Methods of partitioning a set of objects and search method in a partition of a set of objects

A computer program comprising computer readable storage medium storing a computer program instructing a computer to perform the following steps:

• (a) a first iterative partitioning step (S0 to S3) which utilizes a first partition (P0) formed by classes that contain an object and which at each iteration (i) combines two classes that maximize a criterion of similarity for creating a new partition (Pi+1) used as an initial partition for the next step, until a partition (PN−1) is obtained that contains only a single class,
• (b) a selection step (S4) of selecting from among the obtained partitions, a partition (PY0) which comprises an optimal number of classes (M), characterized in that it comprises the following sub-steps:
• (i) a step (S6) of calculating elements (Y0, i) which are representative of classes of the selected partition, and
• (ii) a second iterative partitioning step (S7, S8) which utilizes the selected partition as a first current partition (PYi) and which, at each iteration (i), creates a new partition (PYi+1) by associating each object of said set (X) with the element which represents the current partition (Yi j) it is closest to, and calculates elements (Yi+1, j) which are representative of classes of the new partition (PYi+1), the new partition forming the current partition for the next iteration, until the elements which are representative of the new partition are identical with the elements which are representative of the current partition (Yi+1,i=Yi,j), and
• (c) one of displaying/printing said elements representative of the new partition.

A transmission system for transporting signals between a data source and a user equipment, comprising:

• a data source;
• a communications medium that is adapted to communicate with the data source;
• user equipment that communicates with the data source via the communications medium, said user equipment comprises a receiving circuit, a microprocessor, a memory, and a plurality of program modules stored in a portion of the memory, display means and entry means;
• wherein a first program module PG1 comprises one or more programs for coding captured video;
• wherein a second program module PG2 creates a partition of meta-data comprising a description of a set of captured video received from the first program module and with the captured video data;
• wherein a third program module PG3 creates a multilevel partition of the description in the second program module, said multilevel partition comprising a tree-like structure;
• wherein a fourth program module PG4 comprises an application program that utilizes the tree-like structure provided by PG3;
• wherein a fifth program module PG5 comprises means for creating a database of the data output by the fourth program module;
• and
• wherein a sixth program module comprises a second application program that permits a user to choose a descriptor and an example from a set of descriptors and parse through an output of the fifth program module to receive as an output a number of returns that are closest to a chosen descriptor.