System and method for image processing for trend analysis

A system for analyzing trends using image data, comprising:

• a token database storing a plurality of visual tokens, wherein each visual token stored in the token database is stored in association with an identifier that identifies the visual token as being associated with an image data set;
• and
• a server comprising at least one processor configured to:
• generate the plurality of visual tokens for images from a plurality of image data sets,
• wherein generating the plurality of visual tokens comprises, for each image in the plurality of image data sets:
• detecting an object in the image by performing foreground detection on the image to determine contours of the object;
• determining feature descriptors of the image;
• classifying the object in accordance with an object category;
• determining one or more attributes of the object, based on the feature descriptors within the contours of the object;
• and
• generating a visual token associated with the image, the visual token comprising information including the object category and the one or more attributes of the object determined from the feature descriptors;
• store the visual tokens in the token database;
• receive a trend query relating to an object category and defining two or more groups of interest for which trend data is to be determined with a defined time period;
• identify visual tokens of interest relating to the object category for use in searching the token database;
• identify one or more image data sets associated with each of the two or more groups of interest;
• analyze visual tokens matching the visual tokens of interest that are associated with the identified image data sets to generate trend data for each of the two or more groups of interest for the defined period of time;
• and
• generate an output based on a comparison of the trend data generated for the two or more groups of interest for the defined period of time.