Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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User Interface for Presenting Search Results
for Multiple Regions of a Visual Query
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0001] The disclosed embodiments relate generally to a presenting search
results by a
plurality of parallel search systems for processing a visual query.
BACKGROUND
[0002] A text-based or term-based searching, wherein a user inputs a word
or phrase
into a search engine and receives a variety of results is a useful tool for
searching. However,
term based queries require that a user be able to input a relevant term.
Sometimes a user may
wish to know information about an image. For example, a user might want to
know the name
of a person in a photograph, or a user might want to know the name of a flower
or bird in a
picture. Accordingly, a system that can receive a visual query and provide
search results
would be desirable.
SUMMARY
[0003] According to some embodiments, a computer-implemented method of
processing a visual query includes performing the following steps on a server
system having
one or more processors and memory storing one or more programs for execution
by the one
or more processors. A visual query from a client system is received. The
visual query is
processed by sending the visual query to a plurality of parallel search
systems for
simultaneous processing. Each of the plurality of search systems implements a
distinct visual
query search process of a plurality of visual query search processes. Then the
server system
receives a plurality of search results from one or more of the plurality of
parallel search
systems. It creates an interactive results document comprising one or more
visual identifiers
of respective sub-portions of the visual query. Each visual identifier has at
least one user
selectable link to at least one of the search results. Finally, the server
system sends the
interactive results document to the client system. In some embodiments, the
search result
includes data related to the corresponding sub-portion of the visual query.
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[0004] In some embodiments, the sending further comprises sending a subset
of the
plurality of search results in a search results list for presentation with the
interactive results
document. Optionally, the method further comprises, receiving a user selection
of the at least
one user selectable link; and identifying a search result in the search
results list corresponding
to the selected link.
[0005] In some embodiments, the visual identifiers comprise one or more
bounding
boxes around respective sub-portions of the visual query. The bounding boxes
may be square
or may outline the respective sub-portion of the visual query. Optionally,
some bounding
boxes include smaller bounding boxes inside of them.
[0006] In some embodiments, each of the bounding boxes includes a user
selectable
link to one or more search results, and the user selectable link has an
activation region
corresponding to the sub-portion of the visual query surrounded by the
bounding box. Even
in embodiments where the visual identifiers are not bounding boxes, a
respective user
selectable link has an activation region which corresponds to the sub-portion
of the visual
query that is associated with a corresponding visual identifier,
[0007] In some embodiments, when the selectable sub-portion contains text,
the
method further includes sending the text of the selectable sub-portion to a
text based query
processing system. In other embodiments, when the sub-portion of the visual
query
corresponds to a respective visual identifier containing text, the search
results corresponding
to the respective visual identifier include results from a term query search
on at least one of
the terms in the text.
[0008] In some embodiments, when the sub-portion of the visual query
corresponding
to a respective visual identifier contains a person's face, the search results
corresponding to
the respective visual identifier include a name, a handle, contact
information, account
information, address information, current location of a related mobile device
associated with
the person who's face is contained in the selectable sub-portion other images
of the person
who's face is contained in the selectable sub-portion, and/or potential image
matches for the
person's face.
[0009] In some embodiments, when the sub-portion of the visual query
corresponding
to a respective visual identifier contains a product, the search results
corresponding to the
respective visual identifier include product information, a product review, an
option to initiate
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purchase of the product, an option to initiate a bid on the product, a list of
similar products,
and/or a list of related products.
[0010] In some embodiments, a respective visual identifier of the one or
more visual
identifiers is formatted for presentation in a visually distinctive manner in
accordance with a
type of recognized entity in the respective sub-portion of the visual query.
The respective visual
identifier may be formatted for presentation in a visually distinctive such as
overlay color,
overlay pattern, label background color, label background pattern, label font
color, and border
color.
[0011] In some embodiments, a respective visual identifier of the one or
more visual
identifiers comprises a label consisting of at least one term associated with
the image in the
respective sub-portion of the visual query. The label is formatted for
presentation in the
interactive results document on or near the respective sub-portion.
[0011a] According to an aspect, there is provided a computer-implemented
method
comprising: obtaining, from each of at least first and second image search
components to which
a query image is submitted, a set of resources that the image search component
identifies as
matching the query image based on applying the query image to an image-based
search process
that is specific to the image search component; selecting (i) a particular
resource that the first
image search component identifies as matching the query image, and (ii) a
particular resource
that the second image search component identifies as matching the query image;
determining (i)
a region of the query image that is associated with the particular resource
that the first image
search component identifies as matching the query image, and (ii) a region of
the query image
that is associated with the particular resource that the second image search
component identifies
as matching the query image; and generating an image search results page that
includes, (i) in a
first region of the search results page that is associated with the first
image search component, a
first interactive-search result that includes a thumbnail image associated
with the region of the
query image that is determined to be associated with the particular resource
that the first image
search component identifies as matching the query image, wherein the first
interactive-search
result is linked to the particular resource that the first image search
component identifies as
matching the query image, (ii) in a different, second region of the search
results page that is
associated with the second image search component, a second interactive-search
result that
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includes a thumbnail image associated with the region of the query image that
is determined to
be associated with the particular resource that the second image search
component identifies as
matching the query image, wherein the second interactive-search result is
linked to the particular
resource that the second image search component identifies as matching the
query image, and
(iii) a third region of the search results page that is associated with the
query image.
[0011b]
According to another aspect, there is provided a system comprising: one or
more
computers and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are
operable, when executed
by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform
operations
comprising: obtaining, from each of at least first and second image search
components to which
a query image is submitted, a set of resources that the image search component
identifies as
matching the query image based on applying the query image to an image-based
search process
that is specific to the image search component; selecting (i) a particular
resource that the first
image search component identifies as matching the query image, and (ii) a
particular resource
that the second image search component identifies as matching the query image;
determining (i)
a region of the query image that is associated with the particular resource
that the first image
search component identifies as matching the query image, and (ii) a region of
the query image
that is associated with the particular resource that the second image search
component identifies
as matching the query image; and generating an image search results page that
includes, (i) in a
first region of the search results page that is associated with the first
image search component, a
first interactive-search result that includes a thumbnail image associated
with the region of the
query image that is determined to be associated with the particular resource
that the first image
search component identifies as matching the query image, wherein the first
interactive-search
result is linked to the particular resource that the first image search
component identifies as
matching the query image, (ii) in a different second region of the search
results page that is
associated with the second image search component, a second interactive-search
result that
includes a thumbnail image associated with the region of the query image that
is determined to
be associated with the particular resource that the second image search
component identifies as
matching the query image, wherein the second interactive-search result is
linked to the particular
resource that the second image search component identifies as matching the
query image, and
(iii) a third region of the search results page that is associated with the
query image.
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[001 lel According to another aspect, there is provided a non-transitory
computer-readable
medium storing software comprising instructions executable by one or more
computers which,
upon such execution, cause the one or more computers to perform operations
comprising:
obtaining, from each of at least first and second image search components to
which a query
image is submitted, a set of resources that the image search component
identifies as matching the
query image based on applying the query image to an image-based search process
that is specific
to the image search component; selecting (i) a particular resource that the
first image search
component identifies as matching the query image, and (ii) a particular
resource that the second
image search component identifies as matching the query image; determining (i)
a region of the
query image that is associated with the particular resource that the first
image search component
identifies as matching the query image, and (ii) a region of the query image
that is associated
with the particular resource that the second image search component identifies
as matching the
query image; and generating an image search results page that includes, (i) in
a first region of the
search results page that is associated with the first image search component,
a first interactive-
search result that includes a thumbnail image associated with the region of
the query image that
is determined to be associated with the particular resource that the first
image search component
identifies as matching the query image, wherein the first interactive-search
result is linked to the
particular resource that the first image search component identifies as
matching the query image,
(ii) in a different, second region of the search results page that is
associated with the second
image search component, a second interactive-search result that includes a
thumbnail image
associated with the region of the query image that is determined to be
associated with the
particular resource that the second image search component identifies as
matching the query
image, wherein the second interactive-search result is linked to the
particular resource that the
second image search component identifies as matching the query image, and
(iii) a third region
of the search results page that is associated with the query image.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0012] Figure 1 is a block diagram illustrating a computer network that
includes a
visual query server system.
[0013] Figure 2 is a flow diagram illustrating the process for responding
to a visual
query, in accordance with some embodiments.
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[0014] Figure 3 is a flow diagram illustrating the process for responding
to a visual
query with an interactive results document, in accordance with some
embodiments.
[0015] Figure 4 is a flow diagram illustrating the communications between a
client
and a visual query server system, in accordance with some embodiments.
[0016] Figure 5 is a block diagram illustrating a client system, in
accordance with
some embodiments.
[0017] Figure 6 is a block diagram illustrating a front end visual query
processing
server system, in accordance with some embodiments.
[0018] Figure 7 is a block diagram illustrating a generic one of the
parallel search
systems utilized to process a visual query, in accordance with some
embodiments.
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[0019] Figure 8 is a block diagram illustrating an OCR search system
utilized to
process a visual query, in accordance with some embodiments.
[0020] Figure 9 is a block diagram illustrating a facial recognition search
system
utilized to process a visual query, in accordance with some embodiments.
[0021] Figure 10 is a block diagram illustrating an image to terms search
system
utilized to process a visual query, in accordance with some embodiments.
