Eastman-kodak Company

Rajiv Mehrotra

Wei Zhu

James S Warnick

Peter O Stubler

Ahmet M Ferman

Bilge Gunsel

Milind R Naphade

George E Sotak

Jiebo Luo

Edward B Gindele

Jose M Mir

Robert Allen Senn

Robert T Gray

Andreas E Savakis

A Murat Tekalp

Donna M Romer

Mary E Janiszewski

Archna Bhandari

Image-based products are obtained from a digital motion picture source by utilizing a content playing and display system for (a) displaying a sequence of motion picture image frames from a digital motion picture image source containing motion picture contents, and (b) selecting one or more of the image frames for an image-based product and obtaining a unique frame identification for said one or more selected frames; a content management system that (a) utilizes the unique frame identification and determines whether at least one permissible image-based product can be made from said one or more selected frames, and (b), if a permissible image-based product may be made as determined, obtains file data corresponding to said one or more selected frames from a digital source file containing source information corresponding to the motion picture contents; an order management system for preparing order information for the permissible image-based product from the file data; and an order fulfillment system for generating the image-based product from the file data according to the order information.

System and method for obtaining image-based products from a digital motion picture source

An image is automatically assessed with respect to certain features, wherein the assessment is a determination of the degree of importance, interest or attractiveness of the image. First, a digital image is obtained corresponding to the image. Then one or more quantities are computed that are related to one or more features in the digital image, including one or more features pertaining to the content of the digital image. The quantities are processed with a reasoning algorithm that is trained on the opinions of one or more human observers, and an output is obtained from the reasoning algorithm that assesses the image. More specifically, the reasoning algorithm is a Bayesian network that provides a score which, when done for a group of images, selects one image as the emphasis image or the appeal image. The features pertaining to the content of the digital image include people-related features and/or subject-related features. Moreover, additional quantities may be computed that relate to objective measures of the digital image, such as colorfulness and/or sharpness.

Retrieval and browsing of database images based on image emphasis and appeal

A system and method for determining image similarity. The method includes the steps of automatically providing perceptually significant features of main subject or background of a first image; automatically providing perceptually significant features of main subject or background of a second image; automatically comparing the perceptually significant features of the main subject or the background of the first image to the main subject or the background of the second image; and providing an output in response thereto. In the illustrative implementation, the features are provided by a number of belief levels, where the number of belief levels are preferably greater than two. The perceptually significant features include color, texture and/or shape. In the preferred embodiment, the main subject is indicated by a continuously valued belief map. The belief values of the main subject are determined by segmenting the image into regions of homogenous color and texture, computing at least one structure feature and at least one semantic feature for each region, and computing a belief value for all the pixels in the region using a Bayes net to combine the features. In an illustrative application, the inventive method is implemented in an image retrieval system. In this implementation, the inventive method automatically stores perceptually significant features of the main subject or background of a plurality of first images in a database to facilitate retrieval of a target image in response to an input or query image. Features corresponding to each of the plurality of stored images are automatically sequentially compared to similar features of the query image. Consequently, the present invention provides an automatic system and method for controlling the feature extraction, representation, and feature-based similarity retrieval strategies of a content-based image archival and retrieval system based on an analysis of main subject and background derived from a continuously valued main subject belief map.

System and method for determining image similarity

A method of generating captions or semantic labels for an acquired image is based upon similarity between the acquired image and one or more stored images that are maintained in an image database environment, where the stored images have preexisting captions or labels associated with them. The method includes the steps of: a) acquiring an image for evaluation with respect to the stored images; b) automatically extracting metadata from the acquired image without requiring user interaction in the image database environment; c) automatically selecting one or more stored images having metadata similar to the extracted metadata, thereby providing selected stored images with metadata similar to the acquired image; and d) generating captions or labels for the acquired image from the preexisting captions or labels associated with the selected stored images.

Method for associating semantic information with multiple images in an image database environment

A method for representing an image in terms of the shape properties of its identified segments of interest involves analyzing each segment of interest to automatically identify one or more of its perceptually significant components and then representing each perceptually significant component in terms of its shape properties, e.g., by means of Fourier descriptors. The image segment is then characterized as a composition of the shape properties of its perceptually significant components. By repeating the foregoing steps, the image is represented as a composition of its characterized segments. This technique can then be used to archive and retrieve images based on the shape properties of identified segments.

