Category-Specific Outlines for Visual Item Search
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users face difficulties in efficiently locating specific items, such as shirts, in electronic marketplaces due to the need to sift through numerous options, which is time-consuming and frustrating, especially when trying to find items by color or pattern, as existing technologies struggle with image segmentation and classification of deformable objects.
Innovation Solution
The system provides category-specific outlines and a 'swatch' region within the outline to guide users in capturing images, allowing for quick selection of categories and pattern/color matching, reducing the need for resource-intensive object identification and segmentation processes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If users manually sift through hundreds or thousands of items using various filtering options, then they can locate specific items by brand, style, color, or pattern, but the process becomes time-consuming and frustrating
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical manual filtering process with an optical/image-based search system. Users capture images of items, and the system automatically identifies and matches items based on visual features like color, pattern, and style, eliminating the need for manual sifting through hundreds of results while maintaining accurate item location
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an image recognition and matching system as an intermediary between the user and the marketplace database. This intermediary automatically processes image inputs, extracts relevant features, and retrieves matching items, thereby reducing search time while preserving search accuracy
2Measurement precision
If the system performs comprehensive object identification and segmentation to accurately identify item categories and features, then search accuracy improves, but computational resources and processing time increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential visual features needed for item identification (color, pattern, style characteristics) rather than performing comprehensive object segmentation and analysis. This selective extraction approach maintains accurate item identification while significantly reducing computational resource consumption
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies partial action by focusing on key visual features that are sufficient for effective item matching without performing complete object identification and segmentation. This approach achieves adequate search accuracy with reduced computational overhead
Data Source
AI summary
Searching for items, such as apparel items, can be performed using a set of category-specific outlines or contours from which a user can select. The outlines enable a user to quickly specify a relevant category, and provide guidance as to how to orient the camera in order to enable an item to be identified in an image without the need for an expensive object identification and segmentation process. The outline can specify a “swatch” region, indicating where the user should position a view of a pattern, texture, or color of the item in which the user is interested. The category selection and swatch region data can be used to determine matching items. If the user wants a different set of search results, the user can select a different outline, causing a new query to be executed with updated category information and swatch data to obtain new search results.