Retrieving images

• US 9,594,775 B2
• Filed: 09/16/2015
• Issued: 03/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Jackson, Dean K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bali, Vikkram
• Application Number:
  US14/856,544
• Publication Number:
  US 20160004726A1
• Time in Patent Office: 545 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• 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 16/5866 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, manually generated location and time information
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/587 using geographical or spatial information, e.g. location
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

A system includes: receiving first information about a device, where the first information includes data corresponding to a location of the device and a time at which the device was at the location; identifying one or more images associated with second information that is within a range of the first information, where the second information for an image includes data corresponding to a location at which the image was captured and a time at which the image was captured, and where the location at which the image was captured and a time at which the image was captured are within a range of the location of the device and the time at which the device was at the location; and retrieving the one or more images associated with the second information.

Claims

1. A method for identifying images, comprising:

receiving at a network server first information about a first device, the first information comprising one or more locations of the first device and one or more associated respective times for each location, wherein each location is recorded at the one or more respective times, and wherein the one or more locations are recorded at a recording time interval;

receiving at the network server a time range and a distance range;

searching, by the network server, for images having location metadata within the distance range of the one or more locations and having time metadata within the time range of one or more of the associated respective times;

identifying at the network server a plurality of candidate images, each candidate image associated with a respective second device other than the first device, wherein each of the plurality of candidate images have location metadata within the distance range of at least one of the locations and have time metadata within the time range of the associated one or more respective times for the at least one of the locations;

sending by the network server to a third device other than the first device or the second device a first version of one or more of the plurality of candidate images for approval;

receiving an approval of the first version of a particular candidate image; and

sending a second version of the particular candidate image that was approved to the third device in response to the approval.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a sample image, wherein the sample image includes a subject, and wherein the searching further comprises searching for images that include the subject.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first information further comprises check-in information input from the device, the check-in information effective to identify a landmark at a location and a time at which the device was at the landmark.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first information is recorded upon selection of an option to enable location logging.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising arranging the second version of the particular candidate image that was approved into at least one of a chronological album and a topical album.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the searching further comprises searching for images that have subject matter that substantially matches predefined subject matter.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the time range comprises receiving a number of minutes and wherein searching for images having time metadata within the time range comprises searching for images having time metadata within the number of minutes of the one or more of the associated respective times.

8. A non-transitory machine-readable medium with one or more instructions stored thereon that are executable to perform operations comprising:

receiving at a network server first information about a first device, the first information comprising one or more locations of the first device and one or more associated respective times for each location, wherein each location is recorded at the one or more respective times, and wherein the one or more locations are recorded at a recording time interval;

receiving at the network server a time range and a distance range;

searching, by the network server, for images having location metadata within the distance range of the one or more locations and having time metadata within the time range of one or more of the associated respective times;

identifying at the network server a plurality of candidate images, each candidate image associated with a respective second device other than the first device, wherein each of the plurality of candidate images have location metadata within the distance range of at least one of the locations and have time metadata within the time range of the associated one or more respective times for the at least one of the locations;

sending by the network server to a third device other than the first device or the second device a first version of one or more of the plurality of candidate images for approval;

receiving an approval of the first version of a particular candidate image; and

sending a second version of the particular candidate image that was approved to the third device in response to the approval.

9. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 8, wherein the instructions are further executable to perform operations comprising receiving a sample image, wherein the sample image includes a subject, and wherein the searching further comprises searching for images that include the subject.

10. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 8, wherein the first information further comprises check-in information input from the device, the check-in information effective to identify a landmark at a location and a time at which the device was at the landmark.

11. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 8, wherein the first information is recorded upon selection of an option to enable location logging.

12. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 8, wherein the instructions are further executable to perform operations comprising arranging the second version of the particular candidate image that was approved into at least one of:

a chronological album and a topical album.

13. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 8, wherein the instructions are further executable to perform operations comprising:

searching for images that have subject matter that substantially matches predefined subject matter.

14. A system comprising:

memory to store code for a network server; and

one or more processing devices are configured to execute the code to perform operations comprising;

receiving at a network server first information about a first device, the first information comprising one or more locations of the first device and one or more associated respective times for each location, wherein each location is recorded at the one or more respective times, and wherein the one or more locations are recorded at a recording time interval;

receiving at the network server a time range, a distance range, and desired subject matter;

searching, by the network server, for images having location metadata within the distance range of the one or more locations and having time metadata within the time range of one or more of the associated respective times and subject matter that substantially matches the desired subject matter;

identifying at the network server a plurality of candidate images, each candidate image associated with a respective second device other than the first device, wherein each of the plurality of candidate images have location metadata within the distance range of at least one of the locations and have time metadata within the time range of the associated one or more respective times for the at least one of the locations;

sending by the network server to a third device other than the first device or the second device a first version of one or more of the plurality of candidate images for approval;

receiving an approval of the first version of a particular candidate image; and

sending a second version of the particular candidate image that was approved to the third device in response to the approval.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the one or more processing devices are further configured to execute the code to perform operations comprising receiving a sample image, wherein the sample image includes a subject, and wherein the searching further comprises searching for images that include the subject.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the first information further comprises check-in information input from the device, the check-in information effective to identify a landmark at a location and a time at which the device was at the landmark.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the one or more processing devices are further configured to execute the code to perform operations comprising:

arranging the second version of the particular candidate image that was approved into at least one of;

a chronological album and a topical album.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein a second resolution of the second version of the particular candidate image that was approved is higher than a first resolution of the first version of the particular candidate image.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein receiving the distance range comprises receiving a predefined radius, and wherein searching for images having location metadata within the distance range of the one or more locations comprises searching for images having location metadata within the predefined radius of the one or more locations.

20. The system of claim 14, wherein receiving the time range comprises receiving a number of minutes and wherein searching for images having time metadata within the time range comprises searching for images having time metadata within the number of minutes of the one or more of the associated respective times.