Patent ID: 7715621

Claim:
A method of representing a group of images using at least one processor to process signals corresponding to the images, the method comprising: obtaining, using a processor, an image descriptor which is an image dominant colour representation for each image in the group of images, where each of the image descriptors has one or more components including at least one image dominant colour value; deriving, using a processor, a group descriptor which is a group dominant colour representation expressing the group of images in terms of one or more of dominant colour values by combining one or more components of a plurality of the image descriptors based on proximity of dominant colours in colour space; and storing the group descriptor as a descriptor for the group of images, wherein said combining of components based on proximity comprises retrieving first and second image descriptors, each of said first and second image descriptors including a plurality of dominant colour values, determining the distance between each dominant colour value in said first image descriptor and each dominant colour value in said second image descriptor, to obtain a plurality of distance measurements, selecting the smallest distance measurement, selecting the dominant colour value in the first image descriptor and the dominant colour value in the second image descriptor corresponding to said smallest distance measurement, and combining said selected dominant colour values to form a new dominant colour value in a new descriptor.