Patent application number | Description | Published |
20100281034 | Query-Independent Entity Importance in Books - A corpus contains information including text from books and metadata about the books. The book texts mention entities of various types, such as location, date, event, and person entities. An entity importance engine analyzes the information in the corpus to identify the entities mentioned therein, and ranks the entities using query-independent importance scores. The importance scores can be based in part on the contexts in which the entities are mentioned by the books. A presentation engine enables searching of the corpus to identify books satisfying a search query. The presentation engine presents information about a designated book. Entities mentioned in the book are presented in a style selected to enhance comprehension and utility. For example, location entities can be presented on a map with markers showing the locations of the entities. The number of entities presented are limited and ordered based on the query-independent importance scores. | 11-04-2010 |
20110035406 | User Interface for Presenting Search Results for Multiple Regions of a Visual Query - A visual query such as a photograph, screen shot, scanned image, or video frame is submitted to a visual query search system from a client system. The search system processes the visual query by sending it to a plurality of parallel search systems, each implementing a distinct visual query search process. A plurality of results is received from the parallel search systems. Utilizing the search results, an interactive results document is created and sent to the client system. The interactive results document has at least one visual identifier for a sub-portion of the visual query with a selectable link to at least one search result for that sub-portion. The visual identifier may be a bounding box around the respective sub-portion, or a semi-transparent label over the respective sub-portion. Optionally, the bounding box or label is color coded by type of result. | 02-10-2011 |
20110038512 | Facial Recognition with Social Network Aiding - A facial recognition search system identifies one or more likely names (or other personal identifiers) corresponding to the facial image(s) in a query as follows. After receiving the visual query with one or more facial images, the system identifies images that potentially match the respective facial image in accordance with visual similarity criteria. Then one or more persons associated with the potential images are identified. For each identified person, person-specific data comprising metrics of social connectivity to the requester are retrieved from a plurality of applications such as communications applications, social networking applications, calendar applications, and collaborative applications. An ordered list of persons is then generated by ranking the identified persons in accordance with at least metrics of visual similarity between the respective facial image and the potential image matches and with the social connection metrics. Finally, at least one person identifier from the list is sent to the requester. | 02-17-2011 |
20110125735 | Architecture for responding to a visual query - A visual query such as a photograph, a screen shot, a scanned image, a video frame, or an image created by a content authoring application is submitted to a visual query search system. The search system processes the visual query by sending it to a plurality of parallel search systems, each implementing a distinct visual query search process. These parallel search systems may include but are not limited to optical character recognition (OCR), facial recognition, product recognition, bar code recognition, object-or-object-category recognition, named entity recognition, and color recognition. Then at least one search result is sent to the client system. In some embodiments, when the visual query is an image containing a text element and a non-text element, at least one search result includes an optical character recognition result for the text element and at least one image-match result for the non-text element. | 05-26-2011 |
20110128288 | Region of Interest Selector for Visual Queries - A client system receives an image such as a photograph, a screen shot, a scanned image, or a video frame. The image has a first resolution which is likely larger than a maximum resolution for visual queries. As such, if a visual query were created from the image some resolution would be lost. Instead, a user selects a region of interest within the image. The region of interest has a second resolution, which is smaller than the first resolution. The client system then creates a visual query from the region of interest. The visual query has a resolution no larger than a pre-defined maximum resolution for visual queries. Because the visual query is created from the region of interest rather, than the entire received image, most of the resolution is concentrated specifically on the region of interest. The visual query is then sent to a server system. | 06-02-2011 |
20110129153 | Identifying Matching Canonical Documents in Response to a Visual Query - A server system receives a visual query from a client system. The visual query is an image containing text such as a picture of a document. At the receiving server or another server, optical character recognition (OCR) is performed on the visual query to produce text recognition data representing textual characters. Each character in a contiguous region of the visual query is individually scored according to its quality. The quality score of a respective character is influenced by the quality scores of neighboring or nearby characters. Using the scores, one or more high quality strings of characters are identified. Each high quality string has a plurality of high quality characters. A canonical document containing the one or more high quality textual strings is retrieved. At least a portion of the canonical document is sent to the client system. | 06-02-2011 |
20110131235 | Actionable Search Results for Street View Visual Queries - A server system receives a visual query and information about the current location of the querying device. The server system sends the query and location information to a visual query search system and receives one or more search results in accordance with the visual query and the location information. From the one or more search results, the server system identifies an entity in the visual query. The server system further identifies a client-side action corresponding to the identified entity and creates an actionable search result element configured to launch the client-side action. For example, if the identified entity were a restaurant the actionable search result elements could include buttons to initiate a telephone call, to read reviews, to map the address, or to make a reservation. If the actionable search result is selected, the client system launches the client-side action in an application distinct from the visual query client application. | 06-02-2011 |
