• ETRI Journal
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.246-248
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• 2007

Query-by-example (QBE) is a well-known method for image retrieval. In reality, however, an example image to be used for the query is rarely available. Therefore, it is often necessary to find a good example image to be used for the query before applying the QBE method. Query-by-layout (QBL) is our proposal for that purpose. In particular, we make use of the visual descriptors such as the edge histogram descriptor (EHD) and the color layout descriptor (CLD) in MPEG-7. Since image features of the CLD and the EHD can be localized in terms of a$4{\times}4$ sub-image, we can specify image features such as color and edge distribution on each sub-image separately for image retrieval without a query image. Experimental results show that the proposed query method can be used to retrieve a good image as a starting point for further QBE-based image retrieval.

• Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.551-562
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• 2000

Content-based image retrieval system retrieves an image from a database using visual features. Among approaches to express visual aspects in queries, 'query by sketch' is most convenient and expressive. However, every 'query by sketch' system has the query imperfectness problem. GContent-based image retrieval system retrieves an image from a database using visual features. Among approaches to express visual aspects in queries, 'query by sketch' is most convenient and expressive. However, every 'query by sketch' system has the query imperfectness problem. Generally, the query image produced by a user is different from the intended target image. To overcome this problem, many image retrieval systems use the spatial relationships of the objects, instead of pixel coordinates of the objects. In this paper, a query-converting algorithm for an image retrieval system, which uses the spatial relationship of every two objects as an image feature, is proposed. The proposed algorithm converts the query image into a graph that has the minimum number of edges, by eliminating every transitive edge. Since each edge in the graph represents the spatial relationship of two objects, the elimination of unnecessary edges makes the retrieval process more efficient. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm leads the smaller number of comparison in searching process as compared with other algorithms that do not guarantee the minimum number of edges.

• Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
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• v.30 no.7_8
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• pp.703-712
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• 2003

With the explosive growth n the numbers and sizes of imaging technologies, Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) has been attacked the interests of researchers in the fields of digital libraries, image processing, and database systems. In general, in the case of query-by-image, in user has to select an image from database to query, even though it is not his completely desired one. However, since query-by-sketch approach draws a query shape according to the user´s desire it can provide more high-level searching interface to the user compared to the query-b-image. As a result, query-by-sketch has been widely used. In this paper, we propose a Java-based image retrieval system that consists of sketch query and image classification. We use two features such as color histogram and Haar wavelets coefficients to search similar images. Then the Leave-One-Out method is used to classify database images. The categories of classification are photo & painting, city & nature, and sub-classification of nature image. By using the sketch query and image classification, w can offer convenient image retrieval interface to user and we can also reduce the searching time.

• Journal of KIISE:Computing Practices and Letters
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.303-317
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• 2002

In this paper, we design and implement E-COIRS enabling users to query with concepts and image features used for further refining the concepts. For example, E-COIRS supports the query "retrieve images containing black home appliance to north of reception set. "The query includes two types of concepts: IS-A and composite. "home appliance"is an IS-A concept, and "reception set" is a composite concept. For evaluating such a query. E-COIRS includes three important components: a visual image indexer, thesauri and a query processor. Each pair of objects in an mage captured by the visual image indexer is converted into a triple. The triple consists of the two object identifiers (oids) and their spatial relationship. All the features of an object is referenced by its old. A composite concept is detected by the triple thesaurus and IS-A concept is recolonized by the fuzzy term thesaurus. The query processor obtains an image set by matching each triple in a user with an inverted file and CS-Tree. To support efficient storage use and fast retrieval on high-dimensional feature vectors, E-COIRS uses Cell-based Signature tree(CS-Tree). E-COIRS is a more advanced content-based image retrieval system than other systems which support only concepts or image features.

