Aperio patent covers content-based image retrieval

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued Aperio Technologies a patent covering systems and methods for image pattern recognition using vector quantization (VQ).

This is the second patent on the use of VQ for pattern recognition applications for the digital pathology technology developer. The new patent is No. 7,502,519.

The Vista, Calif.-based Aperio said its VQ technology enables content-based image retrieval to allow pathologists and researchers to search libraries of digital slides using image data, and to retrieve similar images from a large image archive. VQ also allows searching for exceptions, such as regions of an image which are different from previously characterized images.

"The image pattern recognition technology covered by this patent is unique in that it does not rely on prior knowledge of image-based features, but involves statistical comparisons to imagery data that exhibit characteristics of interest," said Dirk Soenksen, CEO of Aperio.



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