displays an enlarged representation of a second portion of the digital image including an instance of the second face, the second zoomed view presented at a different zoom-level that is selected to maximize the fraction of the displayed second portion of the digital image occupied by the second face, the second zoomed view displaying a scaled representation of the second portion of the digital image without generating a derivative image or altering the digital image.

8. The method of claim 7 , where the first zoomed view and the second zoomed view are presented in a sequential order, and where the sequential order is different from a detection order of the first face and the second face.

9. The method of claim 8 , where the sequential order is based on identity of persons associated with the first face and the second face.

10. The method of claim 8 , where the sequential order is based on sizes of the first face and the second face.

11. A method performed by one or more processes executing on a computer system, the method comprising:
presenting, on a user interface viewable on a display coupled to the computer system, two or more digital images that are captured independent of one another, each of the two or more digital images depicts a first face and a second face, wherein zoomed views of the two or more digital images are presented concurrently;
receiving a first user input;
in response to receiving the first user input, automatically presenting, on the user interface, concurrent zoomed views of the two or more digital images, such that each of the concurrent zoomed views is presented to display enlarged representation of a first portion of the respective digital image that includes an instance of the first face, each of the concurrent zoomed views presented at a zoom-level that is selected to maximize a fraction of the displayed first portion of the respective digital image occupied by the face, each of the concurrent zoomed views displaying a scaled representation of the first portion of the respective digital image without generating a derivative image or altering the respective digital image;
receiving a second user input; and
in response to receiving the second user input, switching to automatically present, on the user interface, other concurrent zoomed views of the two or more digital images, such that each of the other concurrent zoomed views is presented to display an enlarged representation of a second portion of the respective digital image including an instance of the second face, each of the other concurrent zoomed views presented at a different zoom-level that is selected to maximize the fraction of the displayed second portion of the digital image occupied by the second face, each of the other concurrent zoomed views displaying a scaled representation of the second portion of the respective digital image without generating a derivative image or altering the respective digital image.

12. The method of claim 11 , where automatically-presenting concurrent zoomed views of the two or more digital images corresponding to the first face or the second face is based on an instance of the first face or the second face in a particular image of the two or more digital images.

13. The method of claim 12 , where the particular image is user specified.

14. The method of claim 12 , where the particular image is an image from among the two or more digital images that has a largest quantity of detected faces.

15. A method performed by one or more processes executing on a computer system, the method comprising:
presenting, on a user interface viewable on a display coupled to the computer system, one or more digital images;
receiving user input requesting to zoom into portions of the one or more digital images that have a specified feature; and
in response to receiving the user input and for each of the one or more digital images,
detecting at least one image portion having the specified feature, and
automatically presenting, on the user interface, a zoomed view of the digital image that displays an enlarged representation of the detected image portion having the specified feature, the zoomed view of the digital image covering an entire area of the user interface configured to present the one or more digital images, the zoomed view being presented at a zoom level that is selected to maximize a fraction of the displayed image portion occupied by the specified feature, the zoomed view displaying a scaled representation of the detected i

Assignees

• Bhatt Nikhil
• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Bhatt Nikhil

Classifications

• G06T11/60 Primary

  Creating or editing images; Combining images with text · CPC title

• G06T3/40

  Scaling of whole images or parts thereof, e.g. expanding or contracting · CPC title