Virage, Incorporated

Here Global B.v.

Navteq B.v.

Jeffrey R Bach

Bradley Horowitz

Ramesh Jain

Amarnath Gupta

Arun Hampapur

Chiao-Fe Shu

Richard D Humphrey

Charles Fuller

Mojgan Monika Gorkani

Michael J Portuesi

Charles E Fuller

Chiao-fe Shu

Joseph P Mays

Narayanan Alwar

Bishnu P Phuyal

Mark Thompson

Kenneth M Smith

Mitchel Deason

Marc Fredrickson

A mapping system, method and computer program product are provided to apply texture, such as windows and doors, to the visual representation of a plurality of buildings. In the context of a method, images of each of a plurality of buildings are analyzed to detect building texture for one or more faces of the buildings. A representation of the building texture is spread to visual representations of one or more faces of a respective building that do not have a detected texture. The building texture may be spread from another face of the same building that has detected texture and is of a corresponding size to the face of the building without detected texture. Or, the building texture may be spread from a face of a neighboring building has a detected texture and is of a corresponding size to the face of the building without detected texture.

Mapping system and method for applying texture to visual representations of buildings

In one embodiment, the position of a mobile device is determined based, at least on part, of the relative locations of two or more nearby points. Distance data, received from a range finding sensor, corresponds to distances to the two or more nearby points from the mobile device. A predetermined model that includes previously recorded locations for objects is accessed to receive location data for two or more nearby points. A position of the mobile device is calculated based on the location data and the distance data. The nearby points may be building edges or building corners. The calculation may involve a series of equations. The series of equations may include satellite-based positioning equations in addition to equations based on the predetermined model.

Position in urban canyons

Systems, devices, features, and methods for obtaining, enhancing, or using data for or with a geographic database, such as a navigation database, are disclosed. For example, one method includes receiving input to enable a probe sensor that is associated with a device used by a being with a physical disability. Geographic data is collected via the probe sensor when the device is in use by the being with the physical disability. The collected geographic data is provided to a data collection facility to develop data corresponding to a geographic and/or navigation database.

Physical disability probes for geographic information

Systems, devices, features, and methods for navigating on images are disclosed. For example, one method includes identifying a point selected on an initial image. An image component, such as a pixel, of the initial image corresponding to the identified point is determined. The image component of the initial image represents an origin. A route from the origin to a destination is generated, and the destination corresponds to another image component, such as another pixel.

Navigating on images

One aspect of the invention is directed to a system and method for video cataloging. The video is cataloged according to predefined or user definable metadata. The metadata is used to index and then retrieve encoded video.

Video cataloger system with audio track extraction

One aspect of the invention is directed to a system and method for video cataloging. The video is cataloged according to predefined or user definable metadata. The metadata is used to index and then retrieve encoded video. In one embodiment, the video is cataloged concurrently with encoding of the video.

Video cataloger system with synchronized encoders

One aspect of the invention is directed to a system and method for video cataloging. The video is cataloged according to predefined or user definable metadata. The metadata is used to index and then retrieve encoded video. In another aspect of the invention, video metadata track processors convert metadata tracks of the video information to produce displayable frames containing hyperlinking between displayable data. Another aspect of the invention is directed to a method of browsing stored video information, including displaying hyperlinked frames of metadata track representations, and selecting and displaying links between displayable frames.

Video cataloger system with hyperlinked output

One aspect of the invention is directed to a system and method for video cataloging. The video is cataloged according to predefined or user definable metadata. The metadata is used to index and then retrieve encoded video. Video feature extractors produce metadata tracks from the video information, and each metadata track indexes the stored video information. A feature extractor registration interface registers the video feature extractors, providing for registration with the video engine of new video feature extractors with new metadata tracks.

Video cataloger system with extensibility

One aspect of the invention is directed to a search engine having indexed retrieval to improve computational efficiency of searching large databases of rich objects such as images. Feature vectors are extracted from images and stored in a feature vector database. When a query is submitted to the engine, a query feature vector Q will be specified, as well as a distance threshold T, indicating the maximum distance that is of interest for this query. All images within a distance of T will be identified by the query. Range constraints are defined such that all feature vectors within a distance of T of the query feature vector, satisfy all of the range constraints. The constraint is dependent on the specific primitive being indexed. The constraint is also defined such that any feature vector which is within a distance of T of the query feature vector also satisfies a functional constraint. By reducing the number of feature vectors retrieved from the database and the number of feature vector comparisons, the query process becomes much more efficient.

Indexing method for image search engine

A system and method for content-based search and retrieval of visual objects. A base visual information retrieval (VIR) engine utilizes a set of universal primitives to operate on the visual objects. An extensible VIR engine allows custom, modular primitives to be defined and registered. A custom primitive addresses domain specific problems and can utilize any image understanding technique. Object attributes can be extracted over the entire image or over only a portion of the object. A schema is defined as a specific collection of primitives. A specific schema implies a specific set of visual features to be processed and a corresponding feature vector to be used for content-based similarity scoring. A primitive registration interface registers custom primitives and facilitates storing of an analysis function and a comparison function to a schema table. A heterogeneous comparison allows objects analyzed by different schemas to be compared if at least one primitive is in common between the schemas. A threshold-based comparison is utilized to improve performance of the VIR engine. A distance between two feature vectors is computed in any of the comparison processes so as to generate a similarity score.

Growing community of inventors

Aurora, IL, United States of America

Jeffrey R Bach