Patent ID: 8724902

Claim:
A method for processing image data, comprising: generating face data representing a set of detected faces from data representing a set of images forming a library of images; using the face data to determine a sub-set of the images from the library in which at least the same person appears; generating at least one clothing signature for the person representing clothes worn by the person in at least one of the images in the sub-set by, using the face data, defining respective facial regions for identified faces and, on the basis of the facial regions, defining respective corresponding regions for hair and clothing; using image pixel data within the facial and hair regions, generating a measure of the skin and hair tones for the person; and using the measure to discard those regions of the image corresponding to skin and hair within the clothing region in order to provide a clothing mask representing a region of clothing for the person; and using the or each clothing signature, identifying, by a processor, further images of the person in the library of images without detecting faces of the person in the images.