Creating a linearized data structure for ordering images based on their attributes

Claim 7

An instruction storage device having stored thereon data representing sequences of instructions that if executed cause a processor to perform operations comprising: determining n attributes for each of a plurality of images, wherein n is an integer greater than one; providing a point in an n-dimensional space for each of the plurality of images using the n attributes of each image; mapping the points for the plurality of images to a first space-filling curve and to a second space-filling curve that is different than the first space-filling curve; and ordering the plurality of images by traversing the curves.

Claim 8

An instruction storage device having stored thereon data representing sequences of instructions that if executed cause a processor to perform operations comprising: determining n attributes for each of a plurality of images, wherein n is an integer greater than one; providing a point in an n-dimensional space for each of the plurality of images using the n attributes of each image; mapping the points for the plurality of images to a first space-filling curve and to a second space-filling curve that is different than the first space-filling curve; and ordering the plurality of images by traversing the curves.

Claim 9

An instruction storage device having stored thereon data representing sequences of instructions that if executed cause a processor to perform operations comprising: determining n attributes for each of a first plurality of images, wherein n is an integer greater than one; providing a point in an n-dimensional space for each of the first plurality of images using the n attributes of each image; mapping the points for the first plurality of images to a curve; ordering the first plurality of images by traversing the curve; identifying a target image; displaying the target image; identifying a second plurality of images that are close to the target image in the ordered first plurality of images; displaying the second plurality of images; selecting one of the second plurality of images as a new target image; displaying the new target image; and displaying the previous target image, which was the target image before selecting the new target image, wherein displaying the previous target image includes displaying the image with a size smaller than a size of the new target image.

Claim 10

An instruction storage device having stored thereon data representing sequences of instructions that if executed cause a processor to perform operations comprising: determining n attributes for each of a first plurality of images, wherein n is an integer greater than one; providing a point in an n-dimensional space for each of the first plurality of images using the n attributes of each image; mapping the points for the first plurality of images to a curve; ordering the first plurality of images by traversing the curve; identifying a target image; displaying the target image; identifying a second plurality of images that are close to the target image in the ordered first plurality of images; displaying the second plurality of images; selecting one of the second plurality of images as a new target image; displaying the new target image; and displaying the previous target image, which was the target image before selecting the new target image, wherein displaying the previous target image includes displaying the image with a size smaller than a size of the new target image.

Claim 13

The method of claim 6 , wherein adding a first set of images comprises adding a first set of images that are alike in at least one attribute.

Claim 14

The method of claim 6 , wherein determining the first linearization comprises using a consistent strategy for traversing the cluster.

Claim 15

The method of claim 1 , wherein the curve comprises a space-filling curve.

Claim 16

The method of claim 1 , further comprising browsing for a desired image by scrolling through the displayed images.

Claim 17

The method of claim 1 , further comprising: mapping the points for the first plurality of images to a second curve; ordering the first plurality of images a second time by traversing the second curve; identifying a third plurality of images that are close to the target image in the second ordering of the first plurality of images; and displaying the third plurality of images.

Claim 18

A data structure on a computer-readable storage device having the order of the first plurality of images created by the method of claim 1 .

Claim 19

The method of claim 2 , wherein the curve comprises a space-filling curve.

Claim 20

The method of claim 13 , wherein the second plurality of ordered images are ordered with the space-filling curve.

Claim 21

The method of claim 2 , wherein said merging comprises adding a link from an image of the second plurality of ordered images to a nearest neighbor of the first plurality of ordered images to a data structure.

Claim 22

A data structure on a computer-readable storage device having the order of the first and the second pluralities of images created by the method of claim 2 .

Claim 23

The method of claim 3 , wherein the curve comprises a space-filling curve.

Claim 24

The method of claim 17 , wherein the space-filling curve comprises a Hilbert curve.

Claim 25

The method of claim 17 , wherein the space-filling curve comprises a Peano curve.

Claim 26

The method of claim 3 , wherein the curve comprises a curve having a property that points that are close together on the curve are close together in the n-dimensional space.

Claim 27

The method of claim 3 , further comprising: mapping the points for the plurality of images to a second curve; and ordering the plurality of images a second time by traversing the second curve.

Claim 28

The method of claim 21 , wherein the curve comprises first space-filling curve and the second curve comprises a second different space-filling curve.

Claim 29

The method of claim 3 , further comprising merging a second plurality of images that are ordered based on the curve with the ordered plurality of images.

Claim 30

The method of claim 3 , further comprising displaying a second plurality of images of the ordered plurality of images, the second plurality of images including a target image and at least one image that is close to the target image in the ordered plurality of images.

Claim 31

A data structure on a computer-readable storage device having the order of the plurality of images created by the method of claim 3 .

Claim 32

The instruction storage device of claim 4 , wherein the instructions to perform operations comprising determining n attributes further comprise instructions that if executed cause the processor to perform operations comprising determining a number of members in a color bin of a histogram.

Claim 33

The instruction storage device of claim 4 , wherein the instructions to perform operations comprising mapping further comprise instructions that if executed cause the processor to perform operations comprising mapping the points for the plurality of images to a Hilbert curve and a Peano curve.

Claim 34

The instruction storage device of claim 4 , wherein the instructions further comprise instructions that if executed cause the processor to perform operations comprising displaying a second plurality of images of the ordered plurality of images, the second plurality of images including a target image and at least one image that is close to the target image in the ordered plurality of images.

Claim 35

The instruction storage device of claim 4 , wherein the instructions to perform operations comprising ordering further comprise instructions that if executed cause the processor to perform operations comprising ordering the plurality of images once based on the first space filling curve and again based on the second space filling curve.

Claim 36

The instruction storage device of claim 4 , wherein the instructions further comprise instructions that if executed cause the processor to perform operations comprising merging an image with the ordered plurality of images by adding a link from the image to a nearest neighbor of the ordered plurality of images to a data structure.

Claim 37

The instruction storage device of claim 4 , wherein the instructions further comprise instructions that if executed cause the processor to perform operations comprising merging a second plurality of images that are ordered based on the first space-filling curve with the ordered plurality of images.

Claim 38

The instruction storage device of claim 5 , wherein the instructions to perform operations comprising mapping further comprise instructions that if executed cause the processor to perform operations comprising mapping the points for the first plurality of images to a space-filling curve.

Claim 39

The instruction storage device of claim 5 , wherein the instructions to perform operations comprising determining the n attributes further comprise instructions that if executed cause the processor to perform operations comprising determining a number of members in a color bin of a histogram.

Claim 40

The method of claim 6 , further comprising displaying a plurality of images based on the ordering of the sets of images.

Claim 41

A data structure on a computer-readable storage device having the order of the first and the second sets of images created by the method of claim 6 .

Claim 44

The method of claim 36 , wherein said determining the n attributes comprises determining a number of members in a color bin of a histogram.

Claim 45

The method of claim 36 , wherein said mapping comprises mapping the points for the plurality of images to a Hilbert curve and a Peano curve.

Claim 46

The method of claim 36 , further comprising displaying a second plurality of images of the ordered plurality of images, the second plurality of images including a target image and at least one image that is close to the target image in the ordered plurality of images.

Claim 47

The method of claim 36 , wherein said ordering comprises ordering the plurality of images once based on the first space filling curve and again based on the second space filling curve.

Claim 48

The method of claim 36 , further comprising merging an image with the ordered plurality of images by adding a link from the image to a nearest neighbor of the ordered plurality of images to a data structure.

Claim 49

The method of claim 36 , further comprising merging a second plurality of images that are ordered based on the first space-filling curve with the ordered plurality of images.