Patent ID: 6782395
Filing Date: 2004-08-24
Classification: G06F,G06K,Y10S

Abstract:
A method of searching images, from an example image, from amongst a plurality of images stored in a database, each of the stored images being associated with a data item of a first type representing at least one characteristic of the visual content of the image, each of the stored images being associated with a data item of a second type representing a location of at least one region of interest in the image, said method comprising the following steps:receiving a data item of the second type representing the location of at least one region of interest in the example image; receiving a data item of the first type associated with the example image, the data item of the first type being obtained for each of the stored images and for the example image by performing a first operation of dividing the image into a predefined number N of blocks followed by a second extraction operation for each of the blocks (Bi) of a data item representing a visual content of the block, the data item of the first type including of a vector (G(Im)) having N components each of which corresponds to a data item representing a visual content extracted for a block of the image; calculating a similarity between the example image and each image in at least one subset of the stored images, the similarity being calculated from the data of the first type and of the second type associated respectively with the example image and with a stored image; said step of calculating a similarity, denoted SIM, between the example image, denoted Q, and each image, denoted D, from the least one subset of stored images being performed by calculating a distance between a vector G(Q) associated with the example image and a vector G(D) associated with the stored image under consideration, the distance being weighted by means of a plurality N of weighting coefficients Wi, a value of each of which is indicative of a degree of proximity in one of the blocks Bi resulting from the division of the images, of regions of interest associated with the example image and with the stored image under consideration; and supplying at least one image, referred to as a result image, of the database, the at least one result image being selected from amongst the stored images in the database according to its degree of similarity with the example image.