Method and system for appraising a collection of products

• US 8,725,595 B1
• Filed: 03/31/2005
• Issued: 05/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Siegel, Hilliard B., Narang, Varun
• Primary Examiner(s): Ade, Garcia
• Application Number:
  US11/097,832
• Time in Patent Office: 3,330 Days
• Field of Search: 705/28
• US Class Current: 705/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/95 Retrieval from the web
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations

Abstract

A system and method for a librarian facilitates appraising the value of all or selected products in a collection of products. The collection of products may be part of a library that includes one or more photographic images of the library, and an inventory of the products revealed in those images. The librarian facilitates appraising the value of products in the collection with reference to the images. Appraisals may be automatically updated, and users notified in accordance with user notification preferences. An automated referral may be provided to the user to sell all or selected ones of the appraised inventory of products, individually or together. An extended appraisal may be provided to facilitate enhancing the value of a collection in the library.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method that is executed on a computing device for appraising products, comprising:

receiving, by a computing device, a visual image of one or more products;

analyzing, by a computing device, one or more visual elements in the received image and based on the analysis of the one or more visual elements, automatically recognizing a product identifier of a product depicted in the received image, wherein the product identifier includes product identification information that is part of the product and is visible in the received image;

identifying, by a computing device, the product from the recognized product identifier; and

generating, by a computing device, an appraisal of the product that is identified from the recognized product identifier.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the appraisal is a monetary value associated with the product.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the monetary value associated with the product is a resale value of the product.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the appraisal is a non-monetary value associated with the product.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the non-monetary value associated with the product is a relative assessment of value based on an availability of the product.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the relative assessment of value is different when the availability of the product is scarce than when the availability is common.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing notification of the appraisal of the product.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein providing notification of the appraisal comprises displaying the appraisal for the product with the image of the product.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein providing notification of the appraisal comprises sending at least one of a link to the appraisal, an email containing the link to the appraisal, and an instant message containing the link to the appraisal.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the appraisal comprises generating a summary appraisal of a collection of products for which product identifiers were extracted from the image.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the summary appraisal is at least one of a monetary value and non-monetary value associated with the collection of products.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the non-monetary value associated with the collection of products is a relative assessment of completeness of the collection.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the relative assessment of completeness is different when a number of products missing from the collection is small than when the number of products missing from the collection is great.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the relative assessment of completeness is different when an availability of a product missing from the collection is scarce than when an availability of a product missing from the collection is common.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the relative assessment of completeness is different when an availability of a product present in the collection is scarce than when an availability of a product present in the collection is common.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the monetary value is a resale value of the collection when the products are sold as part of the collection.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the monetary value is dependent on the relative assessment of completeness.

18. The method of claim 10, further comprising providing notification of the summary appraisal.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein providing notification of the summary appraisal comprises displaying a name of the collection of products for which the summary appraisal was generated and the corresponding summary appraisal associated with the collection.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein providing notification of the summary appraisal comprises displaying the corresponding summary appraisal associated with the collection with an image of the collection.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting an image from which the product identifier is revealed and the appraisal generated.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting a library, the library having an inventory of identified products for which the appraisal is generated.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising selecting a collection within the library, the collection identifying a subset of the inventory of identified products for which the appraisal is generated.

24. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a sell link in connection with the appraisal, wherein activating the sell link initiates a sale of the product for which the appraisal was generated.

25. A computer-implemented system for facilitating an appraisal, the system comprising:

a repository containing a visual image of a product;

a computing device in communication with the repository, wherein the computing device is configured to;

analyze one or more visual elements in the received image and based on the analysis, automatically recognize human-comprehensible product identification information from the image of the product, wherein the human-comprehensible product identification information is visually revealed in the image of the product, and

generate an appraisal of the product depicted in the image, wherein the appraisal is based on the recognized human-comprehensible product identification information; and

a display device in communication with the computing device for displaying the generated appraisal.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the appraisal is a monetary value associated with the product.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the monetary value associated with the product is a resale value of the product.

28. The system of claim 25, wherein the appraisal is a non-monetary value associated with the product.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the non-monetary value associated with the product is a relative assessment of value based on an availability of the product.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the relative assessment of value is different when the availability of the product is scarce than when the availability is common.

31. The system of claim 25, wherein the computing device is further configured to provide notification that the appraisal has been generated.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the notification that the appraisal has been generated is provided in accordance with a notification preference.

