nearest neighbor search

Nearest neighbor search is a method used to find the closest item to a specific point within a set of data points. Imagine having a map with various landmarks and wanting to find the one closest to your current location. The process measures distances between your position and each point, then selects the smallest. This technique is common in areas like recommendation systems, image recognition, and geographic information systems, enabling quick identification of the most relevant or similar items based on their attributes or position in a dataset.