US 10430015

Analysis of U.S. Patent 10,430,015

Date of Analysis: April 26, 2026

This report provides a summary of United States Patent 10,430,015, including its bibliographic information and a plain-language explanation of its independent claims.

Title: Image analysis

Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation (IBM)

Inventors: Sandeep R. Patil, Sarbajit K. Rakshit

Filing Date: August 9, 2013

Issue Date: October 1, 2019

Abstract:
Mechanisms for displaying an ordered sequence of images are provided. The mechanisms receive a search query as input from a user. The search query includes a start point and an end point of a virtual tour. The start point and the end point determine a boundary of the virtual tour. Based on the search query, images that are within the boundary of the virtual tour defined in the search query are collected. At least a subset of the collected images are displayed in an ordered sequence in accordance with the boundary of the virtual tour.

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Overview of Independent Claims

This patent contains three independent claims: claim 1 (a method), claim 9 (a system), and claim 15 (a computer program product). The core invention across all independent claims is a process for creating a "virtual tour" from a collection of images sourced from different users.

Claim 1 (Method): This claim describes a method performed by a data processing system. The core steps are:

1. Receiving a search query from a user that specifies a "start point" and an "end point" for a virtual tour (e.g., a trip from "New York" to "Washington D.C."). These points define the geographical or spatial boundary of the tour.
2. Collecting a disordered set of images from various users that fall within this defined boundary. These images could be from different sources and are not initially in any particular order.
3. Selecting a subset of these images based on two user-defined criteria: "image density" (the number of images to be shown per unit of time or distance in the tour) and other "filter criteria" (such as user likes/dislikes). Importantly, this subset must contain images from at least two different users or sources.
4. Ordering the selected subset of images based on their relative position to the start and end points and to each other, using either time-based (temporal) or location-based (spatial) data. This creates a logical sequence for the virtual tour.
5. Displaying the final ordered sequence of images to the user, thereby presenting the virtual tour.

In simple terms, this claim outlines a method to automatically create a sequential slideshow of a journey by stitching together relevant photos from multiple people, and allowing the user to control how many photos they see and what kind of photos are included.

Claim 9 (System): This claim describes a physical system designed to perform the method outlined in Claim 1. It consists of:

• A processor.
• A memory connected to the processor, which stores instructions.

When the processor executes these instructions, it performs the exact same steps as described in the method of Claim 1: receiving a search query with start and end points, collecting images from different users, selecting a subset based on user criteria, ordering that subset, and displaying the resulting virtual tour. This claim protects the hardware configuration that is specifically set up to carry out the invention.

Claim 15 (Computer Program Product): This claim covers a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium (like a hard drive, SSD, or CD-ROM) that contains software. When this software is executed by a computer, it causes the computer to perform the method described in Claim 1.

Essentially, this claim protects the software itself. If someone were to sell a program that performs these steps, they would be infringing on this claim.

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Litigation Search:
A search of the CAFC (United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit) dockets for the year 2026 was conducted for any cases involving US Patent 10,430,015. As of the date of this report, no relevant dockets or cases have been identified. I have high confidence in this assessment based on the available data, but it should be noted that new filings can occur at any time.