OBJECT TAG METADATA AND IMAGE SEARCH

• US 20130204866A1
• Filed: 03/08/2013
• Published: 08/08/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/08/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Fork, Michael J., Hamilton, Rick A. II, Paterson, Kevin G., Seaman, James R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,983,197 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/723
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/532 Query formulation, e.g. graphical querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5866 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, manually generated location and time information

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed for ordering images. The technique includes receiving a request, the request including keywords and parameters specifying desired image characteristics. Further, the technique includes identifying a set of images responsive to the request based on a match of the keywords to tags associated with objects depicted in the set of images. Finally, the technique includes determining an ordering of the identified set of images by comparing the received parameters with metadata fields associated with respective tags of the objects and returning an indication of the set of images and the determined ordering of the images.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method responding to an image search request, the method comprising:

receiving a request which includes one or more keywords and one or more parameters specifying desired image characteristics;

identifying, via one or more processors, a set of images responsive to the request based on a match of the keywords to tags of the images, wherein each tag is associated with an object depicted in an image of the set of images;

determining an ordering of the identified set of images by comparing the received parameters with metadata fields associated with respective tags of the images; and

returning an indication of the set of images and the determined ordering of the images.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein each metadata field corresponds to one of the image characteristics of one of the objects relative to one of the image characteristics of that object as depicted in other images sharing the image tag.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein a first one of the metadata fields represents a relative size of an object as it appears within a respective image.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein a first one of the metadata fields represents a relative focus of an object as it appears within a respective image.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein a first one of the metadata fields represents a relative contrast of an object as it appears within a respective image.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein a first one of the metadata fields represents a relative isolation of an object as it appears within a respective image.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the comparison includes determining whether a predefined threshold is exceeded.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of images includes at least one dynamic image or a video sequence itself comprising a plurality of images.

9. A computer-implemented method for ordering a set of images, the method comprising:

determining an order for the set of images based at least on a comparison of values of one or more object image characteristic parameters with values of one or more metadata fields, wherein each metadata field is associated with a tag of an object depicted in a respective image of the set of images; and

in response to a request to view the set of images, presenting one or more images of the set of images in the determined order.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the set of images is stored locally.