Techniques for image-based search using touch controls

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor circuit;

a gesture component operative on the processor circuit to:

receive gesture information from a touch-sensitive screen displaying an image and at least one user interface element, and

generate a selection area corresponding to the gesture information, the gesture component to:

determine a minimized rectangle bounding a touch gesture indicated by the gesture information,

crop the minimized rectangle to lie entirely within the image and to exclude the at least one user interface element to generate a cropped minimized rectangle, and

set the selection area as the cropped minimized rectangle;

a capture component operative on the processor circuit to extract an image portion of the image corresponding to the selection area; and

a search component operative on the processor circuit to perform an image-based search using the extracted image portion.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , the image comprising a frame from a video, the image presented as part of a playback of the video.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , the gesture component operative to recognize a scratch gesture based on the received gesture information and generate the selection area corresponding to the scratch gesture.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , the scratch gesture comprising a substantially-parallel substantially-simultaneous swipe of a plurality of touch-points downwards across the touch-sensitive screen.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , the touch-sensitive screen operative to detect objects positioned on a surface of the touch-sensitive screen.

6. The apparatus of claim 4 , the gesture component to determine the minimized rectangle as an area traversing a portion of the touch-sensitive screen that minimally bounds the plurality of touch-points.

7. The apparatus of claim 4 , each swipe of the plurality of touch-points represented by a pair of points corresponding to touch points recorded for a beginning and an end of each swipe, each of the pair of points comprising an x-coordinate and a y-coordinate.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , the gesture component to:

determine a horizontal extent of the minimized triangle to span from a minimum x-coordinate of a plurality of x-coordinates of pairs of points for the scratch gesture to a maximum x-coordinate for the plurality of x-coordinates, and

determine a vertical extent of the minimized triangle to span from a minimum y-coordinate of a plurality of y-coordinates of the pairs of points for the scratch gesture to a maximum y-coordinate for the plurality of y-coordinates.

9. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

displaying an image on a touch-sensitive screen, the image displayed in combination with at least one user interface element;

receiving gesture information from the touch-sensitive screen;

generating a selection area corresponding to the received gesture information by;

determining a minimized rectangle bounding a touch gesture indicated by the gesture information,

cropping the minimized rectangle to lie entirely within the image and to exclude the at least one user interface element to generate a cropped minimized rectangle, and

setting the selection area as the cropped minimized rectangle;

extracting an image portion of the image corresponding to the selection area;

performing an image-based search using the extracted image portion to produce search results; and

displaying the search results on the touch-sensitive screen.

10. The method of claim 9 , the image comprising a frame from a video, the image presented as part of a playback of the video.

11. The method of claim 9 , comprising:

recognizing a scratch gesture based on the received gesture information; and

generating the selection area corresponding to the scratch gesture.

12. The method of claim 11 , the scratch gesture comprising a substantially-parallel substantially-simultaneous swipe of a plurality of touch-points downwards across the touch-sensitive screen.

13. The method of claim 12 , comprising determining the minimized rectangle as an area traversing a portion of the touch-sensitive screen that minimally bounds the plurality of touch-points.

14. The method of claim 12 , each swipe of the plurality of touch-points represented by a pair of points corresponding to touch points recorded for a beginning and an end of each swipe, each of the pair of points comprising an x-coordinate and a y-coordinate.

15. The method of claim 14 , comprising:

determining a horizontal extent of the minimized triangle to span from a minimum x-coordinate of a plurality of x-coordinates of pairs of points for the scratch gesture to a maximum x-coordinate for the plurality of x-coordinates, and

determining a vertical extent of the minimized triangle to span from a minimum y-coordinate of a plurality of y-coordinates of the pairs of points for the scratch gesture to a maximum y-coordinate for the plurality of y-coordinates.

16. At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a system to:

receive gesture information from a touch-sensitive screen displaying a video;

generate a selection area corresponding to the received gesture information by;

determining a minimized rectangle bounding a touch gesture indicated by the gesture information,

cropping the minimized rectangle to lie entirely within the image and to exclude the at least one user interface element to generate a cropped minimized rectangle, and

setting the selection area as the cropped minimized rectangle;

extract an image portion of the video corresponding to the selection area, the image portion displayed in combination with user interface elements;

request an image-based search from an image-based search system based on the extracted image portion; and

receive search results from the image-based search system.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16 , further comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to:

recognize a scratch gesture based on the received gesture information; and

generate the selection area corresponding to the scratch gesture.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 , the scratch gesture comprising a substantially-parallel substantially-simultaneous swipe of a plurality of touch-points downwards across the touch-sensitive screen.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18 , further comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to determine the minimized rectangle as an area traversing a portion of the touch-sensitive screen that minimally bounds the plurality of touch-points.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18 , each swipe of the plurality of touch-points represented by a pair of points corresponding to touch points recorded for a beginning and an end of each swipe, each of the pair of points comprising an x-coordinate and a y-coordinate.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 20 , further comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to:

determine a horizontal extent of the minimized triangle to span from a minimum x-coordinate of a plurality of x-coordinates of pairs of points for the scratch gesture to a maximum x-coordinate for the plurality of x-coordinates, and

determine a vertical extent of the minimized triangle to span from a minimum y-coordinate of a plurality of y-coordinates of the pairs of points for the scratch gesture to a maximum y-coordinate for the plurality of y-coordinates.