JP2020126678A - Matching user-provided representations of items with sellers of items - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide systems and methods for matching user-provided images that include representations of items with sellers of the items.SOLUTION: A management service disclosed herein is configured to: provide a website that allows users to post images, view images, share images, correspond with other users, etc.; identify items represented in the images; and determine one or more sellers that offer those items for sale. When another user requests to view a user-provided image, the user is presented with the image, seller information for identifying sellers determined to be sellers of an item represented in the image, and/or a purchase control that may be selected by the user to initiate a purchase from one of the sellers.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 4

Description

This application is a continuation application of US patent application Ser. No. 14/726,929, entitled “Matching User Provided Representations Of Items With Sellers Items,” filed June 1, 2015, December 12, 2015. No. 14/964,307, entitled “Item Selling On Multiple Websites,” filed on May 9, and claims “Matching User Provided Representations Of May 12, 2015”. It claims the benefit of US Provisional Application No. 62/160,456, entitled "Items With Sellers Of Those Items," which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

People are increasingly interacting with computers and other electronic devices in new and interesting ways. Electronic devices have become popular and used in many everyday activities as processing power, connectivity and location tracking have increased. For example, to name a few, people search for products, watch videos, listen to music, research, buy both digital and physical products (“electronic commerce”) and receive news. Electronic devices are often used. Other uses include social communities, communication with friends and family, photography and much more.

Sellers in the e-commerce market typically build websites that contain product information about the products they sell and users visit the websites to browse various web pages within the websites. obtain. Users may typically obtain product details, product reviews posted by other users, and/or purchase merchandise from the seller of the product. When purchasing a product, the seller packs the product and delivers the product to a delivery destination designated by the user.

The detailed description is described with reference to the accompanying figures. In the drawings, the left-most digit(s) of a reference number identifies the drawing in which the reference number first appears. The use of the same reference numbers in different drawings indicates similar or identical items.

FIG. 1 is a diagram of an exemplary environment including a server system and client devices communicatively coupled via a network. FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an implementation example in which a product for sale by a seller is posted on a plurality of websites according to one implementation. FIG. 9 is a block diagram of an implementation example in which a seller of a product is matched with a display of a product provided by a user according to one implementation. FIG. 9 is a block diagram of an implementation example in which a seller of a product is matched with a display of a product provided by a user according to one implementation. FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an embodiment that assists a user in purchasing display products, according to one implementation. FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an embodiment that assists a user in purchasing display products, according to one implementation. FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a purchasing process according to one implementation. FIG. 6 is another block diagram of a purchasing process, according to one implementation. 3 is a display of a segmented image according to one implementation. 7 is a display of a segmented image with purchase controls associated with a display item that is available for purchase from one or more sellers, according to one implementation. 3 is a display of products and product variants available to a product seller, according to one implementation. This is a display for confirming purchase of a product by one implementation. 6 illustrates an example process for matching a seller with a display of a product offered by a user, according to one implementation. 6 illustrates an example process for processing a user-provided image to match the product displayed in the image with the seller of the product, according to one implementation. 6 illustrates an example of a purchase request process, according to one implementation. 6 illustrates an example of a purchase fulfillment process, according to one implementation. FIG. 6 is a diagram of an example implementation of a server system that may be used in various implementations.

Although implementations are described herein by way of example, those skilled in the art will recognize that implementations are not limited to the examples or drawings described. The drawings and their detailed description are not intended to limit the implementation to the particular forms disclosed, conversely, for all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope defined by the appended claims. It should be understood that the intent is to include. The headings used herein are used only for the purpose of forming the specification, and are not intended to limit the scope of the specification or the claims. The word "may" as used throughout this application is said to have an admissible meaning (i.e., "may") rather than an obligatory meaning (i.e., "should"). Meaning). Similarly, the words "include", "including", and "includes" mean "including," but not limited to.

The present disclosure is directed to systems and methods that allow sellers to sell products directly and, as a merchant, sell these products through a management service without having to maintain separate inventory and/or purchase processing information at the management service. Will be explained.

Currently, a number of e-commerce merchants advertise and sell products through their websites or applications, which are either hosted by the merchants or the e-commerce "shopping cart" platform. (For example, MAGENTO, SHOPIFY, BIGCOMMERCE). In order to allow the user to purchase the goods, the seller owns a shopping cart and the payment processor (eg AUTHORIZE.NET, PAYPAL, which actually handles the payment of the goods so that the user can fund the seller). STRIPE, BALANCED).

With the rapid growth of e-commerce, sellers often find it necessary to increase awareness from potential customers, for example by participating as a merchant on third-party websites or applications maintained by Managed Services. , Sell products for sale through management services. Merchants typically need to pay management services any share of each sale or fees and/or ongoing costs to own the right to sell the products for sale through management services. Similarly, the trader must hold a trader account of the management service, and the management service manually updates the inventory quantity of the product, posts the product for sale, adjusts the price, manages delivery, and receives orders. While such an independent vendor account provides an opportunity to learn about management services, the seller requires more effort and, to name a few, issues with inventory management and order fulfillment.

For example, if there are 5 units of the product A that the seller wants to sell, the seller may allocate individual stock numbers to different sales channels (for example, 3 units may be directly sold by the seller himself, 2 units may be a management service). You have to either update the quantity in stock each time the item is ordered. For example, if a seller posts 5 units in stock on their website and posts 5 units in inventory through the Administration Service, the seller will access the merchant account each time the unit is sold directly through the seller. Will need to update the inventory quantity through the management service. Similarly, each time a unit is sold through the management service, the seller will have to visit their website and update the inventory quantity.

Similarly, since the management service and the seller are independent, the host requests that order management, payment and order management be performed directly by the management service. This may require the merchant to work with the first payment authorization entity for the seller and with the second payment authorization entity for the merchant account in the administration service. These double efforts can cause additional work for the seller and can result in an unpleasant customer experience when the user places an order, with no units in the seller's hand.

As described further below, in the described implementation, the seller acts as a merchant through the management service without maintaining individual inventory, manually updating information to the management service, and/or managing orders from the management service. You can sell merchandise directly. Each transaction made in the management service is sent to the seller for processing and completion as if the user were buying the goods directly from the seller.

For example, the seller may create a merchant account with the management service so that the information exchange between the management service and the seller is authorized. The seller sends a product catalog to the management service, which identifies the products that the seller sells and the users can buy from the seller. The product catalog is, for each product, a source location identifier such as a product, a uniform resource locator (“URL”) of a web page where the product can be viewed and/or purchased by a seller, a product image, a product Information, image information, etc. can be specified.

The management service may be a service that allows users to post images, view images, share images, interact with other users, purchase products, and so on. The management service may use the information from the product catalog provided by the seller to determine if any of the images accessible by the user of the management service include a display of the seller's products for sale. For example, in some examples, a user of a management service may post to the management service an image obtained from another web page, such as a web page of a seller's website. In such an example, the posted image may include image information, also referred to as alias metadata, which may include the URL from which the image was obtained. When the URL of the user-provided image matches the URL included in the product catalog, the image provided by the user to the management service includes a display of products that can be sold by the seller, and the user-provided image is the product and/or the sale of the product. It may be determined to be associated with the person.

In another example, if the user-provided image does not include a URL, or if the URL included in the image information does not match the URL from the product catalog, the image is processed using one or more image processing algorithms and the image is processed. The merchandise displayed within may be detected. The processed image may then be compared to images and/or image information contained in a product catalog provided by the seller to determine if the seller's product for sale is displayed in the image. When it is determined that the sale item for sale by the seller is displayed in the image provided by the user, the image provided by the user is associated with the item and/or the seller of the item for sale.

When the user or another user of the management service requests viewing of a user-provided image that is determined to be included in the seller's display of the sale item, a purchase control is presented on the user-provided image. Additionally, seller information identifying the seller and/or the product may be similarly presented in the presentation of the user-provided image. The user can browse the image and select purchase controls, obtain variant information about the item displayed in the image and/or purchase the item displayed in the image from the seller. The item "variant information", as used herein, is additional information about a product and/or a sale of the product. For example, the product variant information may include the quantity of the product that the seller can sell, the price of the product, the size of the product, the color of the product, the shipping fee for shipping the product, the shipping time, and/or other information.

When the user requests to purchase the product displayed in the user-provided image from the seller who is determined to sell the displayed product, the management service assists the purchase between the user and the seller. To do. For example, the management service may send a merchandise reservation request to the seller to reserve one or more units of merchandise for purchase by a user viewing the merchandise. If the user chooses to purchase the merchandise, the purchase information is provided to the seller from the management service without requiring the merchant to maintain payment authorization services in the merchant account. In some implementations, the encrypted credit card information may be sent to the seller as part of the merchandise information. In other implementations, the credit card associated with the user may be displayed as a unique token managed by the custodial service. The custody service is a secure form of credit card information. The custody provider replaces the token with a credit card and provides the purchase information to the seller for authentication. When the seller authenticates the purchase, the seller sends an authentication confirmation to the management service, and the management service notifies the user that the purchase of the product from the seller has been completed.

