Object information derived from object images

• US 8,483,484 B2
• Filed: 08/10/2011
• Issued: 07/09/2013
• 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:
  US13/207,174
• Publication Number:
  US 20110295714A1
• Time in Patent Office: 699 Days
• Field of Search: 382/181, 382/224, 382/305, 382115-119, 382/100, 455/414.3, 455/411, 455/414.2, 455/412.1, 705/26.1, 705/27.1, 705/7.33, 713/186, 713/168, 348/239, 3482112-2116, 348/207.1, 348/460, 348/552
• US Class Current: 382/181
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24554 Unary operations; Data partitioning operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/50 of still image data
• 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 16/5854 using shape and object relationship
• 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 16/7335 Graphical querying, e.g. query-by-region, query-by-sketch, query-by-trajectory, GUIs for designating a person/face/object as a query predicate end-user interface involving hot spots associated with the video H04N21/4725; end-user interface for selecting a Region of Interest H04N21/4728
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/904 Browsing; Visualisation therefor for navigating the web G06F16/954; browsing optimisation for the web G06F16/957
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/25 Fusion techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2218/08 Feature extraction
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 : Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 : Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 : Item investigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 : Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 : Processing of requisition or of purchase orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/00 : Image analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/10 : Image acquisition document image scanning and transmission H04N1/00; control of digital cameras H04N23/60
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/255 : Detecting or recognising potential candidate objects based on visual cues, e.g. shapes
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/768 : using context analysis, e.g. recognition aided by known co-occurring patterns
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/00 : Scenes; Scene-specific elements control of digital cameras H04N23/60
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/10 : Terrestrial scenes scenes under surveillance with static cameras G06V20/52; scenes perceived from the exterior of a vehicle G06V20/56; scenes perceived from the interior of a vehicle G06V20/59
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/20 : in augmented reality scenes
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/46 : Extracting features or characteristics from the video content, e.g. video fingerprints, representative shots or key frames
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/80 : Recognising image objects characterised by unique random patterns
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 2201/07 : Target detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/16 : Human faces, e.g. facial parts, sketches or expressions
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/18 : Eye characteristics, e.g. of the iris
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/80 : Camera processing pipelines; Components thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/44 : Receiver circuitry for the reception of television signals according to analogue transmission standards H04N5/14 takes precedence

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. A transaction system comprising:

a mobile device interface configured to exchange image data with a mobile device, the image data representing multiple images relating to at least one purchasable product; and

a content server coupled with the mobile device interface and configured to identify a target object out of a database of known objects based on an interaction with the mobile device relating to the image data, identify content information related to the target object, and initiate a transaction associated with the target object with a selected account over a network based on the content information.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the content server is further configured to derive a search term based on the image data.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the content server is further configured to submit the search term to a search engine configured to generate a results set associated with the target object.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the transaction is based on the results set.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the search term is derived according to an indexing system of a search engine.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile device comprises the content server.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the mobile device comprises a cell phone.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one remote server coupled with the mobile device over a network operates as the content server.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the target object comprises an inanimate object.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the target object comprises print media.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the transaction comprises a commercial transaction.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the commercial transaction includes a purchase related to the target object.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the purchase relates to at least one of the following:

audio data, video data, the object, the target object, a ticket, an item on a screen, a disc, and a vending machine product.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the selected account comprises an on-line account.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the selected account comprises an account linked with the mobile device.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the selected account comprises an account linked to a user of the mobile device.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the selected account comprises a bank account.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the selected account comprises a credit card account.