Patent ID: 8825684

Claim:
A file comparing device comprising: a processor; a first comparator for identifying at least two content identifiers of a first file, assigning, by a manufacturer, to each of the at least two identified content identifiers of the first file, a cost related parameter value and an accuracy related parameter value, wherein the at least one cost related parameter corresponds to a quantitative measure of the cost of expending resources in finding a match between the first file and at least one other file, the expended resource being selected from the group consisting of power, bandwidth, time, and processing capacity, wherein the at least one accuracy related parameter corresponds to a quantitative measure of a desired level of match accuracy in finding said match between the first file and the at least one other file; a calculator for calculating one or more first functions of the cost related parameter value assigned to one or more of said at least two content identifiers of the first file and for calculating one or more second functions of an accuracy related parameter value assigned to one or more of said at least two content identifiers of the first file, a second comparator for comparing the one or more calculated first functions of the cost related parameter with a first threshold and the one or more calculated second function of the accuracy related parameter with a second threshold yielding one or more comparison results, and a selector for selecting a sub-group of said at least two content identifiers from said first file is made in response to said one or more comparison results of one of said first or second comparators.