[0022] Figure 11 illustrates a client system with a screen shot of an
exemplary visual
query, in accordance with some embodiments.
[0023] Figures 12A and 12B each illustrate a client system with a screen
shot of an
interactive results document with bounding boxes, in accordance with some
embodiments.
[0024] Figure 13 illustrates a client system with a screen shot of an
interactive results
document that is coded by type, in accordance with some embodiments.
[0025] Figure 14 illustrates a client system with a screen shot of an
interactive results
document with labels, in accordance with some embodiments.
[0026] Figure 15 illustrates a screen shot of an interactive results
document and visual
query displayed concurrently with a results list, in accordance with some
embodiments.
[0027] Like reference numerals refer to corresponding parts throughout the
drawings.
DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS
[0028] Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments, examples of
which are
illustrated in the accompanying drawings. In the following detailed
description, numerous
specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of
the present
invention. However, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art
that the present
invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances,
well-known
methods, procedures, components, circuits, and networks have not been
described in detail so
as not to unnecessarily obscure aspects of the embodiments.
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[0029] It will also be understood that, although the terms first, second,
etc. may be
used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited
by these terms.
These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For
example, a first
contact could be termed a second contact, and, similarly, a second contact
could be termed a
first contact, without departing from the scope of the present invention. The
first contact and
the second contact are both contacts, but they are not the same contact.
[0030] The terminology used in the description of the invention herein is
for the
purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be
limiting of the
invention. As used in the description of the invention and the appended
claims, the singular
forms "a," "an," and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well,
unless the context
clearly indicates otherwise. It will also be understood that the term "and/or"
as used herein
refers to and encompasses any and all possible combinations of one or more of
the associated
listed items. It will be further understood that the terms "comprises" and/or
"comprising,"
when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features,
integers, steps,
operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or
addition of one
or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components,
and/or groups
thereof.
[0031] As used herein, the term "if' may be construed to mean "when" or
"upon" or
"in response to determining" or "in response to detecting," depending on the
context.
Similarly, the phrase "if it is determined" or "if is detected" may be
construed to mean "upon
determining" or "in response to determining" or "upon detecting (the stated
condition or
event)" or "in response to detecting (the stated condition or event),"
depending on the
context.
[0032] Figure 1 is a block diagram illustrating a computer network that
includes a
visual query server system according to some embodiments. The computer network
100
includes one or more client systems 102 and a visual query server system 106.
One or more
communications networks 104 interconnect these components. The communications
network
104 may be any of a variety of networks, including local area networks (LAN),
wide area
networks (WAN), wireless networks, wireline networks, the Internet, or a
combination of
such networks.
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100331 The client system 102 includes a client application 108, which is
executed by
the client system, for receiving a visual query (e.g., visual query 1102 of
Fig 11). A visual
query is an image that is submitted as a query to a search engine or search
system. Examples
of visual queries, without limitations include photographs, scanned documents
and images,
and drawings. In some embodiments, the client application 108 is selected from
the set
consisting of a search application, a search engine plug-in for a browser
application, and a
search engine extension for a browser application. In some embodiments, the
client
application 108 is an "omnivorous" search box, which allows a user to drag and
drop any
format of image into the search box to be used as the visual query.
[0034] A client system 102 sends queries to and receives data from the
visual query
server system 106. The client system 102 may be any computer or other device
that is
capable of communicating with the visual query server system 106. Examples
include,
without limitation, desktop and notebook computers, mainframe computers,
server
computers, mobile devices such as mobile phones and personal digital
assistants, network
terminals, and set-top boxes.
[0935] The visual query server system 106 includes a front end visual query
processing server 110. The front end server 110 receives a visual query from
the client 102,
and sends the visual query to a plurality of parallel search systems 112 for
simultaneous
processing. The search systems 112 each implement a distinct visual query
search process
and access their corresponding databases 114 as necessary to process the
visual query by their
distinct search process. For example, a face recognition search system 112-A
will access a
facial image database 114-A to look for facial matches to the image query. As
will be
explained in more detail with regard to Figure 9, if the visual query contains
a face, the facial
recognition search system 112-A will return one or more search results (e.g.,
names,
matching faces, etc.) from the facial image database 114-A. In another
example, the optical
character recognition (OCR) search system 112-B, converts any recognizable
text in the
visual query into text for return as one or more search results. In the
optical character
recognition (OCR) search system 112-B, an OCR database 114-B may be accessed
to
recognize particular fonts or text patterns as explained in more detail with
regard to Figure 8.
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[0036] Any number of parallel search systems 112 may be used. Some examples
include a facial recognition search system 112-A, an OCR search system 112-B,
an image-to-
terms search system 112-C (which may recognize an object or an object
category), a product
recognition search system (which may be configured to recognize 2-D images
such as book
covers and CDs and may also be configured to recognized 3-D images such as
furniture), bar
code recognition search system (which recognizes 1D and 2D style bar codes), a
named
entity recognition search system, landmark recognition (which may configured
to recognize
particular famous landmarks like the Eiffel Tower and may also be configured
to recognize a
corpus of specific images such as billboards), place recognition aided by geo-
location
information provided by a GPS receiver in the client system 102 or mobile
phone network, a
color recognition search system, and a similar image search system (which
searches for and
identifies images similar to a visual query). Further search systems can be
added as
additional parallel search systems, represented in Figure 1 by system 112-N.
All of the
search systems, except the OCR search system, are collectively defined herein
as search
systems performing an image-match process. All of the search systems including
the OCR
search system are collectively referred to as query-by-image search systems.
In some
embodiments, the visual query server system 106 includes a facial recognition
search system
112-A, an OCR search system 112-B, and at least one other query-by-image
search system
112.
[0037] The parallel search systems 112 each individually process the visual
search
query and return their results to the front end server system 110. In some
embodiments, the
front end server 100 may perform one or more analyses on the search results
such as one or
more of: aggregating the results into a compound document, choosing a subset
of results to
display, and ranking the results as will be explained in more detail with
regard to Figure 6.
The front end server 110 communicates the search results to the client system
102.
[0038] The client system 102 presents the one or more search results to the
user. The
results may be presented on a display, by an audio speaker, or any other means
used to
communicate information to a user. The user may interact with the search
results in a variety
of ways. In some embodiments, the user's selections, annotations, and other
interactions with
the search results are transmitted to the visual query server system 106 and
recorded along
with the visual query in a query and annotation database 116. Information in
the query and
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annotation database can be used to improve visual query results. In some
embodiments, the
information from the query and annotation database 116 is periodically pushed
to the parallel
search systems 112, which incorporate any relevant portions of the information
into their
respective individual databases 114.
[0039] The computer network 100 optionally includes a term query server
system
118, for performing searches in response to term queries. A term query is a
query containing
one or more terms, as opposed to a visual query which contains an image. The
term query
server system 118 may be used to generate search results that supplement
information
produced by the various search engines in the visual query server system 106.
The results
returned from the term query server system 118 may include any format. The
term query
server system 118 may include textual documents, images, video, etc. While
term query
server system 118 is shown as a separate system in Figure 1, optionally the
visual query
server system 106 may include a term query server system 118.
[0040] Additional information about the operation of the visual query
server system
106 is provided below with respect to the flowcharts in Figures 2-4.
[0041] Figure 2 is a flow diagram illustrating a visual query server system
method for
responding to a visual query, according to certain embodiments of the
invention. Each of the
operations shown in Figure 2 may correspond to instructions stored in a
computer memory or
computer readable storage medium.
[0042] The visual query server system receives a visual query from a client
system
(202). The client system, for example, may be a desktop computing device, a
mobile device,
or another similar device (204) as explained with reference to Figure 1. An
example visual
query on an example client system is shown in Figure 11.
[0043] The visual query is an image document of any suitable format. For
example,
the visual query can be a photograph, a screen shot, a scanned image, or a
frame or a
sequence of multiple frames of a video (206). In some embodiments, the visual
query is a
drawing produced by a content authoring program (736, Fig. 5). As such, in
some
embodiments, the user "draws" the visual query, while in other embodiments the
user scans
or photographs the visual query. Some visual queries are created using an
image generation
application such as Acrobat, a photograph editing program, a drawing program,
or an image
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editing program. For example, a visual query could come from a user taking a
photograph of
his friend on his mobile phone and then submitting the photograph as the
visual query to the
server system. The visual query could also come from a user scanning a page of
a magazine,
or taking a screen shot of a webpage on a desktop computer and then submitting
the scan or
screen shot as the visual query to the server system. In some embodiments, the
visual query
is submitted to the server system 106 through a search engine extension of a
browser
application, through a plug-in for a browser application, or by a search
application executed
by the client system 102. Visual queries may also be submitted by other
application
programs (executed by a client system) that support or generate images which
can be
transmitted to a remotely located server by the client system.
[0044] The visual query can be a combination of text and non-text elements
(208).
For example, a query could be a scan of a magazine pagc containing images and
text, such as
a person standing next to a road sign. A visual query can include an image of
a person's face,
whether taken by a camera embedded in the client system or a document scanned
by or
otherwise received by the client system. A visual query can also be a scan of
a document
containing only text. The visual query can also be an image of numerous
distinct subjects,
such as several birds in a forest, a person and an object (e.g., car, park
bench, etc.), a person
and an animal (e.g., pet, farm animal, butterfly, etc.). Visual queries may
have two or more
distinct elements. For example, a visual query could include a barcode and an
image of a
product or product name on a product package. For example, the visual query
could be a
picture of a book cover that includes the title of the book, cover art, and a
bar code. In some
instances, one visual query will produce two or more distinct search results
corresponding to
different portions of the visual query, as discussed in more detail below.
