Image query system and method
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A computerized method of retrieving images from an image data base, comprising the steps of:
- receiving a depictive specification of one or more image characteristics of a search image, the specification including a type, a location, and a weight of the one or more image characteristics;
executing a query for images in the image data base that are similar to the search image by;
determining whether an image in the image data base has an image characteristic of the type and near the location of the one or more image characteristics of the search image; and
determining similarity between the image and the search image according to the weight of the one or more image characteristics of the search image;
accumulating a set of images determined to be similar to the search image; and
providing the set of images ranked in an order according to a degree of similarity to the search image.
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Abstract
Images in an image database are searched in response to queries which include the visual characteristics of the images such as colors, textures, shapes, and sizes, as well as by textual tags appended to the images. Queries are constructed in an image query construction area in response to values of representations of the visual characteristics and to locations of the representations in the image query construction area.
856 Citations
35 Claims
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1. A computerized method of retrieving images from an image data base, comprising the steps of:
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receiving a depictive specification of one or more image characteristics of a search image, the specification including a type, a location, and a weight of the one or more image characteristics; executing a query for images in the image data base that are similar to the search image by; determining whether an image in the image data base has an image characteristic of the type and near the location of the one or more image characteristics of the search image; and determining similarity between the image and the search image according to the weight of the one or more image characteristics of the search image; accumulating a set of images determined to be similar to the search image; and providing the set of images ranked in an order according to a degree of similarity to the search image. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A computerized method of managing an image database, comprising the steps of:
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constructing an image database by; storing a plurality of images in an image store; and storing a plurality of image data representations of the plurality of images; receiving a specification of one or more image characteristics in a search image, specification of the one or more image characteristics including a type and a location; querying the image database for images that are similar to the search image by; identifying from the image data representations one or more images that include the type specified in the search image near the location specified in the search image; and determining similarity between each image of the one or more images and the search image; accumulating a set of images determined to be similar to the search image; ranking the images of the set of images according to a degree of similarity to the search image; and providing the set of images, in ranked order, from the image store. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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Specification