By providing the purchase information to the seller and allowing the seller to work with their payment processor for authorization of purchase, the seller need only maintain a single relationship with the payment processor, You can manage all your inventory in one place, without having to update different vendor accounts separately.

In another example, in response to a purchase request, the management service may provide a product identifier, product information (eg, selected variant), user identifier, etc. In some implementations, the management service may also assist the user in paying for the item, eg, through a third-party payment processor. Alternatively, payment information may be provided to the seller for payment processing of the goods. Finally, the purchase of the item is complete and the seller can deliver the item to the user.

A "goods" can be anything that can be displayed and sold. For example, the goods can be physical goods (clothes, hardware, paintings, etc.), digital goods (eg voice, video, images), services (eg landscaping, banking, home painting).

FIG. 1 illustrates a user 101, such as users 101(1), 101(2)-101(N), communicably connected via a network 108, one or more server computers 100(1), 100(2). )-100(N), one or more client devices 104, such as client devices 104(1), 104(2), 104(3)-104(N), seller A 106(1), FIG. 1 is a diagram of an example environment that includes one or more sellers 106, such as seller B 106(2) through seller C 106(N). As will be appreciated, any number and/or type of server system 100, client device 104 and/or merchant 106 may be included in the environment, and the example illustrated in FIG. 1 is merely exemplary. Similarly, any number of users 101 may be included in the environment. For purposes of discussion, the term "user" interacts with the management service 110 (discussed below) to post an image or otherwise provide an image, view an image, share an image, or otherwise. Used herein to refer to an individual interacting with a user, purchasing a product displayed in a browse image, and the like.

Network 108 may include a local area network, a wide area network such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN), a cable television network, a satellite network, a collection of networks, a public internet protocol network, a private internet protocol network, or a combination thereof. Further, the network 108 can be wired, wireless, or a combination of the two. The server system 100 may further include a mapping data store 111, an image data store 113, a product catalog data store 115 and/or a user profile data store 117. As described further below, a data store may include lists, arrays, databases and other data structures used to store and retrieve data. Similarly, although this disclosure describes multiple data stores, in some implementations the data stores may be configured as a single data store or multiple data stores.

The mapping data store 111, the image data store 113, the product catalog data store 115 and the user profile data store 117 may be integrated into the server system 100 or otherwise communicatively coupled to the server system 100. For example, one or more of the mapping data store 111, the image data store 113, the product catalog data store 115 and/or the user profile data store 117 are located in a remote computing resource (not shown) and can communicate with the server system 100. Can be connected to. In some implementations, the mapping data store 111, the image data store 113, the product catalog data store 115 and/or the user profile data store 117 are one or more CD-RW/DVD-RW drives, hard disk drives, tape drives or It may include other storage devices utilized to store digital content and information. The server system 100, individually or together with the mapping data store 111, the image data store 113, the product catalog data store 115 and/or the user profile data store 117, allows the user 101 to post images, view images, share images, It is possible to provide the management service 110 that supports interaction with other users and browsing of product variant information of products displayed in images. Similarly, the management service 110 may assist the user in purchasing the item displayed in the image from the determined seller of the item.

Server system 100 may be further configured to exchange information with one or more sellers 106. Merchant 106 may include any type of entity and/or individual(s) that sells a product for sale. For example, seller 106 may include an e-commerce website that sells and delivers merchandise, service offerings, traditional retail or wholesale stores, and the like.

In some implementations, the seller 106 may interact with the administrative service 110 to provide and/or update a product catalog listing the seller's products for sale. The product catalog may include product information about each product that the seller sells. For example, product information may include product name, product price, URL of a seller's web page where the product can be viewed and/or purchased from the seller, the geographical location of the seller, and/or user-supplied images for promoting the product. May include advertising expenses the seller is willing to pay for associating with the item. For example, a merchant may sell thousands of items through its e-commerce website, each of which may be associated with one or more web pages of the seller's website or may include one or more items. It may be displayed on a web page. The seller 106 may provide the management service 110 with a product catalog listing one product, some products, or all products that the seller sells. As described further below, the management service 110 stores the product catalog provided by the seller in the product catalog data store 115, and any of the user-provided images held in the image data store 113 is provided by the seller. It may be determined whether or not to include a display of the products listed in the product catalog. The images held in the image data store 113 include a display of the products that the seller identifies in the product catalog, and these images are associated with the products and/or the seller. The association is held in the mapping data store 111.

Advertising costs may refer to the amount the seller is willing to pay, such as for promoting a product, associating the product with a user-provided image that includes a display of the product, and so on. In some implementations, advertising costs may be based on the number of views or impressions a product receives from users of the managed services. In another implementation, the advertising cost may be for a defined period of time, etc. Implementations may utilize advertising costs as a factor in determining which seller(s) to associate with a user-provided image that includes a display of the product if two or more sellers sell the same or similar products.

The seller 106 may further identify excess items for sale by the seller to remove the item from the item catalog, provide updated variant information for the item identified in the item catalog, and/or The offered product catalog may be updated on a regular basis by changing the advertising cost of the product. These updates are reflected in the product catalog data store 115 and may be used by the management service 110 when presenting images to the user.

Returning to FIG. 1, the client device 104 is a wireless device such as a personal computer, a tablet computer, an electronic book reader device, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a netbook, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a portable game machine, a smartphone or a mobile phone. It may include a communication device, set top box, game console, camera, audio recorder/player, or any combination thereof. The server system 100 is configured to exchange data and information with the client device 104, including users, images, sellers, products, product variants, and other similar information, as described with respect to the implementations provided herein. .. For example, the management service 110 interacts via the server system 100 to present an image to the user 101, presents product variant information to the user 101, purchases a product between the user and a seller of the product. May be supported.

Similarly, the user 101 interacts with the management service 110 via the client device 104 to provide images, view images, share images, interact with other users, and start purchasing products from sellers of the products. And so on. As described herein, the user providing the image that includes the display of the item may be a different person or entity than the seller of the item displayed in the image.

The mapping data store 111 stores information about the association between the product displayed in the user-provided image and the product sold by the seller. For example, the product may be displayed in the user-provided image and determined to be available for sale (listed in the product catalog) by three different sellers. In this example, the mapping data store 111 holds the association between the user-supplied image stored in the image data store 113 and the matching product published in the product catalog provided by each seller.

The user profile data store 117 stores information about the user 101 of the management service 110. Information of any kind can be stored in the user profile data store 117. For example, user profile information such as attributes, name, address, gender, browsing history, purchase history, billing information, delivery information, purchase information, social networks and/or friends with whom the user 101 interacts is stored in the user profile data store 117. Can be remembered. The user profile information is used between the user and the seller when posting, viewing and/or sharing images when interacting with the management service 110 (eg, clickstream data when the user searches for the management service 110). May be provided directly from and/or collected from user 101 of client device 104, such as when assisting in the purchase of In some implementations, users of the management service 110 limit the amount of information contained in their user profile, limit access to their user profile information, and/or share from their user profile information. You may choose to limit the information (if any). The user profile information maintained in the user profile data store 117 may be used by the management service 110 to assist users in purchasing products from sellers.

In addition to holding information about mappings, product catalogs, images and users, the management service 110 may send usage information back to the user 101 and/or the seller 106. For example, management service 110 may return usage and/or purchase information (eg, purchase history) to user 101 through communication between server system 100 and client device 104. Such information may include identification of images that were recently viewed, provided or shared, identification of others who viewed the image posted by the user, purchase of merchandise by the user, and the like. Similarly, management service 110 may provide information to seller 106 through communication between server system 100 and seller 106. Such information may include an analysis of the product sold by the seller, such as the number of user-supplied images including the display of each product, the purchase history of the product, and the like.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an implementation example of posting a sale item for sale by a seller through a plurality of routes according to one implementation. The implementation example starts when the seller 206 creates a sale product for the seller, and the user can directly purchase a sellable product from the seller. For example, a merchant may create his own e-commerce website, or a website hosted by e-commerce platform providers such as SHOPIFY, MAGENTO, BIGCOMMERCE, VOLUSION, BIGCARTEL, 3DCART, etc. To enable the purchase of merchandise, the seller processes and authenticates purchase requests from users. Associated with payment processors such as NET, STRIPE, PAYPAL, BALANCED.

In addition to establishing direct sales for the seller, the seller 206 creates an account at the management service 210, referred to herein as a merchant account. The merchant account allows the management service 210 and the seller 206 to share information. In one example, the seller 206 creates a merchant account and presents a dialog requesting the management service 210 to authorize information sharing with the seller. Upon receipt of the authorization, the management service 210 sends a token to the seller via the network 208 so that the seller and the management service 210 can establish a communication link and exchange information on the network 208 for sale by the seller. Request information. The token may be used by merchant 206 to identify the information sent by management service 210 as associated with merchant 206. In response, the seller sends the seller information to the management service 210, which uses the seller information to identify the information received from the seller as being associated with the seller 206. Then, the seller 206 authenticates that the product is sold through the management service. For example, the seller information required to authenticate the seller 206 may include, but is not limited to, transaction history information, payment refusal rates, seller product sales periods, seller contact information, and the like.

