VISUAL AND MULTI-DIMENSIONAL SEARCH

• US 20080005105A1
• Filed: 06/28/2006
• Published: 01/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Naam, Ramez, Flake, Gary W., Chaudhuri, Surajit, Gupta, Anoop, Goodman, Joshua T., Brill, Eric D., Lawler, Stephen, Meek, Christopher A., Hurst-Hiller, Oliver, Horvitz, Eric J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,917,514 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/6
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/41 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/432 Query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/433 using audio data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/434 using image data, e.g. images, photos, pictures taken by a user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5838 using colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5854 using shape and object relationship
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results

Abstract

A system that can analyze a multi-dimensional input thereafter establishing a search query based upon extracted features from the input. In a particular example, an image can be used as an input to a search mechanism. Pattern recognition and image analysis can be applied to the image thereafter establishing a search query that corresponds to features extracted from the image input. The system can also facilitate indexing multi-dimensional searchable items thereby making them available to be retrieved as results to a search query. More particularly, the system can employ text analysis, pattern and/or speech recognition mechanisms to extract features from searchable items. These extracted features can be employed to index the searchable items.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates multi-dimension computer search, comprising:

a multi-dimension index generator that collects and catalogs a plurality of searchable data items as a function of a plurality of index criteria; and

a retrieval component that accesses a subset of the plurality of data items based upon a multi-dimension search query.

2. The system of claim 1, the plurality of index criteria includes at least two of text, audio and visual criteria.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an input analyzer that extracts index criteria from an input; and

a search engine that generates the multi-dimension search query based at least in part upon a subset of the index criteria and identifies a plurality of results that share a subset of the index criteria.

4. The system of claim 3, the input is of a form of at least one of audio and visual data.

5. The system of claim 1, the index generator comprises at least one of a text analyzer, a sound analyzer and an image analyzer that facilitates identification of the plurality of index criteria.

6. The system of claim 5, the text analyzer includes a language parser that automatically extracts the plurality of index criteria from the plurality of searchable data items.

7. The system of claim 5, the sound analyzer includes a speech recognition component that automatically extracts the plurality of index criteria from the plurality of searchable data items.

8. The system of claim 5, the image analyzer includes a pattern recognition component that automatically extracts the plurality of index criteria from the plurality of searchable data items.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a configuration component that selectively organizes the accessed subset of the plurality of searchable data items as a function of a rendering criterion.

10. The system of claim 1, the configuration component includes a filter component that sorts the subset of the plurality of searchable data items in accordance with at least one of a user context, a user preference, a relevancy factor with respect to the input and a device context.

11. The system of claim 1, the results configuration component includes a ranking component that arranges the subset of the plurality of searchable data items based at least in part a user preference.

12. The system of claim 1, the results configuration component includes an ordering component that determines a display order with respect to a subset of the plurality of searchable data items.

13. A computer-implemented method of indexing a multi-dimensional searchable data item, comprising:

analyzing the searchable data item;

extracting a plurality of features from the searchable data item;

determining a plurality of index parameters based at least in part upon a subset of the extracted features; and

indexing the searchable data item as a function of the plurality of index parameters.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

recognizing image patterns in the searchable data item; and

converting the recognized imaged patterns into a subset of the plurality of index parameters.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

recognizing audio patterns in the searchable data item; and

converting the recognized image patterns into a subset of the plurality of index parameters.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

executing a search query based upon a subset of the plurality of index parameters; and

returning the searchable data item as result of the search query.

17. A computer-executable system of indexing multi-dimensional data items, comprising:

means for analyzing a plurality of multi-dimensional data items;

means for extracting a plurality of features from the plurality of multi-dimensional data items; and

means for indexing the plurality of multi-dimensional data items based at least in part upon the extracted plurality of features.

18. The computer-executable system of claim 17, the means for analyzing the plurality of multi-dimensional data items is an audio analyzer system.

19. The computer-executable system of claim 17, the means for analyzing the plurality of multi-dimensional data items is an image analyzer system.

20. The computer-executable system of claim 17, further comprising means for searching the plurality of multi-dimensional data items based at least in part upon two dimensions.