Apple has been granted a patent for “Contextualized Visual Search.” It involves the company’s Visual Look Up, an iPhone/Mac feature that identifies objects in photos and videos—such as plants, pets, landmarks, and art—using the Photos app, Safari, or Quick Look.
About the patent
The patent generally relates to electronic devices that use sensors to scan physical environments to generate three-dimensional (3D) models such as 3D representations. In the patent Apple notes that existing scanning systems and techniques may be improved with respect to assessing and using sensor data obtained during scanning processes to generate 3D representations of objects based on positioning and sensor data obtained from a device.
The company says it may be desirable for the representations of objects to be distinguished in order to improve searches for particular objects during a viewing experience of the 3D representations. The newly granted patent is designed to do just that.
Summary of the patent
Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent: “Various implementations disclosed herein include devices, systems, and methods that provide a view of a physical environment with a visual effect based on determining whether an object is a searched-for object. For example, an example process may include determining an objective corresponding to identifying a searched-for object in a physical environment including one or more objects. The process may further include obtaining depth-based data based on sensor data captured by one or more sensors in the physical environment.
“The process may further include determining, based on the determined objective and the depth-based data, whether a first object in the physical environment is the searched-for object. The process may further include, in accordance with determining whether the first object is the searched-for object, providing a view of the physical environment with a visual effect.”
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