In this chapter, local elements (data element, image element, multi-element, etc.) are compared with elements on a remote server. The search job checks, if these elements are already available on the server.

It allows to detect/dicscover duplicates and similar image elements, movies or parts of movies/multi-elements (especially interesting to discover illegal footage, which is embedded in a legal movie) and to categorize elements. Categorized elements can be moved, copied, sorted, deleted or summarized in a report to send or print out. In conjunction with DoublePics server, data synchronization can be performed centrally on a server against a reference database. All analytical results, which were generated by DoublePics, are easily accessible in XML.

In contrast to a hash-based search, DoublePics compares the image element itself with other image elements. A hash value comparison means that the source- and comparative elements must be identical to be found. The problem is, that a completely new hash value is created by the change of one single pixel. Accordingly, ordinary hash-based scans are powerless against any kind of changes of an element. DoublePics - on the other hand - scans your elements and compares the material differences/relationship in the element itself.

It does not matter, whether the picture elements

• have different dimensions

• have different contrast/color or gamma values or

• are available in different image formats.

The desired sensitivity or any tolerant adjustable program logic allows to find

• virtually identical image elements

• and only closely related image elements, that were changed, cut or otherwise (for example, by adding logos or watermarks) modified