Abstract: A method of classifying a set of semantic concepts on a second multimedia collection based upon adapting a set of semantic concept classifiers and updating concept affinity relations that were developed to classify the set of semantic concepts for a first multimedia collection. The method comprises providing the second multimedia collection from a different domain and a processor automatically classifying the semantic concepts from the second multimedia collection by adapting the semantic concept classifiers and updating the concept affinity relations to the second multimedia collection based upon the local smoothness over the concept affinity relations and the local smoothness over data affinity relations.

Abstract: A method for associating event times or time periods with digital images in a collection for determining if a digital image is of interest, includes storing a collection of digital images each having an associated capture time; comparing the associated capture time in the collection with a special event time to determine if a digital image in the collection is of interest, wherein the comparing step includes calculation of a special event time associated with a special event based on the calendar time associated with the special event and using such information to perform the comparison step; and associating digital images of interest with the special event.

Abstract: A system and method for semantic event detection in digital image content records is provided in which an event-level “Bag-of-Features” (BOF) representation is used to model events, and generic semantic events are detected in a concept space instead of an original low-level visual feature space based on the BOF representation.

Abstract: A method for determining significant events in a digital image collection, including, using a processor for generating image counts time-series from the image collection; computing a model of the image counts time-series; and using the image counts time-series and the model to determine significant events.

Abstract: A method for measuring a photographer's progress over time toward producing images with a high level of aesthetic quality by assessing the aesthetic quality of a set of digital images captured by the photographer comprising: providing a set of digital images captured by a particular photographer, each digital image having and associated capture times captured by a particular photographer; using a processor to compute an aesthetic quality parameters for each digital image in the set; and producing an indication of the photographer's progress toward producing images with a high level of aesthetic quality using the aesthetic quality parameters for each digital image in the set and the corresponding associated capture times.

Abstract: A method of organizing an image collection includes detecting faces in the image collection, extracting features from the detected faces, determining a set of unique faces by analyzing the extracted features, wherein each face in the set of unique faces is believed to be from a different person than the other faces in the set; and displaying the unique faces to a user.

Abstract: A method for estimating the aesthetic quality of an input digital image comprising using a digital image processor for performing the following: determining one or more vanishing point(s) associated with the input digital image by automatically analyzing the digital image; computing a compositional model from at least the positions of the vanishing point(s); and producing an aesthetic quality parameter for the input digital image responsive to the compositional model, wherein the aesthetic quality parameter is an estimate for the aesthetic quality of the input digital image.

Abstract: A method for producing an audio-visual slideshow for a video sequence having an audio soundtrack and a corresponding video track including a time sequence of image frames, comprising: segmenting the audio soundtrack into a plurality of audio segments; subdividing the audio segments into a sequence of audio frames; determining a corresponding audio classification for each audio frame; automatically selecting a subset of the audio segments responsive to the audio classification for the corresponding audio frames; for each of the selected audio segments automatically analyzing the corresponding image frames to select one or more key image frames; merging the selected audio segments to form an audio summary; forming an audio-visual slideshow by combining the selected key frames with the audio summary, wherein the selected key frames are displayed synchronously with their corresponding audio segment; and storing the audio-visual slideshow in a processor-accessible storage memory.

Abstract: A method for identifying high saliency regions in a digital image, comprising: segmenting the digital image into a plurality of segmented regions; determining a saliency value for each segmented region, merging neighboring segmented regions that share a common boundary in response to determining that one or more specified merging criteria are satisfied; and designating one or more of the segmented regions to be high saliency regions. The determination of the saliency value for a segmented region includes: determining a surround region including a set of image pixels surrounding the segmented region; analyzing the image pixels in the segmented region to determine one or more segmented region attributes; analyzing the image pixels in the surround region to determine one or more corresponding surround region attributes; determining a region saliency value responsive to differences between the one or more segmented region attributes and the corresponding surround region attributes.

Abstract: The invention relates generally to the field of digital image processing, and in particular to a method for associating and viewing related video and still images. In particular, the present invention is directed to methods for associating and/or viewing digital content records comprising ordering a first set of digital content records and the second set of digital content records based upon information associated with each of the digital content records.

Abstract: A method for customizing a presentation of a set of digital images provided by a user is disclosed, comprising the steps of selecting an initial presentation format criteria for the set of digital images by the user; analyzing the digital images for additional information; providing to the user a first portable electronic storage medium having the set of digital images stored thereon, the images capable of being presented to the user on a display device in accordance with a first presentation format based upon the initial selected presentation format criteria and the analysis of the additional information; and providing a software program to the user enabling the user to select additional presentation format criteria.

