Detecting online abuse in images

• US 7,925,044 B2
• Filed: 02/01/2007
• Issued: 04/12/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Opsec Online Limited
• Original Assignee: MarkMonitor Inc.
• Inventors: Metois, Eric, Wolosewicz, Jack, Shull, Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): Do; Anh Hong
• Application Number:
  US11/670,291
• Publication Number:
  US 20080008348A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,531 Days
• Field of Search: 382/100, 382/240, 600/509, 600/513, 380/28, 713/179
• US Class Current: 382/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/10 Character recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/18 Extraction of features or characteristics of the image

Abstract

Tools for analyzing images are disclosed. In some cases, the images are analyzed in order to determine whether a particular web site and/or email message is part of an illegitimate online activity. In an aspect, an image analysis process comprises comparing a suspect image with one or more elements of interest (which can include images, words, etc.) by generating fingerprints characterizing the suspect image and the elements of interest, to allow for a quantitative comparison.

Claims

1. A computer system for analyzing an image, the system comprising:

a database configured to store of image templates for a plurality of elements of interest, each of the image templates comprising a candidate fingerprint, each candidate fingerprint comprising a plurality of candidate fingerprint signals;

a processor in communication with the database; and

a computer readable medium having embodied thereon a software program executable by the processor, the software program comprising;

a) an image preprocessing and segmentation component configured to receive a suspect image and identify, within the suspect image, a suspect blob having an associated set of suspect blob boundaries;

b) a fingerprint generation component configured to create a suspect fingerprint, based at least in part on the suspected blob boundaries, the suspect blob fingerprint comprising a set of suspect blob fingerprint signals; and

c) a fingerprint matching component configured to calculate a similarity score for an element of interest, the similarity score being based on a plurality of similarity measures between the suspect fingerprint and a candidate fingerprint for the element of interest, each of the similarity measures being calculated based on a suspect fingerprint signal and a respective candidate fingerprint signal, and to determine, based at least in part on the similarity score, determine whether the suspect image is a likely match for the element of interest.

2. A computer system as recited in claim 1, wherein the fingerprint matching component is configured to calculate similarity scores for a plurality of elements of interest, and based on the respective similarity scores, determine which of the elements of interest is a best match for the suspect image.

3. A computer system as recited in claim 1, wherein the fingerprint matching component is configured to calculate a plurality of similarity scores, the plurality of similarity scores comprising:

a composite similarity score based on a weighted composite of the plurality of similarity measures; and

a minimum individual similarity score based on a minimum value from among the plurality of similarity measures.

4. A computer system as recited in claim 3, wherein the determining whether the suspect image is a likely match comprises:

comparing the composite similarity score with a first threshold having a first value; and

comparing the minimum individual similarity score with a second threshold having a second value.

5. A computer system as recited in claim 4, wherein the first value and the second value are the same value.