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Searching by Image Instead of Keywords

Posted by samzenpus on from the find-me-something-square-and-green dept.

Content based image retrieval (CBIR), the technique to search for images not by keywords, but by comparing features of the images themselves has been the focus of much research ever since the web emerged. Consider for instance adding CBIR to Google Images, where you would be able to search for images similar to a query image instead of using keywords. A research project at Penn State University has recently been applied to the biggest aviation photo database in the world with close to 800,000 images. You can search for images similar to a photo already in their database (click "View similar photos") or submit your own query image. Some queries generate better results than others but CBIR is certainly here to stay and will be standard in many image applications of the future.

11 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. Think of the greatness to society! by qewl · · Score: 5, Funny

    I can't wait to put a nipple into it!

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  2. Arm jokes... by sharkey · · Score: 2, Funny

    and set for goatse!

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  3. Location? by poopdeville · · Score: 4, Funny

    What an awful beach.

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    After all, I am strangely colored.
  4. They would need major manpower to maintain this db by guardiangod · · Score: 3, Funny

    This is just asking for trouble. As most of you would probably imagine, some self-proclaim "comdeian" would post either porn pictures, or pictures that resembles porn body position.

    They would need a team of outsource Indian workers to go through each picture one by one!

    I am not Indian but...can I apply for the image filtering job?
    I said this first, I should get the job ;) .

  5. Top Search by daishin · · Score: 3, Funny

    Something with two circles and dots in the middle of each circle.

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  6. Similar images by iMaple · · Score: 2, Funny

    Some Applications of Our Research
    1. Airliners.net
    A site with almost 1,000,000 aviation images.

    Wow !!! I tested their Sample search and all the results were aeroplane photos !!! Ok, ok the site only has airplanes but still ..:)

    On a more serious note the alogorithms seem to look for similatity in the colors and lighting rather than the subjects (for example it shows the interior of a cabin in photos similar to a whole plane in the sky. To really see its effectiveness we need to test in in the real world (google images) . The 'artisticly revealing' photo you always liked ... now you should be able get similar pr0n (^H^H^H^H I mean art) with these algorithms

  7. And for 'lynx' users... by mikael · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... the search engine will support ASCII art image searches.

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  8. Great! by SetupWeasel · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now I can find all the other naked pictures of Bea Arthur on the web!

  9. Re:wtf? by merpal · · Score: 1, Funny

    don't mod me as redundant you niggers

  10. How does it do that? by exp(pi*sqrt(163)) · · Score: 2, Funny

    I was looking at a picture of a plane on that web site and there was a link that said "Click for similar images". And what do you know? It brought up more pictures of planes. This is amazing stuff. How did it understand that I was looking at a picture of a plane?

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  11. False positives by suso · · Score: 2, Funny

    Actually, it will be hillarious what will happen when grandma puts in a picture of her grandson taking a drink from the hose in the backyard.

    Its almost like telling someone to go to whitehouse.com