Selection of multiple images

Abstract

Some embodiments provide an image-viewing application. The image-viewing application displays a thumbnail display area that includes several thumbnails that each correspond to an image. With a set of at least one thumbnail selected, the application receives selection input over a particular unselected thumbnail in the thumbnail display area. When the selection input lasts less than a threshold duration, application selects only the particular thumbnail and displays the image corresponding to the particular thumbnail in an image display area. When the selection input lasts at least the threshold duration, the application adds the particular thumbnail to the set of selected thumbnails and displays the images corresponding to each of the selected thumbnails in the image display area.

1 - 12 . (canceled) 
     
     
         13 . A machine readable medium storing an image-viewing application for execution by at least one processing unit, the image-viewing application comprising sets of instructions for:
 displaying, on a touch-sensitive display, a thumbnail display area comprising an ordered set of thumbnails, the thumbnails for selection in order to display corresponding images from a set of images in an image display area;   receiving a particular touch selection of a thumbnail through the touch-sensitive display, the selected thumbnail corresponding to a first image;   for each particular other image in the set of images, comparing image properties of the first image with image properties of the particular other image in order to determine whether the particular other image is within a threshold similarity of the first image; and   automatically displaying, in an image display area, the first image along with each other image that is within the threshold similarity of the first image.   
     
     
         14 . The machine readable medium of  claim 13 , wherein the image properties comprise color, shape, and texture. 
     
     
         15 . The machine readable medium of  claim 13 , wherein the set of instructions for comparing image properties comprises a set of instructions for comparing a plurality of different histograms of the first image with a corresponding plurality of different histograms for the second image. 
     
     
         16 . The machine readable medium of  claim 15 , wherein the plurality of different histograms for a particular image are computed upon import of the particular image into the image-viewing application. 
     
     
         17 . The machine readable medium of  claim 13 , wherein the particular touch selection is a double tap gesture selection of the thumbnail. 
     
     
         18 . A machine readable medium storing an image-viewing application for execution by at least one processing unit, the image-viewing application comprising sets of instructions for:
 receiving an image having a particular aspect ratio;   computing, for each pixel in the image, a set of pixel properties that quantify the color, texture, and gradient of the image at the pixel;   for each of a set of several regions of the image, generating a histogram for each of the pixel properties, the histograms for use in comparing the image to other images, wherein the regions have a same aspect ratio as the image and at least one pixel in the image is part of more than one region.   
     
     
         19 . The machine readable medium of  claim 18 , wherein each of the regions is one-fourth the size of the image. 
     
     
         20 . The machine readable medium of  claim 19 , wherein the set of regions comprises nine different regions. 
     
     
         21 . The machine readable medium of  claim 18 , wherein a first pixel in the image is part of multiple regions while a second pixel in the image is part of only one region. 
     
     
         22 . The machine readable medium of  claim 18 , wherein the set of instructions for computing a set of pixel properties for a particular pixel comprises a set of instructions for converting color values of the particular pixel to a hue-saturation-value (HSV) color space. 
     
     
         23 . The machine readable medium of  claim 22 , wherein the color histogram for each region comprises a first bin for a first portion of the HSV color space and a second bin for a second, larger portion of the HSV color space. 
     
     
         24 . The machine readable medium of  claim 23 , wherein the first portion and second portion of the HSV color space represent equal human-perceptible differences. 
     
     
         25 . The machine readable medium of  claim 18 , wherein the set of instructions for computing a set of pixel properties for a particular pixel comprises sets of instructions for:
 computing an intensity value for the particular pixel;   computing a texture value for the particular pixel using the intensity value for the particular pixel and computed intensity values of a first set of surrounding pixels; and   computing a gradient value for the particular pixel using the intensity value for the particular pixel and computed intensity values of a second set of surrounding pixels.   
     
     
         26 . The machine readable medium of  claim 25 , wherein the first set of surrounding pixels comprises all pixels in a 5×5 window centered at the particular pixel, and the second set of surrounding pixels comprises the four pixels directly above, below, to the left, and to the right of the particular pixel. 
     
     
         27 . For an image-viewing application, a method comprising:
 displaying, on a touch-sensitive display, a thumbnail display area comprising an ordered set of thumbnails, the thumbnails for selection in order to display corresponding images from a set of images in an image display area;   receiving a particular touch selection of a thumbnail through the touch-sensitive display, the selected thumbnail corresponding to a first image;   for each particular other image in the set of images, comparing image properties of the first image with image properties of the particular other image in order to determine whether the particular other image is within a threshold similarity of the first image; and   automatically displaying, in an image display area, the first image along with each other image that is within the threshold similarity of the first image.   
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 27 , wherein the image properties comprise color, shape, and texture. 
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 27 , wherein comparing image properties comprises comparing a plurality of different histograms of the first image with a corresponding plurality of different histograms for the second image. 
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 27 , wherein the particular touch selection is a double tap selection of the thumbnail. 
     
     
         31 . For an image-viewing application, a method comprising:
 receiving an image having a particular aspect ratio;   computing, for each pixel in the image, a set of pixel properties that quantify the color, texture, and gradient of the image at the pixel;   for each of a set of several regions of the image, generating a histogram for each of the pixel properties, the histograms for use in comparing the image to other images, wherein the regions have a same aspect ratio as the image and at least one pixel in the image is part of more than one region.   
     
     
         32 . The method of  claim 31 , wherein the set of regions comprises nine different regions each of the regions is one-fourth the size of the image. 
     
     
         33 . The method of  claim 31 , wherein a first pixel in the image is part of multiple regions while a second pixel in the image is part of only one region. 
     
     
         34 . The method of  claim 31 , wherein computing a set of pixel properties for a particular pixel comprises converting color values of the particular pixel to a hue-saturation-value (HSV) color space, wherein the color histogram for each region comprises a first bin for a first portion of the HSV color space and a second bin for a second, larger portion of the HSV color space, wherein the first portion and second portion of the HSV color space represent equal human-perceptible differences.