Color palette maps for color-aware search

• US 8,576,241 B1
• Filed: 02/03/2010
• Issued: 11/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/03/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Goldstein, Michel, Hotchkies, Blair L., Williams, Sarah E., Saifullah, Sikandar, Patrikios, Jason P., Mills, Brent Robert, Indrei, Alexandru I., Parshall, Daniel R., Kanter, Max L, Singh, Sachin B., Meister, Carl N., Couvrette, David Charles, Tseng, Walter Manching, Forde, Sean P., Nilles, John M., Jaye, Paul Daniel
• Primary Examiner(s): Sajous, Wesner
• Application Number:
  US12/699,735
• Time in Patent Office: 1,371 Days
• Field of Search: 345/418, 345/581, 345589-593, 345/597, 345600-601, 345/606, 345611-612, 345/619, 345/501, 345/522, 345548-549, 345/690, 348/179, 348/498, 348/502, 348519-520, 348/552, 348/557, 348/577, 348/582, 348/599, 348/630, 348716-717, 358/515, 358518-519, 358/523, 358/525, 358/448, 382162-167, 382/228, 382/251, 382/254, 382/260, 382/266, 382/269, 382/274, 382/276, 382/300, 382/305, 707705-708, 707/758, 707/763, 707769-771, 707/778
• US Class Current: 345/589
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5838 using colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/90 Determination of colour characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/56 relating to colour
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0606 Manual adjustment
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0666 for control of colour parameters, e.g. colour temperature
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/06 using colour palettes, e.g. look-up tables

Abstract

Effective color-aware search of a collection of content associated with one or more images is enabled. Content and/or its associated images may be automatically associated with representative palette colors in a suite of color palettes. Color palettes may be of a variety of types and have a hierarchical structure in which lower levels enable increasingly subtle distinctions between shades of color. Color palette hierarchies may be effectively presented, and appropriate portions emphasized based on associated search result sets. Search result sets may be refined and/or reordered in accordance with color palette selections and/or representative confidences of color palette selections for items at least referenced therein.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for searching a collection of content associated with a plurality of images, comprising:

under control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions,

for each of the plurality of images, identifying each palette color from a color palette corresponding to at least one pixel in the image;

determining a proportion of pixels in each image corresponding to each identified palette color;

defining a representative set of palette colors for each image, the representative set for each image including a primary palette color for which the proportion of pixels is greatest for the image, the representative set further including any secondary palette color for which the proportion of pixels has a difference less than a proportion difference threshold with respect to the primary palette color; and

responsive to receiving information for a search request specifying at least one of the palette colors of the color palette, providing search results including at least a reference to content associated with each of at least some of the plurality of images satisfying the search request based at least in part upon the representative set of palette colors for the image.

2. A computer-implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the proportion of pixels in each image is with respect to a number of pixels in a representative set of pixels selected from the image for an item.

3. A computer-implemented method according to claim 1, wherein determining that the pixel corresponds to the palette color comprises determining a distance between a color of the pixel and the palette color in a color space.

4. A computer-implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the proportion of pixels for any secondary palette color included in the representative set is furthermore greater than a proportion threshold.

5. A computer-implemented method for color-aware search, comprising:

under control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions,

identifying a set of representative pixels in an image of an item based at least in part on identifying one or more edges in the image;

selecting a set of representative palette colors from a color palette based at least in part on at least one color of the set of representative pixels, wherein selecting the set of representative palette colors comprises applying a set of weights to statistical frequencies of colors corresponding to colors of the set of representative pixels, and wherein the set of weights bias against selecting grayscale colors for the set of representative palette colors; and

providing at least a reference to the item responsive to a search at least specifying one of the set of representative palette colors.

6. A computer-implemented method according to claim 5, wherein the method further comprises quantizing colors of pixels in the image in accordance with a human visual system model prior to selecting the set of representative palette colors.

7. A computer-implemented method according to claim 5, wherein identifying the set of representative pixels in the image comprises:

identifying an outline at least in part by detecting edges while working inwards from image boundaries; and

detecting edges while working outwards from a center of the outline.

8. A computer-implemented method according to claim 5, wherein selecting the set of representative palette colors comprises determining statistical frequencies of colors corresponding to colors of the set of representative pixels.

9. A computer-implemented method for color-aware search, comprising:

under control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions,

identifying a palette color from a color palette corresponding to at least one pixel in an image;

determining a portion of pixels in the image, the corresponding to each identified palette color;

defining a representative set of palette colors for the image, the representative set for the image including a primary palette color for which the proportion of pixels is greatest for the image, the representative set further including any secondary palette color for which the proportion of pixels has a difference less than a proportion difference threshold with respect to the primary palette color;

responsive to receiving a search request specifying at least one of the palette colors of the color palette, providing set search results for presentation based at least in part on the representative set of palette colors for the image.

10. A computer-implemented method according to claim 9, wherein the image corresponds with at least one item in an advertisement.

11. A computer-implemented method according to claim 9, wherein at least one of the representative set of palette colors is a palette multicolor.

12. A computer-implemented method according to claim 9, wherein the proportion of pixels for any secondary palette color included in the representative set is furthermore greater than a proportion threshold.

13. A computer-implemented method according to claim 9, wherein the method further comprises quantizing colors of pixels in the image in accordance with a human visual system model prior to defining the representative set of palette colors.

14. A computerized system for color-aware search, comprising:

one or more computer-readable media collectively facilitating storage of at least a color palette hierarchy comprising a plurality of palette colors arranged in a plurality of levels;

a color palette module configured at least to associate items to representative palette colors in the color palette hierarchy based at least in part on colors in images of the items; and

a search module configured at least to provide for presentation at least references to at least some of the items responsive to a search at least specifying a representative palette color in the color palette hierarchy, wherein each of said at least some of the items is associated with at least one representative palette color in a subhierarchy of the color palette hierarchy that contains the representative palette color specified by the search.

15. A computerized system according to claim 14, wherein a number of palette colors linked to a palette color that is higher in the color palette hierarchy is less than a threshold.

16. A computerized system according to claim 14, wherein each item is associated with at least one of the representative palette colors at each level of the color palette hierarchy.

17. A computerized system according to claim 14, wherein at least one of the plurality of palette colors is a palette multicolor.

18. One or more computer-readable media having collectively thereon computer-executable instructions that configure one or more computers to collectively, at least:

generate a color palette of palette colors based at least in part on colors from images of items, wherein the color palette comprises a color palette hierarchy having a plurality of levels, and wherein generating the color palette comprises re-clustering the colors from images for each of the levels of the color palette hierarchy;

associate at least some of the items to representative palette colors in the color palette based at least in part on at least some of the colors in at least some of the images of said at least some of the items; and

provide at least a reference to associated items responsive to a search at least specifying a representative palette color in the color palette.

19. One or more computer-readable media according to claim 18, wherein generating the color palette comprises clustering the colors from images.

20. One or more computer-readable media according to claim 19, wherein the clustering occurs with respect to distances between the colors in a color space in accordance with a human visual system model.

21. One or more computer-readable media according to claim 20, wherein the color space is modified by at least a color palette type transformation.