US 7,925,650 B2Granted

Image management methods, image management systems, and articles of manufacture

AssigneeHewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

InventorsPere Obrador, Nathan M. Moroney

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Abstract

Image management methods, image management systems, and articles of manufacture are described. According to one embodiment, an image management method includes storing a plurality of images using storage circuitry, storing a plurality of representations for respective ones of the images, and the representations comprise data corresponding to a plurality of human comprehensible words of a human readable lexicon and descriptive of respective characteristics of content of the images, associating respective ones of the representations with respective ones of the respective one of the images, accessing search criteria, comparing the search criteria with the representations, identifying a selected one of the images responsive to the comparing, and accessing the selected one of the images from the storage circuitry responsive to the identifying.

Claims15

Dependent claims

An image management method comprising:

storing a plurality of images using storage circuitry;
for each image:
processing the image, by a processor, on a pixel-by-pixel basis to determine a color of each of a plurality of pixels of the image, resulting in a plurality of colors of the image, where each color of the image is the color of at least one pixel of the image;
associating, by the processor, for each pixel, the color of each pixel a human comprehensible lexical color name descriptive of the color of the pixel;
and,
for each color of the image, determining, by the processor, an extent to which the color is present within the image based on a number of pixels of the image that have the color;
storing, by the processor, a plurality of representations for respective ones of the images, and wherein the representations individually comprise data corresponding to a plurality of human comprehensible words of a human readable lexicon and descriptive of respective characteristics of content of the respective image,
wherein, for each image, the words are descriptive of each color present within the image,
wherein, for each image, the representation further includes numeric data for each color present within the image indicating the extent to which the color is present within the image;
associating respective ones of the representations with respective ones of the images, by the processor;
accessing search criteria, by the processor;
comparing the search criteria with the representations, by the processor;
identifying a selected one of the images responsive to the comparing, by the processor;
and
accessing the selected one of the images from the storage circuitry after the identifying, by the processor.

12 more elements

An image management system comprising:

storage circuitry configured to store a plurality of images and to store a plurality of representations corresponding to human comprehensible words of a human readable lexicon and associated with respective ones of the images, wherein the words are descriptive of characteristics of content of the images and the respective representations are indicative of the extents of the respective characteristics present in respective ones of the images;
and
processing circuitry coupled with the storage circuitry and configured to identify one of the images from an other of the images using the representations associated with the one and the other of the images,
wherein, for each image, the words are described of each color present within the image,
wherein, for each image, the representation further includes numeric data for each color present within the image indicating an extent to which the color is present within the image,
and wherein the processing circuitry is further to, for each image:
process the image on a pixel-by-pixel basis to determine a color of each of a plurality of pixels of the image, resulting in a plurality of colors of the image, where each color of the image is the color of at least one pixel of the image;
associate, for each pixel, the color of each pixel a human comprehensible lexical color name descriptive of the color of the pixel;
and,
for each color of the image, determine the extent to which the color is present within the image based on a number of pixels of the image that have the color.

7 more elements

A computer-readable data storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, wherein execution of the computer program by a processor causes a method to be performed, the method comprising:

accessing search criteria usable to identify an image having at least one desired color;
searching numerical data of a plurality of stored images using the search criteria, wherein the numerical data for one of the stored images comprises a plurality of values for a plurality of colors corresponding to a plurality of lexical color names of a human readable lexicon, and wherein the values are indicative of quantities of the respective colors present in the respective one of the stored images;
responsive to the searching, selecting at least one of the stored images having the at least one desired color;
processing the image on a pixel-by-pixel basis to determine a color of each of a plurality of pixels of the image, resulting in a plurality of colors of the image, where each color of the image is the color of at least one pixel of the image;
associating, for each pixel, the color of each pixel a human comprehensible lexical color name descriptive of the color of the pixel;
and for each color of the image, determining an extent to which the color is present within the image based on a number of pixels of the image that have the color.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.