Patent ID: 7529411

Claim:
A method of determining a best match between a target profile and a set of stored profiles, wherein a profile contains a set of identifying information extracted from an image set associated with the profile, wherein the set of stored profiles corresponds to a plurality of different objects, the method comprising computer-implemented steps of: generating a plurality of confidence scores, wherein each confidence score of the plurality of confidence scores is based on a comparison between a feature set of the target profile and a feature set of a profile in the set of stored profiles, wherein each confidence score numerically represents the similarity between the feature set of the target profile and a feature set of a profile in the set of stored profiles; generating, from the plurality of confidence scores, a plurality of weighted confidence scores based on information external to the feature sets; and selecting, from the set of stored profiles, a particular profile as the best match for the target profile based on the plurality of weighted confidence scores; wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices programmed to be a special purpose machine pursuant to instructions from program software.