1. A method comprising: classifying each of a plurality of reference visual patterns to a parent class of a visual pattern classification hierarchy; classifying each of the plurality of reference visual patterns into at least one of at least one child class and an auxiliary child class of the parent class, wherein a first reference visual pattern of the plurality of reference visual patterns is classified in the auxiliary child class and is misclassified in the parent class; modifying an image classifier configured to classify each of the plurality of reference visual patterns to one of the parent class and at least one sibling class of the parent class based on the first reference visual pattern being classified to the auxiliary child class; and reclassifying the first reference visual pattern to a first sibling class of the parent class using the modified image classifier.