Method and system for using associative metadata

• US 6,353,823 B1
• Filed: 03/08/1999
• Issued: 03/05/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Kumar, Aruna
• Primary Examiner(s): Mizrahi, Diane D.
• Application Number:
  US09/264,425
• Time in Patent Office: 1,093 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/5, 707/102, 707/104, 707/103, 717/1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/10 File systems; File servers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A method and system are disclosed for storing a file to enable searching, where the file is stored in a set of files, a set of context information is extracted from the file and from the process of storing the file, the context information is stored in a set of associative information, and a reference to the file is stored in the set of associative information.

Claims

1. A method for storing a file to enable searching comprising:

storing the file in a set of files;

extracting a set of context information from the file during the step of storing the file in a set of files;

storing the set of context information in a set of associative information;

deriving feature information from a set of features contained in the file during the step of storing the file in a set of files;

storing the feature information in the set of associative information; and

storing a reference to the file in the set of associative information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein deriving feature information from the file comprises at least:

inputting a set of preferences, each preference associated with a feature extractor in a set of feature extractors;

applying a subset of the set of feature extractors to the file to produce a set of ratings;

modifying each rating by the preference associated with the feature extractor producing that rating; and

storing the set of modified ratings in the set of associative information.

3. The method of claim 2, where each preference determines whether or not a feature extractor associated with the preference is applied to the file.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising the step of storing user entered context information in the set of associative information.

5. The method of claim 4, where the files are images.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accepting a user query;

applying the user query to at least one of the set of associative information and the set of files; and

selecting a subset of the set of files, each file in the subset corresponding to the user query.

7. The method of claim 6, where the user query includes at least a set of preferences, each preference associated with a feature extractor in a set of feature extractors, the method further comprising the step of:

searching the set of associative information using the set of preferences.

8. The method of claim 7, where the file contains an image.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising the step of storing user entered context information in the set of associative information.

11. A system for storing files, enabling searching on the files, the system comprising:

a set of files;

an associative information database including at least a set of references, each reference in the set of references corresponding to a file, a set of subsets of context information, each subset of context information corresponding to a file, and a set of subsets of user relevant information, each subset of user relevant information corresponding to a file.

10. The system of claim 11, where each file contains an image.

12. The system claim 11 where the associative information database further includes at least a set of subsets of absolute values, each absolute value corresponding to a feature extractor and a user entered preference, each subset of absolute values corresponding to a file.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

a query module accepting a user query, applying the user query to at least one of the set of associative information and the set of files, and selecting a subset of the set of files, each file in the subset corresponding to the user query.

14. The system of claim 13, where the user query includes at least a set of preferences, each preference associated with a feature extractor in a set of feature extractors, the query module searching the set of associative information using the set of preferences.

15. A program storage device readable by a computer system, for storing a plurality of instructions for storing a file to enable searching, the plurality of instructions comprising:

instructions for storing a file in a set of files;

instructions for storing the set of context information from the file and from the storage of the file;

instructions for storing the set of context information in a set of associative information;

instructions for deriving feature information from a set of features contained in the file and corresponding to a set of user entered preferences; and

instructions for storing a reference to the file in the set of associative information.

16. The program storage device of claim 15 further comprising:

instructions for applying a subset of a set of feature extractors to the file to produce a set of ratings;

instructions for modifying each rating by an associated preference; and

instructions for storing each rating in the set of associative information.

17. The program storage device of claim 16, where each file contains an image.