The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 09, 2013
Filed:
Dec. 31, 2010
BO Thiesson, Woodinville, WA (US);
Jingu Kim, Lawrenceville, GA (US);
Bo Thiesson, Woodinville, WA (US);
Jingu Kim, Lawrenceville, GA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
A mode-seeking clustering mechanism identifies clusters within a data set based on the location of individual data point according to modes in a kernel density estimate. For large-scale applications the clustering mechanism may utilize rough hierarchical kernel and data partitions in a computationally efficient manner. A variational approach to the clustering mechanism may take into account variational probabilities, which are restricted in certain ways according to hierarchical kernel and data partition trees, and the mechanism may store certain statistics within these trees in order to compute the variational probabilities in a computational efficient way. The clustering mechanism may use a two-step variational expectation and maximization algorithm and generalizations hereof, where the maximization step may be performed in different ways in order to accommodate different mode-seeking algorithms, such as the mean shift, mediod shift, and quick shift algorithms.