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Network-based navigation system having virtual drive-thru advertisements integrated with actual imagery from along a physical route

  • US 7,941,269 B2
  • Filed: 11/11/2008
  • Issued: 05/10/2011
  • Est. Priority Date: 05/06/2005
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method of identifying ad-spots within geo-referenced imagery by utilizing sign-ness characteristics of portions of an image frame that depict suitable advertisement locations, the method comprising:

  • providing an image database containing actual imagery captured from at least one camera traversed along a physical route, the actual imagery having a generally horizontally oriented perspective;

    storing the sign-ness characteristics in a database as discrete data structures containing one or more information fields relating to the suitable advertisement locations;

    creating records for image portions that exhibit detectable unique sign-ness;

    extracting image portions depicting suitable ad-spots from image frames having an appreciable level of sign-ness;

    categorizing image frames with an unappreciable level of sign-ness as background imagery;

    processing image frames containing an appreciable level of sign-ness, such that the suitable advertisement locations are categorized as road signs or potential advertisements; and

    identifying a region of an image frame containing a potential advertisement and assigning a unique identifier to the region, wherein multiple successive image frames containing the region comprises an ad-spot.

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