Patent ID: 7827163

Claim:
A computer system comprising: a computer processor; and an approximate blending search system for compositions, said approximate blending search system comprising: a material information database for storing names of a plurality of blending materials and a property information code for each of the plurality of blending materials, wherein each of the property information codes is composed of a plurality of identification codes; a blending composition database for storing names of the compositions, names of the blending materials constituting each of the compositions, property information codes for the blending materials constituting each of the compositions, and blending quantities of the blending materials constituting each of the compositions; and a prospective composition search unit for searching for a composition stored in said blending composition database in accordance with measurement data input from an input unit and at least one or more of the identification codes of the property information codes; wherein each of the blending materials is a color material selected from a coloring pigment, an effective pigment, and a dye, wherein, for each of the property information codes, the plurality of identification codes include at least a first identification code and a second identification code, wherein the first identification code is different than the second identification code, wherein, from among a plurality of pieces of property information of the respective blending material, the first identification code represents a first piece of property information of the respective blending material, and the second identification code represents a second piece of property information of the respective blending material, wherein the first piece of property information is different than the second piece of property information, wherein the plurality of pieces of property information include at least two of color information of the respective blending material, substance name information of the respective blending material, size information of the respective blending material, and chemical structure information of the respective blending material, and wherein said prospective composition search unit searches for a composition stored in said blending composition database in which a difference from the measurement data is within a specific range.