SPATIAL ATTRIBUTE RANKING VALUE INDEX

• US 20120323931A1
• Filed: 06/17/2011
• Published: 12/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Kroepfl, Michael, Buchmueller, Daniel, Schaffalitzky, Frederik
• Granted Patent: US 8,429,156 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/749
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries

Abstract

A request may be received that includes an indicator associated with a geographic location and scope. A database search may be initiated, based on the geographic location and scope. A list of one or more tags may be received, the tags associated with the geographic location, ordered based on relevance within the geographic scope, based on tag locale rankings associated with each of the tags included in the list of tags, the tag locale rankings based on comparisons of relative frequencies of occurrence of the tags, based on first bounded geographic areas, compared with second relative frequencies of occurrence of the tags based on second bounded geographic areas that are respectively larger than the first bounded geographic areas, the request geographic scope indicating one of a plurality of hierarchical geographic analysis levels associated with a plurality of geographic locations.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a tag relevance manager embodied via executable instructions stored on a computer-readable storage medium, the tag relevance manager including;

a tag collector that obtains a plurality of tags associated with a plurality of geographic locations, each tag indicating one or more attributes associated with an entity associated with one of the geographic locations;

a geographic scope component that obtains a first geographic scope indicating a first hierarchical geographic analysis level associated with the plurality of geographic locations;

a first frequency component that obtains a first relative frequency of occurrence of a first one of the tags based on a first bounded geographic area that includes a first one of the geographic locations that is associated with the first one of the tags;

a second frequency component that obtains a second relative frequency of occurrence of the first one of the tags based on a second bounded geographic area that is larger than the first bounded geographic area, the second bounded geographic area surrounding the first one of the geographic locations that is associated with the first one of the tags; and

a tag ranking component that determines, via a device processor, a first locale ranking value associated with the first tag indicating a relevance of the first tag based on the first geographic scope, the first and second relative frequencies of occurrence, and a locale associated with the first bounded geographic area.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the entity associated with the one of the geographic locations includes an indicator of a digital image associated with the one of the geographic locations, and

the one or more attributes associated with the each tag include one or more of;

a name associated with a posting user of one or more of the digital images, a description of a camera, a description of an event, an description of a mood, a name of a color, a name associated with an item depicted in one or more of the digital images, a name associated with a group of items depicted in one or more of the digital images, or a date associated with one or more of the digital images.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a rank storage component that initiates storage of the first locale ranking value with an indicator of the first tag in a quad tree structure that includes a plurality of other locale ranking values and indicators of associated tags, stored based on relevance based on the first geographic scope.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a rank storage component that initiates storage of the first locale ranking value with an indicator of the first tag in a database that includes a plurality of other locale ranking values and indicators of associated tags, stored based on relevance, based on the first geographic scope.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein:

the database includes a plurality of entities associated with the plurality of geographic locations, and

each of the plurality of tags is associated with one or more of the plurality of entities.

6. The system of claim 4, further comprising:

a request receiving component that receives a request for a list of tags associated with one of the plurality of geographic locations, based on a request geographic scope;

a search request component that initiates a search of the database based on the one of the plurality of geographic locations and the request geographic scope; and

a list receiving component that receives the list of tags, ordered based on relevance within the request geographic scope, based on tag locale rankings associated with each of the tags included in the list of tags.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein:

the request receiving component receives the request for a list of tags associated with one of the plurality of geographic locations, based on a request geographic scope and a request image associated with the one of the one of the plurality of geographic locations;

the search request component initiates a search of the database based on the one of the plurality of geographic locations, a match of the request image with other images, and the request geographic scope; and

the list receiving component receives the list of tags based on receiving one or more indicators associated with matched images associated with one or more of the tags included in the received list, the matched images associated with the plurality of geographic locations.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the first bounded geographic area includes at least a first portion of the plurality of geographic locations, and

the second bounded geographic area includes at least a second portion of the plurality of geographic locations.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein:

the second bounded geographic area includes the first bounded geographic area.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein:

the second bounded geographic area geographically substantially surrounds the first bounded geographic area.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the first relative frequency of occurrence of the first one of the tags is determined in accordance with

12. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the first locale ranking value is determined in accordance with

13. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a comparable ranking component that determines a globally comparable ranking value in accordance with

14. A method comprising:

receiving a request that includes an indicator associated with a request geographic location and a request geographic scope;

initiating, via a device processor, a search of a database based on the request geographic location and the request geographic scope; and

receiving a list of one or more tags associated with the request geographic location, ordered based on relevance within the request geographic scope, based on tag locale rankings associated with each of the tags included in the list of tags, the tag locale rankings based on comparisons of relative frequencies of occurrence of the tags, based on first bounded geographic areas, compared with second relative frequencies of occurrence of the tags based on second bounded geographic areas that are respectively larger than the first bounded geographic areas, the request geographic scope indicating one of a plurality of hierarchical geographic analysis levels associated with a plurality of geographic locations.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein:

receiving the request includes receiving a request that includes a request entity associated with the request geographic location and the indicator associated with the request geographic scope, and

initiating the search of the database includes initiating the search of the database based on the request geographic scope, the request entity, and the request geographic location, the method further comprising;

receiving one or more indicators of entities associated with a match to the request entity and the request geographic location, wherein

receiving the list of tags includes receiving the list of tags associated with the one or more indicators of entities, ordered based on relevance within the request geographic scope, based on tag locale rankings associated with each of the tags included in the list of tags.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein:

the entity associated with the one of the geographic locations includes an indicator of a digital image associated with the one of the geographic locations, and

the one or more attributes associated with the each tag include one or more of;

a name associated with a posting user of one or more of the digital images, a description of a camera, a description of an event, a description of a mood, a name of a color, a name associated with an item depicted in one or more of the digital images, a name associated with a group of items depicted in one or more of the digital images, one or more names of people, or a date associated with one or more of the digital images.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein:

the database includes at least one quad tree structure that stores tags associated with a first store geographic scope in a quadkey tile associated with the first store geographic scope.

18. A computer program product tangibly embodied on a computer-readable storage medium and including executable code that, when executed, causes at least one data processing apparatus to:

receive a user request for a list of one or more attributes associated with a geographic location and a geographic scope;

send a device request that includes the user request for the list and indicators associated with the geographic location and the geographic scope; and

receive the list of attributes associated with the geographic location, ordered based on relevance within the geographic scope, based on attribute locale rankings associated with each of the attributes included in the list of attributes, the attribute locale rankings based on comparisons of relative frequencies of occurrence of the attributes, based on first bounded geographic areas, compared with second relative frequencies of occurrence of the attributes based on second bounded geographic areas that are respectively larger than the first bounded geographic areas, the geographic scope indicating one of a plurality of hierarchical geographic analysis levels associated with a plurality of geographic locations.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the executable code is configured to cause the at least one data processing apparatus to:

initiate a display of the list of attributes associated with the geographic location, ordered based on relevance within the geographic scope.

20. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the executable code is configured to cause the at least one data processing apparatus to:

receive the user request based on receiving the user request for a list of one or more attributes associated with the geographic scope, a request digital image, and the geographic location;

send the device request based on sending the device request that includes the user request for the list and indicators associated with the geographic scope, the request digital image, and the geographic location; and

receive the list of attributes associated with the geographic location and the request digital image, ordered based on relevance within the geographic scope, based on attribute locale rankings associated with each of the attributes included in the list of attributes, the attribute locale rankings based on comparisons of relative frequencies of occurrence of the attributes, based on the first bounded geographic areas, compared with second relative frequencies of occurrence of the attributes based on the second bounded geographic areas.