Patent ID: 7502780

Claim:
An information retrieval apparatus for searching a set of information items and displaying results of the search using a self-organizing map, the apparatus comprising: a graphical user interface configured to display a representation of at least some of the information items as a n-dimensional array of display points within the self-organizing map within a display area, the information items each having a set of characterizing information features which include data representative of one or more video images, a processor configured to train the self-organizing map, using color histograms for each video image, to an effect that a color histogram representing a video image of the information item when applied to an input of the self-organizing map as a feature vector identifies one of a plurality of output nodes, the output nodes being arranged to identify points within the self-organizing map, a user control configured to, in response to a user input, select a plurality of video images and to specify a combination of the plurality of selected video images, and a search processor configured to form a color histogram for each of the user selected video images, to generate a composite color histogram from the specified combination of each of the color histograms from each of the selected video images, to generate a user defined feature vector from the user selected video images using the composite color histogram, to search the set of information items by applying the user defined feature vector to the input of the self-organizing map to identify information items which include video images having color histograms corresponding to that of the user selected video images, and to perform a related search with respect to the user selected video images by identifying, from the self-organizing map, information items which correspond to positions in the array which are neighbouring positions with respect to an array position corresponding to the user selected video images.