Image-Based Product Search System for Visual Marketing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional shopping techniques, such as internet keyword searches, are inadequate for consumers who lack awareness of relevant websites or appropriate keywords, leading to irrelevant or undesirable search results, and marketers face challenges in presenting accurate product information effectively.
Innovation Solution
A product marketing system that allows consumers to search for product information using images captured with a camera, employing an image matching facility to identify matching products and provide relevant information through a user interface, incorporating communication, product data management, search, and image matching facilities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If consumers use conventional keyword search techniques, then they can access product information through Internet search engines, but they face difficulties when they lack awareness of relevant websites or appropriate keywords, leading to irrelevant or undesirable search results
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical keyword-based search system with an image-based search system. Instead of requiring consumers to type keywords or navigate websites, the system accepts images captured by mobile device cameras and automatically identifies products through image recognition technology, substituting the manual text-based search mechanism with an automated visual search mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an image-based search engine as an intermediary between consumers and product information. This intermediary automatically processes captured images, identifies products, and retrieves relevant information, eliminating the need for consumers to directly interact with websites or formulate search keywords themselves.
2Productivity
If marketers use conventional Internet marketing tools, then they can present product information through websites, but they face challenges in effectively reaching consumers who cannot locate relevant information through keyword searches
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the traditional marketing information flow. Instead of marketers pushing information through websites and hoping consumers find it via keyword searches, the system allows consumers to actively query for product information by capturing images, and the system responds by delivering relevant marketing information directly to the consumer's mobile device.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent enables consumers to self-serve by capturing images of products they are interested in and automatically receiving relevant product information and marketing content. The system autonomously processes the image, identifies the product, and delivers targeted information without requiring marketers to manually distribute information across multiple websites.
3Adaptability or versatility
If consumers rely on keyword searches, then they can access information about known products, but they cannot effectively search for products they are not familiar with or lack keywords for
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the complex mental process of recalling keywords and navigating websites with a simple image capture action. The system substitutes the need for consumers to articulate their search intent through text with the more intuitive and universal medium of images, which can represent any product regardless of the consumer's familiarity or knowledge.
Data Source
AI summary
An exemplary method includes a product marketing system receiving, from an access device, a product search request and image data representative of an image associated with a product, searching, in response to the product search request, a repository of product image data to identify at least one match to the image associated with the product, generating, based on the at least one match, search results data comprising product information for at least one product, and transmitting the search results data to the access device. Corresponding systems and methods are also described.