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Visual Search

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What is Visual Search

Visual search techniques provide information about the contents of an image. Using things from our environment, like newspapers, magazines, documents and posters, we can retrieve online, digital information.  It's like having a magic lens in your pocket which connects you to the online world. For instance, in a visual search application, one can point a cell phone at an article in the newspaper and retrieve a multimedia clip associated with the article.  In the illustration below (step 1) the cell phone points at an article about the band "Rainer Maria."  The result (step 2) of recognizing the text image is the retrieval of a music video made by the band.

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At Ricoh Innovations we are developing visual search technology for paper documents. Our mobile visual search algorithms create "clickable paper" -- documents that have the interactivity of web pages and can be used anywhere a camera phone can connect to the Internet.  Our full-page visual search techniques instantaneously find documents that match what's scanned on a copier.

What is iCandy

iCandy is a client application that connects you with digital information.  Point at a newspaper, magazine or document (step 1 above) and view digital information about the thing you are pointing at (step 2). Or, point at a QR code (step 3) and view the digital content associated with it (step 4).  iCandy supports both visual search using images and text and barcode recognition.  In both cases, iCandy connects users to digital information related to the object being scanned.

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Publish or share your online content with your social networks using the "Share" button in iCandy.  iCandy provides three ways to share what you are scanning: Facebook, Twitter and email.

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Information

The team at RII's California Research Center has created some very unique technology that is available today and in the near future.  We have an iPhone client available today on the iTunes App Store and a server architecture that lets you build your own visual search system.  The API for the server is currently under development but we will be releasing it to the public in the coming months.  Below you will find a collection of technical papers and videos which further describe our Visual Search environment. Please contact us if you have any questions or comments at:

visualsearch@ricohinnovations.com

 Relevant Papers

 Videos

Visual Search Overview

DMV Driver Handbook example

 

HotPaper - The Tour Guide example

 HotPaper - Linking Paper and Digital Worlds

 

iCandy iPhone App: Scanning QR Codes

 

iCandy: small child scanning music barcodes