33. The system of claim 32, wherein the notification preference comprises at least one of a frequency of providing the notification and a communication method of providing the notification.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein the frequency of providing the notification comprises at least one of providing the notification daily, weekly, monthly, and on demand.

35. The system of claim 33, wherein the communication method of providing the notification comprises sending an email containing a link that, when activated, causes the computing device to display the appraisal on the display device.

36. The system of claim 33, wherein the communication method of providing the notification comprises sending a voicemail indicating that display of the appraisal on the display device may be requested.

37. The system of claim 33, wherein the communication method of providing the notification comprises sending an instant message indicating that display of the appraisal on the display device may be requested.

38. The system of claim 25, wherein the computing device is further configured to display the appraisal on the display device proximate to a display of the image in which the product is depicted.

39. The system of claim 25, wherein the computing device is further configured to display the appraisal on the display device proximate to a display of the product identification information extracted from the image.

40. The system of claim 25, wherein generating the appraisal comprises generating a summary appraisal of a collection of products depicted in the image.

41. The system of claim 40, wherein the summary appraisal is at least one of a monetary value and non-monetary value associated with the collection of products.

42. The system of claim 41, wherein the non-monetary value associated with the collection of products is a relative assessment of completeness of the collection.

43. The system of claim 42, wherein the relative assessment of completeness is different when a number of products missing from the collection is small than when the number of products missing from the collection is great.

44. The system of claim 42, wherein the relative assessment of completeness is different when an availability of a product missing from the collection is scarce than when an availability of a product missing from the collection is common.

45. The system of claim 42, wherein the relative assessment of completeness is different when an availability of a product present in the collection is scarce than when an availability of a product present in the collection is common.

46. The system of claim 42, wherein the monetary value is dependent on the relative assessment of completeness.

47. The system of claim 41, wherein the monetary value is a resale value of the collection when the products are sold together.

48. The system of claim 25, wherein the computing device is further configured to enable selection of the image from which the product identification information was extracted.

49. The system of claim 25, wherein the computing device is further configured to enable selection of a library, the library containing extracted product identification information from which the appraisal is generated.

50. The system of claim 49, wherein the computing device is further configured to enable selection of a collection within the library, the collection identifying a subset of extracted product identification information contained in the library from which the appraisal is generated.

51. The system of claim 50, wherein the computing device is further configured to enable specification of a condition of the collection within the library for which the appraisal is requested.

52. The system of claim 25, wherein the computing device is further configured to display a sell link on the display device corresponding to the displayed appraisal, wherein the sell link, when activated, causes the computing device to initiate sale of the product for which the appraisal was generated.

53. A computing apparatus, comprising:

a memory unit; and

a processor unit configured to execute instructions stored in the memory unit, wherein the instructions cause the computing apparatus to;

receive a visual image of products as the products appear in a location in which the products are stored;

receive a request for an appraisal of at least one of the products for which product identification information is revealed in the image of the products;

analyze one or more visual elements in the image of the products and based on the analysis of the one or more visual elements, automatically recognize the product identification information from the received image, wherein the product identification information is visible information that is part of the product; and

generate the appraisal based on the recognized product identification information.

54. The computing apparatus of claim 53, wherein the processor unit is further configured to receive an indication of a condition of the product for which the appraisal is requested.

55. The computing apparatus of claim 54, wherein the processor unit is further configured to generate the appraisal based on the indicated condition of the product.

56. The computing apparatus of claim 53, wherein the processor unit is further configured to notify a user of the generated appraisal.

57. The computing apparatus of claim 56, wherein the processor unit is further configured to receive a request to view the appraisal from the user that was notified, and to display the appraisal on a display device in response to the received request.

58. The computing apparatus of claim 56, wherein the processor unit is further configured to notify the user in accordance with a notification preference.

59. The computing apparatus of claim 53, wherein the processor unit is further configured to determine a monetary value associated with the product.

60. The computing apparatus of claim 59, wherein the processor unit is further configured to determine the monetary value associated with the product by executing instructions that cause the computing apparatus to determine a resale value of the product.

61. The computing apparatus of claim 53, wherein the processor unit is further configured to generate the appraisal by executing instructions that cause the computing apparatus to determine a non-monetary value associated with the product.

62. The computing apparatus of claim 61, wherein the processor unit is further configured to determine the non-monetary value associated with the product by executing instructions that cause the computing apparatus to generate a relative assessment of value based on an availability of the product.

63. The computing apparatus of claim 62, wherein the relative assessment of value is different when the availability of the product is scarce than when the availability is common.