[0045] The server system processes the visual query as follows. The front
end server
system sends the visual query to a plurality of parallel search systems for
simultaneous
processing (210). Each search system implements a distinct visual query search
process, i.e.,
an individual search system processes the visual query by its own processing
scheme.
[0046] In some embodiments, one of the search systems to which the visual
query is
sent for processing is an optical character recognition (OCR) search system.
In some
embodiments, one of the search systems to which the visual query is sent for
processing is a
facial recognition search system. In some embodiments, the plurality of search
systems
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running distinct visual query search processes includes at least: optical
character recognition
(OCR), facial recognition, and another query-by-image process other than OCR
and facial
recognition (212). The other query-by-image process is selected from a set of
processes that
includes but is not limited to product recognition, bar code recognition,
object-or-object-
category recognition, named entity recognition, and color recognition (212).
[0047] In some
embodiments, named entity recognition occurs as a post process of
the OCR search system, wherein the text result of the OCR is analyzed for
famous people,
locations, objects and the like, and then the terms identified as being named
entities are
searched in the term query server system (118, Fig. 1). In other embodiments,
images of
famous landmarks, logos, people, album covers, trademarks, etc. are recognized
by an image-
to-terms search system. In other embodiments, a distinct named entity query-by-
image
process separate from the image-to-terms search system is utilized. The object-
or-object
category recognition system recognizes generic result types like "car." In
some
embodiments, this system also recognizes product brands, particular product
models, and the
like, and provides more specific descriptions, like "Porsche." Some of the
search systems
could be special user specific search systems. For example, particular
versions of color
recognition and facial recognition could be a special search systems used by
the blind.
[00481 The front end
server system receives results from the parallel search systems
(214). In some embodiments, the results are accompanied by a search score. For
some visual
queries, some of the search systems will find no relevant results. For
example, if the visual
query was a picture of a flower, the facial recognition search system and the
bar code search
system will not find any relevant results. In some embodiments, if no relevant
results are
found, a null or zero search score is received from that search system (216).
In some
embodiments, if the front end server does not receive a result from a search
system after a
pre-defined period of time (e.g., 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2 or 5 seconds), it will
process the received
results as if that timed out server produced a null search score and will
process the received
results from the other search systems.
[0049] Optionally,
when at least two of the received search results meet pre-defined
criteria, they are ranked (218). In some embodiments, one of the predefined
criteria excludes
void results. A pre-defined criterion is that the results are not void. In
some embodiments,
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one of the predefined criteria excludes results having numerical score (e.g.,
for a relevance
factor) that falls below a pre-defined minimum score. Optionally, the
plurality of search
results are filtered (220). In some embodiments, the results are only filtered
if the total
number of results exceeds a pre-defined threshold. In some embodiments, all
the results are
ranked but the results falling below a pre-defined minimum score are excluded.
For some
visual queries, the content of the results are filtered. For example, if some
of the results
contain private information or personal protected information, these results
are filtered out.
[00501 Optionally, the visual query server system creates a compound search
result
(222). One embodiment of this is when more than one search system result is
embedded in
an interactive results document as explained with respect to Figure 3. The
term query server
system (118, Fig. 1) may augment the results from one of the parallel search
systems with
results from a term search, where the additional results are either links to
documents or
information sources, or text and/or images containing additional information
that may be
relevant to the visual query. Thus, for example, the compound search result
may contain an
OCR result and a link to a named entity in the OCR document (224).
[0051] In some embodiments, the OCR search system (112-B, Fig. 1) or the
front end
visual query processing server (110, Fig. 1) recognizes likely relevant words
in the text. For
example, it may recognize named entities such as famous people or places. The
named
entities are submitted as query terms to the term query server system (118,
Fig. 1). In some
embodiments, the term query results produced by the term query server system
are embedded
in the visual query result as a "link." In some embodiments, the term query
results are
returned as separate links. For example, if a picture of a book cover were the
visual query, it
is likely that an object recognition search system will produce a high scoring
hit for the book.
As such a term query for the title of the book will be run on the term query
server system 118
and the term query results are returned along with the visual query results.
In some
embodiments, the term query results are presented in a labeled group to
distinguish them
from the visual query results. The results may be searched individually, or a
search may be
performed using all the recognized named entities in the search query to
produce particularly
relevant additional search results. For example, if the visual query is a
scanned travel
brochure about Paris, the returned result may include links to the term query
server system
118 for initiating a search on a term query "Notre Dame." Similarly, compound
search
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results include results from text searches for recognized famous images. For
example, in the
same travel brochure, live links to the term query results for famous
destinations shown as
pictures in the brochure like "Eiffel Tower" and "Louvre" may also be shown
(even if the
terms "Eiffel Tower" and "Louvre" did not appear in the brochure itself.)
[0052] The visual query server system then sends at least one result to the
client
system (226). Typically, if the visual query processing server receives a
plurality of search
results from at least some of the plurality of search systems, it will then
send at least one of
the plurality of search results to the client system. For some visual queries,
only one search
system will return relevant results. For example, in a visual query containing
only an image
of text, only the OCR server's results may be relevant. For some visual
queries, only one
result from one search system may be relevant. For example, only the product
related to a
scanned bar code may be relevant. In these instances, the front end visual
processing server
will return only the relevant search result(s). For some visual queries, a
plurality of search
results are sent to the client system, and the plurality of search results
include search results
from more than one of the parallel search systems (228). This may occur when
more than
one distinct image is in the visual query. For example, if the visual query
were a picture of a
person riding a horse, results for facial recognition of the person could be
displayed along
with object identification results for the horse. In some embodiments, all the
results for a
particular query by image search system are grouped and presented together.
For example,
the top N facial recognition results are displayed under a heading "facial
recognition results"
and the top N object recognition results are displayed together under a
heading "object
recognition results." Alternatively, as discussed below, the search results
from a particular
image search system may be grouped by image region. For example, if the visual
query
includes two faces, both of which produce facial recognition results, the
results for each face
would be presented as a distinct group. For some visual queries (e.g., a
visual query
including an image of both text and one or more objects), the search results
may include both
OCR results and one or more image-match results (230).
[0053] In some embodiments, the user may wish to learn more about a
particular
search result. For example, if the visual query was a picture of a dolphin and
the "image to
terms" search system returns the following terms "water," "dolphin," "blue,"
and "Flipper;"
the user may wish to run a text based query term search on "Flipper." When the
user wishes
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to run a search on a term query (e.g., as indicated by the user clicking on or
otherwise
selecting a corresponding link in the search results), the query term server
system (118, Fig.
1) is accessed, and the search on the selected term(s) is run. The
corresponding search term
results are displayed on the client system either separately or in conjunction
with the visual
query results (232). In some embodiments, the front end visual query
processing server (110,
Fig. 1) automatically (i.e., without receiving any user command, other than
the initial visual
query) chooses one or more top potential text results for the visual query,
runs those text
results on the term query server system 118, and then returns those term query
results along
with the visual query result to the client system as a part of sending at
least one search result
to the client system (232). In the example above, if "Flipper" was the first
term result for the
visual query picture of a dolphin, the front end server runs a term query on
"Flipper" and
returns those term query results along with the visual query results to the
client system. This
embodiment, wherein a term result that is considered likely to be selected by
the user is
automatically executed prior to sending search results from the visual query
to the user, saves
the user time. In some embodiments, these results are displayed as a compound
search result
(222) as explained above. In other embodiments, the results are part of a
search result list
instead of or in addition to a compound search result.
[0054] Figure 3 is a flow diagram illustrating the process for responding
to a visual
query with an interactive results document. The first three operations (202,
210, 214) are
described above with reference to Figure 2. From the search results which are
received from
the parallel search systems (214), an interactive results document is created
(302).
[0055] Creating the interactive results document (302) will now be
described in
detail. For some visual queries, the interactive results document includes one
or more visual
identifiers of respective sub-portions of the visual query. Each visual
identifier has at least
one user selectable link to at least one of the search results. A visual
identifier identifies a
respective sub-portion of the visual query. For some visual queries, the
interactive results
document has only one visual identifier with one user selectable link to one
or more results.
In some embodiments, a respective user selectable link to one or more of the
search results
has an activation region, and the activation region corresponds to the sub-
portion of the visual
query that is associated with a corresponding visual identifier.
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[0056] In some embodiments, the visual identifier is a bounding box (304).
In some
embodiments, the bounding box encloses a sub-portion of the visual query as
shown in
Figure 12A. The bounding box need not be a square or rectangular box shape but
can be any
sort of shape including circular, oval, conformal (e.g., to an object in,
entity in or region of
the visual query), irregular or any other shape as shown in Figure 12B. For
some visual
queries, the bounding box outlines the boundary of an identifiable entity in a
sub-portion of
the visual query (306). In some embodiments, each bounding box includes a user
selectable
link to one or more search results, where the user selectable link has an
activation region
corresponding to a sub-portion of the visual query surrounded by the bounding
box. When
the space inside the bounding box (the activation region of the user
selectable link) is selected
by the user, search results that correspond to the image in the outlined sub-
portion are
returned.
