Dynamic definitive image service
First Claim
1. A computer system for providing a dynamic definitive image service, the system comprising:
- a processor and memory configured to execute software instructions embodied within the following components;
an image data store that stores one or more images or references to images stored in other data stores;
an image request component that receives a request during a query for a definitive image that is representative of a topic of the query;
an inverted index component that maintains an inverted index that maps one or more query terms to one or more images that are related to those terms;
an image ranking component that ranks one or more images identified in the index that potentially match the query terms to sort identified images by a relative likelihood of being a definitive image for the topic of the query;
an editorial override component that provides an interface through which a human editor can manually override the definitive image selected by other components of the system to identify an editor-chosen definitive image;
an image selection component that selects a definitive image based on images returned from the index, any overridden editor-chosen definitive image, and ranking input from the image ranking component;
a thumbnail retrieval component that retrieves an image binary associated with the selected definitive image based on a definitive image identifier provided by the image selection component; and
an image response component that responds to the received image request with the retrieved image binary.
2 Assignments
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Accused Products
Abstract
Systems and methods for identifying a representative image for any given search query are provided. In response to a search for a query term (or terms), the system accesses an inverted index to identify images associated with that term. The system then receives a ranked list of images. The ranked list includes image identifiers, and once an item in the list is selected the system can use the associated image identifier to retrieve the image from a server. If an editor has overridden the default image for the present search query, then the system returns the image identifier for the overridden image, which can be used to access the image from the server. Thus, the representative image system provides a reliable and universal mechanism for retrieving representative images for any given topic dynamically in real time.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A computer system for providing a dynamic definitive image service, the system comprising:
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a processor and memory configured to execute software instructions embodied within the following components; an image data store that stores one or more images or references to images stored in other data stores; an image request component that receives a request during a query for a definitive image that is representative of a topic of the query; an inverted index component that maintains an inverted index that maps one or more query terms to one or more images that are related to those terms; an image ranking component that ranks one or more images identified in the index that potentially match the query terms to sort identified images by a relative likelihood of being a definitive image for the topic of the query; an editorial override component that provides an interface through which a human editor can manually override the definitive image selected by other components of the system to identify an editor-chosen definitive image; an image selection component that selects a definitive image based on images returned from the index, any overridden editor-chosen definitive image, and ranking input from the image ranking component; a thumbnail retrieval component that retrieves an image binary associated with the selected definitive image based on a definitive image identifier provided by the image selection component; and an image response component that responds to the received image request with the retrieved image binary. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A computer-implemented method to access a definitive image, the method comprising:
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storing, in an image data store, one or more images or references to images stored in other data stores; receiving a request during a query for the definitive image that is representative of a topic of the query; maintaining an inverted index of images that maps one or more query terms to one or more images that are related to the one or more query terms; ranking one or more images identified in the inverted index that potentially match the query terms to sort the identified one or more images by a relative likelihood of being the definitive image for the topic of the query; selecting the definitive image based on one or more images returned from the inverted index, any overridden editor-chosen definitive image, and the ranking, wherein the editor-chosen definitive image is identified by manually overriding a system selected definitive image from a human editor; retrieving an image binary associated with the selected definitive image based on an image identifier associated with the selected definitive image; and sending the retrieved image binary associated with the selected definitive image in response to the received request; wherein the preceding steps are performed by at least one processor. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. Computer-readable media encoded with computer-readable instructions which, when executed by a processor on a computing system, carry out a method for providing a definitive image, the method comprising:
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storing, in an image data store, one or more images or references to images stored in other data stores; receiving a request during a query for the definitive image that is representative of a topic of the query; maintaining an inverted index of images that maps one or more query terms to one or more images that are related to the one or more query terms; ranking one or more images identified in the inverted index that potentially match the query terms to sort the identified one or more images by a relative likelihood of being the definitive image for the topic of the query; selecting the definitive image based on one or more images returned from the inverted index, any overridden editor-chosen definitive image, and the ranking, wherein the editor-chosen definitive image is identified by manually overriding a system selected definitive image from a human editor; retrieving an image binary associated with the selected definitive image based on an image identifier associated with the selected definitive image; and sending the retrieved image binary associated with the selected definitive image in response to the received request. - View Dependent Claims (20)
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Specification