US Patent 9928448 Image classification utilizing semantic relationships in a classification hierarchy

A method includes utilizing two or more classifiers to calculate, for an input image, probability scores for a plurality of classes based on visual information extracted from the input image and semantic relationships in a classification hierarchy, wherein each of the two or more classifiers is associated with a given one of two or more levels in the classification hierarchy with each level in the classification hierarchy comprising a subset of the plurality of classes, and classifying the input image based on the calculated probability scores.