Once the seller 206 is approved by the management service 210, a link is established between the seller and the management service, which allows the seller to send information to the management service 210, which then sells it. Information can be sent to a person. Additionally, a product catalog is created by the seller 206. The product catalog specifies each product that the seller 206 wants to sell through the host site held by the management service 210. A product catalog is a source location for each product, such as a uniform resource locator (“URL”) of a web page of the seller's website, where the product, the browsing of the product and/or the purchase of the product from the seller can be made. An identifier, a product image, product information, image information, a sellable quantity, a price, delivery information, a product description, product category information, a product size, a product shape, a product color, and the like can be specified.

As described below, the product catalog and/or portions thereof may be updated regularly by the seller so that the management service has current information about the products that the seller sells through the management service. For example, if a unit of a product is sold directly by a seller, the product catalog may be updated automatically, which will make the unit available for sale through the management service accurate. This can be done without vendor intervention.

Referring now to FIG. 3, the seller 306 provides the product catalog to the management service 310. The product catalog is sent to the management service 310 over the network 308, and the management service 310 stores the product catalog in the product catalog data store 315. When the management service 310 receives the product catalog from the seller 306, the management service 310 processes a user-provided image stored in the image data store 313, which is called a stored image, and one of the stored images is a product catalog for sale by the seller. It is determined whether or not the display of the product specified in is included.

The processing of the stored image can be done in stages. For example, in the initial processing, the source location identifier such as the URL of the product published in the product catalog is compared with the source location identifier included in the image information of the stored image, and whether any of the source location identifiers are the same or similar. May include determining. For example, when the source location identifier is a URL, if the two URLs of the source location identifier of the existing image and the source location identifier listed in the product catalog are the same, they can be determined to be the same. Similarly, if the two URLs of the stored image source location identifier and the source location identifier listed in the product catalog have the same domain address (from the same website or domain), they are determined to be similar. obtain.

If the source location identifiers are the same, then the stored image may be determined to include an indication of the seller's items for sale. When the stored image includes a source location identifier similar to the source location identifier included in the product catalog, the stored image is further processed using one or more image processing algorithms and the stored image is included in the product catalog. Can be determined to be similar to the image or image information corresponding to the similar source location identifier. For example, a hash value may be determined for the stored image and compared with the hash value contained in the product catalog. Alternatively, one or more image processing algorithms such as edge detection algorithms, object detection algorithms, etc. may be utilized to determine the features of the stored image that may be represented as a feature vector. The images provided in the merchandise catalog may similarly be processed to generate feature vectors (or the feature vectors may be provided in the merchandise catalog). The feature vector of the stored image may then be compared to the feature vector of the product(s) identified in the product catalog as having a similar source location identifier, and if the feature vector is similar, the stored image is sold. It may be determined that the display of the product sold by the person is included. In some implementations, additional image processing may be performed on images having the same source location identifier as well.

The source location identifier can be either a physical or virtual location and is associated with the product and/or any other identifier that can be used to identify the product. For example, as mentioned above, the source location identifier can be the URL of a web page where information about the item can be obtained. In another implementation, the source location identifier may include physical coordinates of one or more physical locations where the item may be viewed and/or purchased (eg, the physical store of the seller). In such implementations, the user-provided image may include location information such as Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates, which is compared to the coordinates contained in the product catalog. In yet another implementation, the source location identifier may include a universal merchandise code (UPC) associated with the merchandise, a bar code, a bocode, or the like.

In some implementations, as part of the initial processing, stored images that do not match the products in the product catalog may be further processed. For example, the feature vector of the processed stored image may be used to determine if a product is displayed in the image, and if so, the category of the product may be determined. For example, the management service may maintain a list of product categories and corresponding feature vectors, where the corresponding feature vectors are typical of the products associated with the product category. A product category can be a classification or categorization of any type of product. For example, merchandise categories may include shoes, shirts, bags, sports equipment, clothes, hats, cars and the like. For each product category, the feature vector, color, shape and/or other feature of the product associated with that category is retained and may be used to compare with the feature vector and/or other information in the stored image. .. A stored image may be associated with a product category if there is a similarity between the feature vector and/or other information associated with the product category and the feature vector and/or other information of the stored image.

Similarly, a product identified in the product catalog as a product for sale by the seller and/or the seller may be further associated with a product category. Associating a product with a category that the seller has identified as being associated with the category may be done in a manner similar to that described above with respect to associating the stored image with the category. Alternatively or additionally, the seller may identify the category of the product, for example by identifying the product category of each product listed in the product catalog.

The stored image may include a display of the products listed in the provided product catalog based on the category determined for the stored image, the category associated with the seller 306 and/or the seller's product for sale. Determine if there is. For example, if the determined product category for the stored image matches a product category associated with the seller and/or the product catalog provided by the seller, the stored image may include an indication of the seller's sold product. Can be determined to be sexual. If the stored image includes a display of a product that may be listed in the product catalog, additional processing may be performed to determine the product displayed in the image. The additional processing may include additional analysis of the stored image and/or comparison of feature vectors and/or other image information between the stored image and products of a product category associated with the same product category. In another example, a person may manually review the stored image and compare it to a product in a product catalog that has the same product category, and the product displayed in the image is listed in the product catalog. You may decide whether or not it matches the existing product. The person can be an employee of the management service 310, an independent evaluator, a user (or user group) of the management service 310, a representative or employee of the seller 306, etc.

When it is determined that the display of the product listed in the product catalog provided by the seller 306 is included in the stored image, the management service establishes the association between the product posted in the product catalog and the stored image. Then, the association is stored in the mapping data store 311. Similarly, the management service may establish an association between the stored image and the seller 306 and maintain that association in the mapping data store 311. As described further below, when the user requests to view the stored image, the management service 310 determines an association between the stored image and the seller's sold product, and provides the seller information and/or purchase control to the product image. Present to the presentation.

Attention is now directed to FIG. 4, where the user 401 may further provide an image that may match the seller's items for sale. In this example, user 401 uses client device 404 to provide images to management service 410 via network 408. When the management service receives the image, it stores the image in the image data store 413, processes the provided image, compares the processed image with the product identified in the product catalog data store 415, and the user-provided image is It is determined whether the display of the product sold by the seller is included. Processing of the user-provided image may occur in a stepwise fashion similar to that described above with respect to FIG. For example, the source location identifier of the user-provided image may be compared with the source location identifier held in the product catalog data store 415, and the feature vector of the product identified by processing the user-provided image in the product catalog data store 415. May be generated, image information associated with the user-provided image may be compared with image information from the product catalog data store 415, and so on.

If it is determined that the user-provided image includes a display of the product posted in the product catalog data store 415, the user-provided image is associated with the product and/or the seller who sells the product, and the association is the mapping data store 411. Memorized in.

5-6 are block diagrams of examples of supporting user purchase of display products by one implementation. Turning first to FIG. 5, the example implementation begins with a user 501 requesting to view an image through a client device 504, which is provided to the management service 510 by the user (user 501 or any other user). However, it is stored in the image data store 513. The request is sent from the client device 504 to the management service 510 via the network 508. Upon receiving the user's request, the management service 510 queries the mapping data store 511 and determines whether or not there is any association between the requested image and the seller's sale item. If there is an association between the image requested by the user and the seller's item for sale identified in the item catalog data store 515, the management service 510 provides the requested image and the purchase control presented to the user. .. As described further below, the purchase control is user selectable to initiate additional product purchases to obtain additional details about the product displayed in the requested image and/or from the seller selling the product. It is for. In some implementations, management service 510 may further provide seller information that identifies the seller of the item displayed in the image.

In addition to providing images and purchase controls for presentation to the user 501, the management service 510 may also send to the seller 506 a request for a product variant that is displayed in the image and is available for purchase by the seller 506. .. The seller 506 may provide the current product variant to the product displayed in the image and available for purchase from the seller 506 in response to receiving the request for the product variant. In another implementation, instead of the management service 510 sending a request to the seller 506, or in addition to the management service 510 sending a request to the seller 506, the seller manages the product variant update information. The service 510 may be sent periodically. For example, the seller 506 may specify an update interval (eg, hourly, daily, weekly) and send product catalog and/or product variant updates to the management service, and the product catalog and/or product variant updates. Information is maintained and used by the management service 510. In some implementations, the seller 506 may be configured to send product variant updates to the management service 510 when the product variant changes (eg, price change, inventory quantity change). In such an implementation, rather than the management service 510 sending a request for product variant information to the seller 506, the management service 510 does not provide a product variant previously provided and stored for the product displayed in the requested image. Information is available.

Attention is now directed to FIG. 6 where a request is sent to the management service 610 when the user 601 selects or otherwise activates the purchase control provided in the image. For example, the requested image and corresponding purchase control may be sent by the management service 610 via the network 608 to the client device 604 and presented to the user 601 on the display of the client device 604. When the user selects purchase control, the client device 604 sends a request to the management service 610 via the network 608.

