A method and apparatus are provided for analyzing, identifying, and comparing images. The method can be used with any visually-displayed medium that is represented in any type of
color space. An identified image can be authenticated, registered, marked, compared to another image, or recognized using the method and apparatus according to the present invention. At least one characteristic of an image's
color space is selected and determined to generate a unique description of the image. This identification information is then used to compare different identified images to determine if they are identical according to a set of predetermined criteria. The predetermined criteria can be adjusted to permit the identification of images that are identical in part. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, a
software search application, such as a
search engine or a spider, is used to locate and retrieve an image to be identified from an
electronic network. A notification alarm is triggered when a duplicate image is located. In one embodiment, the present invention is implemented using a computer. One or more
software applications,
software modules,
firmware, and hardware, or any combination thereof, are used to determine the identification information for the selected image characteristics, search for images, provide notification of identical images, and to generate a
database of identified images.