Image Capture for Purchases

• US 20090319388A1
• Filed: 06/20/2008
• Published: 12/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Jing, Yushi, Yuan, Jian
• Application Number:
  US12/143,233
• Publication Number:
  US 20090319388A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0603 Catalogue ordering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation

Abstract

The subject matter of this specification can be embodied in, among other things, a computer-implemented item identification method that includes identifying an item in an image received from a remote electronic device; transmitting search results containing information about the item for one or more vendors of the item; and transmitting to the remote device code for executing an order for the item from the one or more vendors of the item.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented item identification method, comprising:

identifying an item in an image received from a remote electronic device;

transmitting search results containing information about the item for one or more vendors of the item; and

transmitting to the remote device code for executing an order for the item from the one or more vendors of the item.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying an item comprises comparing elements from the received image with elements from one or more pre-stored images to determine a degree of match between the images.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising identifying textual meta data associated with the one or more pre-stored images and submitting information corresponding to the textual meta data to a product search engine.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the textual meta data is obtained from a web pages from which the pre-stored images are obtained.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the elements comprise feature points.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the code generates a control that, when selected on the remote device, causes an order for the device from a vendor through a payment system that is separate from the vendor.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising crediting a financial account for a selected vendor and debiting a financial account for a user of the remote device, without providing confidential information about the user to the selected vendor.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising transmitting to the selected vendor shipping information for the user.

9. A computer-implemented item identification method, comprising:

submitting to a remote server an image containing a physical item;

receiving in response a list of items for sale from one or more vendors with a control for buying the items, wherein the items correspond to the physical item; and

transmitting a command to purchase the item from one of the vendors.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the list of items includes product search results for the item.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein a plurality of controls for buying the item are each displayed with a search result for a vendor.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising receiving data for displaying a purchase confirmation screen and transmitting a confirmation to a payment server to cause a transaction to be completed with a selected vendor.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising narrowing the list of sale items based on the geographical location of the item in the image.

14. A computer-implemented item identification system, comprising:

an interface to receive digital images submitted by remote devices;

an image comparator to compare features of the received images to features of stored images to identify products in the received images; and

a product search engine to generate search results corresponding to search terms associated with the stored images.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the stored images include corresponding textual tags for submission to the product search engine.

16. The system of claim 14, further comprising a payment system to complete a financial transaction between a user of the remote device and a vendor of an identified product.

17. The system of claim 14, further comprising a results formatter to format search results from the product search engine to include controls selectable by a user to purchase a product in the search result.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein a location of the remote device submitting the digital image is used as a search term to generate search results.

19. A computer-implemented item identification system, comprising:

an interface to receive digital images submitted by remote devices;

memory storing a plurality of images containing products for sale by a plurality of vendors; and

means for mediating a sale by a selected vendor from the plurality of vendors to a user of the remote device in response to a selection by the user.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising means for identifying items in the received digital images.