Method and system for archival and retrieval of images based on the shape properties of identified segments

A method of analyzing one or more images of a user to determine the likelihood of user interest in materials that can be sent for display to the user includes selecting one or more images by a user; automatically analyzing the one or more user images to determine the likelihood that materials in a set will be of interest to the user; and selecting one or more items of materials based on their likelihood of interest to the user.

Analyzing images to determine if one or more sets of materials correspond to the analyzed images

A method for placing a human understandable item, such as a caption, text or a figurative element, in a digital image includes the steps of (a) digitally processing the digital image to recognize and identify an optimal location in the digital image for placing the item and (b) modifying the placement of the item in relation to human understandable image content so as to minimally obscure such human understandable image content in the digital image. The recognition and identification of an optimal location further includes the identification of an optimal open space region and then finding an optimal location for the item within the open space region. The placement of the item may be done so as to minimally obscure human understandable image content either in other locations of the optimal open space region, or in regions of the digital image adjoining the optimal open space region. Placement of the image may further be based on evaluating the proportion of image pixels in the item that occlude pixels outside of either the optimal location or the optimal region. Moreover, one or more attributes of the item, such as the color, size or shape of the item, may be modified in relation to the human understandable image content in the digital image to enhance the prominence of the item in the digital image.

Method for automatic text placement in digital images

An object-oriented method for describing the content of a video sequence comprises the steps of (a) establishing a temporal object-based segment for an object of interest; (b) describing the temporal object-based segment by describing one or more semantic motions of the object within its temporal object-based segment; and (c) describing the temporal object-based segment by describing one or more semantic interactions of the object with one or more other objects within its temporal object-based segment. The semantic motions of the object may be further described in terms of the properties of elementary coherent motions within the semantic motion. Additionally, the semantic interactions of the object may be further described in terms of the properties of the elementary spatio-temporal relationships among the interacting objects.

Method and system for object-oriented motion-based video description

A method for performing content-based temporal segmentation of video sequences, the method comprises the steps of transmitting the video sequence to a processor; identifying within the video sequence a plurality of type-specific individual temporal segments using a plurality of type-specific detectors; analyzing and refining the plurality of type-specific individual temporal segments identified in the identifying the plurality of type-specific individual temporal segments step; and outputting a list of locations within the video sequence of the identified type-specific individual temporal segments.

Fade-in and fade-out temporal segments

A method for retrieving digital patterns similar to a query pattern operates by generating representations of each digital pattern in terms of one or more color invariant properties; storing and organizing the patterns and their representations in a database; and searching the database by reference to the representations to identify and retrieve patterns similar to the query pattern. A preferred color invariant property is an edge property of the digital patterns. A web-based pattern registration and searching architecture enables on-line pattern search and selection utilizing a variety of pattern representations and similarity techniques, including the edge property based system described above.

Method and system for search and retrieval of similar patterns

A user preference for a desired image is determined by using one or more examples and counterexamples of a desired image in order to define the user preference. A relative preference of a user for one or more image components or one or more depictive features is automatically extracted from the examples and counterexamples of the desired image. Then, a user subjective definition of a desired image is formulated using the relative preferences for either the image components or the depictive features.

Method and computer program product for subjective image content similarity-based retrieval

A method for performing content-based temporal segmentation of video sequences, the method comprises the steps of transmitting the video sequence to a processor, identifying within the video sequence a plurality of type-specific individual temporal segments using a plurality of type-specific detectors; analyzing and refining the plurality of type-specific individual temporal segments identified in the identifying the plurality of type-specific individual temporal segments step; and outputting a list of locations within the video sequence of the identified type-specific individual temporal segments.

Method for content-based temporal segmentation of video

A system for the storage of a digital image in an image database, the system comprises: a processor; software for automatically generating with said processor open space metadata from the digital image independent of manually inputting data; and software for storing the open space metadata along with the associated image in the image database.

System and method for open space metadata-based storage and retrieval of

A method for detecting open space in a digital image, the method comprises the steps of creating an activity map for permitting determination of the activity of the digital image; determining which pixels in the activity map are below a threshold; and identifying open space as contiguous pixels of the activity map having values below the predetermined threshold.

Growing community of inventors

Rochester, NY, United States of America

Rajiv Mehrotra