IP Library Granted Patent US 12,639,376
Granted Patent B2
US 12,639,376 · App. 18/736,210 · Granted May 26, 2026

Intelligently identifying and presenting digital documents

Inventor: Neeraj Kumar (San Francisco, CA)
Assignee: Dropbox, Inc.
G06F16/93G06F16/434G06V30/413
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,639,376
App. No.
18/736,210
Granted
May 26, 2026
Kind
B2
Abstract

One or more embodiments of a document organization system quickly and conveniently provide digital documents to a user on a client device based on a physical object. In particular, the document organization system can receive an image of a physical document and an identifier from a first client device, identify digital documents that match the physical document, and provide the matching digital documents to a second client device, which displays the identifier. In another embodiment, the document organization system allows a user to bind digital documents to a physical object and later recall the digital documents using the physical object. In addition, the document organization system can store and recall the layout arrangement of digital documents on a client device when binding and recalling the digital documents to the physical object.

Claims (63)

1 . A computer-implemented method comprising:

determining characteristics associated with digital documents by generating document image feature vectors based on analyzing images of the digital documents;

receiving a digital image of a physical object from a client device;

analyzing the digital image of the physical object to identify features of the digital image of the physical object by generating feature vectors for the digital image of the physical object, the features of the digital image comprising non-print characteristics corresponding to the physical object depicted in the digital image;

generating a search query comprising the features of the digital image of the physical object;

identifying, in response to the search query, digital documents by comparing the features of the digital image of the physical object to the characteristics associated with the digital documents by comparing the feature vectors for the digital image of the physical object and the document image feature vectors; and

providing one or more of the digital documents to the client device.

2 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:

creating images of the digital documents; and

analyzing the images of the digital documents to determine the characteristics associated with the digital documents.

3 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the digital documents are associated with a user account of a content management system, the user account being associated with the client device.

4 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining the characteristics associated with the digital documents by generating document image feature vectors based on analyzing images of the digital documents; and wherein:

analyzing the digital image of the physical object to identify the features of the digital image of the physical object comprises generating feature vectors for the digital image of the physical object; and

comparing the features of the digital image of the physical object to the characteristics associated with the digital documents comprises comparing the feature vectors for the digital image of the physical object and the document image feature vectors.

5 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the digital image of the physical object is an image of a non-document object.

6 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:

identifying a specific page of a digital document based on comparing the features of the digital image of the physical object to the characteristics associated with the digital documents; and

wherein providing the one or more of the digital documents to the client device comprises providing, for display on the client device, the specific page of the digital document.

7 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising determining that the digital documents are related to the physical object based on comparing the features of the digital image of the physical object to characteristics associated with the digital documents.

8 . A system comprising:

at least one processor; and

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to:

determine characteristics associated with digital documents by generating document image feature vectors based on analyzing images of the digital documents;

receive, from a client device, a digital image of a physical object;

analyze the digital image of the physical object to identify features of the digital image of the physical object by generating feature vectors for the digital image of the physical object, the features of the digital image comprising non-print characteristics corresponding to the physical object depicted in the digital image;

create a search query comprising the features of the digital image of the physical object;

process the search query by comparing the features of the digital image of the physical object to the characteristics associated with digital documents by comparing the feature vectors for the digital image of the physical object and the document image feature vectors; and

provide, to the client device, a digital document from the digital documents based on determining the digital document is related to the digital image of the physical object.

9 . The system of claim 8 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to:

create images of the digital documents, wherein the images of the digital documents comprise a page image for each page of each digital document of the digital documents; and

analyze the images of the digital documents to determine the characteristics associated with the digital documents.

10 . The system of claim 8 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to identify the digital documents on which to process the search query based on identifying that the digital documents are associated with a user account of a content management system corresponding to the client device.

11 . The system of claim 8 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to:

determine the characteristics associated with the digital documents by generating document image feature vectors based on analyzing images of the digital documents; and wherein:

analyzing the digital image of the physical object to identify the features of the digital image of the physical object comprises generating feature vectors for the digital image of the physical object; and

comparing the features of the digital image of the physical object to the characteristics associated with the digital documents comprises comparing the feature vectors for the digital image of the physical object and the document image feature vectors.

12 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the digital image of the physical object is an image of a non-document object.

13 . The system of claim 8 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to:

identify a specific page of the digital document based on comparing the features of the digital image of the physical object to the characteristics associated with the digital documents; and

wherein providing the digital document to the client device comprises providing, for display on the client device, the specific page of the digital document.

14 . The system of claim 8 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to:

generate, prior to receiving the digital image of the physical object from the client device, the characteristics of the digital documents; and

store the characteristics of the digital documents in association with the digital documents.

15 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions thereon that, when executed by at least one processor, cause a computing system to:

determine characteristics associated with digital documents by generating document image feature vectors based on analyzing images of the digital documents;

receive, from a client device, a digital image of a physical object;

analyze the digital image of the physical object to identify and generate feature vectors for the digital image of the physical object, the feature vectors of the digital image comprising non-print characteristics corresponding to the physical object depicted in the digital image;

create a search query comprising the feature vectors of the digital image of the physical object;

process the search query by comparing the feature vectors of the digital image of the physical object to digital document feature vectors corresponding to digital documents by comparing the feature vectors for the digital image of the physical object and the document image feature vectors;

identify, based on the search query, a digital document from the digital documents based on determining the digital document is related to the digital image of the physical object; and

provide the digital document to the client device.

16 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing system to:

create images of the digital documents; and

analyze the images of the digital documents to determine the digital document feature vectors corresponding to the digital documents.

17 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing system to identify the digital documents on which to process the search query based on identifying that the digital documents are associated with a user account of a content management system corresponding to the client device.

18 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the digital image of the physical object is one of an image of a document object or a non-document object.

19 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing system to:

identify a specific page of the digital document based on comparing the feature vectors of the digital image of the physical object to the digital document feature vectors; and

wherein providing the digital document to the client device comprises providing, for display on the client device, the specific page of the digital document.

20 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing system to:

generate, prior to receiving the digital image of the physical object from the client device, the digital document feature vectors; and

store the digital document feature vectors in association with the digital documents.

Assignments (2)
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Dec 12, 2024
From: DROPBOX, INC.
To: WILMINGTON TRUST, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 069604/0611 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jun 7, 2024
From: KUMAR, NEERAJ
To: DROPBOX, INC.
Reel/Frame 067651/0749 →
Continuity (4)
Continuation 17205359 · Mar 18, 2021
Continuation 16144448 · Sep 27, 2018
Division 15086912 · Mar 31, 2016
Related Publication 20240320277A1 · Sep 26, 2024
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