Visual Search System Blending Text and Image Queries
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current search techniques, such as keyword searching, are inefficient in discovering relevant content due to the vast amount of digital information, as they fail to effectively handle visual and contextual aspects of images, leading to suboptimal results in searches for visually similar objects and their stylistic combinations.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that processes images to detect objects of interest, generates feature vectors, and compares them with stored vectors to find visually similar images, allowing users to refine searches using both textual and visual inputs, blending results from different query types to provide comprehensive and relevant outputs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If keyword searching is used, then search coverage is maintained, but search efficiency and result quality deteriorate due to inability to handle visual and contextual aspects
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines keyword-based text search with image-based visual search into a unified search system. The system processes both textual queries and image inputs simultaneously, merging results from multiple search modalities to provide comprehensive and accurate search outcomes that leverage both semantic understanding and visual recognition capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The search system is designed to handle multiple types of queries universally - it can process text-only queries, image-only queries, and hybrid queries that combine both. The system adapts its processing pipeline based on the input type while maintaining a consistent interface, enabling it to serve diverse search needs with a single multi-functional platform.
2Measurement precision
If visual search is added to improve result quality, then ability to detect visually similar objects improves, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the search process into distinct modular components: image preprocessing module, feature extraction module, similarity comparison module, and result integration module. Each module handles a specific aspect of visual search independently, allowing the system to achieve high visual detection accuracy while maintaining manageable complexity through clear separation of concerns and independent optimization of each component.
Data Source
AI summary
Described is a system and method for enabling visual search for information. With each selection of an object included in an image, additional images that include visually similar objects are determined and presented to the user.