System and method for identifying social trends

Abstract

A method and system for identifying social trends are provided. The method includes collecting multimedia content from a plurality of data sources; gathering environmental variables related to the collected multimedia content; extracting visual elements from the collected multimedia content; generating at least one signature for each extracted visual element; generating at least one cluster of visual elements by clustering at least similar signatures generated for the extracted visual elements; correlating environmental variables related to visual elements in the at least one cluster; determining at least one social trend by associating the correlated environmental variables with the at least one cluster.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for identifying social trends, comprising:
 collecting multimedia content from a plurality of data sources;   gathering environmental variables related to the collected multimedia content;   extracting visual elements from the collected multimedia content;   generating at least one signature for each extracted visual element;   generating at least one cluster of visual elements by clustering at least similar signatures generated for the extracted visual elements;   correlating environmental variables related to visual elements in the at least one cluster;   determining at least one social trend by associating the correlated environmental variables with the at least one cluster.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein, a data source is one of: a web server, an application server, a data repository. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the visual element is at least one of: an image, a graphic, a video stream, a video clip, a video frame, and a photograph. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein each of the environmental variables is any one of:
 a location variable, a time variable, a weather variable, a speed variable, and a motion variable.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein correlating the environmental variables further comprises:
 checking if the correlated environmental variables meet a predefined correlation threshold.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one cluster is a concept, wherein the concept is a collection of signatures representing visual elements and metadata describing the concept. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 evaluating the determined social trend over time.   
     
     
         8 . A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions for causing one or more processing units to execute the method according to  claim 1 . 
     
     
         9 . A system for identifying social trends, comprising:
 a processing unit; and   a memory coupled to the processing unit, the memory contains instructions that when executed by the processing unit configures the system to:   collect multimedia content from a plurality of data sources;   gather environmental variables related to the collected multimedia content;   extract visual elements from the collected multimedia content;   generate at least one signature for each extracted visual element;   generate at least one cluster of visual elements by clustering at least similar signatures generated for the extracted visual elements;   correlate environmental variables related to visual elements in the at least one cluster;   determine at least one social trend by associating the correlated environmental variables with the at least one cluster.   
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein, a data source is one of: a web server, an application server, a data repository. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the visual element is at least one of: an image, a graphic, a video stream, a video clip, a video frame, and a photograph. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein each of the environmental variables is any one of:
 a location variable, a time variable, a weather variable, a speed variable, and a motion variable.   
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 1 , further configured to:
 check if the correlated environmental variables meet a predefined correlation threshold.   
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one cluster is a concept, wherein the concept is a collection of signatures representing visual elements and metadata describing the concept. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 1 , further configured to:
 evaluate the determined social trend over time.