Abstract: A method and apparatus for enabling a searchable history of real-world user experiences is described. The method may include capturing media data by a mobile computing device. The method may also include transmitting the captured media data to a server computer system, the server computer system to perform one or more recognition processes on the captured media data and add the captured media data to a history of real-world experiences of a user of the mobile computing device when the one or more recognition processes find a match. The method may also include transmitting a query of the user to the server computer system to initiate a search of the history or real-world experiences, and receiving results relevant to the query that include data indicative of the media data in the history of real-world experiences.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus are provided for determining location information for images. In one aspect, a method includes obtaining landmark location data from content depicted in an image and corresponding confidence scores. Also, the method includes obtaining caption location data from user input and corresponding confidence scores, and obtaining metadata location data from data provided by an image capturing device. Further, the method includes identifying location pairs from the landmark, caption, and metadata location data, and generating, for each location pair, a geographic consistency score. Additionally, the method includes selecting a location pair based on the geographic consistency scores, and selecting an image location for the image from the selected location pair. Moreover, the method includes determining an image location score based on a confidence score for one of the locations in the selected location pair, and associating the image location and image location score with the image.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for automatically extracting logos from images. Methods include generating a query list including a plurality of logo search queries, for each logo search query of the plurality of logo search queries: generating a plurality of image search results, each image search result including image data, and clustering the plurality of image search results into a plurality of clusters, each cluster including a plurality of images of the plurality of image search results, extracting, for each cluster of the plurality of clusters, a representative image to provide a plurality of representative images, and a name corresponding to the representative image to provide a plurality of names, and providing the plurality of representative images and the plurality of names to a logo index, the logo index being accessible to identify one or more logo images in a query image.

Abstract: A method and system for performing augmented reality processing generates annotation information for display on a device. An annotation request for an image is sent to an annotation service. The annotation service identifies elements in the image indicative of an individual and obtains user profile results for the individual. The user profile results are used to generate annotation information, which is presented for display on a device as an overlay to the image. The annotation information may include links to information that are selectable by a user of the device.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for enabling semantic association of images with augmentation data is described. The method may include receiving digital image data captured by a mobile device. The method may also include performing image recognition analysis on an object within the digital image data to identify the object. The method may also include querying a semantic associations database based on a determined identify of the object to determine a secondary meaning associated with the object, and transmitting augmentation data to the mobile device that is semantically relevant to the object based on the secondary meaning.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for associating still images and videos. One method includes receiving a plurality of images and a plurality of videos and determining whether the images are related to the videos. The determining includes, for an image and a video, extracting features from the image and extracting features frames of the video, and comparing the features to determine whether the image is related to the video. The method further includes maintaining a data store storing data associating each image with each video determined to be related to the image.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for selecting training images. One of the methods includes determining, for each of a plurality of labels that each designate a respective food class of a plurality of food classes, a respective measure of importance. A respective sample size is determined for the label based on the respective measure of importance of the label. A number of training images are selected for each respective label according to the determined sample size for the label. A predictive model is trained using the selected training images as training data.

Abstract: Systems and methods for generating an augmented reality interface for generics activities are disclosed. The systems and methods may be directed to creating an augmented reality display for an activity performed on a surface. Given an image of the activity, an activity solver library and associated configuration information for the activity may be selected. The surface of the activity from the image may be rectified, forming a rectified image, from which activity state information may be extracted using the configuration information. The activity state information may be provided to the activity solver library to generate solution information, and elements indicating the solution information may be rendered in a perspective of the original image. By providing the configuration information associated with an activity solver library, an augmented reality interface can be generated for an activity by capturing an image of the activity.

Abstract: Systems and methods for a dynamic visual search engine are provided. In one example method, a criteria used to partition a set of compressed image descriptors into multiple database shards may be determined. Additionally, a size of a dynamic index may be determined. The dynamic index may represent a dynamic number of images and may be configured to accept insertion of reference images into the dynamic index that can be search against immediately. According to the method, an instruction to merge the uncompressed image descriptors of the dynamic index into the database shards of the compressed image descriptors may be received, and the uncompressed image descriptors of the dynamic index may be responsively merged into the database shards of the compressed image descriptors based on the criteria.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for processing queries made up of images. In one aspect, a method includes indexing images by image descriptors. The method further includes associating descriptive n-grams with the images. In another aspect, a method includes receiving a query, identifying text describing the query, and performing a search according to the text identified for the query.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for associating still images and videos. One method includes receiving a plurality of images and a plurality of videos and determining whether the images are related to the videos. The determining includes, for an image and a video, extracting features from the image and extracting features frames of the video, and comparing the features to determine whether the image is related to the video. The method further includes maintaining a data store storing data associating each image with each video determined to be related to the image.

