Patent ID: 8229928

Claim:
A 3D object computing apparatus comprising: a microprocessor; an input unit in communication with the microprocessor, configured to receive as input at least one sample view of a 3D query object to be inputted; an object descriptor determining unit electrically coupled to the microprocessor and configured to generate at least one object representative image of the 3D query object from the at least one sample view and to determine a query object descriptor of the 3D query object from the at least one object representative image; an object classifying unit electrically coupled to the microprocessor, the object classifying unit configured to: retrieve candidate object descriptors of two or more 3D candidate objects each of the candidate object descriptors being associated with at least one object representative image; compare the candidate object descriptors to obtain similarities therebetween; classify the candidate object descriptors into at least one class based on the similarities; use a clustering algorithm to generate at least one class representative image from the candidate object descriptors of the two or more 3D candidate objects; determine at least one class descriptor, wherein determining the at least one class descriptor comprises determining at least one class image descriptor and concatenating the at least one class image descriptor; and an object matching unit configured to: compare the query object descriptor of the 3D query object with at least one class descriptor respectively identifying classes, each of the classes being associated with at least one candidate object descriptor of the 3D candidate objects, to find a matched class thereby; compare the query object descriptor of the 3D query object with the at least one candidate object descriptor associated with the matched class to find a matched object thereby.