Presents a review of 200 references in content-based image retrieval. The paper starts with discussing the working conditions of content-based retrieval: patterns of use, types of pictures, the role of semantics, and the sensory gap. Subsequent sections discuss computational steps for image retrieval systems. Step one of the review is image processing for retrieval sorted by color, texture, and local geometry. Features for retrieval are discussed next, sorted by: accumulative and global features, salient points, object and shape features, signs, and structural combinations thereof. Similarity of pictures and objects in pictures is reviewed for each of the feature types, in close connection to the types and means of feedback the user of the systems is capable of giving by interaction. We briefly discuss aspects of system engineering: databases, system architecture, and evaluation. In the concluding section, we present our view on: the driving force of the field, the heritage from computer vision, the influence on computer vision, the role of similarity and of interaction, the need for databases, the problem of evaluation, and the role of the semantic gap.

/pdf/content-based-image-retrieval-at-the-end-of-the-early-years-q45iy9ejai.pdf

Content-based image retrieval at the end of the early years

We have witnessed great interest and a wealth of promise in content-based image retrieval as an emerging technology. While the last decade laid foundation to such promise, it also paved the way for a large number of new techniques and systems, got many new people involved, and triggered stronger association of weakly related fields. In this article, we survey almost 300 key theoretical and empirical contributions in the current decade related to image retrieval and automatic image annotation, and in the process discuss the spawning of related subfields. We also discuss significant challenges involved in the adaptation of existing image retrieval techniques to build systems that can be useful in the real world. In retrospect of what has been achieved so far, we also conjecture what the future may hold for image retrieval research.

/pdf/image-retrieval-ideas-influences-and-trends-of-the-new-age-51whw4w7su.pdf

Image retrieval: Ideas, influences, and trends of the new age

We describe a highly functional prototype system for searching by visual features in an image database. The VisualSEEk system is novel in that the user forms the queries by diagramming spatial arrangements of color regions. The system nds the images that contain the most similar arrangements of similar regions. Prior to the queries, the system automatically extracts and indexes salient color regions from the images. By utilizing e cient indexing techniques for color information, region sizes and absolute and relative spatial locations, a wide variety of complex joint color/spatial queries may be computed.

VisualSEEk: a fully automated content-based image query system

A survey of content-based image retrieval with high-level semantics

A graph distance metric based on the maximal common subgraph

In this paper, we describe a new way of representing a symbolic picture by a two-dimensional string. A picture query can also be specified as a 2-D string. The problem of pictorial information retrieval then becomes a problem of 2-D subsequence matching. We present algorithms for encoding a symbolic picture into its 2-D string representation, reconstructing a picture from its 2-D string representation, and matching a 2-D string with another 2-D string. We also prove the necessary and sufficient conditions to characterize ambiguous pictures for reduced 2-D strings as well as normal 2-D strings. This approach thus allows an efficient and natural way to construct iconic indexes for pictures.

Cheng-Wen Yan

Papers

Iconic Indexing by 2-D Strings