Patent ID: 7353224

Claim:
A method of storing and ordering image data in a database comprising: gathering a plurality of images for inclusion in the database; computing, by a Fourier-Mellin Transform (FMT), a match descriptor indicative of each of the plurality of images, each of the match descriptors corresponding to a multidimensional space having more than two dimensions; organizing the match descriptors in the database, the organizing being performed according to a predetermined metric indicative of a correspondence between a given match descriptor and the other match descriptors in the database, wherein the predetermined metric defines a similarity between two different match descriptors such that the similarity is a ratio of a number of elements common to two sets of match descriptors and a total number of unique elements in the two sets of match descriptors; receiving a target image for which a match is sought; computing a target descriptor indicative of the target image; mapping into the database to determine a close match of the target descriptor among the organized match descriptors; selecting a candidate match descriptor from among the organized match descriptors; and returning the candidate match descriptor if the candidate match descriptor is a match to the target descriptor, the match being determined by a similarity metric, wherein the predetermined similarity metric defines a ratio of (i) a number of descriptors common to the target and candidate match descriptors and (ii) a total number of descriptors unique to the target and candidate match descriptors.