Similarity engine for content-based retrieval of images
First Claim
1. A search engine, comprising:
- a function container capable of storing primitive functions;
a registration interface storing functions to the function container; and
a primitive supplying primitive functions to the registration interface, wherein the primitive functions include an analysis function capable of extracting features from an object.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for content-based search and retrieval of visual objects. A base visual information retrieval (VIR) engine utilizes a set of universal primitives to operate on the visual objects. An extensible VIR engine allows custom, modular primitives to be defined and registered. A custom primitive addresses domain specific problems and can utilize any image understanding technique. Object attributes can be extracted over the entire image or over only a portion of the object. A schema is defined as a specific collection of primitives. A specific schema implies a specific set of visual features to be processed and a corresponding feature vector to be used for content-based similarity scoring. A primitive registration interface registers custom primitives and facilitates storing of an analysis function and a comparison function to a schema table. A heterogeneous comparison allows objects analyzed by different schemas to be compared if at least one primitive is in common between the schemas. A threshold-based comparison is utilized to improve performance of the VIR engine. A distance between two feature vectors is computed in any of the comparison processes so as to generate a similarity score.
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Citations
14 Claims
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1. A search engine, comprising:
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a function container capable of storing primitive functions; a registration interface storing functions to the function container; and a primitive supplying primitive functions to the registration interface, wherein the primitive functions include an analysis function capable of extracting features from an object. - View Dependent Claims (2)
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3. A search engine, comprising:
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a set of primitives each having one or more functions capable of extracting attributes from a visual object and capable of determining similarity between visual objects; a registration interface capable of registering the primitives; and a comparator function capable of applying functions of registered primitives so as to compare objects. - View Dependent Claims (4)
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5. In a system comprising a search engine in communication with a database including a plurality of visual objects, a method of object comparison, comprising the steps of:
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creating a custom primitive having an analysis function and a comparison function; registering the custom primitive with the search engine via a registration interface; applying the analysis function to at least a portion of the database objects and a query object; and applying the comparison function to the analyzed query object and at least a portion of the analyzed database objects. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method of extending a search engine for searching a database of visual objects, the method comprising the steps of:
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providing a search engine primitive including a function to extract an attribute from a visual object; adding a new primitive to the search engine via a registration interface, wherein the new primitive comprises a comparison function for a selected attribute; and comparing the extracted attributes from two visual objects with the comparison function. - View Dependent Claims (14)
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Specification