Image classification and information retrieval over wireless digital networks and the internet

A method for matching an unknown image with a known image, the method comprising:

• acquiring on a mobile communication device an unknown digital facial image of an individual;
• wirelessly transmitting the unknown digital facial image from the mobile communication device over a wireless network to an image classification server;
• processing the digital facial image at the image classification server to create a primary feature vector for the digital facial image;
• comparing the primary feature vector to a plurality of database feature vectors, each of the plurality of database feature vectors corresponding to a database processed image;
• selecting a database feature vector that best matches the primary feature vector to create matched images, wherein the matched images comprises the unknown digital facial image and a database processed;
• and
• transmitting the matched images to the mobile communication device.

A method for matching images, the method comprising:

• receiving a digital facial image from a mobile communication device over a wireless network at an image classification server;
• processing the digital facial image at the image classification server to create a primary feature vector for the digital facial image;
• comparing the primary feature vector to a plurality of database feature vectors, each of the plurality of database feature vectors corresponding to a database processed image;
• obtaining matched images from the primary feature vector and database feature vectors, wherein the matched images comprises the unknown digital facial image and a database processed;
• sorting the matched images based on predicted human perception;
• transmitting the best matched images from the image classification server to the user.