Patent ID: 8774533

Claim:
A method of quantifying social affinity between a first person and a second person from a plurality of images, comprising: identifying with at least one processor each image in said plurality of images showing both said first person and said second person, the identified images forming a group of images; determining with said at least one processor a weighted affinity value between said first person and said second person based on a total number of persons appearing in each said identified image, a physical distance represented in each said identified image between said first person and said second person, and a total number of said identified images; partitioning said persons in said group of images into a plurality of social clusters based on an adjacency matrix formed from said weighted affinity values; associating, with said at least one processor, a first tag with said first person and a second tag with said second person in each said identified image, said first tag and said second tag associating said first person and said second person with respective first and second spatial areas within said identified image; and determining said physical distance represented between said first person and said second person in each said identified image by: measuring a distance between said first tag and said second tag in said image; determining a ratio of a size of at least one of said first and second tags to a size representative of said at least one of said first and second tags in real space; and using said ratio to determine an approximate physical distance in real space corresponding to said measured distance between said first tag and said second tag.