Abstract: An object is to provide a user with motivation to enjoy waking up in the morning and guide the user to sufficient awakening by generating a breeding event in a breeding game of a virtual life form when the user wakes up in the morning. A game server that manages progress of a breeding game of a virtual life form can provide a user with motivation to enjoy waking up in the morning and guide the user to sufficient awakening by generating a breeding event in a breeding game of a virtual life form when the user wakes up in the morning. The game server includes circuitry configured to acquire a wake-up time of a user; and a update the breeding game in accordance with the acquired wake-up time.

Abstract: In a driving analysis device, an information generation unit generates a time series of detection elements including a line-of-sight direction indicating to which of a plurality of preset viewable areas a line of sight of a driver driving a vehicle is oriented and an open/closed state of driver's eyes. An acquisition unit acquires evaluation data from the time series of the detection elements using a time window having a preset time width. An extraction unit extracts a plurality of feature quantities including at least a result of summation of appearance frequencies with respect to each of the detection elements from the evaluation data. An analysis unit analyzes a driver's tendency using a function that receives, as input, at least a part of the feature quantities extracted by the extraction unit.

Abstract: In a consciousness determination device, a time series of a plurality of detection elements that includes a line-of-sight state indicating to which of a plurality of preset viewable areas a line of sight of a driver driving a vehicle is directed and an open/closed state of driver's eyes is generated. Detection data is extracted from the time series of the detection elements using a time window having a preset time width. The line-of-sight state of the driver with respect to each of the plurality of viewable areas is aggregated using the detection data. Based on an aggregation result, at least one of (i) a state of consciousness of the driver with respect to each of the plurality of viewable areas and (ii) a state of consciousness of the driver with respect to an event associated with each of the plurality of viewable areas is determined.

Abstract: In a behavior recognition apparatus, a secondary informational item is generated for a corresponding target state of one or more than one target state extracted from each primary informational item acquired. The secondary informational item is represented by two different values, which express respectively (i) corresponding to the target state and (ii) not corresponding to the target state, the two different values being enabled to be added or subtracted. Further, a behavior vector is updated using a determination information group extracted by using a time window from a plurality of the secondary informational items in time series, and the driving behavior of the driver is recognized using the updated behavior vector.

Abstract: A pupil estimation device is provided as follows. A reference position is calculated using detected peripheral points of an eye in a captured image. A difference vector representing a difference between a pupil central position and the reference position is calculated with a regression function by using (i) the reference position and (ii) a brightness of a predetermined region in the captured image. The pupil central position is obtained by adding the calculated difference vector to the reference position.

Abstract: An image processing method and an electronic device are disclosed. The image processing method includes obtaining distance information of at least one portion of pixels in an image acquired by the image acquiring unit, the distance information indicating a distance from the image acquiring unit to a shot object to which each pixel among the at least one portion of pixels corresponds; determining magnifications of the at least one portion of pixels based on the distance information and optical characteristics of the image acquiring unit; and adjusting the image based on the magnifications of the at least one portion of pixels.

Abstract: An object tracking apparatus is configured to determine, according to a predetermined object region containing an object in an initial image of an image sequence, an object region estimated to contain the object in each subsequent image of the image sequence. Moreover, the object tracking apparatus is allowed to adapt the size of the object region obtained through tracking to the change in the shape or size of the object, and to avoid a tracking error.

Abstract: An information processing apparatus may generate resource information used for playing back image content that can be divided into a plurality of zones. The information processing apparatus may include an image generator generating a still image from each of the plurality of zones, a face processor setting each of the plurality of zones to be a target zone and determining whether a face of a specific character which is determined to continuously appear in at least one zone before the target zone is contained in the still image generated from the target zone, and an information generator specifying, on the basis of a determination result obtained for each of the plurality of zones by the face processor, at least one zone in which the face of the specific character continuously appears as a face zone, and generating information concerning the face zone as one item of the resource information.

Abstract: An image processing method and an electronic device are disclosed. The image processing method includes obtaining distance information of at least one portion of pixels in an image acquired by the image acquiring unit, the distance information indicating a distance from the image acquiring unit to a shot object to which each pixel among the at least one portion of pixels corresponds; determining magnifications of the at least one portion of pixels based on the distance information and optical characteristics of the image acquiring unit; and adjusting the image based on the magnifications of the at least one portion of pixels.

Abstract: An information processing device includes a conversion unit that performs conversion such that an area including a feature point and the periphery thereof in a specific target is set as a first area and, when one pixel in the first area is set as a reference pixel, an area including the reference pixel and pixels in the periphery thereof is set as a second area, and, based on a comparison result of the feature amount of the reference pixel and the feature amount of another pixel in the second area, the feature amount of another pixel is converted for each pixel in the second area, and a calculation unit that calculates a feature amount to be used in an identification process for identifying the specific target by performing computation for the value of each pixel in the second area which is obtained from the conversion for each reference pixel.

