Patent ID: 8532377

Claim:
A method for ranking images comprising: receiving a query comprising a semantic part and an abstract part; retrieving a set of images responsive to the semantic part of the query; computing first scores for the retrieved images in the set of retrieved images, each first score being based on a relevance of a retrieved image to the semantic part of the query; computing a chromatic concept model for each of a set of abstract concepts, the chromatic concept model comprising a Gaussian Mixture Model wherein observations for the Gaussian mixture model are colors of at least one color palette which is associated with the abstract concept expressed in a perceptually uniform color space; identifying one of the set of chromatic concept models, based on the abstract part of the query; for retrieved images in the set of retrieved images: computing a chromatic image model based on colors of the image, the chromatic image model comprising a weighted set of colors expressed in the perceptually uniform color space, and computing a comparison measure between the chromatic image model and the identified chromatic concept model; computing second scores for the retrieved images that are based on the computed comparison measures; and ranking the retrieved images based on a combined score for a respective retrieved image which is a function of the first and second scores.