In response to receiving the request, the management service 610 sends to the client device 604 the product variant information displayed in the image and corresponding to the product associated with the selected purchase control. In some implementations, the product variant information may be sent along with another image(s) of the product, the seller, and/or additional details regarding the sale of the product. Additionally, the management service 610 sends a reservation request to the seller 606 via the network so that the seller 606 temporarily reserves the goods so that the user 601 has a quantity of products that can be sold. You can

When the seller selects to purchase the product, the purchase request is transmitted from the client device 604 to the management service 610, and the management service 610 notifies the management service 610 of the product between the product seller 606 and the user 601 as illustrated in FIG. Support purchase. In some implementations, the user 601 may complete the purchase of the item without being redirected to the seller 606. For example, management service 601 may obtain or own the information needed to complete the purchase and send that information to seller 606. For example, as part of a purchase, the user may specify product details (eg size, color), quantity, delivery details (eg delivery speed, destination), payment credentials (eg credit card number, bank account number) and Purchase information may be provided, such as/or other information. As described further below with respect to FIG. 7, the management service may provide purchase information to the seller, who may complete the purchase of the item for the user. In such implementations, all aspects of the purchase, including communicating with the payment processor for purchase authorization, updating inventory for sale, etc., may be performed by seller 606, or on behalf of seller 606. May be done in. If the purchase is authenticated, the purchase confirmation is returned from the seller 606 to the management service 610.

In another example, the administration service may assist the user to pay for the item (eg, via a third-party payment processor) on behalf of the seller and provide the seller with a payment confirmation. In addition to payment confirmation, the management service 610 may provide the seller with a user-selected product variant (eg, size, color, shipping options), a user-specified destination, and so on.

The seller 606 initiates delivery of the goods to the user upon completion of the purchase and/or upon receipt of the purchase confirmation. For example, if the item is a physical item, seller 606 may deliver the item to a user-specified delivery location. Similarly, when the product is a digital product, the product may be transmitted from the seller to the user 601 via the network 608, for example. The management service 610 may provide the user 601 with a confirmation message that the purchase of the product from the seller 606 has been completed.

As described, the implementation can determine the products that are displayed in the user-provided image and match these products with the seller who sells the products. Although the examples described herein refer to a single seller selling an item, in another implementation the item displayed in the user-provided image may be available for sale from multiple sellers. For example, if the item displayed in the image is sports shoes, the item may be available from multiple different sports shoe vendors. In such an implementation, the user-provided images of the item may be associated with each seller, and the management service maintains the mapping in the mapping data store. In some implementations, a single seller may be associated with the purchase control when the user-provided image and corresponding purchase control are sent to the requesting user. The single seller may be randomly selected, may be selected based on price, may be selected based on the user's past purchase history, the location of the user and seller, and/or other factors. Alternatively, the list of sellers may be provided to the user when the purchase control is activated.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a purchasing process according to one implementation. As described above, the management service 710 may support the purchase of goods between the user 701 and the seller 706. In the implementations described herein, a user of the management service may purchase merchandise from sellers other than the management service without ever leaving the management service website. At the same time, the seller can promote and sell his or her item through the management service, even if the image provided by the seller and/or the user of the management service independent of the management service is used.

When the user 701 selects a desired product variant and starts purchasing the product, the management service 710 receives the purchase request and the selected product variant. The management service may also maintain the user's purchase information (eg, credit card, billing information and delivery information) in the user profile data store, and/or the user may provide such information as part of the purchase request. Good.

In the example illustrated in FIG. 7, the management service 710 acquires all information necessary for the seller 706 to complete the purchase of the product. Purchase information may include a user name or identifier, an address, a billing address, product information, selected product variants, shipping information, prices, payment credentials, and the like. In some implementations, some of the purchase information may be held in the management service's data store. For example, when a user establishes a user account with the administrative service, the user's profile may include a user name or identifier, address, shipping information, billing address and/or payment credentials. In some implementations, payment credentials, such as credit cards, may be stored in payment credential repository 703, where the repository is AUTHORIZE. It may be held by a third party such as NET, STRIPE, BRAINTREE, etc. Once the user's payment credential is stored in the payment credential repository 703, a token may be associated with the payment credential provided to the management system and maintained in the user profile.

If the user has provided a new payment credential, the provided payment credential may be sent by the management service 710 to the payment credential repository 703, which returns a token representing the payment credential to the management service. You can do it.

When the purchase information is sent by the management service, the token provided by the payment credential repository is included in the purchase information without including the actual payment credential. In some implementations, purchase information, including tokens rather than actual payment credentials, may be sent directly from the management service 710 to the seller 706. For example, if the payment processor 702 used by the seller 706 to process the payment is the same entity as the payment credential repository 703, the purchase information with the token may be sent directly to the seller 706, who then , May send the token to payment processor 702 for payment processing and authentication. The payment processor 702 has information about both the token and the payment credential associated with the token so that the payment processor 702 can process and authenticate the payment based on the associated payment credential.

In another implementation, the seller 706 may forward the received token to a payment credential repository 703, which sends the payment credential to the seller and/or a payment processor associated with the seller, This allows processing and authorization of payment for purchased goods. In such implementations, the payment credential repository may determine that the intended recipient of the payment credential complies with one or more criteria, such as the Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance criteria. Additionally, the payment credential transmission may be transmitted using a secure connection. In such an implementation, a purchase identifier identifying the purchase and/or a seller identifier identifying the seller of the item may be included in the token and sent to the payment credential repository 703. Similarly, purchase information may be sent to seller 706 along with the purchase identifier. The purchase identifier is then used by merchant 706 and payment credential repository 703 to coordinate and confirm payment for purchases.

Alternatively, the purchase information comprising the token may be sent from the management service to the payment credential repository 703 with a seller identifier indicating the seller to whom the payment information is transferred. Upon receipt of the purchase information, the payment credential repository replaces the token with the payment credential and sends the purchase information and the actual payment credential to the seller 706. In such implementations, the payment credential repository may determine that the intended recipient of the payment credential complies with one or more criteria, such as PCI compliance criteria. Additionally, the sending of payment credentials may be sent using a secure connection. Upon receipt of the payment credential, the merchant provides the payment credential to the associated payment processor 702 for processing and authentication.

The payment processor 702 performs processing, confirms that the payment has been verified, and returns a payment transaction identifier and an indication that the payment has been authenticated to the seller 706. In response, the seller may return a purchase confirmation to management service 710 confirming that the purchase is complete. In some implementations, purchase confirmations sent from seller 706 to management service 710 are sent directly from seller 706 to management service 710. Alternatively, the purchase confirmation may be sent from seller 706 to management service 710 via payment credential repository 703. Upon receiving the purchase confirmation, management service 710 may send a notification to the user confirming that the seller has confirmed the purchase of the item. When the seller initiates delivery of the item, funds may be withdrawn from the payment processor to complete the transaction.

If the payment processor cannot authenticate the payment, the payment processor returns a notification to the seller that the payment is not authenticated. If the payment is not authenticated, one or more reasons (eg, invalid payment information) may be provided in the notification that the payment is not authenticated. The seller 706 may then send the reason for the failure to the management service 710, which may obtain the necessary information from the user to complete the payment.

In the implementation described with respect to FIG. 7, a user can purchase items directly from the seller 706 through the management service 710, where the management service does not need to send payment credentials to the seller. Similarly, the purchase is processed by the seller and associated payment processor 702 as if a direct purchase with the seller has occurred. In such a configuration, the inventory available to both the seller and the management service is automatically updated, and the seller or the like integrates and retains all order details.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of another purchasing process, according to one implementation. As described above, the management service 810 may support the product purchase between the user 801 and the seller 806. In the implementations described herein, a user of the management service may purchase merchandise from sellers other than the management service without ever leaving the management service website. At the same time, the seller can promote and sell his or her item through the management service, even if the image provided by the seller and/or the user of the management service independent of the management service is used.

When the user 801 selects a desired product variant and starts purchasing the product, the management service 810 receives the purchase request and the selected product variant. The management service may also maintain the user's purchase information (eg, credit card, billing information and delivery information) in the user profile data store, and/or the user may provide such information as part of the purchase request. Good.

Based on the relationship between the management service and the seller of the goods, payment of the goods may be completed separately. In one implementation, the seller of the item may maintain a payment account at a third party payment processor 802, which authorizes payment for purchases backed by administrative services 810. With such a configuration, the purchase details of the user are not provided to seller 806, and the seller remains the seller on record. Once the purchase is made, the payment is processed by the third party payment processor 802 and the payment is made to the seller's account held by the third party payment processor 802. In another configuration, the seller may be his own payment processor. In such a configuration, the details of the user's purchase may be provided to the seller 806 from the management service 810, and the seller may process payment for the item.

In either configuration, when the management service 810 receives a purchase request from the user 801, the total cost for the purchase (eg, price, tax, shipping), the payment token identifying the purchase transaction and the seller's identifier are paid processor (802). Sent to either a third party payment processor or the seller's payment processor). The payment processor 802 performs processing, confirms that the payment has been authenticated, and returns a payment transaction identifier and an indication that the payment has been authenticated to the management service 810.

