US20120076427A1 — Method of selecting important digital images

Claim 1

Independent Claim 98 words

1 . A method for selecting important digital images in a collection of digital images, comprising: using a processor to automatically analyze the digital images in the collection of digital images to identify one or more sets of similar digital images; identifying one or more sets of similar digital images having the largest number of similar digital images; using a processor to automatically select one or more digital images from the identified largest sets of similar digital images to be important digital images; and storing an indication of the selected important digital image in a processor accessible memory.

Claim 2

Dependent Claim 98 words

1 . A method for selecting important digital images in a collection of digital images, comprising: using a processor to automatically analyze the digital images in the collection of digital images to identify one or more sets of similar digital images; identifying one or more sets of similar digital images having the largest number of similar digital images; using a processor to automatically select one or more digital images from the identified largest sets of similar digital images to be important digital images; and storing an indication of the selected important digital image in a processor accessible memory.

Claim 3

Dependent Claim 23 words

2 . The method of claim 1 wherein the digital images within a set of similar digital images have a similar visual appearance.

Claim 4

Dependent Claim 23 words

3 . The method of claim 1 wherein the digital images within a set of similar digital images have a similar capture time.

Claim 5

Dependent Claim 25 words

4 . The method of claim 1 wherein the digital images within a set of similar digital images are captured within a specified time interval.

Claim 6

Dependent Claim 24 words

5 . The method of claim 1 wherein the digital images within a set of similar digital images are captured at recurring time intervals.

Claim 7

Dependent Claim 23 words

6 . The method of claim 1 wherein the digital images within a set of similar digital images have a similar capture location.

Claim 8

Dependent Claim 23 words

7 . The method of claim 1 wherein the digital images within a set of similar digital images have a similar image classification.

Claim 9

Dependent Claim 21 words

8 . The method of claim 1 wherein the digital images within a set of similar digital images are captured sequentially.

Claim 10

Dependent Claim 43 words

9 . The method of claim 1 wherein an event clustering algorithm is used to divide the collection of digital images into event clusters, and wherein the digital images within a single event cluster are designated as a set of similar digital images.

Claim 11

Dependent Claim 15 words

10 . The method of claim 1 wherein the digital images are digital still images.

Claim 12

Dependent Claim 18 words

11 . The method of claim 1 wherein the digital images are video frames of a digital video.

Claim 13

Dependent Claim 31 words

12 . The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one digital image is selected from each of the identified sets of similar digital images to be important digital images.

Claim 14

Dependent Claim 72 words

13 . The method of claim 1 wherein the step of selecting the important digital image from the identified largest sets of similar digital images includes: using a processor to automatically analyze the digital images in the identified largest sets of similar digital images to determine an indication of image quality; and selecting one or more digital images to be the important digital image responsive to the determined indication of image quality.

Claim 15

Dependent Claim 35 words

14 . The method of claim 13 wherein the digital image in each of the identified largest sets of similar digital images having the highest image quality is selected to be an important digital image.

Claim 16

Dependent Claim 65 words

15 . The method of claim 13 wherein the digital image in each of the identified largest sets of similar digital images having the highest image quality is selected to be an important digital image, except that if the digital image having the highest image quality has an image quality less than a predetermined threshold it is not selected to be an important digital image.

Claim 17

Dependent Claim 39 words

16 . The method of claim 13 wherein the digital images in the identified largest sets of similar digital images having an image quality an image quality greater than a specified threshold are selected to be important digital images.

Claim 18

Dependent Claim 25 words

17 . The method of claim 16 wherein the specified threshold is adaptively determined such that a specified number of important digital images are selected.

Claim 19

Dependent Claim 21 words

18 . The method of claim 12 wherein the image quality is determined responsive to computing an aesthetic image quality metric.

Claim 20

Dependent Claim 26 words

19 . The method of claim 18 wherein the aesthetic image quality metric is responsive to the presentation of any faces detected in the digital image.

Claim 21

Dependent Claim 21 words

20 . The method of claim 12 wherein the image quality is determined responsive to one or more quantitative image attributes.

Claim 22

Dependent Claim 30 words

21 . The method of claim 20 wherein the quantitative image attributes include an image sharpness attribute, an image noise attribute, an image colorfulness attribute or an image contrast attribute.

Claim 23

Dependent Claim 43 words

22 . The method of claim 12 further including the step of identifying one or more persons within a digital image, and wherein the image quality is determined responsive to whether the identified persons have a known social relationship to a reference individual.

Claim 24

Dependent Claim 21 words

23 . The method of claim 12 wherein the image quality is determined responsive to utilization patterns for the digital image.

Claim 25

Dependent Claim 18 words

24 . The method of claim 12 wherein the image quality is determined responsive to a user-designated rating.

Claim 26

Dependent Claim 36 words

25 . The method of claim 1 wherein the identified largest sets of similar digital images are presented to a user on a soft copy display, together with an indication of the selected important digital images.

Claim 27

Dependent Claim 27 words

26 . The method of claim 25 further including a user interface to enable the user to confirm or override the selection of the important digital images.

Claim 28

Dependent Claim 33 words

27 . The method of claim 26 further including updating the automatic selection method used to select the important digital images to preferentially select digital images similar to the user-selected important digital images.

Claim 29

Dependent Claim 23 words

28 . The method of claim 1 further including the step of using the selected important digital images to create a photographic product.

Claim 30

Dependent Claim 26 words

29 . The method of claim 28 wherein the photographic product is a digital slide show, a photo album, a photo calendar or a photo collage.

Claim 31

Dependent Claim 26 words

30 . The method of claim 1 further including the step of sharing the selected important digital images on a social network or a photo-sharing website.

Claim 32

Dependent Claim 122 words

31 . A system comprising: a data processing system; and a memory system communicatively connected to the data processing system and storing executable instructions configured to cause the data processing system to implement a method for selecting important digital images in a collection of digital images, wherein the instructions comprise: analyzing the digital images in the collection of digital images to identify one or more sets of similar digital images; identifying one or more sets of similar digital images having the largest number of similar digital images; selecting one or more digital images from the identified largest sets of similar digital images to be important digital images; and storing an indication of the selected important digital image in a processor accessible memory.

Claim 33

Dependent Claim 122 words

31 . A system comprising: a data processing system; and a memory system communicatively connected to the data processing system and storing executable instructions configured to cause the data processing system to implement a method for selecting important digital images in a collection of digital images, wherein the instructions comprise: analyzing the digital images in the collection of digital images to identify one or more sets of similar digital images; identifying one or more sets of similar digital images having the largest number of similar digital images; selecting one or more digital images from the identified largest sets of similar digital images to be important digital images; and storing an indication of the selected important digital image in a processor accessible memory.

Method of selecting important digital images

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