Displaying clusters of media items on a map using representative media items

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9529800-B2
Application number	US-201514699948-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 29, 2015
Priority date	Feb 5, 2013
Publication date	Dec 27, 2016
Grant date	Dec 27, 2016

Abstract

Displaying media items on a map includes: determining, among a plurality of media items, a set of media items that belongs to a region on a map, including: selecting, among the plurality of media items, a representative media item of the set of media items; defining the region on the map, a size of the region being dependent at least in part on a size of a reduced resolution image associated with the representative media item; and determining one or more other media items whose corresponding one or more pixel locations on a display are within the region, and including the one or more other media items in the set of media items; and displaying the reduced resolution image of the representative media item in the region on the map to represent the set of media items.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
determining, among a plurality of media items, a set of media items that belongs to a region on a map, including:
selecting, among the plurality of media items, a representative media item of the set of media items;
defining the region on the map, a size of the region being dependent at least in part on a size of a reduced resolution image associated with the representative media item; and
determining one or more other media items whose corresponding one or more pixel locations on a display are within the region, and including the one or more other media items in the set of media items; and

displaying the reduced resolution image of the representative media item in the region on the map to represent the set of media items.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising sorting the plurality of media items according to a criteria, wherein the representative media item is selected among the sorted plurality of media items.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising sorting the plurality of media items according to a criteria, wherein:
the representative media item is selected among the sorted plurality of media items; and
the criteria includes time, popularity, or number of adjacent items.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the region has a predefined size and shape.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein a dimension of the region is determined based on a number of pixels of a dimension of the reduced resolution image and a number of pixels in a buffer region.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the region is a first region, the set of media items is a first set of media items, and the representative media item is a first representative media item; and
the method further comprises:
selecting, among the plurality of media items, a second set of media items that belongs to a second region on the map, the second region being a non-overlapping region on the map with respect to the first region, the selecting of the second set of media items including:
determining a second representative media item of the second set of media items, the second representative media item not belonging to the first region;
defining the second region on the map, a size of the second region being dependent at least in part on a size of a reduced resolution image associated with the second representative media item; and
determining one or more other media items whose corresponding one or more pixel locations are within the second region, and including the one or more other media items in the second set of media items; and

displaying the reduced resolution image of the second representative media item in the second region on the map to represent the second set of media items.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, among remaining media items not included in any determined sets of media items, an additional set of media items that belongs to an additional regions on the map; and
displaying on the map reduced resolution images of representative media items of determined sets of media items, wherein the reduced resolution images are displayed without overlapping with one another.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising repeating the determination of one or more additional sets of media items until a property associated with remaining media items not included in any set of media items exceeds a threshold.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising determining, for a given media item, a specific one of the determined regions to which the given media item belongs, the determination being based at least in part on pixel distances of the given media item relative to centers of the determined regions.

10. A system, comprising:
one or more processors to:
determine, among a plurality of media items, a set of media items that belongs to a region on a map, including to:
select, among the plurality of media items, a representative media item of the set of media items;
define the region on the map, a size of the region being dependent at least in part on a size of a reduced resolution image associated with the representative media item; and
determine one or more other media items whose corresponding one or more pixel locations on a display are within the region, and include the one or more other media items in the set of media items; and

cause the reduced resolution image of the representative media item in the region to be displayed on the map to represent the set of media items; and

a memory coupled to the one or more processors to provide the one or more processors with instructions.

11. The system of claim 10 , the one or more processors are further to sort the plurality of media items according to a criteria, wherein the representative media item is selected among the sorted plurality of media items.

12. The system of claim 10 , the one or more processors are further to sort the plurality of media items according to a criteria, wherein:
the representative media item is selected among the sorted plurality of media items; and
the criteria includes time, popularity, or number of adjacent items.

13. The system of claim 10 , wherein the region has a predefined size and shape.

14. The system of claim 10 , wherein a dimension of the region is determined based on a number of pixels of a dimension of the reduced resolution image and a number of pixels in a buffer region.

15. The system of claim 10 , wherein:
the region is a first region, the set of media items is a first set of media items, and the representative media item is a first representative media item; and
the one or more processors are further to:
select, among the plurality of media items, a second set of media items that belongs to a second region on the map, the second region being a non-overlapping region on the map with respect to the first region, the selecting of the second set of media items including to:
determine a second representative media item of the second set of media items, the second representative media item not belonging to the first region;
define the second region on the map, a size of the second region being dependent at least in part on a size of a reduced resolution image associated with the second representative media item; and
determine one or more other media items whose corresponding one or more pixel locations are within the second region, and including the one or more other media items in the second set of media items; and

display the reduced resolution image of the second representative media item in the second region on the map to represent the second set of media items.

16. The system of claim 10 , the one or more processors are further to:
determine, among remaining media items not included in any determined sets of media items, an additional set of media items that belongs to an additional regions on the map; and
cause reduced resolution images of representative media items of determined sets of media items to be displayed on the map, wherein the reduced resolution images are displayed without overlapping with one another.

17. The system of claim 16 , the one or more processors are further to repeat the determination of one or more additional sets of media items until a property associated with remaining media items not included in any set of media items exceeds a threshold.

18. The system of claim 17 , the one or more processors are further to determine, for a given media item, a specific one of the determined regions to which the given media item belongs, the determination being based

Assignees

• Facebook Inc

Inventors

• Hochmuth Gregor
• Van Damme Tim
• Mcallister Philip
• Systrom Kevin

Classifications

• G06F16/40

  of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data (retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70) · CPC title

• G09G5/377

  for mixing or overlaying two or more graphic patterns (G09G5/02, G09G5/397 take precedence) · CPC title

• G06F16/29

  Geographical information databases · CPC title

• G09G2340/12

  Overlay of images, i.e. displayed pixel being the result of switching between the corresponding input pixels · CPC title

• G06T2200/24

  involving graphical user interfaces [GUIs] · CPC title