ACQUISITION AND USE OF QUERY IMAGES WITH IMAGE FEATURE DATA

• US 20130085893A1
• Filed: 09/28/2012
• Published: 04/04/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Bhardwaj, Anurag, Piramuthu, Robinson, Sundaresan, Neelakantan
• Application Number:
  US13/631,848
• Publication Number:
  US 20130085893A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26.62
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/532 Query formulation, e.g. graphical querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/583 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5838 using colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5866 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, manually generated location and time information
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/21 Design or setup of recognition systems or techniques; Extraction of features in feature space; Blind source separation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/22 Matching criteria, e.g. proximity measures
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0629 for generating comparisons
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0643 Graphical representation of items or shoppers
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10024 Color image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/13 Edge detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/41 based on statistical description of texture
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/90 Determination of colour characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/50 by performing operations within image blocks; by using histograms, e.g. histogram of oriented gradients [HoG]; by summing image-intensity values; Projection analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/507 Summing image-intensity values; Histogram projection analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/56 relating to colour

Abstract

An apparatus and method for providing recommendations are disclosed herein. A query image is received from a remote device, the query image comprising an image included in a web page and the image being of interest to a user viewing the web page. Item recommendations corresponding to the query image are provided for automatic display at the web page at the remote device. The item recommendations are obtained by comparing a first image attribute associated with the query image to a second image attribute of each of a plurality of inventory images for a plurality of inventory items. Item details corresponding to an item of interest by the user from among the item recommendations are provided for automatic display at the web page at the remote device.

Claims

1. A method for providing item recommendations, the method comprising:

receiving a query image from a remote device, the query image comprising an image included in a web page and the image being of interest to a user viewing the web page;

providing, by a processor, item recommendations corresponding to the query image for automatic display at the web page at the remote device, wherein the item recommendations are obtained by comparing a first image attribute associated with the query image to a second image attribute of each of a plurality of inventory images for a plurality of inventory items; and

providing item details corresponding to an item of interest by the user from among the item recommendations for automatic display at the web page at the remote device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the web page is not affiliated with an electronic commerce (e-commerce) site or online marketplace associated with the items included in the item recommendations.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the web page comprises a hypertext markup language (HTML)-based web page that is modified prior to rendering by a web browser included in the remote device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein one of a browser extension, a jquery snippet of code, or a browser plugin installed on the remote device performs the modification.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first image attribute is selected from among a color histogram, a dominant color, and an orientation histogram of the query image.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing ac additional items comprising the item recommendations, for automatic display at the web page, in response to user interest in the item recommendations.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the item recommendations and the item details are displayed in situ with the web page at the remote device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the item recommendations and the item details are translucently or opaquely overlaid over at least a portion of the web page.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the image of interest to the user or the item of interest to he user is detected based on an expression of spatial attention by the user to the image or item.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the spatial attention is denoted by proximity of a pointing device to the image or item, eye gaze tracking to the image or item, or explicit indication by the user using a graphical user interface (GUI) tool.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the item recommendations comprise items ma thing or nearly matching the first image attribute of the query image.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the item recommendations comprise items complementary or nearly complementary to the first image attribute of the query image, and the first image attribute associated with the query image comprises an image attribute of a template image embodying a fashion trend or pleasing color combination rule, the template image selected based on the query image.

13. A device, comprising:

at least one memory;

at least one processor in communication with the memory; and

one or more modules comprising instructions stored in the memory and executed by the processor to perform operations comprising;

receiving a query image from a remote device, the query image comprising an image included in a web page and the image being of interest to a user viewing the web page;

providing item recommendations corresponding to the query image for automatic display at the web page at the remote device, wherein the item recommendations are obtained by comparing a first image attribute associated with the query image to a second image attribute of each of a plurality of inventory images for a plurality of inventory items; and

providing item details corresponding to an item of interest by the user from among the item recommendations for automatic display at the web page at the remote device.

14. The device of claim 13, wherein the web page comprises a hypertext markup language (HTML)-based web page that is modified prior to rendering by a web browser included in the remote device.

15. The device of claim 14, wherein one of a browser extension, a jquery snippet of code, or a browser plugin installed on the remote device performs the modification.

16. The device of claim 13, further comprising providing additional items comprising the item recommendations, for automatic display at the web page, in response to user interest in the item recommendations.

17. The device of claim 13, wherein the item recommendations and the item details are displayed in situ with the web page at the remote device.

18. The device of claim 13, wherein the item recommendations and the item details are translucently or opaquely overlaid over at least a portion of the web page.

19. The device of claim 13, wherein the image of interest to the user or the item of interest to the user is detected based on an expression of spatial attention by the user to the image or item.

20. A non-transitory computer readable medium including instructions, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving a query image from a remote device, the query image comprising an image included in a web page and the image being of interest to a user viewing the web page;

providing item recommendations corresponding to the query image for automatic display at the web page at the remote device, wherein the item recommendations are obtained by comparing a first image attribute associated with the query image to a second image attribute of each of a plurality of inventory images for a plurality of inventory items; and

providing item details corresponding to an item of interest by the user from among the item recommendations for automatic display at the web page at the remote device.