Patent ID: 8275726

Claim:
A method for classifying an object from a source catalog to a target catalog, comprising: determining a probability that an object from a source catalog belongs to a class in a target catalog using a baseline statistical classification algorithm; assigning the object to the class if the probability meets a desired threshold; and responsive to the probability not meeting the desired threshold: determining a classification cost for the object, comprising: determining an assignment cost for assigning the object to a second class in the target catalog, the assignment cost a function of a probability that the object belongs to the second class; determining a separation cost for the object based on: a distance between the second class and a third class, in the target catalog, of a second object; and a similarity between the object and the second object; and combining the assignment cost and the separation cost to determine the classification cost; and determining whether to assign the object to the second class based on the classification cost.