Method and apparatus for indexing and retrieving images from an image database based on a color query

摘要

Images in an image database are indexed according to semantic labels from a surface color code book in order to allow querying and retrieving of images based on color content. Regions of unsegmented images in a database are localized and described with semantic labels from a surface color code book. A database index is then built using this image region information and corresponding labels. This pre-generated color-region index allows querying by semantic labels in order to locate and retrieve similar images from a database. Querying for similar images by presenting a target image is also possible using the described color-region index. In this second type of query mode a target image is analyzed to determine semantic labels of color surfaces present in that image and these labels, in turn, are used to locate similar entries in the color-region index.