Abstract: An information processing apparatus may generate resource information used for playing back image content that can be divided into a plurality of zones. The information processing apparatus may include an image generator generating a still image from each of the plurality of zones, a face processor setting each of the plurality of zones to be a target zone and determining whether a face of a specific character which is determined to continuously appear in at least one zone before the target zone is contained in the still image generated from the target zone, and an information generator specifying, on the basis of a determination result obtained for each of the plurality of zones by the face processor, at least one zone in which the face of the specific character continuously appears as a face zone, and generating information concerning the face zone as one item of the resource information.

Abstract: An information processing apparatus may generate resource information used for playing back image content that can be divided into a plurality of zones. The information processing apparatus may include an image generator generating a still image from each of the plurality of zones, a face processor setting each of the plurality of zones to be a target zone and determining whether a face of a specific character which is determined to continuously appear in at least one zone before the target zone is contained in the still image generated from the target zone, and an information generator specifying, on the basis of a determination result obtained for each of the plurality of zones by the face processor, at least one zone in which the face of the specific character continuously appears as a face zone, and generating information concerning the face zone as one item of the resource information.

Abstract: An information processing apparatus may control display of a GUI image including indexes that allow a user to select the entirety or part of an image content piece. The information processing apparatus may include a controller configured to control display of a first GUI image including an index of each of at least one image content piece, and to control a display of a second GUI image including face thumbnail images, which serve as indexes that allow the user to select the entirety or part of an image content piece corresponding to an index selected from the first GUI image by the user, the face thumbnail images corresponding to faces detected from the entirety or part of the image content piece.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus and method are disclosed. The image processing apparatus may include: a feature acquiring device configured to acquire values of a plurality of features of each pixel block in an object region of an image frame, each pixel block containing N×M pixels, N?1, M?1; an estimating device configured to estimate capability, of each of the plurality of features of each pixel block, of reflecting difference between background and an object in the image frame according to the object region and the background in the image frame; and a feature weighting device configured to assign a weight to each of the plurality of features according to the capability of each feature reflecting difference between background and the object, to emphasize a feature corresponding to a stronger capability.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes: a calculating unit that calculates an evaluation value, which is expressed as a sum of confidence degrees obtained by mixing, at a predetermined mixing ratio, a matching degree of a first feature quantity and a matching degree of a second feature quantity between a target image containing an object to be tracked and a comparison image which is an image of a comparison region compared to the target image of a first frame, when the mixing ratio is varied and obtaining the mixing ratio when the evaluation value is maximum; and a detecting unit that detects an image corresponding to the target image of a second frame based on the confidence degrees in which the mixing ratio is set when the evaluation value is the maximum.

Abstract: The invention discloses an object tracking apparatus and method and a camera. The object tracking apparatus is used for determining, according to a predetermined object region containing an object in an initial image of an image sequence, an object region estimated to contain the object in each subsequent image thereof, and comprises a first tracking unit configured to determine a first candidate object region in each subsequent image, a size of which being fixed for each subsequent image; a second tracking unit configured to determine a second candidate object region in each subsequent image based on the first candidate object region thereof, the second candidate object region for each subsequent image being adapted to a shape or size of the object therein; and a weighting unit configured to calculate a weighted sum of the first and second candidate object regions of each subsequent image as the object region thereof.

Abstract: An object detecting apparatus includes an evaluation information storage unit that stores evaluation information used for computing an evaluation value for each of a plurality of objects, where the evaluation value is used for evaluating which one of the objects is contained in an image, a determination information storage unit that stores determination information used for determining whether the object is contained in an image in association with each of the objects, a computing unit that computes the evaluation value for each of the objects by extracting features from a plurality of areas of the image using the evaluation information and comparing two of the extracted features, and a determination unit that determines whether the object is contained in the image using the determination information associated with the object relating to the evaluation value that satisfies a predetermined condition among the evaluation values computed for the objects.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus for processing an image including an image of a face includes: a normalization unit configured to normalize the image including the image of a face so that the size of the face becomes a predetermined face size; a detection area setting unit configured to set an area smaller than the image normalized by the normalization unit as a detection area in which a position of a face part of the face is detected; and a detection unit configured to detect the position of the face part in the detection area set by the detection area setting unit.

Abstract: A recording apparatus and a recording method that can record both moving picture data and still picture data in a form reproducible by various reproducing apparatus. The moving picture data is compressed by an MPEG system by an MPEG encoder, formed into data for recording corresponding to a predetermined recording format by a format forming unit, and then recorded on a DVD. The still picture data is compressed by a JPEG system by a JPEG encoder, and recorded on the DVD separately from the moving picture data. In predetermined timing, the still picture data compressed by the JPEG system and recorded on the DVD is read, the still picture data is converted into I-pictures of the MPEG system by a format converting unit, and then the I-pictures of the MPEG system are recorded onto the DVD in the predetermined format via the format forming unit.

Abstract: An image-capturing apparatus for capturing an image by using a solid-state image-capturing device may include a face detector configured to detect a face of a human being on the basis of an image signal in a period until an image signal obtained by image capturing is recorded on a recording medium; an expression evaluation section configured to evaluate the expression of the detected face and to compute an expression evaluation value indicating the degree to which the detected face is close to a specific expression in relation to expressions other than the specific expression; and a notification section configured to notify notification information corresponding to the computed expression evaluation value to an image-captured person.