Image management methods, image management systems, and articles of manufacture

• US 20080025647A1
• Filed: 07/27/2006
• Published: 01/31/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Micro Focus LLC (Open Text Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Obrador, Pere, Moroney, Nathan M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,925,650 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/305
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5838 using colour

Abstract

Image management methods, image management systems, and articles of manufacture are described. According to one embodiment, an image management method includes storing a plurality of images using storage circuitry, storing a plurality of representations for respective ones of the images, and the representations comprise data corresponding to a plurality of human comprehensible words of a human readable lexicon and descriptive of respective characteristics of content of the images, associating respective ones of the representations with respective ones of the respective one of the images, accessing search criteria, comparing the search criteria with the representations, identifying a selected one of the images responsive to the comparing, and accessing the selected one of the images from the storage circuitry responsive to the identifying.

Claims

1. An image management method comprising:

storing a plurality of images using storage circuitry;

storing a plurality of representations for respective ones of the images, and wherein the representations individually comprise data corresponding to a plurality of human comprehensible words of a human readable lexicon and descriptive of respective characteristics of content of the respective image;

associating respective ones of the representations with respective ones of the images;

accessing search criteria;

comparing the search criteria with the representations;

identifying a selected one of the images responsive to the comparing; and

accessing the selected one of the images from the storage circuitry after the identifying.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the storing the representations comprises storing numerical data corresponding to respective ones of the words and indicative of extents of respective ones of the characteristics present in respective ones of the images.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the words are descriptive of the characteristics comprising different colors of the images.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising quantifying extents of the respective colors present in the images and the representations comprise numerical data indicative of the extents of the respective colors.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the quantifying comprises performing lexical color quantization of the images.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the search criteria comprises at least one of the words of the human readable lexicon and numerical data indicative of a desired extent of the respective characteristic which corresponds to the at least one of the words to be present in the selected one of the images.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising quantifying the extents of the respective characteristics present in the images and providing numerical data indicative of the extents of the respective characteristics, and wherein the comparing comprises comparing the numerical data of the respective characteristic of the search criteria with the numerical data of the respective characteristic of the images.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the search criteria comprises a histogram comprising a plurality of numerical values corresponding to respective ones of the characteristics.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the accessing the search criteria comprises:

providing a search image; and

using the search image, providing numerical data of the search criteria which is indicative of the extent of a respective characteristic present in the search image.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising ranking the images based on similarities of the images to the search criteria responsive to the comparing.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the identifying comprises identifying the selected one of the images being the most similar to the search criteria.

12. An image management system comprising:

storage circuitry configured to store a plurality of images and to store a plurality of representations corresponding to human comprehensible words of a human readable lexicon and associated with respective ones of the images, wherein the words are descriptive of characteristics of content of the images and the respective representations are indicative of the extents of the respective characteristics present in respective ones of the images; and

processing circuitry coupled with the storage circuitry and configured to identify one of the images from an other of the images using the representations associated with the one and the other of the images.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the words are descriptive of the characteristics comprising different colors present in the images and the representations comprise numerical data indicative of extents of the respective colors present in the respective images.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to process the images to determine the numerical data.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to quantify the extents of the respective characteristics present in the images to determine the numerical data.

16. The system of claim 12 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to access search criteria and to use the search criteria to identify the one of the images.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to generate the search criteria comprising numerical data for respective ones of the characteristics using a search image.

18. The system of claim 16 wherein the search criteria comprises at least one of the words of the human readable lexicon, and numerical data indicative of a desired extent of the respective characteristic which corresponds to the word to be present in the selected one of the images.

19. The system of claim 16 wherein the characteristics are colors, wherein the storage circuitry is configured to store the representations comprising a plurality of histograms, and wherein the histograms comprise numerical data indicating the extents of the colors in the respective images, and wherein the search criteria is in the form of a histogram comprising the numerical data indicative of the desired extent of the at least one of the colors to be present in the identified one of the images, and wherein the processing circuitry is configured to compare the histogram of the search criteria with respect to individual ones of the histograms of the images to identify the one of the images.

20. An article of manufacture comprising:

media comprising programming configured to cause processing circuitry to perform processing comprising;

accessing search criteria usable to identify an image having at least one desired color;

searching numerical data of a plurality of stored images using the search criteria, wherein the numerical data for one of the stored images comprises a plurality of values for a plurality of colors corresponding to a plurality of lexical color names of a human readable lexicon, and wherein the values are indicative of quantities of the respective colors present in the respective one of the stored images; and

responsive to the searching, selecting at least one of the stored images having the at least one desired color.

21. The article of claim 20 wherein the accessing search criteria comprises accessing text input of a user and comprising at least one of the lexical color names and numerical data indicative of a desired extent of the color corresponding to the at least one lexical color name to be present in the selected image.

22. The article of claim 20 wherein the accessing search criteria comprises:

accessing image data regarding at least one color of a search image and corresponding to one of the lexical color names to be present in the selected image; and

using the accessed image data, providing numerical data of the search criteria and indicative of a desired extent of the at least one color, and wherein the searching the numerical data of the plurality of stored images comprises searching using the numerical data of the search criteria.