Image Recognition Service for E-commerce Product Identification

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current systems for content retrieval in networked environments, such as e-commerce platforms, face limitations in efficiently searching and identifying items using textual and multimedia information, particularly in mobile communications, where users need flexible and efficient mechanisms to locate products through images and barcodes.

Innovation Solution

A system with a client-server architecture that provides advanced image services, allowing users to send formatted emails with images to an e-commerce site, which retrieves relevant items from a database, generates listings, and offers fraud detection by comparing images against stored collections, using image recognition and compression services.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Measurement precision

If traditional text-based search is used in e-commerce platforms, then users can search for items using keywords, but the search efficiency and accuracy are limited when users need to identify specific visual characteristics of products

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveitem identification accuracyVSAvoidsearch system complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces an image processing service as an intermediary between the user's image upload and the e-commerce database. This service automatically processes uploaded images, extracts visual features, and performs similarity matching against stored product images, thereby improving identification accuracy without requiring users to manually navigate complex search interfaces

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent replaces manual text-based searching with automated image-based recognition. Instead of users typing keywords and filtering results, the system uses image processing algorithms to automatically compare uploaded images with database images, substituting mechanical text input with automated visual analysis

Inventive Principle:
Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

2Adaptability or versatility

If image processing services are added to enhance search capabilities, then users can identify items through images, but the system complexity and processing time increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvesearch mechanism flexibilityVSAvoiditem retrieval time
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements pre-processing of images before they are stored in the e-commerce database. Image processing services extract and store key visual features in advance, so when users upload images for searching, the system can perform rapid similarity comparisons without needing to process entire high-resolution images in real-time, thereby reducing retrieval time while maintaining versatility

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent divides the image processing task into separate modules: image reception, image processing, feature extraction, and similarity matching. This segmentation allows each module to be optimized independently and enables parallel processing, reducing overall processing time while providing flexible search mechanisms

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

3Manufacturing precision

If image data is stored and processed in high resolution, then image quality is maintained, but storage requirements and processing resources increase significantly

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveimage qualityVSAvoiddata storage volume
Core Design Contradiction:
Manufacturing precisionVSQuantity of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts and stores only the essential visual features from complete images, such as color histograms, texture patterns, and shape descriptors, rather than storing entire high-resolution images. This extraction approach maintains sufficient image quality for recognition purposes while dramatically reducing storage requirements and processing resources

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Data Source

PatentUS11727054B2Method and apparatus for image recognition services
Publication Date: 2023.08.15 EBAY INC
  • US11727054B2 patent drawing
  • US11727054B2 patent drawing
  • US11727054B2 patent drawing

AI summary

A system to provide image processing services responsive to requests including image data includes a system layer that forwards a request to an image application processing interface. Image processing provides an image comparison, barcode recognition, and optical character recognition. The image processing compares the image data to products in a database in order to identify a matching product. The system layer receives the matching information and forwards to a user.