• Journal of Information Management
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.71-94
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• 2011

Query by visual example is the principal query paradigm for expressing queries in a content-based image retrieval environment. Query by image and query by sketch have long been purported as being viable methods of query formulation yet there is little empirical evidence to support their efficacy in facilitating query formulation. The ability of the searcher to express their information problem to an information retrieval system is fundamental to the retrieval process. The aim of this research was to investigate the query by image and query by sketch methods in supporting a range of information problems through a usability experiment in order to contribute to the gap in knowledge regarding the relationship between searchers' information problems and the query methods required to support efficient and effective visual query formulation. The results of the experiment suggest that query by image is a viable approach to visual query formulation. In contrast, the results strongly suggest that there is a significant mismatch between the searchers information problems and the expressive power of the query by sketch paradigm in supporting visual query formulation. The results of a usability experiment focusing on efficiency (time), effectiveness (errors) and user satisfaction show that there was a significant difference, p<0.001, between the two query methods on all three measures: time (Z=-3.597, p<0.001), errors (Z=-3.317, p<0.001), and satisfaction (Z=-10.223, p<0.001). The results also show that there was a significant difference in participants perceived usefulness of the query tools Z=-4.672, p<0.001.

• Journal of the Korean Society for information Management
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.135-158
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• 2011

The ability of the searcher to express their information problem to an information retrieval system is fundamental to the retrieval process. Query by visual example is the principal query paradigm for expressing queries in a content-based image retrieval environment yet there is little empirical evidence to support its efficacy in facilitating query formulation. The aim of this research was to investigate the usability of the query by colour method in supporting a range of information problems in order to contribute to the gap in knowledge regarding the relationship between searchers' information problems and the query methods required to support efficient and effective visual query formulation. The results strongly suggest that the query method does not support visual query formulation and that there is a significant mismatch between the searchers information problems and the expressive power of the retrieval paradigm.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems Conference
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• 2003.09a
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• pp.451-454
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• 2003

A new query method, called query by visual keys, is proposed to aim easy operation and efficient region-based image retrieval (RBIR). Visual keys are constructed from representative regions/subimages in a given image database, and the database is indexed with visual keys. A system on PC is presented, where text retrieval techniques are applied to the image retrieval with visual keys. Experimental results show that one retrieval is done within 4ms and that the proposed system achieves the comparable retrieval precision (with user-friendly operation and low computational cost) to conventional region based image retrieval systems

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.68-78
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• 2005

A new emotion-based image retrieval method is proposed in this paper. The research was motivated by Soen's evaluation of human emotion on color patterns. Thirteen pairs of adjective words expressing emotion pairs such as like-dislike, beautiful-ugly, natural-unnatural, dynamic-static, warm-cold, gay-sober, cheerful-dismal, unstablestable, light-dark, strong-weak, gaudy-plain, hard-soft, heavy-light are modeled by 19-dimensional color array and $4{\times}3$ gray matrix in off-line. Once the query is presented in text format, emotion model-based query formulation produces the associated color array and gray matrix. Then, images related to the query are retrieved from the database based on the multiplication of color array and gray matrix, each of which is extracted from query and database image. Experiments over 450 images showed an average retrieval rate of 0.61 for the use of color array alone and an average retrieval rate of 0.47 for the use of gray matrix alone.

• Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.141-152
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• 2005

A new emotion-based image retrieval method is proposed in this paper. Query emotion descriptors called query color code and query gray code are designed based on the human evaluation on 13 emotions('like', 'beautiful', 'natural', 'dynamic', 'warm', 'gay', 'cheerful', 'unstable', 'light' 'strong', 'gaudy' 'hard', 'heavy') when 30 random patterns with different color, intensity, and dot sizes are presented. For emotion image retrieval, once a query emotion is selected, associated query color code and query gray code are selected. Next, DB color code and DB gray code that capture color and, intensify and dot size are extracted in each database image and a matching process between two color codes and between two gray codes are peformed to retrieve relevant emotion images. Also, a new relevance feedback method is proposed. The method incorporates human intention in the retrieval process by dynamically updating weights of the query and DB color codes and weights of an intra query color code. For the experiments over 450 images, the number of positive images was higher than that of negative images at the initial query and increased according to the relevance feedback.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.455-461
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• 2002

Object-based image retrieval method is addressed. A new image segmentation algorithm and image comparing method between segmented objects are proposed. For image segmentation, color and texture features are extracted from each pixel in the image. These features we used as inputs into VQ (Vector Quantization) clustering method, which yields homogeneous objects in terns of color and texture. In this procedure, colors are quantized into a few dominant colors for simple representation and efficient retrieval. In retrieval case, two comparing schemes are proposed. Comparing between one query object and multi objects of a database image and comparing between multi query objects and multi objects of a database image are proposed. For fast retrieval, dominant object colors are key-indexed into database.