Patent attributes
A computer-implemented technique is described herein for using a machine-trained model to identify individual objects within images. The technique then creates a relational index for the identified objects. That is, each index entry in the relational index is associated with a given object, and includes a set of attributes pertaining to the given object. One such attribute identifies at least one latent semantic vector associated with the given object. Each attribute provides a way of linking the given object to one or more other objects in the relational index. In one application of this technique, a user may submit a query that specifies a query object. The technique consults the relational index to find one or more objects that are related to the query object. In some cases, the query object and each of the other objects have a complementary relationship.