Methods and devices for indexing and searching for digital images taking into account the spatial distribution of the content of the images

• Main Author: LABELLE LILIAN
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 05.09.2006
• Subjects: CALCULATING; COMPUTING; COUNTING; ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING; HANDLING RECORD CARRIERS; PHYSICS; PRESENTATION OF DATA; RECOGNITION OF DATA; RECORD CARRIERS

According to the invention, a method of indexing a digital image comprises the following steps: generating a first information item (H(Im)) characteristic of the visual content of the image (Im) to be indexed; generating a second information item (W(Im)) characteristic of the spatial distribution of the visual content of the image (Im) in its image plane; and associating, with the image (Im), an index (IDX(Im)) composed of the first information item (H(Im)) and the second information item (W(Im)). More particularly, the step of generating the first information item (H(Im)) has the following substeps: dividing the image plane of the image (Im) according to a partitioning comprising a predefined number N of blocks (Bi); extracting, from each of the blocks (Bi), a data item of a first type (hiIm) representing at least one characteristic of the visual content of the block under consideration; and generating the first information item (H(Im)) as being a vector having N components, each of which is one of the data items of the first type (hiIm).