Sony patents font search that understands natural language descriptions
Sony has been granted a patent for a system that lets users search for text fonts using natural language phrases instead of specific font names. The technology converts both the user's description and the available fonts into mathematical coordinates, allowing the system to find fonts that visually or stylistically match the meaning of the search query.
In the filing’s own words
In one aspect, semantic-based font searching may be performed in vector space using machine learning. Text and images may therefore be put into a same embedded vector space so that font images that are close, in the vector space, to a word from a font search query may be returned as search results. Thus, an end-user can enter a natural language search query string for the system to return fonts that semantically match the user's search string.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. An apparatus, comprising: at least one processor system configured to: receive a query representing a semantic-based search for a text font; in response to receipt of the query, convert one or more elements of the query into a first vector that represents the semantic-based search within a vector space of fonts where semantically similar fonts are arranged closer to one another than semantically dissimilar fonts; search, in the vector space, for vectors representing one or more types of text fonts using the first vector that represents the semantic-based search; based on the search, return a second vector that represents a particular text font that semantically matches the query; and based on the return of the second vector, present, on a graphical user interface (GUI) as a search result to the query, an indication of the particular text font.
Facts
- Company
- Sony (Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC)
- Official title
- Semantic-based font searching in vector space using machine learning
- Patent number
- US12730840B2
- Application number
- 18797379
- Filed
- Aug 7, 2024
- Granted
- Sep 8, 2026
- Inventors
- 1
- Claims
- 20
Classified under
G06F 16/56 Physics & computingG06F 16/535 Physics & computingG06F 16/538 Physics & computingMore from Sony in AI & software
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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.