Patent ID: 8200027
Filing Date: 2012-06-12
Classification: G06F,G06K

Abstract:
1. A method comprising: receiving an example image for use in querying a collection of digital images; using, by a processing system, a local feature descriptor representing a portion of the contents of a digital image and a global feature descriptor representing substantially all of the contents of the digital image to perform a content-based image comparison of the collection of digital images with the example image to automatically rank the collection of digital images with respect to similarity to the example image; using a final classifier and multiple different intermediate classifiers to perform the automatic ranking, comprising: after generating the final relevance metric, receiving input identifying a second example image for use in querying the collection of digital images; automatically determining at least one new intermediate classifier, based at least in part on the example images; automatically determining a new final classifier, based at least in part on the example images; and using the new intermediate classifier and the new final classifier to automatically re-rank the digital images in the collection with respect to similarity to the example images; wherein the processing system comprises at least one a computer processor that the processing system uses to perform the content-based image comparison.