Object information derived from object images

• US 8,218,873 B2
• Filed: 02/28/2011
• Issued: 07/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/06/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Nant Holdings IP, LLC (NantWorks, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Nant Holdings IP, LLC (NantWorks, LLC)
• Inventors: Boncyk, Wayne C., Cohen, Ronald H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sherali, Ishrat I
• Application Number:
  US13/037,330
• Publication Number:
  US 20110150292A1
• Time in Patent Office: 498 Days
• Field of Search: 382115-118, 382/305, 382/209, 382/218, 382/100, 382/181, 382/165, 348 1402- 1403, 3482112-2116, 348/207.1, 348/460, 348/552, 705 26- 27, 705/23, 709/201, 709/203, 709217-219, 709/250
• US Class Current: 382/181
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/583 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5854 using shape and object relationship
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces

Abstract

Search terms are derived automatically from images captured by a camera equipped cell phone, PDA, or other image capturing device, submitted to a search engine to obtain information of interest, and at least a portion of the resulting information is transmitted back locally to, or nearby, the device that captured the image.

Claims

1. An information retrieval system comprising:

a device connection coupled with a device configured to acquire a digital representation of a scene; and

an identification server configured to;

obtain the digital representation from the device over the device connection;

recognize an object within the scene based on the digital representation;

derive object attributes associated with the object based at least in part on the digital representation;

derive a query targeting a search engine indexing system based on the object attributes; and

cause the query to be submitted to a search engine that is configured to cause a results set from the query to be transmitted back to the device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein digital representation comprises imagery data.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein digital representation comprises non-visible data.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the non-visible data comprises sounds acquired by the device.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the digital representation comprise bio-metric information.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the bio-metric information includes data representative of at least one of a fingerprint and an iris.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the digital representation comprise location information of the device.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the object within the scene comprises markings.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the object attributes are obtained at least in part from the markings.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the identification server comprises a distal server relative to the device and the device connection comprises a network connection.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the device comprises the identification server.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the identification server is further configured to obtain additional digital representations of the scene from multiple devices.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the identification server is further configured to identify the object within the scene from the additional digital representations.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the identification server is further configured to discriminate between the object and a second, different object within the scene.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the search engine indexing system indexes a proprietary collection.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the object comprises at least three dimensions of relevance.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the object comprises at least four dimensions of relevance.

18. The system of claim 1, further comprising an object database of known target objects coupled with the identification server.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the object attributes comprise target object information related to at least one known target object obtained from the object database.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the results set comprises a code to cause an action to occur.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the action targets the device.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein the action targets the object.

23. The system of claim 1, wherein the digital representation comprises data obtained from at least one sensor.