20110131241 | Actionable Search Results for Visual Queries - A server system receives a visual query and identifies an entity in the visual query. The server system further identifies a client-side action corresponding to the identified entity and creates an actionable search result element configured to launch the client-side action. Examples of actionable search result elements are buttons to initiate a telephone call, to initiate email message, to map an address, to make a restaurant reservation, and to provide an option to purchase a product. The entity identified in the visual query may be indirectly associated with a client-side action whose contact address or appropriate link is found in a search result associated with the identified entity. The client system receives and displays the actionable search result element, and upon a user selection of the actionable search result element, launches the client-side action in an application distinct from the visual query client application. | 06-02-2011 |
20110137895 | Hybrid Use of Location Sensor Data and Visual Query to Return Local Listings for Visual Query - A visual query is received from a client system, along with location information for the client system, and processed by a server system. The server system sends the visual query and the location information to a visual query search system, and receives from the visual query search system enhanced location information based on the visual query and the location information. The server system then sends a search query, including the enhanced location information, to a location-based search system. The search system receives and provides to the client one or more search results to the client system. | 06-09-2011 |
20120128250 | Generating a Combination of a Visual Query and Matching Canonical Document - A server system receives a visual query from a client system distinct from the server system, performs optical character recognition (OCR) on the visual query to produce text recognition data representing textual characters, including a plurality of textual characters in a contiguous region of the visual query, and scores each textual character in the plurality of textual characters. The server system identifies, in accordance with the scoring, one or more high quality textual strings, each comprising a plurality of high quality textual characters from among the plurality of textual characters in the contiguous region of the visual query; retrieves a canonical document having the one or more high quality textual strings; generates a combination of the visual query and at least a portion of the canonical document; and sends the combination to the client system. | 05-24-2012 |
20120128251 | Identifying Matching Canonical Documents Consistent with Visual Query Structural Information - A server system receives a visual query from a client system, performs optical character recognition (OCR) on the visual query to produce text recognition data representing textual characters, including a plurality of textual characters in a contiguous region of the visual query. The server system also produces structural information associated with the textual characters in the visual query. Textual characters in the plurality of textual characters are scored. The method further includes identifying, in accordance with the scoring, one or more high quality textual strings, each comprising a plurality of high quality textual characters from among the plurality of textual characters in the contiguous region of the visual query. A canonical document that includes the one or more high quality textual strings and that is consistent with the structural information is retrieved. At least a portion of the canonical document is sent to the client system. | 05-24-2012 |
20120134590 | Identifying Matching Canonical Documents in Response to a Visual Query and in Accordance with Geographic Information - A server system receives a visual query from a client system distinct from the server system. The server system performs optical character recognition (OCR) on the visual query to produce text recognition data representing textual characters, including a plurality of textual characters in a contiguous region of the visual query. The server system scores each textual character in the plurality of textual characters in accordance with the geographic location of the client system. The server system identifies, in accordance with the scoring, one or more high quality textual strings, each comprising a plurality of high quality textual characters from among the plurality of textual characters in the contiguous region of the visual query. Then the server system retrieves a canonical document having the one or more high quality textual strings and sends at least a portion of the canonical document to the client system. | 05-31-2012 |
20130027572 | Head-Mounted Display That Displays A Visual Representation Of Physical Interaction With An Input Interface Located Outside Of The Field Of View - A head-mounted display (HMD) displays a visual representation of a physical interaction with an input interface that is located outside of the field of view. In one embodiment, the visual representation includes symbols that indicate when close proximity or physical contact is made with the input interface. In another embodiment, the visual representation is a simulation of the physical interaction with the input interface. The visual representation displayed by the HMD can beneficially enable the wearer to interact with the input interface more efficiently. | 01-31-2013 |
20130036134 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ENABLING A SEARCHABLE HISTORY OF REAL-WORLD USER EXPERIENCES - A method and apparatus for enabling a searchable history of real-world user experiences is described. The method may include capturing media data by a mobile computing device. The method may also include transmitting the captured media data to a server computer system, the server computer system to perform one or more recognition processes on the captured media data and add the captured media data to a history of real-world experiences of a user of the mobile computing device when the one or more recognition processes find a match. The method may also include transmitting a query of the user to the server computer system to initiate a search of the history or real-world experiences, and receiving results relevant to the query that include data indicative of the media data in the history of real-world experiences. | 02-07-2013 |
20130069787 | Locking Mechanism Based on Unnatural Movement of Head-Mounted Display - A wearable computer determines unnatural movements of a head-mounted display (HMD) and triggers a locking mechanism. In one embodiment, the wearable computer receives movement data from one or more sensors and determines that the movement of the HMD is unnatural. In one embodiment, the wearable computer receives movement data from one or more sensors and determines that the HMD is being worn by an unauthorized user. In response to determining an unnatural movement and/or an unauthorized user wearing the HMD, the wearable computer triggers a locking mechanism, which can beneficially provide security measures for the wearable computer. | 03-21-2013 |
