SEARCH ENGINE AND METHOD FOR IMAGE SEARCHING
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
- gridding a digital image;
calculating a plurality of metrics for each region of the gridded digital image;
generating an image index file from the plurality of metrics for each region; and
storing the image index file in a database.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Registration and classification of non-textual information, such as digital images and video is described. Image searching and comparison of the images is also described. The digital images are indexed (i.e., each image is assigned a unique numerical parameter and/or a plurality of numerical parameters). The resulting index files are stored in a database that can be quickly searched because the index files are universal numerical files that are significantly smaller in size than their source images. Image search queries are also indexed to generate an index file, which is then compared with the stored index files. A similarity score is also calculated to rank the similar images based on the index file-to-index file comparison.
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Citations
52 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
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gridding a digital image; calculating a plurality of metrics for each region of the gridded digital image; generating an image index file from the plurality of metrics for each region; and storing the image index file in a database. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A computer-implemented method comprising:
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locating a plurality of digital images at websites; storing the digital images in a first database with a link to the website on which the digital image was located; calculating an image index file for each of the located images, the image index file representative of the located images; storing the image index file with the link in a second database; and deleting the digital images from the first database when the image index file of that image is stored in the second database. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A computer system comprising
a crawling data store to temporarily store digital images; -
an index data store comprising a plurality of image index files representation of the digital images; and an indexing engine to calculate the image index files for each digital image, each image index file comprising a plurality of image metrics, and provide a request to delete each digital image from the crawling data store after the image index file for the digital image is calculated. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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37. A computer-implemented method comprising:
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providing a structured database having a plurality of clusters, each cluster having a plurality of image index files representative of digital images, and each cluster having a cluster identifier; receiving a search query, the search query being a digital image; calculating the image index file of the search query; and comparing the image index file of the search query with each cluster identifier to identify a cluster to search; comparing the image index file of the search query with each of the plurality of image index files in the identified cluster; and determining a similarity of the search query with the images in the identified cluster. - View Dependent Claims (38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49)
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50. A computer system comprising
an index data store comprising a plurality of image index files representative of digital images; -
a search portal to receive an image query; and an indexing engine to calculate the image index files for each digital image, calculate an image index file for the image query, identify a searchable cluster for the digital image and compare the image index file for the digital image with the plurality of image index files in the cluster. - View Dependent Claims (51, 52)
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Specification