Image Privacy Protection via Face Recognition and Selective Obscuring
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Solution Overview
Problem
There is a challenge in protecting the privacy of individuals and maintaining security in photographs and videos captured by devices, as strangers may inadvertently be included, and existing methods lack efficiency in distinguishing and modifying images containing restricted elements.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that utilize devices like smart glasses and smartphones to recognize and modify images by employing face recognition, GPS, and communication with servers to identify and obscure or modify photographing restricted elements, such as people, objects, or locations, based on pre-defined privacy settings and databases.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a photographer manually checks each captured image to identify and protect strangers' privacy, then privacy protection can be achieved, but the operation becomes time-consuming and complex
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically detects faces in captured images, identifies strangers using database comparison, and applies privacy protection measures without requiring manual photographer intervention. The device serves itself by autonomously completing the entire privacy protection workflow from detection to image modification.
Solution Approach 2:
The manual mechanical process of visually inspecting and editing images is replaced with an automated electronic system using face recognition algorithms, database comparison, and automatic image processing to identify and protect strangers' privacy.
2Productivity
If automated face recognition and database comparison are implemented to identify strangers, then privacy protection efficiency improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The server database serves multiple functions: storing registered user information, performing face recognition comparisons, and providing privacy protection decisions. This multi-functional approach consolidates complex operations into a single universal system that handles identification and protection tasks.
Solution Approach 2:
A server acts as an intermediary between the photographing device and the privacy protection database, handling the complex tasks of face recognition, database comparison, and decision-making, thereby reducing the complexity burden on the portable photographing device itself.
3Reliability
If all captured images are automatically processed and modified, then privacy protection is ensured, but image quality and useful information may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
Privacy protection is applied selectively only to specific regions containing stranger faces rather than the entire image. The system identifies face locations, applies protection measures only to those localized areas, and preserves the rest of the image content in its original high quality.
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies partial action by processing only the necessary portions of images (faces of strangers) rather than the entire image. This selective approach ensures privacy protection while minimizing impact on overall image quality and retaining useful non-face information.
Data Source
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AI summary
Provided is a user device including: a storage configured to store data; and a controller configured to recognize a person included in an image captured by the user device or received by the user device from an external source, and change a part of the image corresponding to the recognized person to be unrecognizable in response to a degree of closeness between the recognized person and a user of the user device being lower than a predetermined level based on the data stored in the storage.