Upon receiving the payment transaction identifier, the management service sends the payment transaction identifier to the seller 806 confirming that the purchase has been authenticated. In response, the seller may return a purchase confirmation confirming that the purchase is complete to the management service 810. Similarly, the management service may send a notification to the user confirming that the seller has confirmed the purchase of the item. When the seller initiates delivery of the item, funds may be withdrawn from the payment processor to complete the transaction.

In yet another implementation, the management service 810 provides the product to purchase, product variant information (eg, quantity, color, size), shipping information, user information that the seller needs to complete the sale of the product to the user (eg, , User information, payment information, etc.) can be prepared with all configured orders. The fully populated order may then be sent directly to the seller 806. The seller 806, upon receiving the fully populated order from the management service 810, processes the order and indicates that the purchase was not completed due to a purchase confirmation or one or more reasons (eg, invalid payment information). Return any of the errors to the management service 810. The management service 810 may send a notification to the user 801 confirming that the seller has confirmed the purchase of the item or that there is an error in the purchase request. When an error occurs, the management service 810 may be able to complete the product purchase from the seller by acquiring the information necessary for solving the error from the user and providing the information to the seller 806.

In addition to the management service determining multiple sellers for the item displayed in the image, in some implementations the items may be displayed in a single user-provided image. In such an example, the image may be segmented based on different positions of the displayed merchandise, a seller may be determined for different merchandise, and different purchase controls may be presented for each of these merchandise. You may

For example, referring to FIG. 9, a display of segmented, user-provided images including multiple products for sale from various vendors is illustrated, according to one implementation. Images such as image 900 may be segmented using image segmentation techniques. For example, the image background may be determined (eg, based on out-of-focus areas and/or similar colors) and excluded from processing. Similarly, 6 objects were identified and the image was segmented into 6 different regions. Specifically, the body object 902, the head object 904, the shirt object 906, the pants object 908, the bag object 910, and the shoe object 912. As part of the segmentation, the root object, which in this example is the body object 902, was determined and the locations of the other objects 904-912 were considered when identifying these other objects. Image segmentation is described in further detail in US patent application Ser. No. 14/279,871, entitled “Image Based Search”, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

In other implementations, other segmentation and specification techniques may be used to segment the image. For example, crowdsourcing techniques may be used to segment the image. For example, when a user browses an image, an image region containing the object may be selected and the image may be segmented based on the position of the object within the image. The more users identify objects in the image, the more reliable the identification of these objects. Based on the segmentation and specification provided by the user, the object in the image can be identified and a determination is made as to whether the object is a seller's sale product.

For example, each segment may be processed to generate feature vectors for the products displayed within the segment, which feature vectors are compared to the feature vectors associated with the products identified in the product catalog data store. May be done. Alternatively or additionally, segments of the image may be processed to classify items into one or more categories. For example, shirt object 906 in image 900 may be processed to detect an object (shirt) displayed within a segment containing shirt object 906, where the segment is associated with a category (or another related category) that represents the shirt. You may be taken. As described above, the representation of the object (shirt) may be compared to the seller's sale item associated with the shirt category and/or may be compared to the sale item associated with the shirt category. It is determined whether the object displayed in the segment matches the seller's item for sale. This process may be performed for each object and/or segment of the image to determine the items for sale sold by one or more sellers displayed in the image.

FIG. 10 is a display of a segmented image 1000 presented on a display of a client device 1004, according to one implementation, for an object of an image determined to be an item for sale by one or more sellers. The control is associated. For each item determined to be available for purchase by one or more sellers in the segmented image, a purchase control may be presented near the item determined to be selectable by the user. In this example, shirt 1006 has been determined in the first segment 1005 of image 1000, and purchase control 1026 is presented near the presentation of the shirt. Similarly, the bag 1010 has been determined in the second segment 1009 of the image and the purchase control 1020 is presented near the presentation of the bag. Trousers 1008 have been determined in the third segment 1007 of image 1000 and a purchase control 1028 is presented near the presentation of pants 1008. Finally, the shoe 1012 has been determined within the fourth segment 1011 of the image 1000, and the purchase control 1022 is presented near the presentation of the shoe 1012.

Most of the segments of the image 1000 are determined to include a display of the seller's sale item, but the segment 1003 including the person's head object is determined to not include the seller's sale item. Since it is determined that the object (the person's head) displayed in the segment 1003 is not the sale product of the seller, the purchase control is not presented near the presentation of the object.

A user may browse image 1000 on client device 1004 to selectively interact with one or more purchase controls to obtain additional details about the item associated with the purchase controls. For example, FIG. 11 is a display of shirt products and product variants, according to one implementation. The information 1100 presented on the display of the client device 1104 is generated in response to a user selecting a purchase control 1026 (FIG. 10) associated with a shirt item. In this example, when the purchase control 1026 is selected, an additional view 1110 of shirt items may be presented to the user along with the seller's name 1106 of the item, in this example seller A, and the item may be purchased from seller A. The presented information 1100 may further include the trade name “Ladies Summer Casual Shirt” 1108. The management service may further obtain and provide product variant information 1112 such as size, fit, color, shipping method and/or shirt quantity, as described above. A user may change or select product variant information, for example by interacting with the presentation of product variant information. Additionally, purchase and/or shipping information 1114 may be further presented to the user, which is currently associated with the user of the client device 1104 and which the user may "buy now". Selecting control 1116 causes the management service to be used to assist in the purchase of the item. The user may change the purchase and/or shipping information 1114 by selecting the “Edit” control 1118 to provide or select other information. The type or form of payment method may be used in the implementations described herein. For example, the user profile associated with the user, which is maintained by the management service, may include credit card information, as illustrated, and may be used to assist the purchase between the user and the seller of the item. .. Other implementations may utilize other forms of payment as well, such as bank transfers, e-commerce payment processors, and the like.

In some implementations, a discount code 1119 or other promotion may be associated with the item displayed in the additional view 1110. For example, if seller A 1106 is promoting a received item and discount code 1119 is provided as part of the clearing process, discount code 1119 is automatically identified and displayed on the display of client device 1104. It may be included in the presented information 1100. In some implementations, the discount code 1119 is provided by the seller as a product variant of the product. In another implementation, the user may change, update, or provide discount code 1119 by selecting discount code 1119 and providing such information.

The additional view 1110 of the product is a digital still image, a video file, an animation. It may be in the form of a gif file or the like. For example, the additional view 1110 is an animation .. that the user can manipulate to change the presented view of the item. It may include the presentation of a gif file. For example, if the client device 1104 includes a touch-based display, the user may move his or her finger over the touch-based display. The presentation of the gif file may be manipulated or controlled to obtain another view of the offered goods. In one implementation, the user may control the presentation of the image and rotate the image to obtain front, back, side and/or other views of the image, which effectively provides a 360 degree view of the image. provide.

In some implementations, the user may view and/or provide comments, reviews, ratings and/or other information regarding the items displayed in the additional view 1110. Some implementations may further present the user with the identification of related items that are often viewed or purchased with the items displayed in the additional view 1110. Related products are products that are often purchased with products or that users often browse when viewing products displayed in the additional view 1110. For example, if another user of the management service often purchases the product "Ladies' Summer Casual Shirts" from Seller A and also purchases matching shorts, the information 1100 will display the product displayed in the additional view 1110. As a product often purchased together with, short pants that look good can be further specified to the user. The user may obtain additional information about the matching shorts by selecting the identified matching shorts.

When the user selects the "Buy Now" control 1116, the management service assists the purchase of the item between the user and the seller. Support for purchasing goods is described above with respect to FIGS. 7 and 8. In addition to supporting the purchase, the management service may also send a confirmation message to the user, as illustrated in FIG. In this example, the management service sends a confirmation message 1202 to the client device 1204, which sends a confirmation email to the user that the seller of the product has received an order for the product from the user. It is to confirm that you do.

FIG. 13 illustrates an example process 1300 for matching sellers and merchandise, according to one implementation. Each of the example process 1300 and other processes described herein are illustrated as a collection of blocks in a logical flow diagram. Some of the blocks represent operations that can be performed in hardware, software or a combination thereof. With respect to software, blocks represent computer-executable instructions that perform the operations detailed on one or more computer-readable media and as executed by one or more processors. Generally, computer-executable instructions include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular functions or implement particular abstract data types.

The computer readable medium includes a hard drive, a floppy diskette, an optical disc, a CD-ROM, a DVD, a read only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), an EPROM, an EEPROM, a flash memory, a magnetic or optical card, and a solid state memory device. , Or non-transitory computer-readable storage media, which may include other types of storage media suitable for storing electronic instructions. Additionally, in some implementations, a computer-readable medium may include transitory computer-readable signals (compressed or uncompressed form). Examples of computer readable signals include signals that may or may not be modulated using a carrier wave, including signals that are downloaded or uploaded over the Internet or other network, and are configured to be accessible to a computer system hosting or executing a computer program. Signal, but is not limited to this. Finally, the order in which the acts are described are not intended to be construed as limiting, and any number of the described acts may be combined in any order and/or in parallel to perform the process. It is possible. Similarly, various implementations described herein may utilize more or less operations than those described.

