Efficient Propagation for Face Annotation

Abstract

Systems, engines, user interfaces, and methods allow a user to select a group of images, such as digital photographs, and assign to the group of images the name of a person who is represented in each of the images. The name is automatically propagated to the face of the person, each time the person's face occurs in an image. In one implementation, names and associations are shared between a browsing mode for viewing multiple images at once and a viewer mode, for viewing one image at a time. The browsing mode can provide a menu of candidate names for annotating a face in a single image of the viewer mode. Likewise, the viewer mode can provide annotated face information to the browser mode for facilitating name propagation. Identification of a person's face in multiple images can be accomplished not only by finding similarities in facial features but also by finding similarities in contextual features near the face in different images.

1 . A computer-executable method, comprising:
 receiving a first input designating a collection of digital images;   receiving a second input assigning a name to the collection;   automatically finding a visual target in each of the digital images that the digital images have in common, wherein the visual target in each image comprises a face of an individual person and a visual context near the face; and   propagating the name to the face in each of the digital images.   
   
   
       2 . The computer-executable method as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the face presents at different angles along a frontal to side-view spectrum of visual perspectives across the digital images. 
   
   
       3 . The computer-executable method as recited in  claim 1 , wherein at least some of the digital images include multiple different faces. 
   
   
       4 . The computer-executable method as recited in  claim 1 , further comprising finding the face in only a majority of the digital images. 
   
   
       5 . The computer-executable method as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the propagating includes:
 defining a sum of similarities between each pair of faces across different digital images as an objective function; and   maximizing the objective function to associate the name with the face in each digital image that contains the face.   
   
   
       6 . The computer-executable method as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the propagating includes:
 defining a sum of similarities between each pair of faces across different digital images as an objective function, wherein each pair of faces includes a corresponding visual context near each face; and   maximizing the objective function to associate the name with the face in each digital image that contains the face.   
   
   
       7 . The computer-executable method as recited in  claim 1 , further comprising improving a name propagation accuracy by using at least some previously named faces of individuals represented in the selected digital images. 
   
   
       8 . The computer-executable method as recited in  claim 1 , further comprising improving an annotation accuracy of associating the name with the face by using at least some digital images that have been previously associated with names. 
   
   
       9 . The computer-executable method as recited in  claim 1 , further comprising sharing propagated names information between a browsing mode for viewing and selecting multiple of the digital images and a viewer mode for viewing single digital images and annotating a face in the single digital image. 
   
   
       10 . The computer-executable method as recited in  claim 9 , wherein the sharing includes sharing a named face from the viewer mode to the browsing mode. 
   
   
       11 . The computer-executable method as recited in  claim 10 , wherein the sharing includes associating names from the browsing mode with a menu of names for annotating a face in the viewer mode. 
   
   
       12 . A storage medium comprising a plurality of executable instructions which, when executed, implement a computer-executable method according to  claim 1 . 
   
   
       13 . A face annotation engine, comprising:
 a selection engine for selecting multiple images, each image having at least a face of an individual person in common, wherein the multiple images are capable of including faces of multiple persons;   a user interface for applying a name to the selected multiple images; and   a name propagation engine for determining the face common to the selected multiple images based at least in part on a visual context near the face and for annotating the name to the face.   
   
   
       14 . The face annotation engine as recited in  claim 13 , further comprising a labeled faces list for use by a browsing mode manager and a viewer mode manager, wherein the browsing mode manager performs selection and annotation of a group of images and the viewer mode manager performs annotation of a face in a single image. 
   
   
       15 . The face annotation engine as recited in  claim 13 , wherein the name propagation engine includes a similarity measure engine to define an objective function as a sum of similarities between multiple features of each pair of faces and corresponding visual contexts in different selected images and to maximize the objective function in order to associate the name with the face in each image. 
   
   
       16 . The face annotation engine as recited in  claim 15 , wherein the name propagation engine includes a contextual features engine to associate multiple faces in different images with the same person based on a non-facial feature that is similar in the different images. 
   
   
       17 . The face annotation engine as recited in  claim 11 , further comprising a list of previously input names and a menu generator to provide a menu of candidate names for annotating a face in an image. 
   
   
       18 . The face annotation engine as recited in  claim 11 , further comprising:
 a similar face retriever to allow a user to search for similar faces by specifying either a face or a name and to annotate multiple faces in a batch manner.   
   
   
       19 . The face annotation engine as recited in  claim 11 , wherein the name propagation engine improves a name propagation accuracy by using at least some previously named faces or by using at least some images that have been previously associated with names. 
   
   
       20 . A system, comprising:
 means for selecting a batch of digital images, wherein each image in the batch has at least a face of one person in common;   means for providing a name for the batch;   means for identifying a face between multiple representations of the face in different images based on at least a feature of the face and a feature of a visual context near the face; and   means for propagating the name to the face in each digital image.