Abstract: A panorama viewer is disclosed which facilitates navigation from within the panorama of a larger, structured system such as a map. The panorama viewer presents a viewport on a portion of a panoramic image, the viewport including a three-dimensional overlay rendered with the panoramic image. As the orientation of the viewport within the panoramic image changes, the three-dimensional overlay's orientation in three-dimensional space also changes as it is rendered with the panoramic image in a manner that matches the change in orientation of the viewport.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus including computer program products for recognizing text in images are provided. In one implementation, a computer-implemented method for recognizing text in an image is provided. The method includes receiving a plurality of images. The method also includes processing the images to detect a corresponding set of regions of the images, each image having a region corresponding to each other image region, as potentially containing text. The method further includes combining the regions to generate an enhanced region image and performing optical character recognition on the enhanced region image.

Abstract: In some implementations, a computer-implemented method of classifying image data includes receiving a plurality of data points corresponding to three-dimensional image data; creating from the plurality of data points a first subset of data points that are above a ground plane in a scene represented by the plurality of data points; identifying a second subset of data points associated with an object in the scene, from the first subset of data points; identifying a plurality of features associated with the second subset of data points and determining a signature for the identified plurality of features; and classifying the second set of data points according to a correspondence between the calculated signature and a reference signature.

Abstract: A panorama viewer is disclosed which facilitates navigation from within the panorama of a larger, structured system such as a map. The panorama viewer presents a viewport on a portion of a panoramic image, the viewport including a three-dimensional overlay rendered with the panoramic image. As the orientation of the viewport within the panoramic image changes, the three-dimensional overlay's orientation in three-dimensional space also changes as it is rendered with the panoramic image in a manner that matches the change in orientation of the viewport.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus including computer program products for enhancing text in images are provided. In one implementation, a computer-implemented method is provided. The method includes receiving a plurality of images each image including a corresponding version of an identified candidate text region and aligning each candidate text region from the plurality of images to a high resolution grid. The method also includes compositing the aligned candidate text regions to create a single superresolution image and performing character recognition on the superresolution image to identify text.

Abstract: Optical character recognition (OCR) for images such as a street scene image is generally a difficult problem because of the variety of fonts, styles, colors, sizes, orientations, occlusions and partial occlusions that can be observed in the textual content of such scenes. However, a database query can provide useful information that can assist the OCR process. For instance, a query to a digital mapping database can provide information such as one or more businesses in a vicinity, the street name, and a range of possible addresses. In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, this mapping information is used as prior information or constraints for an OCR engine that is interpreting the corresponding street scene image, resulting in much greater accuracy of the digital map data provided to the user.

Abstract: The present invention relates to systems and methods for analyzing media material having articles continuing across multiple pages. A media material analyzer includes a segmenter and an article composer. The segmenter identifies block segments associated with columnar body test in the media material. The article composer determines which of the identified block segments belong to a continuing article extending across multiple pages in the media material based on language statistics information and continuation transition information.

Abstract: A system and method is provided whereby, in one aspect, advertisements are displayed based on search terms that were selected based on the angle at which a user is viewing a street level image.

Abstract: The present invention relates to systems and methods for analyzing media material having a layout. A media material analyzer includes a segmenter and an article composer. The segmenter identifies block segments associated with columnar body text in the media material. The article composer determines which of the identified block segments belong to one or more articles in the media material. The article composer can determine whether candidate block segments belong to a same article based on language statistics information, layout transition information, or both language statistics information and layout transition information. A system for searching media material having a layout over a network is also provided.

Abstract: Techniques for shape clustering and applications in processing various documents, including an output of an optical character recognition (OCR) process.

Abstract: Techniques for shape clustering and applications in processing various documents, including an output of an optical character recognition (OCR) process.

Abstract: Techniques for shape clustering and applications in processing various documents, including an output of an optical character recognition (OCR) process.

Abstract: Techniques for shape clustering and applications in processing various documents, including an output of an optical character recognition (OCR) process.

Abstract: A method and system of identity masking to obscure identities corresponding to face regions in an image is disclosed. A face detector is applied to detect a set of possible face regions in the image. Then an identity masker is used to process the detected face regions by identity masking techniques in order to obscure identities corresponding to the regions. For example, a detected face region can be blurred as if it is in motion by a motion blur algorithm, such that the blurred region can not be recognized as the original identity. Or the detected face region can be replaced by a substitute facial image by a face replacement algorithm to obscure the corresponding identity.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention enable displaying a plurality of driving direction steps that form a driving directions path between a start address and a destination address; receiving input selecting a driving direction step of said plurality of driving direction steps; and displaying a panoramic image of a geographic area where a driving action associated with said selected driving direction step would be performed by a driver. In other embodiments, the panoramic image is replaced and/or complemented with one or more of 3D models, full-motion video, full-motion video of 360 degrees images, and live feeds from video cameras to provide enhanced driving directions.

Abstract: The present invention relates to using image content to facilitate navigation in panoramic image data. In an embodiment, a computer-implemented method for navigating in panoramic image data includes: (1) determining an intersection of a ray and a virtual model, wherein the ray extends from a camera viewport of an image and the virtual model comprises a plurality of facade planes; (2) retrieving a panoramic image; (3) orienting the panoramic image to the intersection; and (4) displaying the oriented panoramic image.

Abstract: The present invention relates to annotating images. In an embodiment, the present invention enables users to create annotations corresponding to three-dimensional objects while viewing two-dimensional images. In one embodiment, this is achieved by projecting a selecting object onto a three-dimensional model created from a plurality of two-dimensional images. The selecting object is input by a user while viewing a first image corresponding to a portion of the three-dimensional model. A location corresponding to the projection on the three-dimensional model is determined, and content entered by the user while viewing the first image is associated with the location. The content is stored together with the location information to form an annotation. The annotation can be retrieved and displayed together with other images corresponding to the location.

Abstract: A method and system for storing and generating anti-aliased text and lineart data from compressed document image files, using a MRC model that represents the image as an ordered set of mask/image pairs at resolutions appropriate to the content of each layer. The method and system provide the ability to generate for anti-aliased text data to improve appearance at both high and low resolution, and to avoid baseline jitter of compressed tokens.