Patent ID: 8914894

Claim:
A computing apparatus, comprising: one or more physical privacy indicators to visually indicate one or more privacy conditions of the computing apparatus in association with provision of computer vision by the computing apparatus, wherein the one or more physical privacy indicators externally complements the computer vision; and a privacy engine coupled with the one or more physical privacy indicators, to pre-process images from an image source of the computing apparatus associated with provision of computer vision to the computing apparatus, to increase privacy for a user of the computing apparatus in association with the provision of computer vision by the computing apparatus, and to control the one or more physical privacy indicators; wherein the privacy engine comprises: a depth value calculation block to receive the image from the image source, the image having a plurality of pixels, calculate depth values for the pixels, and output the depth values as a depth value map of the image; and a depth value analysis block coupled with the depth value calculation block to receive the depth value map, process the depth value map to identify depth values that are greater than a threshold, and on determination that one or more depth values are greater that the threshold, output in response one or more disable signals for use to blank out one or more pixels corresponding to the one or more depth values identified as greater than the threshold, to effectuate the increase in privacy.