Patent ID: 8855360

Claim:
A method of face tracking during determination of an image by an imaging device, the method comprising the acts of: receiving image data associated with a frame; receiving one or more face detection windows from a face detection unit processor, the face detection windows associated with the image data of the frame, wherein the face detection unit processor includes logic for constraining each face detection window to include image data that corresponds to actual faces; automatically deleting each face detection window that corresponds to at least one of a false positive of a non-face, a duplicate of a same face, or a lifetime value that is expired; determining a face list based on at least a lifetime value that is based on at least a detection confidence level for each face detection window that is undeleted, and a degree of confidence that each face in the face list is an actual face, wherein a higher degree of confidence is based in part on a higher number of neighboring face detection windows for the same actual face; sorting the face list in descending order based on the at least one lifetime value, wherein the at least one lifetime value is based in part on an amount of the degree of confidence; selecting one or more faces from a beginning of the face list to generate an output face list; and outputting the output face list to a processor of the imaging device for detection of an image based on at least one of coordinate and scale values of the one or more faces on the output face list.