Image file storage and retrieval system

• US 5,761,655 A
• Filed: 03/10/1994
• Issued: 06/02/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/1990
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Alphatronix, Inc.
• Inventors: Hoffman, Michael T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas G.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Loomis, John C.
• Application Number:
  US08/208,195
• Time in Patent Office: 1,545 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/4, 707/5
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/54 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5838 using colour
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation

Abstract

A system which creates, stores, retrieves and displays thumbnail images. The dominant colors of the image are displayed in the thumbnail images. The dominant colors in an image are determined using groups of pixels where the average color is used to select an appropriate dominant color for display. The size of the thumbnails displayed and the area set for displaying the thumbnails can be changed to allow visual review of either a large number of thumbnails or a smaller but larger size set of thumbnails. Thumbnails, and other image files and other related text files and non-related files can be indexed and searched using keywords by using keyword views into the stored files to indicate a match when the views designate the same file. The system allows a search to be based on a partial match of keywords. Searching can be performed using super-keywords, which are combinations of keywords and other file and data characteristics. Super-keywords can be combined with other super-keyword or keywords for searching purposes. To facilitate multi-media storage and searching and integration of off-line media into the system, the system includes a master directory having a full directory containing entries of each media as a branch of the master directory tree. The system also includes the utilities necessary to create, access, retrieve and update local and network accessed remote files on any type of media.

Claims

1. An image searching system, comprising:

keyword storage means for storing keywords corresponding to image files, the keywords being separate from of the image files;

image file storage means for storing the image files; and

search means for searching the keywords using search keywords and identifying image files having m out of n of the search keywords matching the keywords.

2. A system as recited in claim 1, further comprising a super-keyword comprising search keywords and file information, said super-keyword being used by said search means.

3. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein said keyword storage means includes keyviews into the files of said file storage means for each keyword being searched by said search means.

4. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the file keywords are in a compressed index file.

5. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein said search means searches for files having at least one dominant color.

6. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein wild card file criteria are matched by said search means.

7. A system as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

display means for displaying thumbnail images related to the image files found by said search means; and

image parameter designation means for designating parameters of the thumbnail images used for searching by said search means.

8. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein said search means performs a parallel multiple keyword search.

9. An image storage system, comprising:

image storage means for storing a color image;

image processing means for producing a reduced color image having only dominant colors of the color image;

thumbnail storage means for storing the reduced color image;

display means for displaying the reduced color image as a variably sized thumbnail image;

keyword storage means for storing file keywords;

file storage means for storing files corresponding to the file keywords, the keywords forming no part of the files;

search means for searching the keywords using search keywords and identifying files having m out of n of the search keywords matching the keywords and for identifying files having one of the dominant colors; and

image parameter designation means for designating parameters of the thumbnail images used for searching by said search means.