Abstract: Online processing of a voice input directed to a voice-enabled electronic device is selectively aborted whenever it is determined that a voice input directed to the voice-enabled electronic device can be successfully processed locally by the device. Doing so may in some instances reduce the latency of responding to a voice input.

Abstract: An offline semantic processor of a resource-constrained voice-enabled device such as a mobile device utilizes an offline grammar model with reduced resource requirements to parse voice-based queries. In various implementations, a query issued at a resource-constrained device may be semantically processed to identify candidate responsive actions that are performable by the resource-constrained device. Candidate responsive action performance statistics may be analyzed to select, from the one or more candidate responsive actions, a qualifying responsive action. In various implementations, the candidate responsive action performance statistics may relate to performance of the one or more candidate responsive actions by the resource-constrained device following issuance of the query.

Abstract: An offline semantic processor of a resource-constrained voice-enabled device such as a mobile device utilizes an offline grammar model with reduced resource requirements to parse voice-based queries. In various implementations, a query issued at a resource-constrained device may be semantically processed to identify candidate responsive actions that are performable by the resource-constrained device. Candidate responsive action performance statistics may be analyzed to select, from the one or more candidate responsive actions, a qualifying responsive action. In various implementations, the candidate responsive action performance statistics may relate to performance of the one or more candidate responsive actions by the resource-constrained device following issuance of the query.

Abstract: An offline semantic processor of a resource-constrained voice-enabled device such as a mobile device utilizes an offline grammar model with reduced resource requirements to parse voice-based queries received by the device. The offline grammar model may be generated from a larger and more comprehensive grammar model used by an online voice-based query processor, and the generation of the offline grammar model may be based upon query usage data collected from one or more users to enable a subset of more popular voice-based queries from the online grammar model to be incorporated into the offline grammar model. In addition, such a device may collect query usage data and upload such data to an online service to enable an updated offline grammar model to be generated and downloaded back to the device and thereby enable a dynamic update of the offline grammar model to be performed.

Abstract: Online processing of a voice input directed to a voice-enabled electronic device is selectively aborted whenever it is determined that a voice input directed to the voice-enabled electronic device can be successfully processed locally by the device. Doing so may in some instances reduce the latency of responding to a voice input.

Abstract: Data associated with a selectively offline capable voice action is locally persisted in a voice-enabled electronic device whenever such an action cannot be competed locally due to the device being offline to enable the action to later be completed after online connectivity has been restored. Synchronization with an online service and/or another electronic device, and/or retrieval of context sensitive data from an online service may be performed after online connectivity has been restored to enable the voice action to thereafter be completed.

Abstract: A voice to text model used by a voice-enabled electronic device is dynamically and in a context-sensitive manner updated to facilitate recognition of entities that potentially may be spoken by a user in a voice input directed to the voice-enabled electronic device. The dynamic update to the voice to text model may be performed, for example, based upon processing of a first portion of a voice input, e.g., based upon detection of a particular type of voice action, and may be targeted to facilitate the recognition of entities that may occur in a later portion of the same voice input, e.g., entities that are particularly relevant to one or more parameters associated with a detected type of voice action.

Abstract: A user interface that includes a catalog area, a collage mock-up area, and a mode select interface control operable to select an operational state of the user interface is displayed. Thumbnails of respective images are shown in the catalog area. A layout of a subset of the images is presented in the collage mock-up area. In response to the receipt of a user input gesture and a determination that the user interface is in a first operational state, a first action type is performed based on the type of the received user input gesture and the object type of the target object. In response to the receipt of the user input gesture and a determination that the user interface is in a second operational state, a second action type is performed based on the type of the received user input gesture and the object type of the target object.

Abstract: A system and a method are disclosed that determine images with co-occurrence groups of individuals from an image collection. A value of a similarity metric is computed for each pair of images of the image collection, the value of the similarity metric being computed based on a comparison of the number of individuals in common between the images of the pair and the total number of individuals identified in both images of the pair. The collection of images is clustered based on the computed values of the similarity metric. At least one co-occurrence group is determined based on the results of the clustering, where a co-occurrence group is determined as a cluster of images that have a similar combination of individuals.

