Searching of line pattern representations using gestures

A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable storage devices having thereon computer-executable instructions that are structured such that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to perform a method for searching a line pattern representation amongst a collection of line pattern representations, the method comprising:

• determining that an input gesture has been input into the computing system;
• encoding the input gesture by segmenting a line pattern associated with the input gesture into a plurality of segments and assigning a quantized value to each segment of the line pattern;
• automatically matching the input gesture against each of a plurality of line pattern representations,
• each representation representing a line pattern having a changing value in a first dimension as a function of a value in a second dimension, and each representation having an encoding comprising a plurality of quantized values associated with a plurality of segments of the each line pattern, and
• automatically matching comprising determining a measure of commonality between the encoding of the input gesture and the encoding of each of the plurality of line pattern representations;
• and
• visualizing at least one line pattern representation of the matched set on a display of the computing system.

A computing system for searching a line pattern representation amongst a collection of line pattern representations, the system comprising:

• persistent data storage comprising a collection of line pattern representations;
• one or more computer-readable hardware storage devices having thereon computer-executable instructions;
• and
• one or more computer processors upon which executes the computer executable instructions which cause the computing system to instantiate:
• an input mechanism that detects user input;
• a matching mechanism that matches input gestures input into the input mechanism against each of the collection of line pattern representations to form a matched set, each line pattern representation representing a line pattern having a changing value in a first dimension as a function of a value in a second dimension,
• each input gesture being encoded by segmenting a line pattern associated with the input gesture into a plurality of segments and assigning a quantized value to each segment of the line pattern,
• each representation in the collection of line pattern representations having an encoding comprising a plurality of quantized values associated with a plurality of segments of the each line pattern, and
• matching comprising determining a measure of commonality between the encoding of the input gesture and the encoding of each of the plurality of line pattern representations;
• and a visualization component for visualizing at least some of the matched set.