Abstract: A method of identifying one or more particular images from an image collection, includes indexing the image collection to provide image descriptors for each image in the image collection such that each image is described by one or more of the image descriptors; receiving a query from a user specifying at least one keyword for an image search; and using the keyword(s) to search a second collection of tagged images to identify co-occurrence keywords. The method further includes using the identified co-occurrence keywords to provide an expanded list of keywords; using the expanded list of keywords to search the image descriptors to identify a set of candidate images satisfying the keywords; grouping the set of candidate images according to at least one of the image descriptors, and selecting one or more representative images from each grouping; and displaying the representative images to the user.

Abstract: A method for comparing a plurality of photographers by assessing the aesthetic quality of a set of digital images captured by each photographer comprising: providing a set of digital images captured by each of a plurality of photographers; using a processor to determine an aesthetic quality parameter for each digital image in each of the sets of digital images, wherein the aesthetic quality parameter is an estimate for the aesthetic quality of the digital image; determining an aesthetic quality distribution for each photographer responsive to the aesthetic quality parameters computed for each of the digital images in the photographer's set of digital images; and providing a comparison between the aesthetic quality distributions of the photographers.

Abstract: A method for facilitating semantic event classification of a group of image records related to an event. The method using an event detector system for providing: extracting a plurality of visual features from each of the image records; wherein the visual features include segmenting an image record into a number of regions, in which the visual features are extracted; generating a plurality of concept scores for each of the image records using the visual features, wherein each concept score corresponds to a visual concept and each concept score is indicative of a probability that the image record includes the visual concept; generating a feature vector corresponding to the event based on the concept scores of the image records; and supplying the feature vector to an event classifier that identifies at least one semantic event classifier that corresponds to the event.

Abstract: A method for identifying a set of key frames from a video sequence including a time sequence of video frames, comprising: extracting a feature vector for each video frame in a set of video frames selected from the video sequence; defining a set of basis functions that can be used to represent the extracted feature vectors, wherein each basis function is associated with a different video frame in the set of video frames; representing the feature vectors for each video frame in the set of video frames as a sparse combination of the basis functions associated with the other video frames; and analyzing the sparse combinations of the basis functions for the set of video frames to select the set of key frames.

Abstract: A method of classifying a set of semantic concepts on a second multimedia collection based upon adapting a set of semantic concept classifiers and updating concept affinity relations that were developed to classify the set of semantic concepts for a first multimedia collection. The method comprises providing the second multimedia collection from a different domain and a processor automatically classifying the semantic concepts from the second multimedia collection by adapting the semantic concept classifiers and updating the concept affinity relations to the second multimedia collection based upon the local smoothness over the concept affinity relations and the local smoothness over data affinity relations.

Abstract: A method of grouping images captured in a common location, including receiving a collection of images; classifying the images into a set of events, where each image in the collection belongs to no more than one event; analyzing background region(s) of images from each event to determine one or more features that represent the event; and comparing features from at least two events to determine which events occurred in a common location.

Abstract: A method for determining a classification for a video segment, comprising the steps of: breaking the video segment into a plurality of short-term video slices, each including a plurality of video frames and an audio signal; analyzing the video frames for each short-term video slice to form a plurality of region tracks; analyzing each region track to form a visual feature vector and a motion feature vector; analyzing the audio signal for each short-term video slice to determine an audio feature vector; forming a plurality of short-term audio-visual atoms for each short-term video slice by combining the visual feature vector and the motion feature vector for a particular region track with the corresponding audio feature vector; and using a classifier to determine a classification for the video segment responsive to the short-term audio-visual atoms.

Abstract: A method of detecting recurring events in a digital image collection taken over a pre-determined period of time is disclosed. The method uses a processor for analyzing the digital image collection to produce a two-dimensional representation of the distribution of image capture activity over time and detecting recurring events by identifying spatial clusters in the two-dimensional representation.

Abstract: A method for image presentation are provided, in which at least one theme for image presentation is obtained; at least one set of images is acquired for presentation in association with each theme; and a presentation area image is generated for presentation on a display with a plurality of separate presentation objects in the presentation area image; an image value for each of the acquired images is determined; an emphasis score is determined for each of the acquired images. The presentation area image is presented with one of the acquired images in each of the presentation objects; and the presentation objects are animated by moving the presentation objects relative to each other in a manner that attracts more attention to presentation objects that are used to present images having a higher emphasis score than presentation objects that are used to simultaneously present images having a lower emphasis score.