[0057] In some embodiments, the visual identifier is a label (307) as shown
in Figure
14. In some embodiments, label includes at least one term associated with the
image in the
respective sub-portion of the visual query. Each label is formatted for
presentation in the
interactive results document on or near the respective sub-portion. In some
embodiments, the
labels are color coded.
[0058] In some embodiments, each respective visual identifiers is formatted
for
presentation in a visually distinctive manner in accordance with a type of
recognized entity in
the respective sub-portion of the visual query. For example, as shown in
Figure 13, bounding
boxes around a product, a person, a trademark, and the two textual areas are
each presented
with distinct cross-hatching patterns, representing differently colored
transparent bounding
boxes. In some embodiments, the visual identifiers are formatted for
presentation in visually
distinctive manners such as overlay color, overlay pattern, label background
color, label
background pattern, label font color, and border color.
[0059] In some embodiments, the user selectable link in the interactive
results
document is a link to a document or object that contains one or more results
related to the
corresponding sub-portion of the visual query (308). In some embodiments, at
least one
search result includes data related to the corresponding sub-portion of the
visual query. As
such, when the user selects the selectable link associated with the respective
sub-portion, the
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user is directed to the search results corresponding to the recognized entity
in the respective
sub-portion of the visual query.
[0060] For example, if a visual query was a photograph of a bar code, there
may be
portions of the photograph which are irrelevant parts of the packaging upon
which the bar
code was affixed. The interactive results document may include a bounding box
around only
the bar code. When the user selects inside the outlined bar code bounding box,
the bar code
search result is displayed. The bar code search result may include one result,
the name of the
product corresponding to that bar code, or the bar code results may include
several results
such as a variety of places in which that product can be purchased, reviewed,
etc.
[0061] In some embodiments, when the sub-portion of the visual query
corresponding
to a respective visual identifier contains text comprising one or more terms,
the search results
corresponding to the respective visual identifier include results from a term
query search on
at least one of the terms in the text. In some embodiments, when the sub-
portion of the visual
query corresponding to a respective visual identifier contains a person's face
for which at
least one match (i.e., search result) is found that meets predefined
reliability (or other)
criteria, the search results corresponding to the respective visual identifier
include one or
more of: name, handle, contact information, account information, address
information,
current location of a related mobile device associated with the person whose
face is contained
in the selectable sub-portion, other images of the person whose face is
contained in the
selectable sub-portion, and potential image matches for the person's face. In
some
embodiments, when the sub-portion of the visual query corresponding to a
respective visual
identifier contains a product for which at least one match (i.e., search
result) is found that
meets predefined reliability (or other) criteria, the search results
corresponding to the
respective visual identifier include one or more of: product information, a
product review, an
option to initiate purchase of the product, an option to initiate a bid on the
product, a list of
similar products, and a list of related products.
[0062] Optionally, a respective user selectable link in the interactive
results document
includes anchor text, which is displayed in the document without having to
activate the link.
The anchor text provides information, such as a key word or term, related to
the information
obtained when the link is activated. Anchor text may be displayed as part of
the label (307),
or in a portion of a bounding box (304), or as additional information
displayed when a user
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hovers a cursor over a user selectable link for a pre-determined period of
time such as 1
second.
100631 Optionally, a respective user selectable link in the interactive
results document
is a link to a search engine for searching for information or documents
corresponding to a
text-based query (sometimes herein called a term query). Activation of the
link causes
execution of the search by the search engine, where the query and the search
engine are
specified by the link (e.g., the search engine is specified by a URL in the
link and the text-
based search query is specified by a URL parameter of the link), with results
returned to the
client system. Optionally, the link in this example may include anchor text
specifying the
text or terms in the search query.
[00641 In some embodiments, the interactive results document produced in
response
to a visual query can include a plurality of links that correspond to results
from the same
search system. For example, a visual query may be an image or picture of a
group of people.
The interactive results document may include bounding boxes around each
person, which
when activated returns results from the facial recognition search system for
each face in the
group. For some visual queries, a plurality of links in the interactive
results document
corresponds to search results from more than one search system (310). For
example, if a
picture of a person and a dog was submitted as the visual query, bounding
boxes in the
interactive results document may outline the person and the dog separately.
When the person
(in the interactive results document) is selected, search results from the
facial recognition
search system are retuned, and when the dog (in the interactive results
document) is selected,
results from the image-to-terms search system are returned. For some visual
queries, the
interactive results document contains an OCR result and an image match result
(312). For
example, if a picture of a person standing next to a sign were submitted as a
visual query, the
interactive results document may include visual identifiers for the person and
for the text in
the sign. Similarly, if a scan of a magazine was used as the visual query, the
interactive
results document may include visual identifiers for photographs or trademarks
in
advertisements on the page as well as a visual identifier for the text of an
article also on that
page.
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[0065] After the interactive results document has been created, it is sent
to the client
system (314). In some embodiments, the interactive results document (e.g.,
document 1200,
Figure 15) is sent in conjunction with a list of search results from one or
more parallel search
systems, as discussed above with reference to Figure 2. In some embodiments,
the
interactive results document is displayed at the client system above or
otherwise adjacent to a
list of search results from one or more parallel search systems (315) as shown
in Figure 15.
[0066] Optionally, the user will interact with the results document by
selecting a
visual identifier in the results document. The server system receives from the
client system
information regarding the user selection of a visual identifier in the
interactive results
document (316). As discussed above, in some embodiments, the link is activated
by selecting
an activation region inside a bounding box. In other embodiments, the link is
activated by a
user selection of a visual identifier of a sub-portion of the visual query,
which is not a
bounding box. In some embodiments, the linked visual identifier is a hot
button, a label
located near the sub-portion, an underlined word in text, or other
representation of an object
or subject in the visual query.
[0067] In embodiments where the search results list is presented with the
interactive
results document (315), when the user selects a user selectable link (316),
the search result in
the search results list corresponding to the selected link is identified. In
some embodiments,
the cursor will jump or automatically move to the first result corresponding
to the selected
link. In some embodiments in which the display of the client 102 is too small
to display both
the interactive results document and the entire search results list, selecting
a link in the
interactive results document causes the search results list to scroll or jump
so as to display at
least a first result corresponding to the selected link. In some other
embodiments, in response
to user selection of a link in the interactive results document, the results
list is reordered such
that the first result corresponding to the link is displayed at the top of the
results list.
[0068] In some embodiments, when the user selects the user selectable link
(316) the
visual query server system sends at least a subset of the results, related to
a corresponding
sub-portion of the visual query, to the client for display to the user (318).
In some
embodiments, the user can select multiple visual identifiers concurrently and
will receive a
subset of results for all of the selected visual identifiers at the same time.
In other
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embodiments, search results corresponding to the user selectable links are
preloaded onto the
client prior to user selection of any of the user selectable links so as to
provide search results
to the user virtually instantaneously in response to user selection of one or
more links in the
interactive results document.
[0069] Figure 4 is a flow diagram illustrating the communications between a
client
and a visual query server system. The client 102 receives a visual query from
a user/querier
(402). In some embodiments, visual queries can only be accepted from users who
have
signed up for or "opted in" to the visual query system. In some embodiments,
searches for
facial recognition matches are only performed for users who have signed up for
the facial
recognition visual query system, while other types of visual queries are
performed for anyone
regardless of whether they have "opted in" to the facial recognition portion.
[0070] As explained above, the format of the visual query can take many
forms. The
visual query will likely contain one or more subjects located in sub-portions
of the visual
query document. For some visual queries, the client system 102 performs type
recognition
pre-processing on the visual query (404). In some embodiments, the client
system 102
searches for particular recognizable patterns in this pre-processing system.
For example, for
some visual queries the client may recognize colors. For some visual queries
the client may
recognize that a particular sub-portion is likely to contain text (because
that area is made up
of small dark characters surrounded by light space etc.) The client may
contain any number
of pre-processing type recognizers, or type recognition modules. In some
embodiments, the
client will have a type recognition module (barcode recognition 406) for
recognizing bar
codes. It may do so by recognizing the distinctive striped pattern in a
rectangular area. In
some embodiments, the client will have a type recognition module (face
detection 408) for
recognizing that a particular subject or sub-portion of the visual query is
likely to contain a
face.
[0071] In some embodiments, the recognized "type" is returned to the user
for
verification. For example, the client system 102 may return a message stating
"a bar code has
been found in your visual query, are you interested in receiving bar code
query results?" In
some embodiments, the message may even indicate the sub-portion of the visual
query where
the type has been found. In some embodiments, this presentation is similar to
the interactive
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results document discussed with reference to Figure 3. For example, it may
outline a sub-
portion of the visual query and indicate that the sub-portion is likely to
contain a face, and ask
the user if they are interested in receiving facial recognition results.
[0072] After the client 102 performs the optional pre-processing of the
visual query,
the client sends the visual query to the visual query server system 106,
specifically to the
front end visual query processing server 110. In some embodiments, if pre-
processing
produced relevant results, i.e., if one of the type recognition modules
produced results above
a certain threshold, indicating that the query or a sub-portion of the query
is likely to be of a
particular type (face, text, barcode etc.), the client will pass along
information regarding the
results of the pre-processing. For example, the client may indicate that the
face recognition
module is 75% sure that a particular sub-portion of the visual query contains
a face. More
generally, the pre-processing results, if any, include one or more subject
type values (e.g., bar
code, face, text, etc.). Optionally, the pre-processing results sent to the
visual query server
system include one or more of: for each subject type value in the pre-
processing results,
information identifying a sub-portion of the visual query corresponding to the
subject type
value, and for each subject type value in the pre-processing results, a
confidence value
indicating a level of confidence in the subject type value and/or the
identification of a
corresponding sub-portion of the visual query.
