Adaptive Image Maps

• US 20100316302A1
• Filed: 08/20/2010
• Published: 12/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Lueck, Michael F.
• Granted Patent: US 8,064,727 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/229
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents

Abstract

A computer implemented method of processing an image for display on a mobile communication device includes extracting a portion of an image based on an image map. The image map relates to the portion of the image. The method also includes generating a document that comprises the extracted portion of the image and transmitting the generated document to a remote device for display. The method may also include assigning a selectable link to the extracted portion of the image and receiving a request from the remote device for an initial document having the image and image map. Additionally, the method may include storing in a database the generated document and transmitting the stored generated document in response to future requests for the initial document.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, at a computer system from a mobile computing device, a request for a first electronic document that includes an image;

determining coordinates of one or more portions of the image based on optical analysis of the image by the computer system, wherein the optical analysis identifies items in the image that are visually distinct from other items in the image;

using the determined coordinates, creating one or more sub-images from the image that correspond to the one or more portions;

generating a second electronic document that includes the created sub-images in a different arrangement than the one or more portions appear in the first electronic document; and

providing the second electronic document to the mobile computing device.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the optical analysis comprises optical character recognition (OCR), and wherein the items identified by the optical analysis comprise text in the image.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the optical analysis comprises facial recognition, and wherein the items identified by the optical analysis comprise faces in the image.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the optical analysis comprises optical object recognition that matches a portion of the image to a textual description of an object, and wherein the items identified by the optical analysis comprise visually distinct objects in the image.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the optical object recognition identifies objects in the image based on areas of the image that have at least a threshold level of contrast.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising generating an image map for the image based on the determined coordinates;

wherein the one or more sub-images are created based on the generated image map.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising modifying a pre-existing image map that is associated with the image based on the determined coordinates;

wherein the one or more sub-images are created based on the modified image map.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein modifying the pre-existing image map comprises modifying coordinates contained in the pre-existing image map using the determined coordinates.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein modifying the pre-existing image map comprises supplementing coordinates contained in the pre-existing image map with the determined coordinates.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, further comprising:

obtaining information that indicates a size of a display of the mobile computing device;

based on the obtained information and the pre-existing image map, identifying one or more portions of the image defined by the image map that are too large for the display of the mobile computing device;

for each of the identified portions of the image, selecting coordinates in the identified portion that correspond to one or more of the identified items that are at least partially located in the identified portion and that are determined to have at least a threshold level of relevance to a user of the mobile computing device; and

cropping the identified portions based on the selected coordinates, wherein sub-images corresponding to the identified portions are created based on the cropped identified portions.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the identified portions are cropped using the selected coordinates so that the one or more identified items determined to have at least the threshold level of relevance are centered in the resulting cropped portions.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the identified portions are cropped to correspond to the size of the display of the mobile computing device.

13. A system for selecting portions of an image for display on a mobile computing device, the system comprising:

a computer system;

an interface of the computer system that is configured to receive a request from a mobile computing device for a first electronic document that includes an image;

means for determining coordinates of one or more portions of the image based on optical analysis of the image by the computer system, wherein the optical analysis identifies items in the image that are visually distinct from other items in the image;

an image extractor of the computer system that is configured to use the determined coordinates to create one or more sub-images from the image that correspond to the one or more portions; and

a document generator of the computer system that is configured to generate a second electronic document that includes the created sub-images in a different arrangement than the one or more portions appear in the first electronic document;

wherein the interface is further configured to provide the generated second electronic document to the mobile computing device.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising means for generating an image map for the image based on the determined coordinates;

wherein the one or more sub-images are created based on the generated image map.

15. The system of claim 13, further comprising means for modifying a pre-existing image map that is associated with the image based on the determined coordinates;

wherein the one or more sub-images are created based on the modified image map.

16. A system for selecting portions of an image for display on a mobile computing device, the system comprising:

a computer system;

a parser of the computer system that is configured to select an image and an image map from a first electronic document;

means for creating one or more sub-images for one or more portions of the image based on the image map;

a document generator of the computer system that is configured to generate a second electronic document that includes the created sub-images; and

an interface of the computer system that is configured to transmit the second electronic document to a mobile computing device.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the document generator is further configured to provide the created sub-images in a different arrangement than the one or more portions appear in the first electronic document.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the different arrangement is determined by the document generator so that the created sub-images fit within a display of the mobile computing device.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the sub-images are created using at least positions and perimeters defined by the image map for the one or more portions of the image.

20. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, at a mobile computing device, user input indicating a request for a first electronic document that includes an image and an associated image map;

providing, by the mobile computing device, the request for the first electronic document to a computer server system;

in response to the request for the first electronic document, receiving, at the mobile computing device, a second electronic document that is different than the first electronic document, wherein the second electronic document includes one or more sub-images that correspond to portions of the image included in the first electronic document; and

displaying, by the mobile computing device, the second electronic document, wherein the sub-images are arranged differently in the second electronic document than the corresponding portions of the image in the first electronic document.