Research on product design patents retrieval technology for hex-vision images and three-dimensional models

Product design patents retrieval technology has a great significant for patents protection. Nowadays the patent database is commonly composed of patent text description and hex-vision images. However, since the hex-vision images cannot contain all the information of the product design patents, 3D models is an important part of product design patents in future. But only text retrieval can be applied for the patent database now, which does not make full use of the hex-vision images and 3D models. Therefore, the database cannot satisfy the requirement of the retrieval and protection for product design patents. A novel hybrid search method of product design patents is proposed. The hybrid method makes use of the 3D models based on shape distribution function and takes the advantages of product hex-vision images based on both the shape index improved and the combines colour pair. The result of the experiment indicated that the proposed hybrid method can inquire and retrieval the product design patents more effectively and contribute to much for the use and protection of the product design.