The example process 1300 begins at 1302 by determining whether there is a source location identifier, such as a URL, GPS coordinate, barcode, etc., included in the image information of the user-provided image. As mentioned above, the user-provided image may already be stored in the image data store of the management service or may be provided to the management service by the user. The user-provided image can be any image or representation of the object that the user provides to the management service. For example, the user-provided image may be an image captured at an image capture device of the user's client device, an image copied from another website, an image from an electronic message, or the like.

The image may include a source location identifier such as a URL if the image is obtained from another location (eg, a website) on a network such as the Internet. In another example, the source location identifier may identify the physical location of the image captured by the image capture device (camera). For example, when the camera captures an image, the image information may include GPS coordinates (latitude and longitude) that identify the position of the image capture device when the image was captured.

If it is determined that the user-provided image does not include the source location identifier, example process 1300 proceeds to example process 1400, described below in FIG. However, if it is determined that the user-provided image includes a source location identifier, then the source location identifier of the user-provided image is compared at 1304 with the source location identifier maintained in the product catalog data store. As mentioned above, the product catalog data store holds a list of products for sale by one or more sellers. Once the source location identifiers have been compared, a determination is made at 1306 as to whether the source location identifier of the user-provided image matches the source location identifier of the item identified in the item catalog.

If it is determined that the source location identifier of the user-provided image does not match any source location identifier of the item in the item catalog data store, then example process 1300 proceeds to example process 1400, described below with respect to FIG. If the source location identifier of the user-provided image matches the source location identifier of the product in the product catalog data store, then at 1308, the user-provided image is the matching product from the product catalog data store and/or a sale selling the product. Associated with a person. The management service keeps this association in the mapping data store.

The user-provided image is presented to the user, such as the user requesting viewing of the user-provided image based on the association between the user-provided image and the product and/or seller of the product identified in the product catalog data store. At 1310, the presentation of the image will include purchase control and/or seller information. The purchase control may be user selectable, as described above, to obtain additional information about the item displayed in the user-provided image and/or to initiate the item purchase. The seller information identifies the seller of the product displayed in the image. When multiple sellers are associated with the product displayed in the image, the seller information may be one of the sellers, one seller determined based on the advertising costs provided for the product, or multiple sellers. May be specified, and two or more sellers may be provided with instructions that they are selling the product displayed in the user-provided image, and so on. The user requesting to view the user-provided image may be the user who provided the image or any other user of the management service.

In the example illustrated in FIG. 13, the matching of the user-provided image with the seller in the case where the source location identifier of the user-provided image matches the source location identifier of the product listed in the product catalog data store has been described. In some implementations, additional analysis may be performed before determining that the user-provided image includes a display of the seller's items for sale. For example, the user-provided image may be processed to determine if the image is similar or matches an image or image information contained in a product identified in the product catalog as having a matching source location identifier. Another implementation may compare additional image information such as creation date, file size, hash value, color histogram, etc. to obtain additional confirmation that the user-provided image contains a display of the seller's items for sale. .. In some implementations, all or part of FIG. 14 may be performed in parallel with example process 1300.

FIG. 14 illustrates an example process 1400 that processes a user-provided image to match the item displayed in the image with the seller of the item, according to one implementation. The example process 1400 begins at 1402 by receiving an image from a user. The received image is then processed at 1404 using one or more image processing algorithms such as edge detection, object detection, grayscale analysis, etc. to determine the objects displayed in the image. In some implementations, a feature vector representing the image and/or objects within the image may be further generated.

In addition to processing the image, at 1406, a source location identifier, a comment added by a user who provided the image, a comment added by a user who viewed and/or shared the image, time, date and/or location associated with the image. Image information such as etc. may be further considered. Based on the processed image and the image information, at 1408, a determination is made as to whether the product category for the object displayed in the image can be determined. In some implementations, the management service may maintain a list of product categories for products sold by various sellers. Each merchandise category may include one or more merchandise features such as a description, a typical image of the merchandise associated with the merchandise category, a typical shape, size, and/or color of the merchandise that may be associated with the merchandise category. Similarly, a seller may be associated with a product category based on the type of product the seller sells. Similarly, based on product type, a product for sale may be associated with one or more product categories.

In determining whether an object displayed in a user-provided image can be associated with a product category, the processed image and/or image information is compared to the characteristics of each product category to determine the object displayed in the image. Is similar to the product category. For example, comparing the determined size, shape and/or color of the object with the size(s), shape(s) and color(s) characteristics of the product category to determine the difference between the object and the product category. May be determined.

If the object displayed in the user-provided image cannot be associated with a product category, then at 1410, the image is submitted for manual review and categorization. Manual review and categorization may include one or more people reviewing a user-provided image to determine the category of objects displayed in the image. The person(s) can be an employee of the management service, a user of the management service, a seller, etc.

If it is determined that the object displayed in the image can be associated with a category, or during manual categorization, at 1412, the object displayed in the user-provided image is associated with the determined category. Similarity with images in the product catalog is determined. For example, information about images processed from user-provided images (eg, feature vectors, histograms) may be compared to image information about images that match a product identified in a product catalog to determine similarity between these images. You may judge.

At 1414, based on the similarity between the user-provided image and the stored image, the probability of the stored image having the highest similarity to the user-provided image is determined, which means that the stored image matches the user-provided image. It shows the possibility to do. The probability may be based on the difference between the determined similarity scores. For example, when the highest similarity score is 95% and the second highest similarity scores are 45% and 34%, the probability that the stored image having the highest similarity score and the user-provided image match may be high. In comparison, when the highest similarity score is 95% and the next highest similarity scores are 94% and 93%, the images are similar, but one of these images is displayed in the user-provided image. Since the product may actually be included, the probability that the stored image having the highest similarity score and the user-provided image match is low.

At 1416, a determination is made as to whether the probability exceeds a confidence threshold based on the probability score of the stored image with the highest similarity. The confidence threshold may be any number, score or other indicator that the probability score must reach above the threshold. The reliability threshold may vary for different images, different users, different times, etc.

If the probability score does not exceed the threshold, then at 1418 the image is sent for manual association by one or more people. In some implementations, images, image data, stored images and/or stored images with the highest similarity score associated with products in a product catalog corresponding to the same category may be manually associated by one or more people. Could be sent to do. The one or more users may be employees of a management service, employees of potential sellers of goods, users of a management service, and so on.

If it is determined that the probability score exceeds the threshold or upon manual association, at 1420, the user-provided image is associated with the product identified in the product catalog and/or the seller of the product identified in the product catalog. The management service maintains the association in the mapping data store.

The user-provided image is presented to the user, such as the user requesting viewing of the user-provided image based on the association between the user-provided image and the product and/or seller of the product identified in the product catalog data store. Each time, at 1422, the presentation of the image will include purchase control and/or seller information. The purchase control may be user selectable, as described above, to obtain additional information about the item displayed in the user-provided image and/or to initiate the item purchase. The seller information identifies the seller of the product displayed in the image. When multiple sellers are associated with the product displayed in the image, the seller information may include one of the sellers, one seller based on the advertising costs provided for the product, multiple sellers. Identifying may be provided, such as providing instructions that two or more sellers are selling the product displayed in the user-provided image. The user requesting to view the user-provided image may be the user who provided the image or any other user of the management service.

FIG. 15 illustrates an example purchase request process 1500 according to one implementation. The example process 1500 begins at 1502 when a user selects purchase control. As described above, the purchase control is presented in the user-provided image when it is determined that the display of the sale item for sale by the seller is included in the user-provided image.

Upon receiving the purchase control selection, at 1504, the seller is queried for current product variant information corresponding to the product displayed in the image. As mentioned above, in some implementations, in response to the purchase control selection, the seller may be queried for product variant information, and the seller may periodically send product variant information to the management service, And/or the seller may provide up-to-date product variant information when changing product variants.

The example process 1500 further sends, at 1506, product details and current product variant information to the user's client device for presentation to the user. As illustrated and described above with respect to FIG. 11, the presentation to the user may include additional views of the product, current product variant information, purchase details, and the like. Similarly, as described above, the user may modify and/or select a particular product variant for the product, which may be used to complete the purchase of the product. For example, a user may select a particular size, color, and/or other information for an item, which may be used when purchasing and/or delivering the item.

Thereafter, at 1508, a determination is made as to whether a purchase request has been received. For example, a user may select to purchase an item when selecting a desired variant and providing purchase details (eg, delivery address, credit card information, delivery time). If no purchase request is received, the example process completes at 1509. However, if it is determined that the purchase request has been received, then at 1510 the selected product variant, delivery information, and user information for the user to initiate a purchase is sent to the seller of the product.

In response to sending the selected product variant, delivery information and user information to the seller, the example process 1500 identifies 1512 the purchase transaction and purchase details (eg, shipping, identification tag, delivery time). Receive the purchase identifier from the seller.

