Patent Publication Number: US-11039022-B2

Title: Custom recommendations application for creating photo book cover

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The disclosure relates generally to creating photo books using mobile-based software applications. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Customers sometimes become frustrated with the time and effort it takes in choosing a photo book cover that is compatible with their photo. Often times, faces in the customer&#39;s photo may be blocked by design elements of a template in a selected photo slot or otherwise cropped off the front cover. This requires the customer to choose another photo that is compatible with a chosen photo slot, or to choose other available photo slots where design elements don&#39;t block the faces of their selected photo. This sometimes leads the customer to give up in their endeavor which leads to lost revenue and an unsatisfied customer. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES 
         FIG. 1  illustrates an example photo provided by a customer via an application interface tested by the Front Cover Auto-Sort (FCAS) software application/algorithm for combability with two template designs; 
         FIG. 2  illustrates a web interface configured as a graphical user interface (GUI) for launching the FCAS algorithm on a mobile device; 
         FIG. 3  illustrates a GUI of the FCAS algorithm presenting customer&#39;s photos for use by the FCAS algorithm on the mobile device; 
         FIG. 4  illustrates as a system and method of operating the FCAS algorithm; 
         FIG. 5  illustrates Aspect Ratio (AR) as a decimal value; 
         FIG. 6  illustrates two examples of photos shown to have extra space in the horizontal dimension or vertical dimensions based on the relative values of the photo slot&#39;s aspect AR and the photo&#39;s AR; 
         FIG. 7  illustrates the FCAS algorithm determining the optimum location for the photo in the horizontal direction based on these rules; 
         FIG. 8  illustrates the FCAS algorithm determining the optimum location for the photo in the vertical direction based on these rules; 
         FIG. 9  illustrates a pre-sorted set of front cover templates using photos with no faces, and no FCAS algorithm run; and 
         FIG. 10  illustrates a re-sorted list of front cover templates using photos with faces, post FCAS algorithm. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth by way of examples in order to provide a thorough understanding of the relevant teachings. However, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present teachings may be practiced without such details. In other instances, description of well-known methods, procedures, components, and circuitry are set forth at a relatively high-level, without detail, in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring aspects of the present teachings. 
     This description of the exemplary embodiments that follows is intended to be read in connection with the accompanying drawings, which are to be considered part of the entire written description. In the description, relative terms such as “lower,” “upper,” “horizontal,” “vertical,”, “above,” “below.” “up,” “down,” “top” and “bottom” as well as derivative thereof (e.g., “horizontally,” “downwardly,” “upwardly,” etc.) should be construed to refer to the orientation as then described or as shown in the drawing under discussion. These relative terms are for convenience of description and do not require that the apparatus be constructed or operated in a particular orientation. Terms concerning attachments, coupling and the like, such as “connected” and “interconnected,” refer to a relationship wherein structures are secured or attached to one another either directly or indirectly through intervening structures, as well as both removable or rigid attachments or relationships, unless expressly described otherwise. 
     Additional objects, advantages and novel features of the examples will be set forth in part in the following description, and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following and the accompanying drawings or they may learn by production or operation of the examples. The methodologies, instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims assist in realizing and ascertaining the objects and advantages of the present subject matter. 
     FCAS Algorithm 
       FIG. 1  illustrates an example photo  10  provided by a customer mobile device via an application interface ( FIG. 3 ) tested by the Front Cover Auto-Sort (FCAS) software application/algorithm for combability with two different front cover template designs  12 . A photo  10  overlaid with a template  12  is defined as a photo book photo cover. The photo  10  having at least one face is compared to a set of templates  12  arranged in a prioritize first order, where each template  12  has design elements such as illustrated as script and a graphic design. For instance, the prioritized first order may be based on the popularity of the templates with users, and may have new templates or those with foil (a paid upgrade) sorted toward the top. The photo  10  is compatible with the template  12  shown as photo book front cover  14 . Compatible is defined as allowing all detected faces in photo  10  to appear in a photo slot ( FIGS. 6-8 ) without being blocked by design elements or otherwise cropped off the photo book front cover, while meeting the requirement of filling the entire photo slot. The photo  10  is not compatible with the template  12  as shown as photo book front cover  16  since the template design element does overlap the faces of the photo  10 . 