[0073] The front end server 110 receives the visual query from the client
system
(202). The visual query received may contain the pre-processing information
discussed
above. As described above, the front end server sends the visual query to a
plurality of
parallel search systems (210). If the front end server 110 received pre-
processing information
regarding the likelihood that a sub-portion contained a subject of a certain
type, the front end
server may pass this information along to one or more of the parallel search
systems. For
example, it may pass on the information that a particular sub-portion is
likely to be a face so
that the facial recognition search system 112-A can process that subsection of
the visual
query first. Similarly, sending the same information (that a particular sub-
portion is likely to
be a face) may be used by the other parallel search systems to ignore that sub-
portion or
analyze other sub-portions first. In some embodiments, the front end server
will not pass on
the pre-processing information to the parallel search systems, but will
instead use this
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information to augment the way in which it processes the results received from
the parallel
search systems.
[0074] As explained with reference to Figure 2, for at some visual queries,
the front
end server 110 receives a plurality of search results from the parallel search
systems (214).
The front end server may then perform a variety of ranking and filtering, and
may create an
interactive search result document as explained with reference to Figures 2
and 3. If the front
end server 110 received pre-processing information regarding the likelihood
that a sub-
portion contained a subject of a certain type, it may filter and order by
giving preference to
those results that match the pre-processed recognized subject type. If the
user indicated that a
particular type of result was requested, the front end server will take the
user's requests into
account when processing the results. For example, the front end server may
filter out all
other results if the user only requested bar code information, or the front
end server will list
all results pertaining to the requested type prior to listing the other
results. If an interactive
visual query document is returned, the server may pre-search the links
associated with the
type of result the user indicated interest in, while only providing links for
performing related
searches for the other subjects indicated in the interactive results document.
Then the front
end server 110 sends the search results to the client system (226).
[0075] The client 102 receives the results from the server system (412).
When
applicable, these results will include the results that match the type of
result found in the pre-
processing stage. For example, in some embodiments they will include one or
more bar code
results (414) or one or more facial recognition results (416). If the client's
pre-processing
modules had indicated that a particular type of result was likely, and that
result was found,
the found results of that type will be listed prominently.
[0076] Optionally the user will select or annotate one or more of the
results (418).
The user may select one search result, may select a particular type of search
result, and/or
may select a portion of an interactive results document (420). Selection of a
result is implicit
feedback that the returned result was relevant to the query. Such feedback
information can be
utilized in future query processing operations. An annotation provides
explicit feedback
about the returned result that can also be utilized in future query processing
operations.
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Annotations take the form of corrections of portions of the returned result
(like a correction to
a mis-OCRed word) or a separate annotation (either free form or structured.)
[0077] The user's selection of one search result, generally selecting the
"correct"
result from several of the same type (e.g., choosing the correct result from a
facial recognition
server), is a process that is referred to as a selection among
interpretations. The user's
selection of a particular type of search result, generally selecting the
result "type" of interest
from several different types of returned results (e.g., choosing the OCRed
text of an article in
a magazine rather than the visual results for the advertisements also on the
same page), is a
process that is referred to as disambiguation of intent. A user may similarly
select particular
linked words (such as recognized named entities) in an OCRed document as
explained in
detail with reference to Figure 8.
100781 The user may alternatively or additionally wish to annotate
particular search
results. This annotation may be done in freeform style or in a structured
format (422). The
annotations may be descriptions of the result or may be reviews of the result.
For example,
they may indicate the name of subject(s) in the result, or they could indicate
"this is a good
book" or "this product broke within a year of purchase." Another example of an
annotation
is a user-drawn bounding box around a sub-portion of the visual query and user-
provided text
identifying the object or subject inside the bounding box. User annotations
are explained in
more detail with reference to Figure 5.
[0079] The user selections of search results and other annotations are sent
to the
server system (424). The front end server 110 receives the selections and
annotations and
further processes them (426). If the information was a selection of an object,
sub-region or
term in an interactive results document, further information regarding that
selection may be
requested, as appropriate. For example, if the selection was of one visual
result, more
information about that visual result would be requested. If the selection was
a word (either
from the OCR server or from the Image-to-Terms server) a textual search of
that word would
be sent to the term query server system 118. If the selection was of a person
from a facial
image recognition search system, that person's profile would be requested. If
the selection
was for a particular portion of an interactive search result document, the
underlying visual
query results would be requested.
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[0080] If the server system receives an annotation, the annotation is
stored in a query
and annotation database 116, explained with reference to Figure 5. Then the
information
from the annotation database 116 is periodically copied to individual
annotation databases for
one or more of the parallel server systems, as discussed below with reference
to Figures 7 ¨
10.
[0081] Figure 5 is a block diagram illustrating a client system 102 in
accordance with
one embodiment of the present invention. The client system 102 typically
includes one or
more processing units (CPU's) 702, one or more network or other communications
interfaces
704, memory 712, and one or more communication buses 714 for interconnecting
these
components. The client system 102 includes a user interface 705. The user
interface 705
includes a display device 706 and optionally includes an input means such as a
keyboard,
mouse, or other input buttons 708. Alternatively or in addition the display
device 706
includes a touch sensitive surface 709, in which case the display 706/709 is a
touch sensitive
display. In client systems that have a touch sensitive display 706/709, a
physical keyboard is
optional (e.g., a soft keyboard may be displayed when keyboard entry is
needed).
Furthermore, some client systems use a microphone and voice recognition to
supplement or
replace the keyboard. Optionally, the client 102 includes a GPS (global
positioning satellite)
receiver, or other location detection apparatus 707 for determining the
location of the client
system 102. In some embodiments, visual query search services are provided
that require the
client system 102 to provide the visual query server system to receive
location information
indicating the location of the client system 102.
100821 The client system 102 also includes an image capture device 710 such
as a
camera or scanner. Memory 712 includes high-speed random access memory, such
as
DRAM, SRAM, DDR RAM or other random access solid state memory devices; and may
include non-volatile memory, such as one or more magnetic disk storage
devices, optical disk
storage devices, flash memory devices, or other non-volatile solid state
storage devices.
Memory 712 may optionally include one or more storage devices remotely located
from the
CPU(s) 702. Memory 712, or alternately the non-volatile memory device(s)
within memory
712, comprises a non-transitory computer readable storage medium. In some
embodiments,
memory 712 or the computer readable storage medium of memory 712 stores the
following
programs, modules and data structures, or a subset thereof:
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= an operating system 716 that includes procedures for handling various
basic system
services and for performing hardware dependent tasks;
= a network communication module 718 that is used for connecting the client
system
102 to other computers via the one or more communication network interfaces
704
(wired or wireless) and one or more communication networks, such as the
Internet,
other wide area networks, local area networks, metropolitan area networks, and
so on;
= a image capture module 720 for processing a respective image captured by
the image
capture device/camera 710, where the respective image may be sent (e.g., by a
client
application module) as a visual query to the visual query server system;
= one or more client application modules 722 for handling various aspects
of querying
by image, including but not limited to: a query-by-image submission module 724
for
submitting visual queries to the visual query server system; optionally a
region of
interest selection module 725 that detects a selection (such as a gesture on
the touch
sensitive display 706/709) of a region of interest in an image and prepares
that region
of interest as a visual query; a results browser 726 for displaying the
results of the
visual query; and optionally an annotation module 728 with optional modules
for
structured annotation text entry 730 such as filling in a form or for freeform
annotation text entry 732, which can accept annotations from a variety of
formats, and
an image region selection module 734 (sometimes referred to herein as a result
selection module) which allows a user to select a particular sub-portion of an
image
for annotation;
= an optional content authoring application(s) 736 that allow a user to
author a visual
query by creating or editing an image rather than just capturing one via the
image
capture device 710; optionally, one or such applications 736 may include
instructions
that enable a user to select a sub-portion of an image for use as a visual
query;
= an optional local image analysis module 738 that pre-processes the visual
query
before sending it to the visual query server system. The local image analysis
may
recognize particular types of images, or sub-regions within an image. Examples
of
image types that may be recognized by such modules 738 include one or more of:
facial type (facial image recognized within visual query), bar code type (bar
code
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recognized within visual query), and text type (text recognized within visual
query);
and
= additional optional client applications 740 such as an email application,
a phone
application, a browser application, a mapping application, instant messaging
application, social networking application etc. In some embodiments, the
application
corresponding to an appropriate actionable search result can be launched or
accessed
when the actionable search result is selected.
[0083] Optionally, the image region selection module 734 which allows a
user to
select a particular sub-portion of an image for annotation, also allows the
user to choose a
search result as a "correct" hit without necessarily further annotating it.
For example, the
user may be presented with a top N number of facial recognition matches and
may choose the
correct person from that results list. For some search queries, more than one
type of result
will be presented, and the user will choose a type of result. For example, the
image query
may include a person standing next to a tree, but only the results regarding
the person is of
interest to the user. Therefore, the image selection module 734 allows the
user to indicate
which type of image is the "correct" type ¨ i.e., the type he is interested in
receiving. The
user may also wish to annotate the search result by adding personal comments
or descriptive
words using either the annotation text entry module 730 (for filling in a
form) or freeform
annotation text entry module 732.
