Patent ID: 8391611

Claim:
A method for automatically providing descriptors for images to a user, the method comprising: providing an image descriptor database having a plurality of image feature vectors, each of the plurality of image feature vectors having an associated descriptor; assigning a specificity value to each of the descriptors, wherein the specificity value comprises an estimation of a degree of description specificity; determining a first image feature vector for a first image; comparing the first image feature vector with the plurality of image vectors in the image descriptor database; identifying one or more descriptors for the first image vector based on the comparison of the first image feature vector with the plurality of image vectors and the specificity value of the corresponding descriptor; comparing image feature vectors in the database that have a selected associated descriptor in common to determine an estimated degree of similarity between the image feature vectors; and assigning the specificity value to the selected descriptor responsive to the estimated degree of similarity, wherein the image feature vector comprises image pixel data and/or characteristics determined by image recognition techniques.