Abstract: Systems and methods for improving visual object recognition by analyzing query images are disclosed. In one example, a visual object recognition module may determine query images matching objects of a training corpus utilized by the module. Matched query images may be added to the training corpus as training images of a matched object to expand the recognition of the object by the module. In another example, relevant candidate image corpora from a pool of image data may be automatically selected by matching the candidate image corpora against user query images. Selected image corpora may be added to a training corpus to improve recognition coverage. In yet another example, objects unknown to a visual object recognition module may be discovered by clustering query images. Clusters of similar query images may be annotated and added into a training corpus to improve recognition coverage.

Abstract: Methods and systems for automatic detection of landmarks in digital images and annotation of those images are disclosed. A method for detecting and annotating landmarks in digital images includes the steps of automatically assigning a tag descriptive of a landmark to one or more images in a plurality of text-associated digital images to generate a set of landmark-tagged images, learning an appearance model for the landmark from the set of landmark-tagged images, and detecting the landmark in a new digital image using the appearance model. The method can also include a step of annotating the new image with the tag descriptive of the landmark.

Abstract: A system and method of identifying objects is provided. In one aspect, the system and method includes a hand-held device with a display, camera and processor. As the camera captures images and displays them on the display, the processor compares the information retrieved in connection with one image with information retrieved in connection with subsequent images. The processor uses the result of such comparison to determine the object that is likely to be of greatest interest to the user. The display simultaneously displays the images the images as they are captured, the location of the object in an image, and information retrieved for the object.

Abstract: In one embodiment the present invention is a method for populating and updating a database of images of landmarks including geo-clustering geo-tagged images according to geographic proximity to generate one or more geo-clusters, and visual-clustering the one or more geo-clusters according to image similarity to generate one or more visual clusters. In another embodiment, the present invention is a system for identifying landmarks from digital images, including the following components: a database of geo-tagged images; a landmark database; a geo-clustering module; and a visual clustering module. In other embodiments the present invention may be a method of enhancing user queries to retrieve images of landmarks, or a method of automatically tagging a new digital image with text labels.

Abstract: An image input is obtained from a computing device when an image sensor of the computing device is directed to a scene. At least an object of interest in the scene is determined, and a label is determined for the object of interest. A search input is received from the computing device, where the search input is obtained from a mechanism other than the image sensor. An ambiguity is determined from the search input. A search query is determined that augments or replaces the ambiguity based at least in part on the label. A search result is based on the search query.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a method for creating a pre-template for use in facial recognition including detecting a face in a source image, determining face information for the detected face, cropping the source image around the detected face, adjusting a compression level based on a contrast of at least a portion of the detected face, encoding the cropped image based on the adjusted compression level, and storing the encoded cropped image and the face information in a storage medium, wherein the encoded cropped image is subsequently retrieved from the storage medium, decoded and converted to a numerical representation of the detected face to compare the numerical representation with a face in an input image.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for creating and updating a facial image database from a collection of digital images is disclosed. A set of detected faces from a digital image collection is stored in a facial image database, along with data pertaining to them. At least one facial recognition template for each face in the first set is computed, and the images in the set are grouped according to the facial recognition template into similarity groups. Another embodiment is a naming tool for assigning names to a plurality of faces detected in a digital image collection. A facial image database stores data pertaining to facial images detected in images of a digital image collection.

Abstract: Systems and methods for a dynamic visual search engine are provided. In one example method, a criteria used to partition a set of compressed image descriptors into multiple database shards may be determined. Additionally, a size of a dynamic index may be determined. The dynamic index may represent a dynamic number of images and may be configured to accept insertion of reference images into the dynamic index that can be search against immediately. According to the method, an instruction to merge the uncompressed image descriptors of the dynamic index into the database shards of the compressed image descriptors may be received, and the uncompressed image descriptors of the dynamic index may be responsively merged into the database shards of the compressed image descriptors based on the criteria.

Abstract: The present technology proposes techniques for extracting forms and other types of documents from images taken with a mobile client device. By calculating and making adjustments along a document's detected borders, an input image can be transformed such that the document within the image may be properly aligned and background clutter completely removed. The resulting text fields of the extracted document are thus upright, aligned and locatable at predictable points.