[0084] In some embodiments, the optional local image analysis module 738 is
a
portion of the client application (108, Fig. 1). Furthermore, in some
embodiments the
optional local image analysis module 738 includes one or more programs to
perform local
image analysis to pre-process or categorize the visual query or a portion
thereof. For
example, the client application 722 may recognize that the image contains a
bar code, a face,
or text, prior to submitting the visual query to a search engine. In some
embodiments, when
the local image analysis module 738 detects that the visual query contains a
particular type of
image, the module asks the user if they are interested in a corresponding type
of search result.
For example, the local image analysis module 738 may detect a face based on
its general
characteristics (i.e., without determining which person's face) and provides
immediate
feedback to the user prior to sending the query on to the visual query server
system. It may
return a result like, "A face has been detected, are you interested in getting
facial recognition
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matches for this face?" This may save time for the visual query server system
(106, Fig. 1).
For some visual queries, the front end visual query processing server (110,
Fig. 1) only sends
the visual query to the search system 112 corresponding to the type of image
recognized by
the local image analysis module 738. In other embodiments, the visual query to
the search
system 112 may send the visual query to all of the search systems 112A-N, but
will rank
results from the search system 112 corresponding to the type of image
recognized by the
local image analysis module 738. In some embodiments, the manner in which
local image
analysis impacts on operation of the visual query server system depends on the
configuration
of the client system, or configuration or processing parameters associated
with either the user
or the client system. Furthermore, the actual content of any particular visual
query and the
results produced by the local image analysis may cause different visual
queries to be handled
differently at either or both the client system and the visual query server
system.
[00851 In some embodiments, bar code recognition is performed in two steps,
with
analysis of whether the visual query includes a bar code performed on the
client system at the
local image analysis module 738. Then the visual query is passed to a bar code
search system
only if the client determines the visual query is likely to include a bar
code. In other
embodiments, the bar code search system processes every visual query.
[00861 Optionally, the client system 102 includes additional client
applications 740.
l00871 Figure 6 is a block diagram illustrating a front end visual query
processing
server system 110 in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
The front
end server 110 typically includes one or more processing units (CPU's) 802,
one or more
network or other communications interfaces 804, memory 812, and one or more
communication buses 814 for interconnecting these components. Memory 812
includes high-
speed random access memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, DDR RAM or other random access
solid state memory devices; and may include non-volatile memory, such as one
or more
magnetic disk storage devices, optical disk storage devices, flash memory
devices, or other
non-volatile solid state storage devices. Memory 812 may optionally include
one or more
storage devices remotely located from the CPU(s) 802. Memory 812, or
alternately the non-
volatile memory device(s) within memory 812, comprises a non-transitory
computer readable
storage medium. In some embodiments, memory 812 or the computer readable
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medium of memory 812 stores the following programs, modules and data
structures, or a
subset thereof:
= an operating system 816 that includes procedures for handling various
basic system
services and for performing hardware dependent tasks;
= a network communication module 818 that is used for connecting the front
end server
system 110 to other computers via the one or more communication network
interfaces
804 (wired or wireless) and one or more communication networks, such as the
Internet, other wide area networks, local area networks, metropolitan area
networks,
and so on;
= a query manager 820 for handling the incoming visual queries from the
client system
102 and sending them to two or more parallel search systems; as described
elsewhere
in this document, in some special situations a visual query may be directed to
just one
of the search systems, such as when the visual query includes an client-
generated
instruction (e.g., "facial recognition search only");
= a results filtering module 822 for optionally filtering the results from
the one or more
parallel search systems and sending the top or "relevant" results to the
client system
102 for presentation;
= a results ranking and formatting module 824 for optionally ranking the
results from
the one or more parallel search systems and for formatting the results for
presentation;
= a results document creation module 826, is used when appropriate, to
create an
interactive search results document; module 826 may include sub-modules,
including
but not limited to a bounding box creation module 828 and a link creation
module
830;
= a label creation module 831 for creating labels that are visual
identifiers of respective
sub-portions of a visual query;
= an annotation module 832 for receiving annotations from a user and
sending them to
an annotation database 116;
= an actionable search results module 838 for generating, in response to a
visual query,
one or more actionable search result elements, each configured to launch a
client-side
action; examples of actionable search result elements are buttons to initiate
a
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telephone call, to initiate email message, to map an address, to make a
restaurant
reservation, and to provide an option to purchase a product; and
= a query and annotation database 116 which comprises the database itself
834 and an
index to the database 836.
[0088] The results ranking and formatting module 824 ranks the results
returned from
the one or more parallel search systems (112-A ¨ 112-N, Fig. 1). As already
noted above, for
some visual queries, only the results from one search system may be relevant.
In such an
instance, only the relevant search results from that one search system are
ranked. For some
visual queries, several types of search results may be relevant. In these
instances, in some
embodiments, the results ranking and formatting module 824 ranks all of the
results from the
search system having the most relevant result (e.g., the result with the
highest relevance
score) above the results for the less relevant search systems. In other
embodiments, the
results ranking and formatting module 824 ranks a top result from each
relevant search
system above the remaining results. In some embodiments, the results ranking
and
formatting module 824 ranks the results in accordance with a relevance score
computed for
each of the search results. For some visual queries, augmented textual queries
are performed
in addition to the searching on parallel visual search systems. In some
embodiments, when
textual queries are also performed, their results are presented in a manner
visually distinctive
from the visual search system results.
[0089] The results ranking and formatting module 824 also formats the
results. In
some embodiments, the results are presented in a list format. In some
embodiments, the
results are presented by means of an interactive results document. In some
embodiments,
both an interactive results document and a list of results are presented. In
some embodiments,
the type of query dictates how the results are presented. For example, if more
than one
searchable subject is detected in the visual query, then an interactive
results document is
produced, while if only one searchable subject is detected the results will be
displayed in list
format only.
[0090] The results document creation module 826 is used to create an
interactive
search results document. The interactive search results document may have one
or more
detected and searched subjects. The bounding box creation module 828 creates a
bounding
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. box around one or more of the searched subjects. The bounding boxes may
be rectangular
boxes, or may outline the shape(s) of the subject(s). The link creation module
830 creates
links to search results associated with their respective subject in the
interactive search results
document. In some embodiments, clicking within the bounding box area activates
the
corresponding link inserted by the link creation module.
[0091] The query and annotation database 116 contains information that
can be used
to improve visual query results. In some embodiments, the user may annotate
the image after
the visual query results have been presented. Furthermore, in some embodiments
the user
may annotate the image before sending it to the visual query search system.
Pre-annotation
may help the visual query processing by focusing the results, or running text
based searches
on the annotated words in parallel with the visual query searches. In some
embodiments,
annotated versions of a picture can be made public (e.g., when the user has
given permission
for publication, for example by designating the image and annotation(s) as not
private), so as
to be returned as a potential image match hit. For example, if a user takes a
picture of a
flower and annotates the image by giving detailed genus and species
information about that
flower, the user may want that image to be presented to anyone who performs a
visual query
research looking for that flower. In some embodiments, the information from
the query and
annotation database 116 is periodically pushed to the parallel search systems
112, which
incorporate relevant portions of the information (if any) into their
respective individual
databases 114.
[0092] Figure 7 is a block diagram illustrating one of the parallel
search systems
utilized to process a visual query. Figure 7 illustrates a "generic" server
system 112-N in
accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. This server system is
generic only
in that it represents any one of the visual query search servers 112-N. The
generic server
system 112-N typically includes one or more processing units (CPU's) 502, one
or more
network or other communications interfaces 504, memory 512, and one or more
communication buses 514 for interconnecting these components. Memory 512
includes high-
speed random access memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, DDR RAM or other random access
solid state memory devices; and may include non-volatile memory, such as one
or more
magnetic disk storage devices, optical disk storage devices, flash memory
devices, or other
non-volatile solid state storage devices. Memory 512 may optionally include
one or more
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storage devices remotely located from the CPU(s) 502. Memory 512, or
alternately the non-
volatile memory device(s) within memory 512, comprises a non-transitory
computer readable
storage medium. In some embodiments, memory 512 or the computer readable
storage
medium of memory 512 stores the following programs, modules and data
structures, or a
subset thereof:
= an operating system 516 that includes procedures for handling various
basic system
services and for performing hardware dependent tasks;
= a network communication module 518 that is used for connecting the
generic server
system 112-N to other computers via the one or more communication network
interfaces 504 (wired or wireless) and one or more communication networks,
such as
the Internet, other wide area networks, local area networks, metropolitan area
networks, and so on;
= a search application 520 specific to the particular server system, it may
for example
be a bar code search application, a color recognition search application, a
product
recognition search application, an object-or-object category search
application, or the
like;
= an optional index 522 if the particular search application utilizes an
index;
= an optional image database 524 for storing the images relevant to the
particular search
application, where the image data stored, if any, depends on the search
process type;
= an optional results ranking module 526 (sometimes called a relevance
scoring
module) for ranking the results from the search application, the ranking
module may
assign a relevancy score for each result from the search application, and if
no results
reach a pre-defined minimum score, may return a null or zero value score to
the front
end visual query processing server indicating that the results from this
server system
are not relevant; and
= an annotation module 528 for receiving annotation information from an
annotation
database (116, Fig. 1) determining if any of the annotation information is
relevant to
the particular search application and incorporating any determined relevant
portions
of the annotation information into the respective annotation database 530.
