Patent ID: 7668853
Filing Date: 2010-02-23
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. An information retrieval system in which a set of distinct information items map to respective nodes in a self-organizing map by mutual similarity of the information items, so that similar information items map to nodes at similar positions in the self-organizing map, wherein the self-organizing map is trained upon reduced dimension characterizations of the information items, the system comprising: a user control configured to define a search criterion for selecting a subset of the information items represented by the self-organizing map, the search criterion being applied using a standard keyword search technique; a detector configured to detect those positions within the self-organizing map corresponding to the subset of the information items selected by the standard keyword search technique; a graphical user interface configured to display points representing only those positions within the self-organizing map corresponding to the selected subset of information items; and a processor, responsive to the selected subset of information items selected using the search criterion, configured to provide one or more representations representative of the information content of the selected subset of information items, wherein each of the information items represented by the self-organizing map includes image data; and wherein the processor is responsive to the selected subset of information items and causes the graphical user interface to display one or more images obtained from the image data included in the selected subset of information items selected using the search criterion so as to represent the content of the selected subset of information items.