       FIG. 2  illustrates an application program interface (API) configured as a graphical user interface (GUI) for launching the FCAS algorithm on a mobile device. The mobile device may be a mobile phone or mobile tablet, for instance, having a processor, memory, display, and processor instructions/code for operating the FCAS algorithm. 
       FIG. 3  illustrates the GUI of the FCAS algorithm presenting a plurality of customer photos  10  for use by the FCAS algorithm on the mobile device. 
       FIG. 4  illustrates a computing system  30  operating the FCAS algorithm to compare face data of a user selected photo  10  with template data of a set of templates  12  stored in a hosted web server  34  and arranged in the first order, and assign a health score to each photo cover. Each cover template  12  ( FIG. 1 ) includes the coordinates of any graphic elements in the template, such as raster objects, shapes, or text, that may block any area of a photo slot. The better the fit of the photo  10  to the template  12  the lower the health score, and the more compatible the photo and template are with each other. 
     The computing device  32  includes an electronic processor  33  and a non-transitory computer readable medium including instructions/code for executing the FCAS algorithm. In one example, the computing device  32  may comprise a mobile device with wireless communication components and applications for sending/receiving specific types of electronic messages. The FCAS algorithm is performed locally on the device  32 . 
     A user selects a photo  10  from a file containing multiple photos in computing device  32 , such as by tapping a displayed photo as shown in  FIG. 3 , or by obtaining from a third party source. A Google Mobile Vision SDK API  42  is installed on the computing device  32 , and is contained in the mobile app for an iOS mobile device, and is part of the operating system for an Android based mobile device. The API  42  is called by processor  33  for a particular photo  10 , and position data of the faces in selected photo  10  is returned by API  42 . The processor  33  then calls hosted web server  34  to acquire the prioritized set of design templates in a first order and the templates&#39; coordinate data, including the design element coordinates and photo slot coordinates used to compare with face coordinates from photo  10 . 
     After the prioritized set of design templates in the first order is accessed by computing device  32 , the FCAS algorithm compares face coordinate data of photo  10  with template coordinate data of all templates in the set, and sorts template designs that are not compatible, such as shown at  16  in  FIG. 1 , to a bottom of the set templates organized in a list ( FIG. 10 ). The template designs are not compatible when the photo  10  cannot be positioned in a way that all faces are shown in the photo slot without obstruction from other design elements of the template while also filling the photo slot entirely. This is the case when the coordinate data of the face of the photo  10  overlaps with the coordinate data of the design element of the template  12 . 
     As shown in  FIG. 4 , the FCAS algorithm and methodology includes the steps of the mobile app calling the Google Mobile Vision API  42 , or a fallback system API, to detect faces in photo  10  and return coordinate position data of the detected faces. For an Android operating system (OS): Google Mobile Vision API. If no support for Google Play services: FaceDetector. For Apple iOS: Google Mobile Vision API. If iOS 10 or lower or on low RAM devices; CIDetector. 
     The FCAS algorithm compares the face coordinate position data to the coordinates of the design elements of a template in a photo slot to determine if the photo  10  can be shown in a given template with all detected faces clearly visible, with no blocking elements over the faces and no faces cropped out of the photo slot. 
     While performing the data comparison above for all templates  12  in the set, the FCAS algorithm works under the constraint that a photo  10  must fill a photo slot in its entirety. One dimension of the photo  10  will be filled in the photo slot edge to edge, with no portion of the photo outside of the photo slot in that dimension, and the other dimension of the photo will be cropped as much as needed based on the difference in aspect ratio of the photo and the photo slot. See  FIGS. 5 and 6 . 
       FIG. 5  illustrates Aspect Ratio as a decimal value. 
       FIG. 6  illustrates two examples of photos  10  in a photo slot  50  shown to have extra space in the horizontal dimension or vertical dimensions based on the relative values of the photo slot&#39;s aspect ratio (AR) and the photo&#39;s AR. This shows that when the AR of the photo  10  is greater than the AR of the photo slot  50 , there is extra space in the horizontal dimension of the photo (left illustration). When the AR of the photo  10  is less than the AR of the photo slot  50 , there is extra space in the vertical dimension of the photo (right illustration). 
