Among the 31 patents granted to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) today by the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO), one of the more unusual concerns methods of “faceprinting” famous people, places, landmarks, or images automatically when a digital photo is taken, and offering information about that famous individual or thing. Though faceprinting already exists, this patent takes the concept in a new direction and might be particularly useful in journalism, data analysis, and similar fields.
The patent, Number 8,755,610, describes a process whereby a digital photographic device will search faces and objects for famous matches in a preconfigured database. These “iconic faceprints” would likely be stored in the Cloud, though it is possible that some might also be stored locally for offline use. The new iStick by HYPER, the first USB 2.0 and Lightning compatible flash drive, is designed to enable many Apple features to be used offline and might be useful in this instance as well.
The patent goes on to describe how the management software could recognize an iconic faceprint, such as that of an actor or politician, even without the user knowing that this person was present in their photo. “Iconic images” such as the Mona Lisa or Mickey Mouse would also be recognized, and locations like the Eiffel Tower, Mount Rushmore, St. Peter’s in Rome, or the Tower of Bayterek in Astana, Kazakhstan would presumably also be identified.
The patented technique, entitled “Auto-Recognition for Noteworthy Objects,” would also display identification data to the end user. For example, if someone used their iPhone to snap a picture of a crowd of people, the program might possibly display the text “you have just photographed the actress Zoe Saldana,” were that individual present in the throng.
Faceprinting already exists, enabling users to designate faces that will, for example, be saved to a folder relating to that person. This type of facial recognition is generally programmed to identify friends and family members, since these are the people most likely to appear in recurring fashion in the average user’s photo galleries.
Such a feature would have obvious uses in journalism and related fields also. The ability to rapidly identify and sort photographs that included famous people, without the need to individually review these images, would greatly speed certain journalistic processes.
The patent application was initially filed on June 10th, 2011, with Apple Inc. as the assignee. The inventors of record are Jerremy Holland, Jan Erik Solem, and William E. Hensler. Mr. Holland was educated at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and later worked at 3D Robotics and Fringe Studios. He is currently Director of Engineering at Apple Inc. (AAPL) and has worked on numerous media editing and graphical analysis patents for the Cupertino company.
