IP Library Granted Patent US 10,552,682
Granted Patent B2
US 10,552,682 · App. 15/638,997 · Granted Feb 4, 2020

User classification based upon images

Inventors: Kristjan Jonsson (San Diego, CA); Sanjeev Jagannatha Rao (La Jolla, CA); Daniel J. Tasse (San Francisco, CA)
Assignee: Oath Inc.
G06K9/00684G06K9/628G06K9/6212G06K9/6287
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 10,552,682
App. No.
15/638,997
Granted
Feb 4, 2020
Kind
B2
Abstract

One or more systems and/or methods for providing content to a user are provided. An image, associated with a user, may be evaluated utilizing an image classifier to identify an object within the image. The object may be utilized to identify a predicted class for the user. In an example, the predicted class may correspond to a life event (e.g., graduating college, having a baby, buying a house, etc.) and/or a life stage (e.g., adolescence, retirement, etc.). Locational information (e.g., a geotag) for the image may be evaluated to determine an image location (e.g., a location where the image was generated). Responsive to the image location corresponding to a home location of the user, the predicted class may be determined to be a class associated with the user. Content (e.g., promotional content) may be selected from a content repository based upon the class and subsequently provided to the user.

Claims (70)

1. A method of providing content to a user, comprising:

identifying a predicted class based upon an object within an image associated with a user;

evaluating locational information for the image to determine an image location;

determining a location of the user comprising at least one of:

evaluating locational information for one or more additional images associated with the user utilizing a leader-follower algorithm to determine the location based upon a locational grouping of the one or more additional images over a set timespan; or

responsive to a total number of images in a first cluster of images exceeding an image count threshold and a timespan for the images in the first cluster exceeding a timespan threshold, determining that a first location associated with the first cluster corresponds to the location of the user;

responsive to the image location corresponding to the location of the user, determining that the predicted class is a class associated with the user;

selecting content from a content repository based upon the class; and

providing the content to the user.

2. The method of claim 1 , comprising:

obtaining the image from at least one of a social media community or a microblogging community.

3. The method of claim 1 , comprising:

obtaining the image from a workgroup community.

4. The method of claim 1 , comprising:

determining a confidence score for the predicted class, the identifying the predicted class as a class associated with the user comprising identifying the predicted class as the class based upon the confidence score exceeding a confidence threshold.

5. The method of claim 4 , the determining a confidence score comprising:

comparing the object to a set of known objects to determine a match score for the object; and

responsive to the match score exceeding a threshold amount, increasing the confidence score for the predicted class.

6. The method of claim 4 , the determining a confidence score comprising:

evaluating an individual within the image utilizing a facial recognition technique to determine an identity of the individual; and

responsive to the identity of the individual corresponding to the user, increasing the confidence score for the predicted class.

7. The method of claim 1 , the class comprising at least one of:

an athletic class, a college class, a school class, a graduate class, an engagement class, a wedding class, a parent class, a new homeowner class, a career class, a hobby class, or a pet owner class.

8. The method of claim 1 , comprising:

utilizing an image classifier to identify the object within the image, the image classifier comprising a non-linear classifier utilizing a convolutional neural network configured to transform image elements.

9. The method of claim 8 , comprising:

configuring the image classifier to transform image elements through a series of layers, wherein each layer extracts features from an output of a previous layer.

10. The method of claim 9 , the series of layers comprising:

at least one of a pooling layer, a rectified linear unit layer, a convolutional layer, or fully connected layer.

11. The method of claim 1 , comprising:

utilizing an image classifier to identify the object within the image;

receiving feedback associated with at least one of the predicted class or the object from the user; and

training the image classifier based upon the feedback.

12. The method of claim 1 , comprising:

receiving feedback associated with at least one of the predicted class or the object from the user; and

responsive to the feedback indicating an improper identification for at least one of the predicted class or an image feature, prompting the user to provide a proper identification of at least one of the predicted class or the image feature.

13. The method of claim 1 , comprising:

aggregating pixel attributes of the image into patch-level features;

evaluating the patch-level features to determine aggregated patch-level features;

evaluating the aggregated patch-level features to identify one or more image features for the image; and

evaluating the one or more image features to identify the object.

14. The method of claim 1 , comprising:

obtaining the image from an online forum community.

15. The method of claim 1 , comprising:

obtaining the image from an image sharing community.

16. A system for providing content to a user, comprising:

a processor; and

memory comprising instructions that, when executed by the processor, perform operations comprising:

identifying a predicted class based upon an object within an image associated with a user;

evaluating locational information for the image to determine an image location:

evaluating locational information for one or more additional images associated with the user utilizing a leader-follower algorithm to determine a location of the user based upon a locational grouping of the one or more additional images over a set timespan;

responsive to the image location corresponding to the location of the user, determining that the predicted class is a class associated with the user;

selecting content from a content repository based upon the class; and

providing the content to the user.

17. The system of claim 16 , the operations comprising:

aggregating pixel attributes of the image into patch-level features;

evaluating the patch-level features to determine aggregated patch-level features;

evaluating the aggregated patch-level features to identify one or more image features for the image; and

evaluating the one or more image features to identify the object within the image.

18. The system of claim 16 , the operations comprising:

determining a confidence score for the predicted class, the determining that the predicted class is the class based upon the confidence score exceeding a confidence threshold.

19. The system of claim 16 , the operations comprising:

training an untrained image classifier component using a training image database to create an image classifier component configured to classify the image.

20. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions that when executed by a processor perform a method for providing content to a user, comprising:

evaluating an image repository associated with a user to identify a set of images comprising locational information;

grouping one or more images of the set of images into a first cluster based upon the one or more images corresponding to a first location;

determining a total number of images in the first cluster;

determining a timespan for the images in the first cluster;

responsive to the total number of images in the first cluster exceeding an image count threshold and the timespan for the images in the first cluster exceeding a timespan threshold, determining that the first location corresponds to a location of the user; and

providing content to the user based upon the location.

Assignments (3)
CHANGE OF NAME Recorded Mar 22, 2022
From: VERIZON MEDIA INC.
To: YAHOO AD TECH LLC
Reel/Frame 059472/0163 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Oct 26, 2020
From: OATH INC.
To: VERIZON MEDIA INC.
Reel/Frame 054258/0635 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Feb 2, 2018
From: YAHOO HOLDINGS, INC.
To: OATH INC.
Reel/Frame 045240/0310 →
Cited By (3)
US 12,618,976 US 12,623,691 US 12,709,294