IMAGE RETRIEVAL METHOD AND SYSTEM

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image retrieval system that determines similarity between a query image and a retrieval target image in consideration of similarity between local feature amounts of feature points as well as whether photographic objects are the same or not.SOLUTION: The image retrieval system includes: an N best extraction part 2 comparing the local feature amounts of the feature points of the query image and each retrieval target image to extract an N-best corresponding point; a difference distribution calculation part 3 comparing a local feature amount of the N-best corresponding point with the local feature amount of the feature point corresponding to the query image, and calculating a distribution related to difference of orientation and scales of local areas; a corresponding point candidate extraction part 4 extracting a corresponding point candidate based on the difference distribution; a normalization part 5 normalizing position coordinates of the corresponding point candidate and the corresponding feature point of the query image; a relative position distribution calculation part 6 comparing the normalized position coordinates and calculating a relative position distribution; a corresponding point extraction part 7 extracting the corresponding point based on the relative position distribution; and a similar image determination part 8 determining the retrieval target image based on the extracted corresponding point.