Abstract: A system and a method for near-duplicate image detection performed by a physical computing system includes applying a feature determining function to a number of images, a feature being defined by a geometric shape, comparing characteristics of said geometric shapes defining said features from at least two of said number of images, and characterizing said at least two of said number of images as a near-duplicate match if a predetermined percentage of said features of said at least two images match.

Abstract: A method for selecting a video thumbnail includes generating a visual theme model for a sample set of images that are representative of textual information corresponding to a video file. Each of a set of candidate key frames is distinguished according to similarities shared between the candidate key frames and the visual theme model. A display is caused of a selected one of the distinguished candidate key frames as a video thumbnail for the video file.

Abstract: In a method for automatically and scalably selecting images from an image collection for inclusion in a photo album, an initial pagination arrangement containing a subset of all of the images contained in the image collection is identified. In addition, a determination as to whether the initial number of pages of the initial pagination arrangement is equivalent to a desired number of pages is made and the initial pagination arrangement is modified in an automatic and scalable manner in response to the initial number of pages differing from the desired number of pages.

Abstract: A system and a method are disclosed that determine a subset of images that are representative of the storyline of an image collection. A value of a coverage function is computed for candidate subsets of images from the image collection, where the coverage function of a candidate subset is computed based on a valuation of each image in the candidate subset and a coverage index of the candidate subset. A candidate subset that corresponds to a maximum value of the coverage function is determined, where the images of the selected candidate subset are representative of the storyline of the collection of images.

Abstract: A system and a method are disclosed that determine images with co-occurrence groups of individuals from an image collection. A value of a similarity metric is computed for each pair of images of the image collection, the value of the similarity metric being computed based on a comparison of the number of individuals in common between the images of the pair and the total number of individuals identified in both images of the pair. The collection of images is clustered based on the computed values of the similarity metric. At least one co-occurrence group is determined based on the results of the clustering, where a co-occurrence group is determined as a cluster of images that have a similar combination of individuals.

Abstract: A method for automatically assessing the competence of a photographer includes assigning a competency level to the photographer based on a statistical comparison of image features between a collection of the photographer's images and a collection of high competency images. Service and product offerings can be tailored to the photographer based on the competency level assigned by the statistical comparison.

Abstract: A system and a method for near-duplicate image detection performed by a physical computing system includes applying a feature determining function to a number of images, a feature being defined by a geometric shape, comparing characteristics of said geometric shapes defining said features from at least two of said number of images, and characterizing said at least two of said number of images as a near-duplicate match if a predetermined percentage of said features of said at least two images match.

Abstract: To arrange images into pages, images captured by at least one imaging device are received. Content-based filtering is applied for removing at least one of the received images to produce a collection of the images. Theme-based clustering is then performed on the images in the collection to produce plural clusters of images, where the plural clusters of images are associated with respective themes that are based on time and at least one other attribute that provides an indication of thematic similarity between the images. The plural clusters of images are mapped to respective pages of an output representation.

Abstract: Near duplicate images are detected based on local structure feature matching of local features that are extracted from the images. The matching process also may involve detecting near duplicate images based on metadata features and global image features. A computation-sensitive cascaded classifier may be used together with an on-demand feature extraction to detect near duplicate images with improved efficiency and reduced computational cost.

Abstract: A method for selecting a video thumbnail includes generating a visual theme model for a sample set of images that are representative of textual information corresponding to a video file. Each of a set of candidate key frames is distinguished according to similarities shared between the candidate key frames and the visual theme model. A display is caused of a selected one of the distinguished candidate key frames as a video thumbnail for the video file.

Abstract: In a method for automatically and scalably selecting images from an image collection for inclusion in a photo album, an initial pagination arrangement containing a subset of all of the images contained in the image collection is identified. In addition, a determination as to whether the initial number of pages of the initial pagination arrangement is equivalent to a desired number of pages is made and the initial pagination arrangement is modified in an automatic and scalable manner in response to the initial number of pages differing from the desired number of pages.