Discovering visited travel destinations from a set of digital images

• US 9,418,482 B1
• Filed: 05/28/2014
• Issued: 08/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/22/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Yang, Tsung-Lin, Evans, Bryce, Xie, Yihui, Gallagher, Andrew C., Snavely, Keith Noah
• Primary Examiner(s): Wu, Xiao
• Assistant Examiner(s): Elbinger, Steven
• Application Number:
  US14/288,902
• Time in Patent Office: 811 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3682 output of POI information on a road map G01C21/3614, G01C21/3685 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/487 using geographical or spatial information, e.g. location
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/583 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/006 Mixed reality object pose determination, tracking or camera calibration for mixed reality G06T7/00

Abstract

Aspects of the disclosure relate to identifying visited travel destinations from a set of digital images associated with users of a social networking system. For example, one or more computing devices provide access to an individual user'"'"'s account, including the individual user and other users affiliated with the individual user via the social networking system. One or more digital images are received from a computing device associated with the individual user and from one or more second computing devices associated with the other users of the social networking system. From each digital image, a geo-location is determined for each digital image. The one or more computing devices display each geo-located image on a map at a position corresponding to the determined geo-location for the geo-located image.

Claims

1. A method for identifying visited travel destinations from a set of digital images associated with users of a social networking system, the method comprising:

providing, by one or more computing devices, access to an individual user'"'"'s account, including the individual user and other users affiliated with the individual user via the social networking system;

receiving, by the one or more computing devices, one or more digital images from a computing device associated with the individual user and from one or more second computing devices associated with the other users of the social networking system;

determining, by the one or more computing devices, from each digital image, a geo-location for each digital image;

computing a user travel score for a user of the social networking system who is either the individual user or affiliated with the individual user from the geo-located images from the user of the social networking system, wherein the user travel score is computed by;

determining the number of unique landmarks from among the user'"'"'s geo-located images, and

computing the user travel score for the user based on the determined number of unique landmarks; and

displaying, by the one or more computing devices, each geo-located image on a map at a position corresponding to the determined geo-location for the geo-located image and the user travel score.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each digital image comprises pixel values and determining the geo-location for each digital image includes extracting one or more features from the pixel values of a particular digital image, and using the one or more features to determine a geo-location for the particular digital image.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the features extracted from the pixel values of the particular digital image include a set of interest feature points, and using the one or more features to determine a geo-location for the particular digital image includes using the interest feature points to determine the geo-location for the particular digital image.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein using the one or more features to determine a geo-location for the particular digital image includes finding matches between the set of interest feature points for the particular digital image and points associated with a 3D model representing a location or landmark.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying each geo-located image includes displaying an indication of the owner of the digital image.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying each geo-located image comprises displaying one or more hyperlinks associated with the determined geo-location.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein computing the user travel score is further based on whether the user is the most recent visitor to a location among the individual user and other users affiliated with the individual user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein computing the user travel score is further based on whether a geo-location for an given digital image provided by the user corresponds to a geo-location for the user when given image was provided by the user.

9. A method for identifying visited travel destinations from a set of digital images associated with users of a social networking system, the method

comprising:

providing, by one or more computing devices, access to an individual user'"'"'s account, including the individual user and other users affiliated with the individual user via the social networking system;

receiving, by one or more computing devices, one or more digital images from a computing device associated with the individual user and from one or more second computing devices associated with the other users of the social networking system;

determining, by one or more computing devices, from each digital image, a geo-location for each digital image;

selecting, by one or more computing devices, an action suggestion for the individual user based on the determined geo-location for a digital image;

computing a user travel score for a user of the social networking system who is either the individual user or affiliated with the individual user from the geo-located images from the user of the social networking system, wherein the user travel score is computed by;

determining the number of unique landmarks from among the user'"'"'s geo-located images, and

computing the user travel score for the user based on the determined number of unique landmarks; and

displaying, by one or more computing devices, the action suggestion and the user travel score to the user.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the action suggestion is selected based on the determined geo-location for a digital image belonging to another user of the social networking system.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein each digital image includes pixel values, and determining the geo-location for each digital image includes extracting one or more features from the pixel values of a particular digital image, and using the one or more features to determine a geo-location for the particular digital image.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the features extracted from the pixel values of the particular digital image include a set of interest feature points, and using the one or more features to determine a geo-location for the particular digital image includes using the interest feature points to determine the geo-location for the particular digital image.

13. The method claimed in claim 12, wherein using the one or more features to determine a geo-location for the particular digital image includes finding matches between the set of interest feature points for the particular digital image and points associated with a 3D model representing a location or landmark.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein computing the user travel score is further based on whether the user is the most recent visitor to a location among the individual user and other users affiliated with the individual user.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein computing the user travel score is further based on whether a geo-location for an given digital image provided by the user corresponds to a geo-location for the user when given image was provided by the user.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising using the user travel score to organize the individual user'"'"'s connections from the social networking system.

16. A method for identifying visited travel destinations from a set of digital images associated with users of a social networking system, the method

comprising:

providing access to an individual user'"'"'s account, including the individual user and other users affiliated with the individual user via the social networking system;

receiving one or more digital images from a computing device associated with the individual user and from one or more second computing devices associated with the other users of the social networking system;

determining, from each digital image, a geo-location for each digital image;

generating a status message based on the determined geo-location for a digital image; and

making the generated status message available to users of the social networking system;

computing a user travel score for a user of the social networking system who is either the individual user or affiliated with the individual user from the geo-located images from the user of the social networking system, wherein the user travel score is computed by;

determining the number of unique landmarks from among the user'"'"'s geo-located images, and

computing the user travel score for the user based on the determined number of unique landmarks; and

displaying the user travel score.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein each digital image includes pixel values and determining the geo-location for each digital image includes extracting one or more features from the pixel values of a particular digital image, and using the one or more features to determine a geo-location for the particular digital image.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the features extracted from the pixel values of each digital image include a set of interest feature points, and using the one or more features to determine a geo-location for the particular digital image includes using these interest feature points.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein computing the user travel score is further based on whether the user is the most recent visitor to a location among the individual user and other users affiliated with the individual user.