Data access based on human-produced images

Abstract

An item of data, such as data defining an image of a document, and identifying image data are stored in memory. The identifying image data define a human-produced identifying image for the item of data. In response to query image data defining a human-produced query image similar to the identifying image, the query image data and the identifying image data are used to access the item of data. The identifying image and query image can be produced making marks by hand, by controlling a machine to make marks, or by interactively using a machine to produce data defining an image. The identifying image can be in a field on a form requesting a store operation, and the form can be part of an image set that includes images of a document that the identifying image identifies. Similarly, the query image can be in a field on an access form requesting an access operation. In response to the access form, a machine can automatically create a retrieval request form listing identifying images that are sufficiently similar to the query image to meet a criterion. In response to the marked retrieval request form, the machine can access and retrieve each requested document.