RETRIEVING IMAGES

• US 20130083977A1
• Filed: 09/29/2011
• Published: 04/04/2013
• 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.
• Granted Patent: US 9,165,017 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/118
• 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 comprising:

receiving first information about a device, the first information comprising 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, the second information for an image comprising data corresponding to a location at which the image was captured and a time at which the image was captured, the location at which the image was captured and the time at which the image was captured being 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.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the one or more images comprises performing a search of one or more servers on the network using the first information to locate the second information;

and

wherein the images are retrieved from the one or more servers

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first information is part of a log file received from the device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a sample image; and

comparing the sample image to the one or more retrieved images.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing a facial recognition process on the one or more retrieved images to identify a subject appearing in the one or more retrieved images.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first information comprises geographic coordinates of the device, the second information comprises geographic coordinates at which the image was captured, and the range comprises a geographic area that encompasses the geographic coordinates of the device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first information comprises check-in information input from the device, the check-in information identifying a landmark at the location and identifying a time at which the device was at the landmark.

8. A method comprising:

identifying locations at which a device was present and corresponding times at which the device was present at the locations;

searching one or more network servers for images having metadata that corresponds to the locations and times;

retrieving versions of the images from the one or more network servers;

presenting the versions of the images for approval; and

sending images that have been approved to a computing device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein all locations are identified by geographic coordinates, and wherein the metadata that corresponds to the locations and times comprises geographic coordinates that are within a predefined range of geographic coordinates of the device.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the versions of the images are thumbnails of the images.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

searching the one or more network servers for candidate images that have subject matter that substantially matches predefined subject matter;

wherein the candidate images are searched for images having metadata that corresponds to the locations and times.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

performing a recognition process on one or more of the stored images in an attempt to recognize a subject in the one or more stored images.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

arranging the images that have been approved into a chronological album.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

arranging the images that have been approved into a topical album.

15. One or more non-transitory machine-readable media storing instructions that are executable to perform operations comprising:

receiving first information about a device, the first information comprising 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, the second information for an image comprising data corresponding to a location at which the image was captured and a time at which the image was captured, the location at which the image was captured and the time at which the image was captured being 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.

16. One or more non-transitory machine-readable media storing instructions that are executable to perform operations comprising:

identifying locations at which a device was present and corresponding times at which the device was present at the locations;

searching one or more network servers for images having metadata that corresponds to the locations and times;

retrieving versions of the images from the one or more network servers;

presenting the versions of the images for approval; and

sending images that have been approved to a computing device.

17. A system comprising:

a search engine to receive first information about a device, the first information comprising data corresponding to a location of the device and a time at which the device was at the location;

a comparison engine to identify one or more images associated with second information that is within a range of the first information, the second information for an image comprising data corresponding to a location at which the image was captured and the time at which the image was captured, the location at which the image was captured and a time at which the image was captured being within a range of the location of the device and the time at which the device was at the location; and

a retrieval engine to retrieve the one or more images associated with the second information.

18. A system comprising:

memory to store code for a search engine; and

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

identifying locations at which a device was present and corresponding times at which the device was present at the locations;

searching one or more network servers for images having metadata that corresponds to the locations and times;

retrieving versions of the images from the one or more network servers;

presenting the versions of the images for approval; and

sending images that have been approved to a computing device.