Based on the user's offer information and the seller's offer purchase information, the example process 1500 assists, at 1514, with a product purchase between the user and the seller. Additional details to assist in the product purchase between the user and the seller of the product are described above with respect to FIGS. 7 and 8. Finally, when the purchase is complete, at 1516, a purchase confirmation is sent to the user. The purchase confirmation may be sent in the form of a presentation, electronic message (“email”), text message, etc. on the user's client device.

FIG. 16 illustrates an example purchase fulfillment process 1600, according to one implementation. Example process 1600 provides additional details corresponding to box 1514 (FIG. 15). The example process 1600 begins at 1604 by obtaining purchase information and a payment token. As mentioned above, the purchase information may include item identification, desired quantity, delivery details (eg, delivery address, delivery speed), selected item variant (eg, size, color, etc.). The payment token is a unique identifier provided by the payment credential repository, associated with the payment credential selected by the user who purchases the item, and is used to authenticate the purchase. If the payment token is not already stored, the payment credential may be retrieved from the user and provided to the purchase credential repository to retrieve the payment token.

Upon obtaining the purchase information and payment token, at 1606, the purchase information and payment token without payment credentials are sent to the seller who sells the product for the user to purchase. As mentioned above, the purchase information and payment token may be sent from the management service to the seller via the payment credential repository. Upon receiving the purchase information and the payment token, the payment credential repository provides the seller with the payment credential represented by the purchase information and the token, thereby processing the purchase of the item.

As mentioned above, the seller uses his or her associated payment processor to process payments as if the purchase was made directly by the seller. The payment processor can be the same or a different entity as the payment credential repository. In the example of an entity where the payment processor and payment credential repository are the same, the payment credential repository may process the payment for the item based on the token received from the management service, rather than providing the payment credential to the seller.

When the seller confirms the purchase with the payment processor, the seller returns the purchase confirmation to the management service. The purchase confirmation may be sent by the seller directly to the management service and/or may be sent to the management service via the payment credential repository. If the purchase cannot be confirmed, the seller returns the failure and/or request for additional information to the management service.

Returning to the example process 1600, at 1608, after sending the purchase information and the payment token, a determination is made as to whether a purchase confirmation was received. If it is determined that a purchase confirmation has been received, at 1610, the user is provided with a notification confirming that the purchase of the item from the seller was successful and completed. The purchase confirmation may be sent in the form of a presentation, electronic message (“email”), text message, etc. on the user's client device.

If it is determined that the purchase confirmation has not been received, then at 1612 the missing information or required additional information is obtained from the user. For example, if the billing address or payment credential has expired, the user may be required to update such information. Upon obtaining the information from the user, the updated purchase information is sent to the seller at 1614 and the example process continues back to decision block 1608.

FIG. 17 is a diagram of an exemplary implementation of a server system, such as server system 1700 that may be used with the implementations described herein. The server system 1700 may include a processor 1701, such as one or more redundant processors, a video display adapter 1702, a disk drive 1704, an input/output interface 1706, a network interface 1708 and a memory 1712. The processor 1701, the video display adapter 1702, the disk drive 1704, the input/output interface 1706, the network interface 1708, and the memory 1712 can be communicatively coupled to each other via a communication bus 1711.

Video display adapter 1702 provides display signals to a local display (not shown in FIG. 17) to allow an operator of server system 1700 to monitor and set the operation of server system 1700. The input/output interface 1706 similarly communicates with external input/output devices not shown in FIG. 17, such as a mouse, keyboard, scanner, or other input/output device that can be operated by an operator of the server system 1700. Network interface 1708 includes hardware, software, or any combination thereof for communicating with other computing devices. For example, the network interface 1708 may be configured to provide communication between the server system 1700 and other computing devices such as the client device 104 via the network 108, as shown in FIG.

Memory 1712 typically comprises random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), flash memory and/or other volatile or persistent memory. Memory 1712 is shown to store operating system 1714 for controlling the operation of server system 1700. A binary input/output system (BIOS) 1716 for controlling low level operations of server system 1700 is also stored in memory 1712.

Memory 1712 also stores program codes and data for providing network services that allow client devices and vendors to exchange information and data files with server system 1700 and/or management services 1710. The data store manager application 1720 includes a mapping data store 1711, an image data store 1713, a product catalog data store 1715 and/or a user profile data store 1717, and a client device such as the client device 104 shown in FIG. 1 and/or the client device 104 shown in FIG. Supports data exchange and mapping with sellers such as seller 106.

The term “data store” as used herein refers to any device or combination of devices capable of storing, accessing and retrieving data, in any standard distributed or clustered environment. , Any combination and number of data servers, databases, data storage devices and data storage media. The server system 1700 optionally integrates with data stores 1711, 1713, 1715, 1717 that implement aspects of one or more applications for client devices, vendors and/or management services 1710. Appropriate hardware and software may be included. The server system 1700 cooperates with the data stores 1711, 1713, 1715, 1717 to provide access control services, such as text, graphics, audio, video and/or images that are transferred to client devices and/or sellers. Content can be generated.

The data stores 1711, 1713, 1715, 1717 may include a number of separate data tables, databases or other data storage mechanisms and media for storing data regarding particular aspects. For example, the illustrated data stores 1711, 1713, 1715, 1717 include mechanisms for storing images, user information, mappings and product catalogs from sellers of products that can be used to store content (eg, user content). (Provided images and purchase controls) can be generated and sent to client devices and/or sellers to control the actions performed.

It should be understood that there can be many other aspects such as access rights information, favorite sellers, etc. that may be stored in the data stores 1711, 1713, 1715, 1717. These can be stored in any of the above mechanisms, or in an additional mechanism in any of the data stores 1711, 1713, 1715, 1717, as desired. The data stores 1711, 1713, 1715, 1717 are operable, through logic associated therewith, to receive instructions from the server system 1700 and to retrieve, update or otherwise process data in response to the instructions. ..

Memory 1712 may further include management service 1710 described above. Management service 1710 may be executable by processor 1701 to perform one or more of the functions of server system 1700. In one implementation, management service 1710 may represent instructions embodied in one or more software programs stored in memory 1712. In another implementation, management service 1710 may represent hardware, software instructions, or a combination thereof.

The server system 1700 is, in one implementation, a distributed environment that utilizes a number of computer systems and components, interconnected via one or more computer networks or communication links using direct connections. However, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that such a system can work equally well with systems having fewer or more components than illustrated in FIG. Therefore, the depiction of FIG. 17 is considered to be exemplary in nature and should not be considered as limiting the scope of the present disclosure.

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodical acts, the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the particular features or acts described. It should be understood that it is not. Rather, the specific features and acts are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

Implementations of the present disclosure may be described in light of the following clauses.
1. Receiving an image containing the display of the product from the user of the management service,
Processing the image to determine product information about the product;
Associating the image with a product category based at least in part on the product information;
Determining a plurality of potential sellers of the item displayed in the image;
Requesting confirmation from each of the potential sellers as to whether the item is for sale;
Receiving confirmation from the plurality of potential sellers confirming that the seller sells the item;
Associating the image with the seller,
Presenting the image and a purchase control that allows a second user to purchase the item displayed in the image from the seller to the second user.

2. Clause 1 further comprising receiving merchandise variant information from the seller, wherein the merchandise variant information identifies at least one of a price of the merchandise, a size of the merchandise, or a color of the merchandise. Computer implementation method.

3. The computer-implemented method of clause 1, wherein presenting the image and the purchase control further comprises presenting seller information identifying the seller of the item.

4. Storing the image in an image data store maintained by the management service;
Associating the image with product information held in a product catalog held by the management service;
The computer-implemented method of clause 1, further comprising:

5. When executed by the processor,
Receiving a first image including a display of the first product from a first user of the management service;
Determining the first item displayed in the first image;
Determining a seller who sells the first product, which is different from the first user;
Associating the first image with the seller,
Presenting to the second user the first image and seller information identifying the seller of the first product displayed in the first image;
And a temporary computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that cause the processor to at least perform.

6. The instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to at least perform presenting a purchase control selectable by the second user to initiate the purchase of the first item from the seller. The temporary computer-readable storage medium according to clause 5.

7. The instructions, when executed by the processor,
Receiving a selection of the purchase control from the second user;
The product variant information including at least one of the product delivery charge, the product delivery time, the product delivery method, the product size, the product color, and the product quantity is provided to the second user. To present,
7. The temporary computer-readable storage medium of clause 6, further causing the processor to at least perform.

8. 8. The temporary computer readable storage medium of clause 7, wherein the product variant information is obtained from the seller in response to receiving the selection of the purchase control.

9. The temporary computer readable storage medium of clause 7, wherein the product variant information is received from the seller on a regular basis and retained by the management service.

10. The instructions, when executed by the processor,
Receiving a product catalog containing product information for each of a plurality of sold products of the seller from the seller,
For each of the plurality of products, the product information includes at least one of a second image representing the product, a source location identifier associated with the product, or product variant information. Receiving from
The temporary computer-readable storage medium of clause 5, further causing the processor to at least perform storing the product catalog in a product catalog data store maintained by the management service.

