NeTra: A toolbox for navigating large image
databases
Wei-Ying Ma 1 , B.
S. Manjunath 2
1 Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Palo Alto, CA 94304-1126, USA
e-mail: wei@hpl.hp.com
2 Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9560, USA
e-mail: manj@ece.ucsb.edu
Abstract
We present here an
implementation of NeTra, a
prototype image retrieval system that uses color, texture,
shape and spatial location information in segmented image
regions to search and retrieve similar regions from the
database. A distinguishing aspect of this system is its in-corporation
of a robust automated image segmentation algorithm
that allows object- or region-based search. Image
segmentation significantly improves the quality of image retrieval
when images contain multiple complex objects. Images
are segmented into homogeneous regions at the time of
ingest into the database, and image attributes that represent
each of these regions are computed. In addition to image
segmentation, other important components of the system include
an efficient color representation, and indexing of color,
texture, and shape features for fast search and retrieval. This
representation allows the user to compose interesting queries
such as ¡°retrieve all images that contain regions that have
the color of object A, texture of object B, shape of object
C, and lie in the upper of the image¡±, where the individual
objects could be regions belonging to different images.
A Java-based web implementation of NeTra is available at
http://vivaldi.ece.ucsb.edu/Netra.
