Method and system for identifying an individual in a digital image using location meta-tags
A system and method for tagging an image of an individual in a plurality of photos is disclosed herein. A feature vector of an individual is used to analyze a set of photos on a social networking website such as www.facebook.com to determine if an image of the individual is present in a photo of the set of photos. Photos having an image of the individual are tagged preferably by listing a URL or URI for each of the photos in a database.
1. A system comprising:
a server to support a web site; and
a data store accessible by the server and configured to store image-specific information, including classification and location meta-tags, obtained from a plurality of processed facial images of identified individuals, and
the server configured to:
generate the image-specific information including a plurality of facial tilt angles, wherein each facial tilt angle of the facial tile angles is a component of a respective one of the location meta-tags;
receive a subject photo containing an unknown facial image of an individual;
generate a set of variables from the unknown facial image;
determine an identity of the unknown facial image based on an analysis of the set of variables relative to at least some of the image-specific information including an at least one facial tilt angle of the facial tilt angles; and
transmit the identity over a network to a computing device.
2. The system of claim 1 wherein the web site is a social networking web site.
3. The system of claim 1 wherein the computing device is a wireless computing device.
4. The system of claim 1 wherein the subject photo includes a URL or URI.
5. A method comprising:
generating and storing image-specific information, including classification and location meta-tags, obtained from a plurality of processed facial images of identified individuals, the image-specific information including a plurality of facial tilt angles, wherein each facial tilt angle of the facial tilt angles is a component of a respective one of the location meta-tags;
receiving a subject photo containing an unknown facial image of an individual;
generating a set of variables from the unknown facial image;
determining an identity of the unknown facial image based on an analysis of the set of variables relative to at least some of the image-specific information including an at least one facial tilt angle of the facial tilt angles; and
transmitting the identity over a network to a computing device,
wherein the method is carried out within a system that includes a server supporting a web site.
6. The method of claim 5 wherein the web site is a social networking web site.
7. The method of claim 5 wherein the computing device is a wireless computing device.
8. The method of claim 5 wherein the subject photo includes a URL or URI.
9. The method of claim 5 wherein the receiving the subject photo comprises receiving the subject photo as an email attachment.
10. The method of claim 5 wherein the receiving the subject photo comprises receiving the subject photo as HTTP upload.
11. The system of claim 3 wherein the server is further configured to receive the subject photo as a part of a Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) message from the wireless computing device.
12. The method of claim 7 wherein the receiving of the subject photo comprises receiving of the subject photo as a part of a Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) message from the wireless computing device.