METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR IMAGE-BASED SEARCHING

• US 20080162437A1
• Filed: 12/27/2007
• Published: 07/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: NHN Corporation
• Original Assignee: NHN Corporation
• Inventors: Lee, Jungmin, Choi, Ji Hoon
• Application Number:
  US11/965,581
• Publication Number:
  US 20080162437A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually

Abstract

Disclosed is a method of operating an image-based searching engine. In the method, data for a plurality of images displayed on a web page is sent to a user'"'"'s terminal. The engine receives, from the user'"'"'s terminal, a user'"'"'s input comprising a selection of at least one of the plurality of images. Subsequently, at least one search term associated with the selection is provided and a search using the at least one search term is conducted. After the search, a result of the search is sent to the user'"'"'s terminal.

Claims

1. A method of operating an image-based searching engine, comprising:

sending, to a user'"'"'s terminal, data for a plurality of images displayed on a web page;

receiving, from the user'"'"'s terminal, a user'"'"'s input comprising a selection of at least one of the plurality of images;

providing at least one search term associated with the selection;

conducting a search using the at least one search term; and

sending a result of the search to the user'"'"'s terminal.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one search term is provided using a database, which comprises a plurality of entries, wherein each entry comprises an image and an term associated with the image.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the user'"'"'s input comprises two or more images of materials for use in cooking, wherein the search result comprises at least one of a name of food or a recipe that are prepared using the materials.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the user'"'"'s input comprises at least one image of cookware or a kitchen appliance, wherein the search result comprises a link for a web page including a recipe for food that uses the cookware or kitchen appliance.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of images comprises a map of a region, which comprises a plurality of selectable sub-regions, wherein when the user'"'"'s input comprises an image of the sub-regions.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the user'"'"'s input comprises an image representing a broadcast service provider and a date, wherein the search result comprises a broadcast schedule of the broadcast service provider on the date.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the user'"'"'s input comprises an image of a product available at an Internet store, wherein the search result comprises at least one of the name of Internet store and a link to open the Internet store'"'"'s web page.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the data is configured to arrange the plurality of images on the web page based on at least one selected from the group consisting of:

advertisement information of whether images were registered for advertisement; and

popularity of images during a prior operation of the image-based searching engine.

9. A method of using an image-based searching service, comprising:

selecting at least one image from a plurality of images displayed on a web page for image-based searching service;

subsequently sending a request for an Internet search, wherein the request identifies the at least one selected image; and

receiving a result of the Internet search comprising a plurality of links to open Internet web pages.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein selecting comprises dragging and dropping the at least one image into a designated area of the web page.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the search is conducted using at least one term associated with the at least one selected image, wherein the at least one term is provided using a database, which comprises a plurality of entries, wherein each entry comprises an image and an term associated with the image.

12. A method of operating an image-based searching engine, comprising:

receiving a transmission request to a web page from a user client;

extracting at least one of image to be included in the web page from a database;

generating a first GUI-search area including the extracted image;

transmitting the web page that includes the first GUI-search area to the user client; and

when a search request to at least one of the image included in the first GUI-search area is received from the user client, transmitting a search result corresponding to the search-requested image to the user client.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

matching the image with the search words corresponding to the image,

wherein the search words include one or more aliases related with the images.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the transmitting the search result includes converting search words matched with the search-requested image, and wherein transmits the search result corresponding to the search words to the user client.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the generating the first GUI-search areas includes setting the extracted image to be movable, and generating a search box that can contain the set image.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the transmitting the search result transmits the search result corresponding to the image contained in the search box to the user client.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the transmitting the search result comprises generating a second GUI-search area including the image included in the search result, and generating a search-result page including the second GUI-search area.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the web page transmitted to the user client includes one or more sets of category information, and wherein further comprising generating a third GUI-search area including at least one of image corresponding to the selected category when the user'"'"'s category-selection information is transmitted from the user client.

19. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

generating a fourth GUI-search area including at least one of service image where the service includes information about a search range;

transmitting the web page including the fourth GUI-search area to the user client; and

when the selection information about the service image and search-word information inputted by the user are received from the user client, transmitting the search result corresponding to the search-words within the search range corresponding to the selected service image.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the generating the fourth GUI-search comprises updating the display order of the service image in real time using statistic process information.