Patent Document ID: 8648959
Application ID: 12944701
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. An object-based auto-focus method, comprising: (a) acquiring a digital image including data corresponding to one or more faces or other specific objects of interest, or both (hereinafter an “object” and an “object data”) that appears to be out of focus; (b) applying one or more focus condition classifier programs to the object data, each of the one or more focus condition classifier programs being tuned to a different non-zero degree of out of focus blur, wherein said out of focus classifier programs each comprises one or more slightly out of focus classifiers or one or more significantly out of focus classifiers; (c) identifying the object data as corresponding to said object within the digital image; (d) determining an out of focus condition for the object also as a result of the applying of the one or more focus condition classifier programs, wherein said out of focus condition corresponds to a particular degree of out of focus blur at which one of the programs is tuned; (e) correcting the out of focus condition of the object based on the determining, to thereby generate a corrected object image appearing to be sharply focused; and (f) electronically capturing, combining with another image, storing, transmitting, applying an object recognition program to, editing, or displaying the corrected object image, or combinations thereof.