Information search and retrieval system

Abstract

Method and systems for search and retrieval of images with an image processing system is disclosed. With an input interface, selection of a plurality of images to use in a search query is accepted. The plurality of images of the search query are processed with the image processing system. A subset of the plurality of target images that are similar to the plurality of images is determined. With an output interface, the subset of the plurality of target images as a result from the search query is output.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 10 / 767,216 filed on Jan. 29, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,860,854 issued on Dec. 28, 2010; which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 10 / 216,550 filed on Aug. 8, 2002, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,721,733 issued on Apr. 13, 2004; which is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 09 / 179,541 filed on Oct. 26, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,463,426 issued on Oct. 8, 2002, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60 / 063,623 filed on Oct. 27, 1997.STATEMENTS REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH[0002]This invention was made with government support under Grant No. N00014-95-1-0600 awarded by the U.S. Navy. The government has certain rights in the invention.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]This invention relates to information search and retrieval systems and more particularly to search and retrieval systems which utilize in whole or in part image processing tec...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The system enables accurate and efficient retrieval of images by focusing on the content-based analysis, reducing processing time and improving the accuracy of image matching across diverse applications, including biometric identification, printed circuit board inspection, and medical image processing.

Problems solved by technology

One problem with such systems is that they rely on restricted predefined textual annotations rather than on the content of the still or video images in the database.

One problem with this approach, however, is that fish do not have a standard shape and thus the shape specification is limited to classifying or identifying fish having the same or a very similar shape.

The difficulty with these systems is that for a given query image, even though the images located by the system may have the same color, textural, or other statistical properties as the example image, the images may not be part of the same class as the query image.

Images