     The FCAS algorithm checks iteratively by repositioning the photo  10  in the photo slot  50  along the dimension that has extra space. As shown in  FIG. 7  and  FIG. 8 , the FCAS algorithm determines a compatible location for the photo  10  in the photo skit  50  based on rules. 
     To find the compatible position, the FCAS algorithm only moves a photo  10  in one dimension in the photo slot  50 , horizontally or vertically and shown in  FIGS. 7 and 8 , respectively, depending on the relationship of the AR of photo  10  and photo slot  50 . The FCAS algorithm first checks the centered position of the face(s) of photo  10  in the photo slot  50  by comparing the face coordinate data to the coordinate data of the template design element. If it passes, the process ends. If it fails, the process begins iteratively repositioning the photo  10  in the photo slot  50  with the process ending at the point a pass occurs. 
     As shown in  FIG. 7 , when the extra space in the photo slot  50  is horizontal with respect to the photo  10 , the photo  10  is moved 10 pixels to the left of center in the photo slot  50  and checked. If it fails, the photo is moved 10 pixels to the right of center in the photo slot  50  and checked again. If it fails, these steps are repeated with an increment of 10 additional pixels of movement in the photo slot  50 , as shown in  FIG. 7 . 
     When the photo  10  can be repositioned along the horizontal axis in the photo slot  50 , the FCAS algorithm selects the first compatible position. 
     When the photo  10  can be repositioned along the vertical axis in the photo slot  50 , as shown in  FIG. 8 , the FCAS algorithm selects the photo position that is 25% of the way from the topmost and bottommost compatible positions. This is different from horizontal compatible positioning because faces in a photo look better when they are closer to the top of the photo slot. 
     The presorted set of front cover templates is provided according to the first order and the FCAS algorithm is performed on each template  12 . The health score is assigned to each template  12  depending on the algorithm&#39;s results from comparing the photo  10  to each template  12 , such as illustrated below. 
     a. The intersection area between any design element and face area is calculated.
 
Intersect Area/Face Area (Health Score: +0.0f˜+1.0f)
 
     b. The template is “Compatible” (Health Score: 0.0f) I.e., no blocking by design elements or cropping off photo book front cover. 
     c. The template is “Partially compatible” (Health Score: +100.f) I.e., partial/full blocking by shape masking element or cropping off photo book front cover. 
     d. The template is “Incompatible” (Health Score: +200.f) I.e., partial/full blocking by raster object or text slot. 
     A re-sorted set of front cover templates is generated in a second order using the resulting health scores of the templates. Health scores are sorted numerically, e.g. +0.0f, +100.3f, +200.7f, to create the re-sorted second order of the templates. 
       FIG. 9  illustrates a pre-sorted set/list of front cover templates using photos with no faces, and no FCAS algorithm run. 
       FIG. 10  illustrates the re-sorted list of front cover layouts using photos with faces, post FCAS algorithm and based on the health scores of each template that are displayed to a user. 
     The terms and expressions used herein are understood to have the ordinary meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions with respect to their corresponding respective areas of inquiry and study except where specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein. Relational terms such as first and second and the like may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions. The terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes,” “including,” or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises or includes a list of elements or steps does not include only those elements or steps but may include other elements or steps not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. An element preceded by “a” or “an” does not, without further constraints, preclude the existence of additional identical elements in the process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises the element. 
     In addition, in the foregoing Detailed Description, it can be seen that various features are grouped together in various examples for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed examples require more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, the subject matter to be protected lies in less than all features of any single disclosed example. Thus, the following claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separately claimed subject matter. 
     Although an overview of the inventive subject matter has been described with reference to specific example embodiments, various modifications and changes may be made to these embodiments without departing from the broader scope of embodiments of the present disclosure. Such embodiments of the inventive subject matter may be referred to herein, individually or collectively, by the term “invention” merely for convenience and without intending to voluntarily limit the scope of this application to any single disclosure or inventive concept if more than one is, in fact, disclosed. 
     The embodiments illustrated herein are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the teachings disclosed. Other embodiments may be used and derived therefrom, such that structural and logical substitutions and changes may be made without departing from the scope of this disclosure. The Detailed Description, therefore, is not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of various embodiments is defined only by the appended claims, along with the full range of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.