20130179303 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ENABLING REAL-TIME PRODUCT AND VENDOR IDENTIFICATION - A method and apparatus for enabling dynamic product and vendor identification and the display of relevant purchase information are described herein. According to embodiments of the invention, a recognition process is executed on sensor data captured via a mobile computing device to identify one or more items, and to identify at least one product associated with the one or more items. Product and vendor information for the at least one product is retrieved and displayed via the mobile computing device. In the event a user gesture is detected in response to displaying the product and vendor information data, processing logic may submit a purchase order for the product (e.g., for an online vendor) or contact the vendor (e.g., for an in-store vendor). | 07-11-2013 |
20130188886 | SYSTEM AND METHOD OF IDENTIFYING VISUAL OBJECTS - A system and method of identifying objects is provided. In one aspect, the system and method includes a hand-held device with a display, camera and processor. As the camera captures images and displays them on the display, the processor compares the information retrieved in connection with one image with information retrieved in connection with subsequent images. The processor uses the result of such comparison to determine the object that is likely to be of greatest interest to the user. The display simultaneously displays the images the images as they are captured, the location of the object in an image, and information retrieved for the object. | 07-25-2013 |
20130311506 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR USER QUERY DISAMBIGUATION - A method and apparatus for enabling user query disambiguation based on a user context of a mobile computing device. According to embodiments of the invention, a first user search query, along with sensor data, is received from a mobile computing device. A recognition process is performed on the sensor data to identify at least one item. In response to determining the at least one item is a result for the first search query, data identifying the at least one item is transmitted to the mobile computing device as a response to the first search query. In response to determining the at least one item is not the result for the first search query, search results of a second search query is transmitted to the mobile computing device as the response to the first search query, the second search query comprising a query of the at least one item. | 11-21-2013 |
20140046935 | Identifying Textual Terms in Response to a Visual Query - A method, system, and computer readable storage medium is provided for identifying textual terms in response to a visual query is provided. A server system receives a visual query from a client system. The visual query is responded to as follows. A set of image feature values for the visual query is generated. The set of image feature values is mapped to a plurality of textual terms, including a weight for each of the textual terms in the plurality of textual terms. The textual terms are ranked in accordance with the weights of the textual terms. Then, in accordance with the ranking the textual terms, one or more of the ranked textual terms are sent to the client system. | 02-13-2014 |
20140164406 | Architecture for Responding to Visual Query - A visual query such as a photograph, a screen shot, a scanned image, a video frame, or an image created by a content authoring application is submitted to a visual query search system. The search system processes the visual query by sending it to a plurality of parallel search systems, each implementing a distinct visual query search process. These parallel search systems may include but are not limited to optical character recognition (OCR), facial recognition, product recognition, bar code recognition, object-or-object-category recognition, named entity recognition, and color recognition. Then at least one search result is sent to the client system. In some embodiments, when the visual query is an image containing a text element and a non-text element, at least one search result includes an optical character recognition result for the text element and at least one image-match result for the non-text element. | 06-12-2014 |
20140172881 | Facial Recognition With Social Network Aiding - A facial recognition search system identifies one or more likely names (or other personal identifiers) corresponding to the facial image(s) in a query as follows. After receiving the visual query with one or more facial images, the system identifies images that potentially match the respective facial image in accordance with visual similarity criteria. Then one or more persons associated with the potential images are identified. For each identified person, person-specific data comprising metrics of social connectivity to the requester are retrieved from a plurality of applications such as communications applications, social networking applications, calendar applications, and collaborative applications. An ordered list of persons is then generated by ranking the identified persons in accordance with at least metrics of visual similarity between the respective facial image and the potential image matches and with the social connection metrics. Finally, at least one person identifier from the list is sent to the requester. | 06-19-2014 |
20140334746 | Identifying Matching Canonical Documents Consistent With Visual Query Structural Information - A server system receives a visual query from a client system, performs optical character recognition (OCR) on the visual query to produce text recognition data representing textual characters, including a plurality of textual characters in a contiguous region of the visual query. The server system also produces structural information associated with the textual characters in the visual query. Textual characters in the plurality of textual characters are scored. The method further includes identifying, in accordance with the scoring, one or more high quality textual strings, each comprising a plurality of high quality textual characters from among the plurality of textual characters in the contiguous region of the visual query. A canonical document that includes the one or more high quality textual strings and that is consistent with the structural information is retrieved. At least a portion of the canonical document is sent to the client system. | 11-13-2014 |
20150088923 | USING SENSOR INPUTS FROM A COMPUTING DEVICE TO DETERMINE SEARCH QUERY - An image input is obtained from a computing device when an image sensor of the computing device is directed to a scene. At least an object of interest in the scene is determined, and a label is determined for the object of interest. A search input is received from the computing device, where the search input is obtained from a mechanism other than the image sensor. An ambiguity is determined from the search input. A search query is determined that augments or replaces the ambiguity based at least in part on the label. A search result is based on the search query. | 03-26-2015 |