Patent ID: 8433106

Claim:
A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to: determine whether a particular patch in a digital image overlaps a face previously identified by a face detection process (FDP) by more than an overlap factor; provide a signal to control the FDP to perform a face detection in the particular patch in response to determining that the overlap does not exceed the overlap factor; and proceed to a next patch in the digital image without performing the face detection in the particular patch in response to determining that the overlap exceeds the overlap factor, where determining that the overlap does not exceed the overlap factor includes: computing a number of patch pixels of the particular patch that overlap locations of faces previously detected by the FDP; dividing the number of patch pixels that overlap by a number of pixels in the particular patch to determine the patch overlap; and comparing the patch overlap to the overlap factor to determine that the patch overlap does not exceed the overlap factor, where the overlap factor is a pre-determined percentage.