Technical Reports
HPL-2009-365
Faces from the web: Automatic selection and composition of media for casual screen consumption and printed art-workCheatle, Phil; Greig, Darryl; Slatter, David
HP Laboratories
HPL-2009-365
Keyword(s): automatic layout; photo collage; automatic video editing
Abstract: Web image search engines facilitate the production of image sets in which faces appear. Many people enjoy producing and sharing media collections of this type and generating new images or video experiences. Skilled practitioners produce visually appealing artifacts from such collections but few users have the time or creative ability to do so. The problem is to automatically create an image or ambient experience which sustains interest. A full solution requires agreements with copyright holders and input from graphics designers. We address the underlying technical problems of extraction and composition. We describe an automatic system that identifies regions containing human faces in each image of an image set resulting from a web search. The face regions are composed into dynamically synthesized multilayer graphical backgrounds. The aesthetic aspects of the composition are controlled by active templates. These aspects include face size and positioning but also face identity and number of faces in a group. The output structure is multi layer supporting both the generation of static images and video consisting of transitions between the compositions.
12 Pages
Additional Publication Information: To be published and presented at El 2010 at San Jose, CA, USA Imaging and Printing in a Web 2.0 World.
External Posting Date: December 6, 2009 [Abstract Only]. Approved for External Publication - External Copyright Consideration
Internal Posting Date: December 6, 2009 [Fulltext]