Patent ID: 7130446

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving a frame of content; automatically detecting a candidate area for a new face region in the frame, wherein detecting the candidate area comprises: determining whether there is motion at a plurality of pixels on a plurality of lines across the frame; generating a sum of frame differences for each possible segment of each of the plurality of lines; selecting, for each of the plurality of lines, the segment having the largest sum; identifying a smoothest region of the selected segments; checking whether the smoothest region resembles a human upper body; and extracting, as the candidate area, a portion of the smoothest region that resembles a human head; using one or more hierarchical verification levels to verify whether a human face is in the candidate area; indicating that the candidate area includes a face if the one or more hierarchical verification levels verify that a human face is in the candidate area; and using a plurality of cues to track each verified face in the content from frame to frame.