VISUAL SEARCH AND THREE-DIMENSIONAL RESULTS

• US 20110055203A1
• Filed: 08/31/2009
• Published: 03/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: RAY, PAUL RONALD, MACDONALD, BRIAN WHALEN, YAMAMOTO, DARWIN KENGO, ABOU EL KHEIR, HADY MOUSTAFA, BAIN, JERRY DANIEL, GUTT, ZACHARY MARK, EDWARDS, RODNEY COLEMAN
• Granted Patent: US 8,335,784 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/722
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/54 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90335 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04815 Interaction with a metaphor-based environment or interaction object displayed as three-dimensional, e.g. changing the user viewpoint with respect to the environment or object

Abstract

Methods, systems, graphical user interfaces, and computer-readable media for visually searching and exploring a set of objects are provided. A computer system executes a method that generates three-dimensional representations or two-dimensional representations for a set of objects in response to a user interaction with an interface that displays the three-dimensional representations or the two-dimensional representations. The interface includes filter controls, sorting controls, and classification controls, which are dynamically altered based on the content of a user query or the attributes of the objects in the three-dimensional representations or two-dimensional representations.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method to visually search and explore a set of objects, the computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, by a server, a query;

determining, by the server, whether to include a visual search link in a result set corresponding to the query;

generating a result set that includes a list of uniform resource locators and the visual search link when the user query is general or specific; and

transmitting the results and the visual search link to the user.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the visual search link is configured to link to a three-dimensional interface or a two-dimensional interface having a collection of images corresponding to the set of objects that match the query.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the three-dimensional interface and the two-dimensional interface dynamically vary image sizes in the collection of images.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the three-dimensional interface and the two-dimensional interface dynamically vary metadata displayed in the three-dimensional interface and the two-dimensional interface.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the three-dimensional interface and the two-dimensional interface dynamically vary controls included in the three-dimensional interface and the two-dimensional interface based on attributes of objects within the set of objects.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the controls refine, filter, categorize, or sort the set of objects.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein each image is associated with a subsequent query comprising metadata associated with the object corresponding to the image.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the subsequent query includes context information corresponding to the user and is executed in response to a click on the image.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving the subsequent query and generating a results page having uniform resource locators (URLS) associated with web pages or documents that contain the terms of the subsequent query.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the metadata is displayed on the three-dimensional interface or the two-dimensional interface when the image is subject to a hover action.

11. A graphical user interface configured to visually search and explore a set of objects, the graphical user interface, comprising:

a sorting control configured to reorganize the set of objects based on attributes shared by all of the objects within the set of objects;

a filtering control configured to reduce the number of objects in the set of objects based on the attributes of each object in the set of objects;

a classification control configured to reduce the number of objects in the set based on categories represented within the set of objects;

and

the graphical user interface is configured to display images of objects that match a user query and to transition between a three-dimensional view and a two-dimensional view based on the number of objects that are within the set of objects.

12. The graphical user interface of claim 11, wherein the attributes include items that are frequently requested by a number of users.

13. The graphical user interface of claim 11, wherein the attributes include items that are tangentially or serendipitously related to the query.

14. The graphical user interface of claim 11, further comprising:

a search box control that is automatically populated with a subsequent query corresponding to an object that is a subject of a hover action.

15. The graphical user interface of claim 14, wherein the subsequent query is executed when the object is a subject of a click action.

16. A computer system configured to visually search and explore a set of objects, the computer system comprising:

a database storing objects that include a plurality of attributes, wherein each object has a corresponding image;

a server communicatively connected to the database to retrieve a set of images and attributes in response to a visual browsing request; and

the server generates a graphical user interface to organize the images and attributes and dynamically transitions between a three-dimensional representation of the set of images to a two-dimensional representation of the set of images.

17. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the two-dimensional representation is provided when the number of images is below a threshold.

18. The computer system of claim 17, wherein the three-dimensional representation is used when the number of images is above the threshold.

19. The computer system of claim 16, wherein each image is associated with a command that initiates a subsequent action corresponding to the object.

20. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the command is query that cause a search engine to return a results set that includes web pages, images, videos, or documents related to the object.