Patent ID: 8713068

Claim:
A method comprising: storing media fingerprints in a reference database comprising a plurality of partitions, each partition storing a set of reference fingerprints generated from known media samples, the reference fingerprints used to identify unknown digital media samples; monitoring access rates of the partitions of the reference database by a media identification system, wherein an access rate of a partition is determined as the average number of reference fingerprints on that partition that are included in a candidate set of fingerprints, wherein the candidate set of fingerprints comprises a subset of reference fingerprints in the partition that match a test fingerprint associated with an unknown digital media sample; receiving a request to store one or more new reference fingerprints in the reference database; selecting a partition of the reference database based at least in part on the access rates of the partitions; and storing the new reference fingerprints in the selected partition of the reference database, wherein the storing media fingerprints in a reference database further comprises indexing the reference fingerprints in the database by a characteristic of the reference fingerprints, and grouping reference fingerprints having the same indexed characteristic in the same partition of the reference database.