Patent ID: 8774528

Claim:
A method for selecting important digital images in a collection of digital images, comprising: using a processor to automatically analyze the digital images in the collection of digital images to identify one or more sets of similar digital images, wherein an event clustering algorithm is used to divide the collection of digital images into event clusters, and wherein the digital images within a single event cluster are designated as a set of similar digital images; identifying one or more largest sets of similar digital images having more than a predefined threshold number of digital images; using automatic face recognition to identify persons in the digital images in each of the largest sets of similar digital images for which identities of the persons and social relationships of the persons relative to a reference individual are included by prior manual identification; using a processor to automatically evaluate image quality of the digital images in each of the largest sets of similar digital images containing identified persons, wherein image quality is directly proportional to the closeness of the social relationships between the identified persons and the reference individual; using a processor to automatically select one or more digital images from the identified largest sets of similar digital images to be important digital images based on a weight that is responsive to the image quality; and storing an indication of the one or more selected important digital image in a processor accessible memory.