System and method for delivering content to a communication device in a content delivery system

• US 8,825,612 B1
• Filed: 02/28/2013
• Issued: 09/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: A9.com Incorporated (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: A9.com Incorporated (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ruzon, Mark Andrew, Menon, Keshav, Ramkumar, Gurumurthy D., Tanguay, Donald, Bhargava, Gautam, Bhattacharyya, Supratik
• Primary Examiner(s): Ly, Anh
• Application Number:
  US13/781,550
• Time in Patent Office: 551 Days
• Field of Search: 707/694, 707/758, 707/706, 707/769, 707/770, 707/E17.023, 707/E17.02, 707/E17.028, 707/914, 707/999.006, 707/E17.001, 707/E17.009, 707/E17.107, 707/E17.07, 707/E17.008, 707/E17.112, 707/E17.22, 382/100, 382/306, 382/312, 382/313, 382/229, 709/203, 709/206, 709/219, 709/223, 709/224, 709/225, 709/227, 709/205, 709/238, 709/242, 709/246, 725/134, 725/142, 725/89, 725/87, 725/41, 725/62, 725/113, 455/406, 455/466, 455/414.1, 455/414.2, 455/414.3, 455/414.4, 455/403, 705/14, 705/26, 705/37, 345/632
• US Class Current: 707/694
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/532 Query formulation, e.g. graphical querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/583 using metadata automatically derived from the content

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method, system, and a computer program product for delivering content to a communication device, in response to an image sent by the communication device. The received image is matched with a plurality of images, and, when a match is found for the received image, content corresponding to the image is delivered to the communication device. The plurality of images is stored in an image database, and the corresponding content is stored in a content repository. The present invention enables a content provider to automatically update the image database and the content repository without any human intervention.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method, comprising:

under the control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions,

creating, in response to a request from a content provider, a content data store configured to store content associated with a plurality of images stored in an image data store, the content store associated with a content provider authorized to cause new content to be added to the content data store or existing content to be removed from the content data store;

receiving, from the content provider, at least one image, a video file associated with the image, and at least one rule mapping the at least one image to the video file;

receiving a content request from a portable computing device, the content request including a request image;

comparing the received request image to the at least one image stored in the image data store to locate a matching image;

providing the video file to the portable computing device, the video file being stored in the content data store and corresponding to the matching image per the at least one rule;

tracking interest in the video file based at least in part upon information associated with the request; and

logging the information associated with the request for generating a transaction report.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the request image is captured by a digital camera of portable computing device or downloaded from at least one network.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the request image is at least one of a product, a newspaper article, an advertisement, a book, and a movie poster.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

mapping the at least one image to an identifier for the video file.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the request image is compared to the at least one image stored in the image data store by a recognition component operated by the content provider.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 5, wherein the provider is one of a movie studio and a production studio.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 5, wherein the recognition component is operated by an entity other than a provider of the at least one image and the at least one piece of content.

8. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory device including instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

create, in response to a request from a content provider, a content data store configured to store media files each associated with at least one of a plurality of images stored in an image data store, the content store associated with a content provider authorized to cause new content to be added to the content data store or existing content to be removed from the content data store;

receive, from the content provider, at least one image and a media file, wherein the at least one image is associated with the media file;

cause the at least one image and the media file to be available to users, the at least one image being representative of the media file; and

provide the at least one image and the media file to a delivery system, the delivery system capable of providing the media file to the users submitting an image determined to match one of the at least one image, capable of storing information associated with providing the media file to the users to a log, and generating a transaction report for tracking interest in the media file based at least in part upon the information stored in the log.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the memory device further includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

enable submission of at least one additional image to the image data store or at least one additional media file to the content data store.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the user submitted image is captured with a camera of a portable computing device or downloaded from at least one network.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the user submitted image is one of a product, a newspaper article, a book cover, and a movie poster.

12. The system of claim 8, further comprising:

a transaction interface operable, by the instructions executed on the at least one processor, to at least;

receive the at least one image and the media file; and

a recognition component operable, by the instructions executed on the at least one processor, to at least;

receive the at least one image from the transaction interface;

determine whether the at least one image matches any image of a plurality of images stored in the image data store;

retrieve the media file associated with a matching image from the content data store in accordance the at least one rule from the content provider; and

cause the transaction interface to send the media file to the delivery system.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the transaction interface is further operable to determine, using a multimedia lookup table, a proper audio and video format for the media file based at least in part on the portable computing device.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the computing device to:

create, in response to a request from a content provider, a content data store configured to store content associated with a plurality of images stored in an image data store, the content store associated with a content provider authorized to cause new content to be added to the content data store or existing content to be removed from the content data store;

receive, from the content provider, at least one image and a video file associated with the at least one image;

receive a request for content from a portable computing device, the request for content including a request image;

compare the received request image to the at least one image stored in the image data store to locate a matching image;

provide the video file to the portable computing device, the video file being stored in the content data store and corresponding to the matching image; and

track interest in the video file based at least in part upon information associated with the request; and

log the information associated with the request for generating a transaction report.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the request image is captured by a digital camera of portable computing device or downloaded from at least one network.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the request image is at least one of a product, a newspaper article, an advertisement, a book, and a movie poster.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor of the computing device, cause the computing device to:

map the at least one image to an identifier for the video file.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the request image is compared to the at least one image stored in the image data store by a recognition component operated by the content provider.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the content provider is one of a movie studio and a production studio.