11. The instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to determine the first item, and
Comparing a first source location identifier associated with the first image with the product information held in the product catalog data store;
Determining the first product based on a match between the first source location identifier and a stored source location identifier maintained in the product catalog data store;
21. A temporary computer readable storage medium according to clause 10, comprising instructions for causing the processor to at least perform.

12. The instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to determine the first item;
Processing the first image with an image processing algorithm to determine a first feature vector representing the item displayed in the image;
Comparing the first feature vector with the product information held in the product catalog data store;
Determining the first product based on a similarity between the first feature vector and a stored feature vector held in the product catalog data store;
21. The temporary computer-readable storage medium of clause 10, further comprising instructions that cause the processor to at least perform.

13. The instructions, when executed by the processor,
Processing a plurality of images held in the image data store of the management service with an image processing algorithm;
For each of the plurality of images,
Determining a feature vector representing the product displayed in the image,
Comparing the feature vector with a stored feature vector held in the product catalog data store;
Determining the product and a seller of the product based at least in part on the comparison;
The temporary computer-readable storage medium of clause 10, further causing the processor to at least associate the image with the item and the seller of the item.

14. The first image includes a display of a second product,
The instructions, when executed by the processor,
Determining the second item displayed in the first image;
Determining a second seller to sell the second product;
Presenting to the second user the first image and second seller information identifying the second seller of the second product displayed in the image;
6. The temporary computer-readable storage medium of clause 5, further causing the processor to at least perform.

15. The instructions, when executed by the processor,
Presenting a first purchase control selectable by the second user to initiate a first purchase of the first product from the seller;
Presenting a second purchase control selectable by the second user to initiate a second purchase of the second product from the second seller;
15. The temporary computer-readable storage medium of clause 14, further causing: at least the processor to:

16. One or more processors,
Coupled to the one or more processors, when executed by the one or more processors,
Receiving, from a first seller, product information about a product sold by the first seller;
Storing the product information for the product in a product catalog data store maintained by a management service;
Receiving a first image including a display of a first product from a first user different from the seller;
Comparing the first image with the product information for the product;
Determining, based at least in part on the comparison, whether the first product displayed in the first image matches the product sold by the first seller.
Associating the first image with the product,
For the first user, the first image, an identifier of the first seller, and a sale control selectable by the first user to initiate a purchase of the item from the first seller. To present,
And a memory storing program instructions that cause the one or more processors to perform a method comprising.

17. The method is
Determining that the product can be purchased from a second seller;
Presenting the user with an option to choose to purchase the item from the first seller or the second seller;
The computing system of clause 16, further comprising:

18. The method is
Requesting that the first seller confirm that the display of the item is included in the first image;
Further comprising receiving confirmation that the first image includes a display of the item,
Determining that the first item displayed in the first image matches the item is further based at least in part on the confirmation,
The computing system according to clause 16.

19. The comparison of the first images is
17. The computing system of clause 16, including comparing the product information with first image information that includes a source location identifier corresponding to the source of the first image.

20. The method is
Receiving the purchase control selection,
Supporting the purchase of the product, the purchase being made between the first user and the first seller, the first seller delivering the product to the first user, the product The computing system of clause 16, further comprising: assisting in purchasing the.

Claims (15)

A computer-implemented method for presenting a computer user with related products of a third party,
From each of a plurality of third party sources, a product catalog including product information about each of a plurality of products available from the third party source is received, and the product information of each product catalog is stored in a catalog data store. Steps,
Receiving a first image from a first user and storing the first image in an image data store;
Identifying a first product and a second product represented in the first image;
Analyzing the first product and the product information in the catalog data store such that a first corresponding product in the catalog data store available from a first third party source has a first mapping of the first product. And the step of determining
Analyzing the second product and the product information in the catalog data store such that a second corresponding product in the catalog data store available from a second third party source is a second product of the second product. Determining as mapping,
Storing the first mapping and the second mapping in a mapping data store;
Receiving a request from a second user to display the first image;
In response to the request to display the first image,
The first image,
A first access control that enables the second user to access the first compliant product available from the first third party source;
A second access control to allow the second user to access the second compliant product available from the second third party source, for displaying to the second user. The step of sending,
A computer-implemented method comprising: The computer-implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the product information of the products in the product catalog includes a feature vector, and each feature vector corresponds to an image of the corresponding product represented in the product catalog. Analyzing the first product and the product information in the catalog data store to find the first corresponding product in the catalog data store available from the first third party source for the first product. Determining as the first mapping,
Determining a feature vector of the first product represented in the first image;
The feature vector of the first product in the product catalog is compared to the feature vector of the product, and the first corresponding product in the catalog data store available from the first third party source is Determined as the first mapping of the first product,
The computer-implemented method according to claim 2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the product information for a product in the product catalog includes product source data that displays a third-party source of available products. Analyzing the second product and the product information in the catalog data store to provide the second product to the second corresponding product in the catalog data store available from the second third party. Determining a second mapping,
A second corresponding product in the catalog data store available from the second third party source, comparing the product source data for the second product with the product source data for the product in the product catalog. Determining the second mapping of the second item to the
The computer-implemented method of claim 4, comprising: A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions, the instructions being executed by a processor of the computer, at least the processor being provided with at least a third-party related product presented to a computer user of a management service.
A product catalog containing product information about each of a plurality of products available from the third party source is received from each of a plurality of third party sources, and the product information of each product catalog is stored in a product data store. To let
Receiving the first image from the first user and storing the first image in an image data store;
Identifying a first product and a second product represented in the first image;
Analyzing the first product in the catalog data store and the product information and determining the first corresponding product in the catalog data store available from a first third party source as the first mapping of the first product. To let
The second product in the catalog data store and the product information are analyzed, and a second corresponding product in the catalog data store available from a second third party source is identified as the second product of the second product. To be judged as mapping,
Storing the first mapping and the second mapping in a mapping data store;
Receiving a request from a second user to display the first image;
In response to the request to display the first image,
The first image,
A first access control that enables a second user to access the first compliant product available from the first third party source;
A second access control enabling the second user to access the second compatible product available from the second third party source; and causing the second user to send an indication.
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising. The product information of the products in the product catalog includes a feature vector, and each feature vector corresponds to an image of a corresponding product displayed in the product catalog,
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 6.
Analyzing the first product and the product information in the catalog data store, and using the first corresponding product in the catalog data store available from a first third party source as the first mapping of the first product. The judgment is that
Instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause at least the processor to:
The feature vector of the first product displayed in the first image is determined,
The feature vector of the first product is compared to the feature vector of the product in the product catalog to determine the first corresponding product in the catalog data store available from the first third party source. Determined as the first mapping of one product,
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 7. The product information of the products in the product catalog includes product source data displaying a third-party source from available products,
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 6. Analyzing the second product and the product information in the catalog data store, and finding the second corresponding product in the catalog data store available from a second third party source as the second product of the second product. To determine as mapping,
Instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause at least the processor to:
The product source data of the second product and the product source data of the product in the product catalog are compared to determine the second corresponding product in the catalog data store available from the second third party source. Determined as the second mapping of the second product,
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 9. A computing system configured to present a third party related product to a computer user of a management service, the system comprising:
One or more processors,
A memory coupled to the one or more processors for storing program instructions executed by the one or more processors,
When the program instructions are executed,
A product catalog is received from each of a plurality of third party sources, the product catalog including product information for each of a plurality of products available from the third party source, and the product information of each product catalog is stored in a catalog data store. Then
Receiving a first image from a first user, storing the first image in an image data store,
Identify the first product and the second product displayed in the first image,
Analyzing the product information in the first product and the catalog data store to map a first corresponding product in the catalog data store available from a first third party source to a first mapping of the first product. As
Analyzing the product information in the second product and the catalog data store to identify a second corresponding product in the catalog data store available from a second third party source as a second product of the second product. Determined as 2 mapping,
Storing the first mapping and the second mapping in a mapping data store,
Receiving a request from the second user to display the first image,
In response to the request to display the first image,
The first image,
A first access control that enables the second user to access the first compliant product available from the first third party source;
A second access control that enables the second user to access a second compliant product available from the second third party source; and a computing transmitting display to the second user. system. The computing system according to claim 11, wherein the product information of the products in the product catalog includes a feature vector, and each feature vector corresponds to the image of the product displayed in the product catalog. Analyzing the product information in the first product and the catalog data store and comparing the first corresponding product in the catalog data store available from the first third party source to the first product. Determining the first mapping is
Determining a feature vector of the first product displayed in the first image;
The feature vector of the first product and the feature vector of the product in the product catalog are compared to determine the first corresponding product in the catalog data store available from the first third party source as the first product. 13. The computing system of claim 12, comprising determining as the first mapping of merchandise. The computing system of claim 11, wherein the product information for a product in the product catalog includes product source data that displays a third-party source of available products. Analyzing the product information in the second product and the catalog data store, and finding the second corresponding product in the catalog data store available from the second third party source in the second product. To determine as the second mapping,
Comparing the item source data of the second item with the item source data of the item in the item catalog, the second corresponding item in the catalog data store available from the second third party source. 15. The computing system of claim 14, comprising: determining as the second mapping of the second item.