Image retrieval system and method

• US 8,249,398 B2
• Filed: 12/11/2009
• Issued: 08/21/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/12/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Gold Charm Limited (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hong Fu Jin Precision Industry (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Lee, Chung-I, Yeh, Chien-Fa, Xiao, Wei-Qing
• Primary Examiner(s): Allison, Andrae S
• Application Number:
  US12/635,849
• Publication Number:
  US 20100177967A1
• Time in Patent Office: 984 Days
• Field of Search: 382/128, 382/181, 382/190, 382/219, 382/278, 382/282, 707/769, 707/752
• US Class Current: 382/305
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/50 of still image data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/53 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5838 using colour

Abstract

An image retrieval method applies an application server, one or more calculating servers, and a sorting server to perform image retrieval. The application server extracts visual features of an exemplary image. The one or more calculating servers calculate similarities of available images according to the visual features of the exemplary image. The sorting server sorts the available images according to the similarities so as to obtain images similar to the exemplary image.

Claims

1. An image retrieval system for searching images similar to an exemplary image from available images, the image retrieval system comprising:

an extracting module operable to extract visual features of the exemplary image and transfer the visual features of the exemplary image to one or more calculating servers, wherein the visual features of the exemplary image comprise color features and shape features, and wherein the visual features of the exemplary image are extracted by dividing the exemplary image into a plurality of image blocks, calculating an arithmetic mean of gray values of pixels in each image block as the color features of the image block, calculating a ratio of a black pixel amount to a total pixel amount in the image block as the shape features of the image block, and determining overall visual features of the exemplary image according to the color features and the shape features of the image blocks;

a distributing module operable to allocate image comparison tasks of the available images to the one or more calculating servers, such that the one or more calculating servers calculate similarities of the available images according to the visual features of the exemplary image and predetermined visual features of the available images, fetch image indexes of the available images from an index server, and return the similarities and the image indexes of the available images to the image retrieval system;

a gathering module operable to gather the similarities and the image indexes of all the available images from the one or more calculating servers;

a sorting module operable to transfer the gathered similarities of the available images to a sorting server, such that the sorting server sorts the available images according to the gathered similarities of the available images; and

an outputting module operable to receive a sorting sequence of the available images from the sorting server, and output the image indexes of the available images in the sorting sequence to a client computer.

2. The image retrieval system of claim 1, wherein the distributing module equally allocates the image comparison tasks.

3. The image retrieval system of claim 1, wherein the outputting module outputs a specified amount of the image indexes of the available images.

4. An image retrieval method for searching images similar to an exemplary image from available images, the image retrieval method comprising:

extracting visual features of the exemplary image and transferring the visual features of the exemplary image to one or more calculating servers, wherein the visual features of the exemplary image comprise color features and shape features, and wherein the extracting step comprises steps of dividing the exemplary image into a plurality of image blocks, calculating an arithmetic mean of gray values of pixels in each image block as the color features of the image block, calculating a ratio of a black pixel amount to a total pixel amount in the image block as the shape features of the image block, and determining overall visual features of the exemplary image according to the color features and the shape features of the image blocks;

distributing image comparison tasks of the available images to the one or more calculating servers, such that the one or more calculating servers calculate similarities of the available images according to the visual features of the exemplary image and predetermined visual features of the available images, fetch image indexes of the available images from an index server, and returns the similarities and the image indexes of the available images;

gathering the similarities and the image indexes of all the available images from the one or more calculating servers;

transferring the gathered similarities of the available images to a sorting server, and causing the sorting server to sort the available images according to the gathered similarities of the available images; and

receiving a sorting sequence of the available images from the sorting server, and outputting the image indexes of the available images in the sorting sequence to a client computer.

5. The image retrieval method of claim 4, wherein the image comparison tasks are equally allocated.

6. The image retrieval method of claim 4, wherein a specified amount of the image indexes of the available images is outputted in the outputting process.

7. A non-transitory computer storage medium having stored thereon computer instructions that, when executed by a computerized device, cause the computerized device to execute an image retrieval method for searching images similar to an exemplary image from available images, the image retrieval method comprising:

extracting visual features of the exemplary image and transferring the visual features of the exemplary image to one or more calculating servers, wherein the visual features of the exemplary image comprise color features and shape features, and wherein the extracting step comprises steps of dividing the exemplary image into a plurality of image blocks, calculating an arithmetic mean of gray values of pixels in each image block as the color features of the image block, calculating a ratio of a black pixel amount to a total pixel amount in the image block as the shape features of the image block, and determining overall visual features of the exemplary image according to the color features and the shape features of the image blocks;

distributing image comparison tasks of the available images to the one or more calculating servers, such that the one or more calculating servers calculate similarities of the available images according to the visual features of the exemplary image and predetermined visual features of the available images, fetch image indexes of the available images from an index server, and return the similarities and the image indexes of the available images;

gathering the similarities and the image indexes of all the available images from the one or more calculating servers;

transferring the gathered similarities of the available images to a sorting server, and causing the sorting server to sort the available images according to the gathered similarities of the available images; and

receiving a sorting sequence of the available images from the sorting server, and outputting the image indexes of the available images in the sorting sequence to a client computer.

8. The storage medium of claim 7, wherein the image comparison tasks are equally allocated.

9. The storage medium of claim 7, wherein a specified amount of the image indexes of the available images is outputted in the outputting process of the image retrieval method.