Patent Document ID: 6084595
Application ID: 09028279

Base Claim:
1. A method of feature vector indexing, comprising the steps of: providing a plurality of feature vectors, each feature vector indicative of one of a plurality of objects, wherein each feature vector comprises at least one primitive, each primitive being associated with an attribute of the object and identifying a plurality of features, each feature having an associated feature coefficient; using a distance metric to select index values which are indicative of features of the feature vector; providing a target feature vector and a plurality of user weights; generating a constraint based on the target feature vector and the plurality of user weights; and applying the constraint to the index values so as to select a subset of the feature vectors.

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Claim 16:
16. The method of claim 1, additionally comprising the step of comparing each one of the subset feature vectors with the target feature vector, wherein the user weights are combined with the results of the comparison to provide a score for each vector comparison.