INTEGRATED IMAGE DETECTION AND CONTEXTUAL COMMANDS

• US 20120083294A1
• Filed: 09/30/2010
• Published: 04/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Bray, Cedric, Bonnet, Olivier
• Application Number:
  US12/895,693
• Publication Number:
  US 20120083294A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/466
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/10 Character recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/1444 Selective acquisition, locating or processing of specific regions, e.g. highlighted text, fiducial marks or predetermined fields

Abstract

An image is received by a data processing system. A text recognition module identifies textual information in the image. A data detection module identifies a pattern in the textual information and determines a data type of the pattern. A user interface provides a user with a contextual processing command option based on the data type of the pattern in the textual information.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a data processing system, an image;

identifying textual information in the image;

identifying a pattern in the textual information and determining a data type of the pattern; and

providing a user with a contextual processing command option based on the data type of the pattern in the textual information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying textual information comprises performing a text recognition process on image data corresponding to the image.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the text recognition process comprises optical character recognition (OCR).

4. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying a pattern and determining a data type of the pattern comprises comparing the textual information to a definition of a known pattern structure.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the data type comprises one of a phone number, an email address, a website address, a street address, a date, a time, an ISBN (International Standard Book Number), a price value, a movie title, album art, and a barcode.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

executing the contextual processing command in an application of the data processing system.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the application comprises one of a phone application, an SMS (Short Message Service) and MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) messaging application, a chat application, an email application, a web browser application, a camera application, an address book application, a calendar application, a mapping application, a word processing application, and a photo application.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a face in the image using facial recognition processing, wherein the facial recognition processing extracts landmarks from the face and compares the landmarks to a database of known faces; and

providing the user with a contextual processing command option based on the identified face.

9. A non-transitory machine readable storage medium storing instructions which when executed cause a data processing system to perform a method comprising:

receiving an image;

identifying textual information in the image;

identifying a pattern in the textual information and determining a data type of the pattern; and

providing a user with a contextual processing command option based on the data type represented by the pattern in the textual information.

10. The storage medium of claim 9, wherein identifying textual information comprises performing a text recognition process on image data corresponding to the image.

11. The storage medium of claim 10, wherein the text recognition process comprises optical character recognition (OCR).

12. The storage medium of claim 9, wherein identifying a pattern and determining a data type of the pattern comprises comparing the textual information to a definition of a known pattern structure.

13. The storage medium of claim 9, wherein the data type comprises one of a phone number, an email address, a website address, a street address, a date, a time, an ISBN (International Standard Book Number), a price value, a movie title, album art, and a barcode.

14. The storage medium of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises:

executing the contextual processing command in an application of the data processing system.

15. The storage medium of claim 14, wherein the application comprises one of a phone application, an SMS (Short Message Service) and MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) messaging application, a chat application, an email application, a web browser application, a camera application, an address book application, a calendar application, a mapping application, a word processing application, and a photo application.

16. The storage medium of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises:

identifying a face in the image using facial recognition processing, wherein the facial recognition processing extracts landmarks from the face and compares the landmarks to a database of known faces; and

providing the user with a contextual processing command option based on the data type represented by the pattern in the textual information.

17. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory storing;

a text recognition module configured to receive an image and identify textual information in the image;

a data detection module configured to identify a pattern in the textual information and determine a data type represented by the pattern in the textual information; and

a user interface configured to provide a user with a contextual processing command option based on the data type represented by the pattern in the textual information.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein when the text recognition module identifies textual information, the processor is configured to perform a text recognition process on image data corresponding to the image.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the text recognition process comprises optical character recognition (OCR).

20. The system of claim 17, wherein identifying a pattern and determining a data type of the pattern comprises comparing the textual information to a definition of a known pattern structure.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein the data type comprises one of a phone number, an email address, a website address, a street address, a date, a time, an ISBN (International Standard Book Number), a price value, a movie title, album art, and a barcode.

22. The system of claim 17, wherein the processor executes the contextual processing command in an application of the system.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the application comprises one of a phone application, an SMS (Short Message Service) and MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) messaging application, a chat application, an email application, a web browser application, a camera application, an address book application, a calendar application, a mapping application, a word processing application, and a photo application.

24. The system of claim 17, the memory further storing:

a facial recognition module configured to identify a face in the image using facial recognition processing, wherein the facial recognition processing extracts landmarks from the face and compares the landmarks to a database of known faces; and

providing the user with a contextual processing command option based on the data type represented by the pattern in the textual information.