Microsoft Seeks Patent For "Search By Sketch"

theodp writes "So, how does one search for images that aren't tagged with keywords? Google does offer its sometimes-spotty search by image, but what if you don't have an image handy that looks like what you're searching for? Microsoft, reports GeekWire, offers a solution that's 'a little like playing Pictionary with a search engine — drawing a sketch and seeing if the algorithm can return pictures that match it.' That's the concept behind Microsoft Research's patent-pending 'MindFinder' project, which has already been incorporated into a Windows Phone app called Sketch Match. A patent application made public Thursday notes that touch computing makes sketching easier than ever, making one wonder if we'll be 'giving Bing the finger' with Windows 8!"

Comments

Already Done

[Anonymous Coward]

Already done here for LaTex symbols: http://detexify.kirelabs.org/classify.html

Please please please don't approve the patent. I haven't read it, but according to the summary there's nothing new about it.

Re:Interesting concept, but...

[zill]

Sounds like you're talking about Google Goggles.

Rtriever

[cyrano.mac]

Rtriever has been doing exactly the same thing since 2006. http://labs.systemone.at/retrievr/

Patent will be invalid - It's been done before

[Etylowy]

Patent is invalid if there is prior art. Well, imgSeek has had that function since at least 2008 (can't find changelog for desktop version - it might have been there already in 2006).