Patent ID: 7006689
Filing Date: 2006-02-28
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
1. An image search system for determining a similarity of an image whose features are represented by either one of image features amounts, an amount of color distribution features or an amount of frequency distribution features, to search for a similar image, wherein said amount of color distribution features is set to be an image feature amount obtained by dividing an image as an object representing feature into a predetermined plurality of blocks and determining a representative color of each said block to generate data of said representative color corresponding to each said block; and wherein said amount of frequency distribution features is set to be an image feature amount generated by transforming an image as an object representing features into a reduced image of a fixed size and subjecting said reduced image to frequency conversion, the image search system comprising: means for transforming, with respect to an image set to be a target whose kind of image feature amount is to be changed among respective images to be searched and an inquiry image, a kind of image feature amount of the target image in question to make kinds of image feature amounts of each said image to be searched and said inquiry image coincident with each other; and means for comparing the image feature amount of said inquiry image with the image feature amount of each said image to be searched based on said transformed image feature amount and determining a similarity of each image to search for a similar image; frequency distribution feature amount transformation means for transforming an amount of frequency distribution features into an amount of color distribution features indicative of features similar to image features represented by the amount of frequency distribution features in question, and color distribution similarity calculation means for comparing the amount of color distribution features of said inquiry image with the amount of color distribution features of each said image to be searched and determining a similarity of each image to search for a similar image, wherein said frequency distribution features amount transformation means renders all the kinds of image features amounts of each image to be searched and the inquiry image into the amount of color distribution features, and said frequency distribution features amount transformation means including inverse-frequency transformation means for decoding an applied amount of frequency distribution features to generate a decoded image, and color distribution features amount extraction means for extracting each pixel value of said decoded image as an amount of color constituent features to extract an amount of color distribution features indicative of feature similar to image features represented by said applied amount of frequency distribution features.