Image-based application launcher

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9924102-B2
Application number	US-201313804643-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 14, 2013
Priority date	Mar 14, 2013
Publication date	Mar 20, 2018
Grant date	Mar 20, 2018

Abstract

Techniques for managing applications associated with a mobile device are provided. The techniques disclosed herein include techniques for obtaining an image of an object in the view of a camera associated with a mobile device, identifying the object in the image based on attributes of the object extracted from the image, and determining whether one or more applications are associated with the object. If there are one or more applications associated with the real-world object, an application associated with the object can be automatically launched on the mobile device. The association between a real-world object and an application may be identified by a visual indicator, such as an icon, symbol, or other markings on the object that indicates that the object is associated with one or more applications.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for managing applications associated with a mobile device, the method comprising:
obtaining an image of an object in view of a camera associated with the mobile device;
identifying a marking displayed on the object in the obtained image, wherein the marking on the object indicates that the object is associated with one or more applications and triggers an object identification procedure to identify the object in the image, followed by an application identification procedure to identify one or more applications associated with the object, wherein the object identification procedure and the application identification procedure are not performed for one or more objects before one or more markings are successfully identified on the one or more objects, and wherein the marking does not identify the object and does not identify the one or more applications;
performing the object identification procedure to identify the object in the image based on attributes of the object extracted from the image, wherein the object identification procedure is performed in response to successfully identifying the marking displayed on the object, and wherein the object identification procedure comprises comparing the attributes of the object extracted from the image with a plurality of attributes associated with a plurality of known objects and identifying the object as one of the plurality of known objects responsive to the attributes of the object matching more than a threshold number of attributes associated with the one known object;
conditional upon the object identification procedure successfully identifying the object as the one known object, performing the application identification procedure to identify an application based on a stored mapping between the one known object and the application; and
automatically launching the application on the mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of attributes associated with the plurality of known objects are stored in a local database on the mobile device.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the attributes associated with the plurality of known objects stored in the local database are organized into a search tree, and wherein the object identification procedure uses the attributes of the object extracted from the image and the search tree to identify the object.

4. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
sending the image of the object or the attributes extracted from the image to a visual search engine located on a remote server in response to the object not being successfully identified by comparing the attributes extracted from the image to the plurality of attributes associated with the plurality of objects stored in the local database; and
receiving an identification of the object from the visual search engine located on the remote server.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the object identification procedure comprises:
sending the image of the object or the attributes extracted from the image to a visual search engine located on a remote server.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the application identification procedure comprises receiving information identifying one or more applications associated with the object from the visual search engine.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein automatically launching the application comprises determining whether the application is installed on the mobile device.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein automatically launching the application on the mobile device comprises:
launching the application if the application is installed on the mobile device; and
displaying an interface for acquiring the application if the application is not installed on the mobile device, and launching the application based on input to the interface if the application is acquired.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying a plurality of candidate applications that are mapped to the one known object; and
selecting the application from the plurality of candidate applications.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein selecting the application from the plurality of candidate applications comprises selecting the application based on a user selection.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
displaying a listing of the plurality of candidate applications; and
prompting a user to provide the user selection from the displayed listing.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein displaying the listing of the plurality of candidate applications comprises ordering the plurality of candidate applications on the listing according to estimated relevance.

13. The method of claim 9 wherein selecting the application from the plurality of candidate applications comprises selecting the application based on a user profile.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
constructing the user profile based on at least one of user input or observed usage patterns of the mobile device.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the application is an augmented reality application.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the stored mapping is stored in a local database on the mobile device.

17. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
sending a request to a remote server for updates to content of a local database;
receiving updates to the content of the local database from the remote server; and
updating the local database with the updates.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the application is also identified based on a usage profile associated with a user of the mobile device, the usage profile being indicative of types of applications preferred by the user of the mobile device.

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein the application is also identified by comparing the object with multiple hierarchical levels of information.

20. An apparatus for managing applications associated with a mobile device, the apparatus comprising:
means for obtaining an image of an object in view of a camera associated with the mobile device;
means for identifying a marking displayed on the object in the obtained image, wherein the marking on the object indicates that the object is associated with one or more applications and triggers an object identification procedure to identify the object in the image, followed by an application identification procedure to identify one or more applications associated with the object, wherein the object identification procedure and the application identification procedure are not performed for one or more objects before one or more markings are successfully identified on the one or more objects, and wherein the marking does not identify the object and does not identify the one or more applications;
means for performing the object identification procedure to identify the object in the image based on attributes of the object extracted from the image, wherein the object identification procedure is performed in response to successfully identifying the marking displayed on the object, and wherein the means for performing the object identification procedure comprises means for comparing the attributes of the object extracted from the image with a plurality of attributes associated with a plurality of known objects and means for identifying the object as one of the plurality of known objects responsive to the attributes of the object matching more than a threshold number of attributes associated with the one known object;
means for, conditional upon the object identification procedure successfully identifying the object as t

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Gervautz Michael
• Wright Jr Gerald V
• Lawrence Ashok Inigo Roy

Classifications

• H04N23/69 Primary

  Control of means for changing angle of the field of view, e.g. optical zoom objectives or electronic zooming · CPC title

• G06F16/53

  Querying · CPC title

• H04N5/23296 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G06F17/30244

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F8/61 Primary

  Installation · CPC title