Amazon Technologies, Inc.

Charles Gordon

Hilliard Bruce Siegel

Udi Manber

Jeffrey P Bezos

Lawrence Gordon Tesler

Varun Narang

Verification of an inventory of stored products may be achieved by obtaining an image of the stored products and using text, optical character, and other feature recognition techniques to determine product identification and storage location. A comparison between earlier and current images of the same storage location is used to identify which locations have changed, i.e., from which locations have products been moved, removed, or added. The earlier and current images of the changed locations may be displayed to a user to visually inspect the differences between the images and verify the changes in inventory represented by those differences.

Method and system for inventory verification

A system and method for electronically searching a personalized library of content includes, in at least one embodiment, receiving one or more search terms and electronically searching a text searchable database to produce search results. After receiving a search result selection, a page image in a page image database corresponding to the search result selection is identified. A substitute image of the identified page image is prepared, wherein a portion of the content in the identified page image is suppressed in the substitute image. The substitute image is then provided for computer display, wherein the one or more search terms in the substitute image are highlighted when the substitute image is displayed. The substitute image appears substantially the same as the identified page image except for the portion that is suppressed. Information identifying the location of the search terms in the substitute image may be provided for highlighting.

Personalized searchable library with highlighting capabilities

Access to selected content in different file formats can be managed by conducting, in a single purchase transaction, a user purchase of access rights that allow a user to acquire multiple copies of the same selected content in media files having different file formats. An authorization signal is communicated to a content provider or multiple content providers who did not conduct the purchase transaction. The authorization signal contains information that allows the content provider or the multiple content providers to authorize the user to acquire multiple copies of the same selected content in different file formats without requiring the user to conduct multiple transactions. Each copy of the selected content acquired from a content provider is in a media file having a different file format.

Method and system for managing access to media files

Page numbering of images of pages in a document includes extracting all numbers that are exactly one different than a number found on an adjacent page, and grouping the extracted numbers into a set of sequences that describe the candidate page numbers in the book. The sequences most likely to contain candidates that represent the actual page numbers are determined by merging the most reliable sequences together to bridge gaps between the sequences, and identifying those gaps where the page numbers have been intentionally omitted. Page images are labeled with numbers that are determined to be most likely to represent the actual page number. Page numbering is abandoned when insufficient numbers of pages numbers are able to be extracted or assigned relative to the total number of pages in the document.

Method and system for determining page numbers of page images

A facility for collecting pricing information is described. The facility serves a web page to a client computing system. The served web page contains a first control operable to order a selected item from a selected vendor. The web page further contains a second control operable to submit a price charged for the selected item by a vendor other than the selected vendor. At a later time, the facility receives from the client computing system information that indicates that the second control has been operated to submit a price charged for the selected item by a vendor other than the selected vendor.

Collecting competitive pricing information via a merchant web site for use in setting prices on the merchant web site

A system and method for managing access rights of media files communicated over a network. In a preferred embodiment, the present invention allows a user to obtain rights to access media files of selected content, which may include a song, album, movie, etc. Once the user obtains rights to access media files of the selected content, information that identifies the user and information that describes the selected content is communicated to a plurality of content providers. By receiving information that identifies the user and information that describes the selected content, each content provider can verify independently that the user is authorized to access one or more files that contain the selected content. The user may then directly contact any one of many service providers to access media files that contain the selected content.

A system and method for preparing and searching a user-personalized library of content includes preparing a general library comprised of images of pages of content and electronically-searchable text corresponding to the text in the page images, which is then personalized by receiving from the user a selection of the content to include in the user's personalized library. User selection of content for a personalized library may be accomplished manually or automatically as a result of user actions, such as user review or purchase of content. Preferably, full text searching of the content in the user's personalized library is enabled. Page images in the personalized library containing text that match the user's search terms are provided to the user for display. Highlighting of search terms in page images by a user device and access rules that act to limit the viewing of content are further provided.

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Seattle, WA, United States of America

Charles Gordon