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[0093] Figure 8 is a block diagram illustrating an OCR search system 112-B
utilized
to process a visual query in accordance with one embodiment of the present
invention. The
OCR search system 112-B typically includes one or more processing units
(CPU's) 602, one
or more network or other communications interfaces 604, memory 612, and one or
more
communication buses 614 for interconnecting these components. Memory 612
includes high-
speed random access memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, DDR RAM or other random access
solid state memory devices; and may include non-volatile memory, such as one
or more
magnetic disk storage devices, optical disk storage devices, flash memory
devices, or other
non-volatile solid state storage devices. Memory 612 may optionally include
one or more
storage devices remotely located from the CPU(s) 602. Memory 612, or
alternately the non-
volatile memory device(s) within memory 612, comprises a non-transitory
computer readable
storage medium. In some embodiments, memory 612 or the computer readable
storage
medium of memory 612 stores the following programs, modules and data
structures, or a
subset thereof:
= an operating system 616 that includes procedures for handling various
basic system
services and for performing hardware dependent tasks;
= a network communication module 618 that is used for connecting the OCR
search
system 112-B to other computers via the one or more communication network
interfaces 604 (wired or wireless) and one or more communication networks,
such as
the Internet, other wide area networks, local area networks, metropolitan area
networks, and so on;
= an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) module 620 which tries to
recognize text in
the visual query, and converts the images of letters into characters;
= an optional OCR database 114-B which is utilized by the OCR module 620 to
recognize particular fonts, text patterns, and other characteristics unique to
letter
recognition;
= an optional spell check module 622 which improves the conversion of
images of
letters into characters by checking the converted words against a dictionary
and
replacing potentially mis-converted letters in words that otherwise match a
dictionary
word;
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= an optional named entity recognition module 624 which searches for named
entities
within the converted text, sends the recognized named entities as terms in a
term
query to the term query server system (118, Fig. 1), and provides the results
from the
term query server system as links embedded in the OCRed text associated with
the
recognized named entities;
= an optional text match application 632 which improves the conversion of
images of
letters into characters by checking converted segments (such as converted
sentences
and paragraphs) against a database of text segments and replacing potentially
mis-
converted letters in OCRed text segments that otherwise match a text match
application text segment, in some embodiments the text segment found by the
text
match application is provided as a link to the user (for example, if the user
scanned
one page of the New York Times, the text match application may provide a link
to the
entire posted article on the New York Times website);
= a results ranking and formatting module 626 for formatting the OCRed
results for
presentation and formatting optional links to named entities, and also
optionally
ranking any related results from the text match application; and
= an optional annotation module 628 for receiving annotation information
from an
annotation database (116, Fig. 1) determining if any of the annotation
information is
relevant to the OCR search system and incorporating any determined relevant
portions of the annotation information into the respective annotation database
630.
[0094] Figure 9 is a block diagram illustrating a facial recognition search
system 112-
A utilized to process a visual query in accordance with one embodiment of the
present
invention. The facial recognition search system 112-A typically includes one
or more
processing units (CPU's) 902, one or more network or other communications
interfaces 904,
memory 912, and one or more communication buses 914 for interconnecting these
components. Memory 912 includes high-speed random access memory, such as DRAM,
SRAM, DDR RAM or other random access solid state memory devices; and may
include
non-volatile memory, such as one or morel-nagnetie disk storage devices,
optical disk storage
devices, flash memory devices, or other non-volatile solid state storage
devices. Memory 912
may optionally include one or more storage devices remotely located from the
CPU(s) 902.
Memory 912, or alternately the non-volatile memory device(s) within memory
912,
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comprises a non-transitory computer readable storage medium. In some
embodiments,
memory 912 or the computer readable storage medium of memory 912 stores the
following
programs, modules and data structures, or a subset thereof:
= an operating system 916 that includes procedures for handling various
basic system
services and for performing hardware dependent tasks;
= a network communication module 918 that is used for connecting the facial
recognition search system 112-A to other computers via the one or more
communication network interfaces 904 (wired or wireless) and one or more
communication networks, such as the Internet, other wide area networks, local
area
networks, metropolitan area networks, and so on;
= a facial recognition search application 920 for searching for facial
images matching
the face(s) presented in the visual query in a facial image database 1I4-A and
searches the social network database 922 for information regarding each match
found
in the facial image database 114-A.
= a facial image database 114-A for storing one or more facial images for a
plurality of
users; optionally, the facial image database includes facial images for people
other
than users, such as family members and others known by users and who have been
identified as being present in images included in the facial image database
114-A;
optionally, the facial image database includes facial images obtained from
external
sources, such as vendors of facial images that are legally in the public
domain;
= optionally, a social network database 922 which contains information
regarding users
of the social network such as name, address, occupation, group memberships,
social
network connections, current GPS location of mobile device, share preferences,
interests, age, hometown, personal statistics, work information, etc. as
discussed in
more detail with reference to Fig. 12A;
= a results ranking and formatting module 924 for ranking (e.g., assigning
a relevance
and/or match quality score to) the potential facial matches from the facial
image
database 114-A and formatting the results for presentation; in some
embodiments, the
ranking or scoring of results utilizes related information retrieved from the
aforementioned social network database; in some embodiment, the search foi
matted
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results include the potential image matches as well as a subset of information
from the
social network database; and
= an annotation module 926 for receiving annotation information from an
annotation
database (116, Fig. 1) determining if any of the annotation information is
relevant to
the facial recognition search system and storing any determined relevant
portions of
the annotation information into the respective annotation database 928.
[0095] Figure 10 is a block diagram illustrating an image-to-terms search
system 112-
C utilized to process a visual query in accordance with one embodiment of the
present
invention. In some embodiments, the image-to-terms search system recognizes
objects
(instance recognition) in the visual query. In other embodiments, the image-to-
terms search
system recognizes object categories (type recognition) in the visual query. In
some
embodiments, the image to terms system recognizes both objects and object-
categories. The
image-to-terms search system returns potential term matches for images in the
visual query.
The image-to-terms search system I12-C typically includes one or more
processing units
(CPU's) 1002, one or more network or other communications interfaces 1004,
memory 1012,
and one or more communication buses 1014 for interconnecting these components.
Memory
1012 includes high-speed random access memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, DDR RAM or
other random access solid state memory devices; and may include non-volatile
memory, such
as one or more magnetic disk storage devices, optical disk storage devices,
flash memory
devices, or other non-volatile solid state storage devices. Memory 1012 may
optionally
include one or more storage devices remotely located from the CPU(s) 1002.
Memory 1012,
or alternately the non-volatile memory device(s) within memory 1012, comprises
a non-
transitory computer readable storage medium. In some embodiments, memory 1012
or the
computer readable storage medium of memory 1012 stores the following programs,
modules
and data structures, or a subset thereof:
= an operating system 1016 that includes procedures for handling various
basic system
services and for performing hardware dependent tasks;
= a network communication module 1018 that is used for connecting the image-
to-terms
search system 112-C to other computers via the one or more communication
network
interfaces 1004 (wired or wireless) and one or more communication networks,
such as
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the Internet, other wide area networks, local area networks, metropolitan area
networks, and so on;
= a image-to-terms search application 1020 that searches for images
matching the
subject or subjects in the visual query in the image search database 114-C;
= an image search database 114-C which can be searched by the search
application
1020 to find images similar to the subject(s) of the visual query;
= a terms-to-image inverse index 1022, which stores the textual terms used
by users
when searching for images using a text based query search engine 1006;
= a results ranking and formatting module 1024 for ranking the potential
image matches
and/or ranking terms associated with the potential image matches identified in
the
terms-to-image inverse index 1022; and
= an annotation module 1026 for receiving annotation information from an
annotation
database (116, Fig. 1) determining if any of the annotation information is
relevant to
the image-to terms search system 112-C and storing any determined relevant
portions
of the annotation information into the respective annotation database 1028.
[0096] Figures 5-10 are intended more as functional descriptions of the
various
features which may be present in a set of computer systems than as a
structural schematic of
the embodiments described herein. In practice, and as recognized by those of
ordinary skill
in the art, items shown separately could be combined and some items could be
separated. For
example, some items shown separately in these figures could be implemented on
single
servers and single items could be implemented by one or more servers. The
actual number of
systems used to implement visual query processing and how features are
allocated among
them will vary from one implementation to another.
[0097] Each of the methods described herein may be governed by instructions
that are
stored in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium and that are
executed by one or
more processors of one or more servers or clients. The above identified
modules or programs
(i.e., sets of instructions) need not be implemented as separate software
programs, procedures
or modules, and thus various subsets of these modules may be combined or
otherwise re-
arranged in various embodiments. Each of the operations shown in Figures 5-10
may
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correspond to instructions stored in a computer memory or non-transitory
computer readable
storage medium.
[0098] Figure 11 illustrates a client system 102 with a screen shot of an
exemplary
visual query 1102. The client system 102 shown in Figure 11 is a mobile device
such as a
cellular telephone, portable music player, or portable cmailing device. The
client system 102
includes a display 706 and one or more input means 708 such the buttons shown
in this
figure. In some embodiments, the display 706 is a touch sensitive display 709.
In
embodiments having a touch sensitive display 709, soft buttons displayed on
the display 709
may optionally replace some or all of the electromechanical buttons 708. Touch
sensitive
displays are also helpful in interacting with the visual query results as
explained in more
detail below. The client system 102 also includes an image capture mechanism
such as a
camera 710.
