Method and Apparatus for Approximate Matching of Image Data
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and device are disclosed for an associative and approximate, analog or digital scanning of databases that allows for the asynchronous accessing of data from a mass storage medium. The invention includes providing dedicated analog and digital circuitry and decision logic at the mass storage medium level for determining a key identifying the data of interest, continuously comparing the key to a signal generated from a reading of the data from the mass storage medium with an approximate or exact matching circuit to determine a pattern match, determining a correlation value between the key and the data as it is read in a continuous fashion, and determining a match based upon a preselected threshold value for the correlation value. The pattern matching technique eliminates any need to compare data based on its intrinsic structure or value, and instead is based on an analog or digital pattern. The key and data may be either analog or digital. This device and method may be provided as part of a stand-alone computer system, embodied in a network attached storage device, or can otherwise be provided as part of a computer LAN or WAN.
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Citations
62 Claims
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1-37. -37. (canceled)
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38. A method for determining whether at least a portion of an image is an approximate match to a key, the method comprising:
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streaming data corresponding to an image through programmable logic that has been loaded with a key; and comparing the streaming image data with the key using the programmable logic to thereby identify any approximate matches that exist between the key and the image data. - View Dependent Claims (39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49)
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50. An apparatus for determining whether a portion of an image stored by a mass storage medium is an approximate match to a key, the apparatus comprising:
an approximate matching unit in communication with a mass storage medium, the approximate matching unit comprising programmable logic, the programmable logic being configured to (1) store a key, (2) receive a stream of image data from the mass storage medium, and (3) compare the received stream of image data with the key to thereby identify an approximate match between the key and the received image data. - View Dependent Claims (51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60)
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61. A method for determining whether a portion of an image is an approximate match to a key, the method comprising:
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reading image data from a mass storage medium as a stream of pixels; correlating a sliding window of the pixel stream with a key using programmable logic, wherein the key corresponds to a group of pixels; and determining whether an approximate match exists between the key and the pixel stream in response to the correlating step and based on an adjustable threshold. - View Dependent Claims (62)
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Specification