Searching digital content

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12039148-B2
Application number	US-202218051428-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 31, 2022
Priority date	Nov 6, 2014
Publication date	Jul 16, 2024
Grant date	Jul 16, 2024

Abstract

One or more embodiments allow a user to search a gallery of digital content. In particular, a user can interact with a digital content system to search for, and identify, one or more digital content items (e.g., photos, videos, audio) within a collection of digital content. For instance, the digital content system can maintain tokens with respect to a collection of digital content and associate the tokens with digital content items within the collection of digital content. The digital content system can also provide a gallery of digital content items within a view area of a graphical user interface. Upon receiving a search query, the digital content system can identify a token and identify digital content items corresponding to the token. The digital content system can further provide a new or modified gallery within the view area of the graphical user interface based on the identified digital content items.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
determining, utilizing a content item analyzer, metadata from a user specific collection of digital images;
generating an index of terms from the metadata of the user specific collection of digital images, the user specific collection of digital images comprising a plurality of digital image groups;
providing for display within a graphical user interface of a client application:
a first plurality of digital images within a view area of the graphical user interface, the first plurality of digital images being part of the user specific collection of digital images; and
a search input field for receiving text input to be applied in a search of the user specific collection of digital images;

receiving, via the search input field, user input comprising at least one text character;
comparing the at least one text character with the index of terms from the user specific collection of digital images associated with a user to identify terms comprising the at least one text character;
generating a plurality of suggested search queries based on the identified terms from the user specific collection of digital images;
based on the plurality of suggested search queries, identifying a first set of digital images belonging to each group of the plurality of digital image groups corresponding to a first suggested search query of the plurality of suggested search queries; and
based on receiving a selection of the first suggested search query, providing, for displaying within the graphical user interface, the identified first set of digital images within each identified digital image group that corresponds to the first suggested search query, the identified first set of digital images in an expanded group format.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing, for display within the graphical user interface, the plurality of suggested search queries further comprises:
providing for display via the graphical user interface, one or more gallery expansion suggestions;
wherein the one or more gallery expansion suggestions include one or more collections of digital images and one or more terms from the index of terms that corresponds with the at least one text character.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
causing a client device associated with the user to store the user specific collection of digital images on the client device; and
wherein the index of terms is based on the user specific collection of digital images stored on the client device.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing a set of digital images from the user specific collection of digital images associated with one or more of the plurality of suggested search queries while providing the plurality of suggested search queries.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the index of terms comprises terms associated with characteristics corresponding to one or more digital images within the user specific collection of digital images, the characteristics comprising at least one of: a temporal characteristic, a location characteristic, a business entity, an event, a source characteristic, a content type, a content characteristic, or a user identification.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one suggested search query from the plurality of suggested search queries comprises a combination of two or more terms from the index of terms.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a query type for at least one suggested search query of the plurality of suggested search queries; and
providing, proximate to the at least one suggested search query within the graphical user interface, a search query type icon corresponding to the query type.

8. A system comprising:
at least one processor; and
at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to:
determine, utilizing a content item analyzer, metadata from a user specific collection of digital images;
generate an index of terms from the metadata of the user specific collection of digital images, the user specific collection of digital images comprising a plurality of digital image groups;
provide, within a graphical user interface on a client device, a search input field for receiving text input to be applied in a search of the user specific collection of digital images;
receive, via the search input field, user input comprising at least one text character;
compare the at least one text character with the index of terms from the user specific collection of digital images associated with a user account to identify terms comprising the at least one text character;
generate a plurality of suggested search queries based on the identified terms from the user specific collection of digital images;
based on the plurality of suggested search queries, identify a first set of digital images belonging to each group of the plurality of digital image groups corresponding to a first suggested search query of the plurality of suggested search queries; and
based on receiving a selection of the first suggested search query, display within the graphical user interface, the identified first set of digital images within each identified digital image group that corresponds to the first suggested search query, the identified first set of digital images in an expanded group format.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein one or more of the plurality of suggested search queries correspond to at least one of: a location, a date, a person, content within an image, or an event.

10. The system of claim 8 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to:
provide for display via the graphical user interface, one or more gallery expansion suggestions;
wherein the one or more gallery expansion suggestions include one or more collections of digital images and one or more terms from the index of terms that corresponds with the at least one text character.

11. The system of claim 8 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to:
cause the client device associated with the user account to locally store the user specific collection of digital images; and
wherein the index of terms is based on the user specific collection of digital images locally stored on the client device.

12. The system of claim 8 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to:
in response to receiving an additional text character from the user account, process the search of the user specific collection of digital images based on the additional text character; and
provide, within the graphical user interface, at least one digital image from the user specific collection of digital images that is associated with both the selection of the first suggested search query and the additional text character.

13. The system of claim 8 , wherein the index of terms comprises terms associated with characteristics corresponding to one or more digital images within the user specific collection of digital images, the characteristics comprising at least one of: a temporal characteristic, a location characteristic, a business entity, an event, a source characteristic, a content type, an image content characteristic, or a user identification.

14. The system of claim 8 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to provide, within the graphical user interface, an indication of a number of digital images asso

Assignees

• Dropbox Inc

Inventors

• Grue Anthony
• Kleinpeter Tom
• Wen Tina
• Haven Andrew

Classifications

• G06F16/587

  using geographical or spatial information, e.g. location · CPC title

• G06F16/5866

  using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, manually generated location and time information · CPC title

• G06F16/58

  Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually · CPC title

• G06F3/0482 Primary

  Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus · CPC title