Friday, August 14, 2015

Apple's published US application 20150227782 on facial recognition: SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SENDING DIGITAL IMAGES

The first published claim:


A method comprising: identifying, using a processor of a machine, a first face depicted within a digital image; matching, using the processor of the machine, the first face with a first contact entry, the matching performed against a facial ID data structure corresponding to the first contact entry; identifying, from the first contact entry, one or more first electronic addresses stored within the first contact entry, each first electronic address having a communication type; and generating, for presentation by the machine, a display including a plurality of communication type indicators, each communication type indicator corresponding to a communication type, each communication type indicator activated if at least one first electronic address has the communication type of the communication type indicator.



From the specification:


[0012] A user may have a picture of one or more people. The picture can be stored on a computing device (e.g., a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a server computer, a smart phone, or a tablet). The picture can be a photo that was taken by the computing device or transferred to the computing device from another source. For example, the picture may have been taken by a smart phone and be stored on the smart phone, transferred to a desktop computer via a cable (e.g., a universal serial bus ("USB") cable), or transferred to a server computer over a network. Facial recognition algorithms may identify the faces of one or more people in the picture. Information about the people in the picture may be accessed (e.g., from a contact information database). Based on the information about the people in the picture, the picture may be sent to one or more of the people in the picture. For example, an email may be sent to email addresses for the people in the picture, including the picture as an attachment.

[0013] The user may be presented with options to select the recipients of the picture. For example, identified people may be pre-selected and the user presented with the option to de-select them to avoid sending the picture to them. As another example, contact information for recognized faces lacking contact information may be added by the user, or existing contact information updated. Addresses of individuals not in the picture may also be added to a recipient list and the picture sent to those individuals as well as the identified individuals.

[0014] Multiple types of communication may be available. For example, email, short message service ("SMS") messaging, and posting to a social network may all be available. A contact database may contain addresses for different types of communication for the different people in the picture. For example, an email address may be the only address known for a first person, while a mobile phone number suitable for receiving SMS messages may be the only address known for a second person. A user interface may be presented indicating which forms of communication are available for different identified people. For example, recognized faces may be indicated (e.g., enclosed in a box or highlighted) along with icons indicating the available forms of communication for the corresponding person. A user interface may be presented indicating the total number of people available to be communicated with using each form of communication. The user may have the option to choose one or more forms of communication, causing the picture to be sent to the recipients using the selected forms of communication. In this example, each contact within a contact database can have a default communication mechanism for sharing data such as pictures.


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