GENERATING SEARCH RESULTS BASED ON DUPLICATE IMAGE DETECTION

• US 20070237426A1
• Filed: 04/04/2006
• Published: 10/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Ma, Wei-Ying, Xie, Xing, Fan, Xin, Zhou, Yinghua
• Granted Patent: US 7,860,317 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/305
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5854 using shape and object relationship
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/757 Matching configurations of points or features

Abstract

A method and system for searching for content relating to a target or query image by identifying duplicate images with associated content is provided. An image search system identifies visual parts of objects within the target image based on analysis of two or more versions of the target image. The image search system identifies visual parts based on analysis of the versions. The image search system then identifies images of an image database that have visual parts that are similar to the visual parts of the target image. The image search system may rank the identified images based on their likelihood of being duplicates of the target image and provide their associated content as the search result ordered according to the ranking of the images.

Claims

1. A system for identifying visual parts of a target image, comprising:

a first version and a second version of the target image, each version having salient points, each salient point having a feature;

a component that identifies matching points, each matching point being a salient point of the first version for which there is a matching salient point of the second version with a similar feature; and

a component that identifies groups of matching points such that the matching points are proximate to each other in the first version and their matching points are also proximate to each other in the second version wherein a group represents a visual part.

2. The system of claim 1 including:

a component that identifies salient points within each version of the target image; and

a component that generates a feature to represent each salient point.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the component that identifies salient points and the component that generates a feature are based on a scale-invariant feature transform algorithm.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein a group includes three matching points.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein a salient point of the second version does not match a salient point of the first version when their features are similar to the feature of another salient point of the second version.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein similarity is based on a distance metric in feature space.

7. The system of claim 1 including a component that identifies salient points within each version of the target image and generates a feature to represent each salient point based on a scale-invariant feature transform algorithm, wherein a salient point of the second version does not match a salient point of the first version when their features are similar to the feature of another salient point of the second version, and wherein a group includes three matching points.

8. The system of claim 1 including a component that identifies images that match the target image by comparing features of salient points of the images to features of the salient points of the visual parts of the target image.

9. The system of claim 7 wherein the component that identifies images does so based on a count of the number of visual parts of the images that are in common with the visual parts of the target image.

10. A system for identifying whether an image is similar to a target image having a first version and a second version, comprising:

a component that identifies visual parts of the target image, a visual part being identified as salient points of the first version with a feature of each salient point being similar to a feature of a matching salient point of the second version and the salient points of a visual part being proximate to each other in the first version and their matching points being proximate to each other in the second version; and

a component that determines whether an image is similar to the target image by identifying visual parts of the target image that are also visual parts of the image.

11. The system of claim 10 including an image store that maps features of salient points of images to images and wherein the component that determines selects candidate images from the image store that have features of salient points that are similar to features of the salient points of the visual part and indicates that an image is similar to the target image based on a count of visual parts of the target image that is similar to visual parts of the image.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein the component that determines whether an image is similar to the target image factors in proximity to each other of salient points of the image with similar features.

13. The system of claim 10 including a component that generates features for salient points of an image.

14. The system of claim 13 including a component that generates a mapping of features of salient points of images to images.

15. The system of claim 10 wherein a salient point of the second version does not match a salient point of the first version when their features are similar to the feature of another salient point of the second version.

16. The system of claim 10 wherein similarity is based on a distance metric in feature space.

17. The system of claim 10 including a component that identifies salient points within each version of the image and generates a feature to represent each salient point based on a scale-invariant feature transform algorithm, wherein a salient point of the second version does not match a salient point of the first version when their features are similar to the feature of another salient point of the second version, and wherein a group includes three matching points.

18. A system for searching for content, comprising:

a content store that maps features of salient points of images to images and maps images to content;

a component that receives a first version and a second version of a target image;

a component that generates features of salient points of the target image;

a component that identifies visual parts of the target image by comparing features of salient points of the first version to features of salient points of the second version;

a component that identifies images with features of salient points that correspond to the visual parts; and

a component that provides the content associated with the identified images as a search result.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein a visual part is identified as salient points of the first version with a feature of each salient point being similar to a feature of a matching salient point of the second version and the salient points of a visual part being proximate to each other and their matching points being proximate to each other.

20. The system of claim 18 wherein the identified images are ranked according to a count of the corresponding visual parts.