[0099] Figure ii illustrates a visual query 1102 which is a photograph or
video frame
of a package on a shelf of a store. In the embodiments described here, the
visual query is a
two dimensional image having a resolution corresponding to the size of the
visual query in
pixels in each of two dimensions. The visual query 1102 in this example is a
two
dimensional image of three dimensional objects. The visual query 1102 includes
background
elements, a product package 1104, and a variety of types of entities on the
package including
an image of a person 1106, an image of a trademark 1108, an image of a product
1110, and a
variety of textual elements 1112.
[00100] As explained with reference to Figure 3, the visual query 1102 is
sent to the
front end server 110, which sends the visual query 1102 to a plurality of
parallel search
systems (112A-N), receives the results and creates an interactive results
document.
[00101] Figures 12A and 12B each illustrate a client system 102 with a
screen shot of
an embodiment of an interactive results document 1200. The interactive results
document
1200 includes one or more visual identifiers 1202 of respective sub-portions
of the visual
query 1102, which each include a user selectable link to a subset of search
results. Figures
12A and 12B illustrate an interactive results document 1200 with visual
identifiers that are
bounding boxes 1202 (e.g., bounding boxes 1202-1, 1202-2, 1202-3). In the
embodiments
shown in Figures 12A and 12B, the user activates the display of the search
results
corresponding to a particular sub-portion by tapping on the activation region
inside the space
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outlined by its bounding box 1202. For example, the user would activate the
search results
corresponding to the image of the person, by tapping on a bounding box 1306
(Figure 13)
surrounding the image of the person. In other embodiments, the selectable link
is selected
using a mouse or keyboard rather than a touch sensitive display. In some
embodiments, the
first corresponding search result is displayed when a user previews a bounding
box 1202 (i.e.,
when the user single clicks, taps once, or hovers a pointer over the bounding
box). The user
activates the display of a plurality of corresponding search results when the
user selects the
bounding box (i.e., when the user double clicks, taps twice, or uses another
mechanism to
indicate selection.)
[00102] In Figures 12A and 12B the visual identifiers are bounding boxes
1202
surrounding sub-portions of the visual query. Figure 12A illustrates bounding
boxes 1202
that arc square or rectangular. Figure 12B illustrates a bounding box 1202
that outlines the
boundary of an identifiable entity in the sub-portion of the visual query,
such as the bounding
box 1202-3 for a drink bottle. In some embodiments, a respective bounding box
1202
includes smaller bounding boxes 1202 within it. For example, in Figures 12A
and 12B, the
bounding box identifying the package 1202-1 surrounds the bounding box
identifying the
trademark 1202-2 and all of the other bounding boxes 1202. In some embodiments
that
include text, also include active hot links 1204 for some of the textual
terms. Figure 12B
shows an example where "Active Drink" and "United States" are displayed as hot
links 1204.
The search results corresponding to these terms are the results received from
the term query
server system 118, whereas the results corresponding to the bounding boxes are
results from
the query by image search systems.
[00103] Figure 13 illustrates a client system 102 with a screen shot of an
interactive
results document 1200 that is coded by type of recognized entity in the visual
query. The
visual query of Figure 11 contains an image of a person 1106, an image of a
trademark 1108,
an image of a product 1110, and a variety of textual elements 1112. As such
the interactive
results document 1200 displayed in Figure 13 includes bounding boxes 1202
around a person
1306, a trademark 1308, a product 1310, and the two textual areas 1312. The
bounding boxes
of Figure 13 are each presented with separate cross-hatching which represents
differently
colored transparent bounding boxes 1202. In some embodiments, the visual
identifiers of the
bounding boxes (and/or labels or other visual identifiers in the interactive
results document
1200) are formatted for presentation in visually distinctive manners such as
overlay color,
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overlay pattern, label background color, label background pattern, label font
color, and
bounding box border color. The type coding for particular recognized entities
is shown with
respect to bounding boxes in Figure 13, but coding by type can also be applied
to visual
identifiers that are labels.
[00104] Figure 14 illustrates a client device 102 with a screen shot of an
interactive
results document 1200 with labels 1402 being the visual identifiers of
respective sub-portions
of the visual query 1102 of Figure 11. The label visual identifiers 1402 each
include a user
selectable link to a subset of corresponding search results. In some
embodiments, the
selectable link is identified by descriptive text displayed within the area of
the label 1402.
Some embodiments include a plurality of links within one label 1402. For
example, in Figure
14, the label hovering over the image of a woman drinking includes a link to
facial
recognition results for the woman and a link to image recognition results for
that particular
picture (e.g., images of other products or advertisements using the same
picture.)
[00105] In Figure 14, the labels 1402 are displayed as partially
transparent areas with
text that are located over their respective sub-portions of the interactive
results document. In
other embodiments, a respective label is positioned near but not located over
its respective
sub-portion of the interactive results document. In some embodiments, the
labels are coded
by type in the same manner as discussed with reference to Figure 13. In some
embodiments,
the user activates the display of the search results corresponding to a
particular sub-portion
corresponding to a label 1302 by tapping on the activation region inside the
space outlined by
the edges or periphery of the label 1302. The same previewing and selection
functions
discussed above with reference to the bounding boxes of Figures 12A and 12B
also apply to
the visual identifiers that are labels 1402.
[001061 Figure 15 illustrates a screen shot of an interactive results
document 1200 and
the original visual query 1102 displayed concurrently with a results list
1500. In some
embodiments, the interactive results document 1200 is displayed by itself as
shown in Figures
12-14. In other embodiments, the interactive results document 1200 is
displayed
concurrently with the original visual query as shown in Figure 15. In some
embodiments, the
list of visual query results 1500 is concurrently displayed along with the
original visual query
1102 and/or the interactive results document 1200. The type of client system
and the amount
of room on the display 706 may determine whether the list of results 1500 is
displayed
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concurrently with the interactive results document 1200. In some embodiments,
the client
system 102 receives (in response to a visual query submitted to the visual
query server
system) both the list of results 1500 and the interactive results document
1200, but only
displays the list of results 1500 when the user scrolls below the interactive
results document
1200. In some of these embodiments, the client system 102 displays the results
corresponding to a user selected visual identifier 1202/1402 without needing
to query the
server again because the list of results 1500 is received by the client system
102 in response
to the visual query and then stored locally at the client system 102.
[00107] In some embodiments, the list of results 1500 is organized into
categories
1502. Each category contains at least one result 1503. In some embodiments,
the categories
titles are highlighted to distinguish them from the results 1503. The
categories 1502 are
ordered according to their calculated category weight. In some embodiments,
the category
weight is a combination of the weights of the highest N results in that
category. As such, the
category that has likely produced more relevant results is displayed first. In
embodiments
where more than one category 1502 is returned for the same recognized entity
(such as the
facial image recognition match and the image match shown in Figure 15) the
category
displayed first has a higher category weight.
[00108] As explained with respect to Figure 3, in some embodiments, when a
selectable link in the interactive results document 1200 is selected by a user
of the client
system 102, the cursor will automatically move to the appropriate category
1502 or to the
first result 1503 in that category. Alternatively, when a selectable link in
the interactive
results document is selected by a user of the client system 102, the list of
results 1500 is re-
ordered such that the category or categories relevant to the selected link are
displayed first.
This is accomplished, for example, by either coding the selectable links with
information
identifying the corresponding search results, or by coding the search results
to indicate the
corresponding selectable links or to indicate the corresponding result
categories.
[00109] In some embodiments, the categories of the search results
correspond to the
query-by-image search system that produce those search results. For example,
in Figure 15
some of the categories are product match 1506, logo match 1508, facial
recognition match
1510, image match 1512. The original visual query 1102 and/or an interactive
results
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document 1200 may be similarly displayed with a category title such as the
query 1504.
Similarly, results from any term search performed by the term query server may
also be
displayed as a separate category, such as web results 1514. In other
embodiments, more than
one entity in a visual query will produce results from the same query-by-image
search
system. For example, the visual query could include two different faces that
would return
separate results from the facial recognition search system. As such, in some
embodiments,
the categories 1502 are divided by recognized entity rather than by search
system. In some
embodiments, an image of the recognized entity is displayed in the recognized
entity category
header 1502 such that the results for that recognized entity are
distinguishable from the
results for another recognized entity, even though both results are produced
by the same
query by image search system. For example, in Figure 15, the product match
category 1506
includes two entity product entities and as such as two entity categories 1502
¨ a boxed
product 1516 and a bottled product 1518, each of which have a plurality of
corresponding
search results 1503. In some embodiments, the categories may be divided by
recognized
entities and type of query-by-image system. For example, in Figure 15, there
are two
separate entities that returned relevant results under the product match
category product.
[00110] In some embodiments, the results 1503 include thumbnail images. For
example, as shown for the facial recognition match results in Figure 15, small
versions (also
called thumbnail images) of the pictures of the facial matches for "Actress X"
and "Social
Network Friend Y" are displayed along with some textual description such as
the name of the
person in the image.
1001111 The foregoing description, for purpose of explanation, has been
described with
reference to specific embodiments. However, the illustrative discussions above
are not
intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms
disclosed. Many
modifications and variations are possible in view of the above teachings. The
embodiments
were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the
invention and its
practical applications, to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best
utilize the invention
and various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the
particular use
contemplated.
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