Title :
A knowledge-based approach for retrieving images by content
Author :
Hsu, Chih-Cheng ; Chu, Wesley W. ; Taira, Ricky K.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Comput. Sci., California Univ., Los Angeles, CA, USA
fDate :
8/1/1996 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
A knowledge based approach is introduced for retrieving images by content. It supports the answering of conceptual image queries involving similar-to predicates, spatial semantic operators, and references to conceptual terms. Interested objects in the images are represented by contours segmented from images. Image content such as shapes and spatial relationships are derived from object contours according to domain specific image knowledge. A three layered model is proposed for integrating image representations, extracted image features, and image semantics. With such a model, images can be retrieved based on the features and content specified in the queries. The knowledge based query processing is based on a query relaxation technique. The image features are classified by an automatic clustering algorithm and represented by Type Abstraction Hierarchies (TAHs) for knowledge based query processing. Since the features selected for TAH generation are based on context and user profile, and the TAHs can be generated automatically by a clustering algorithm from the feature database, our proposed image retrieval approach is scalable and context sensitive. The performance of the proposed knowledge based query processing is also discussed
Keywords :
deductive databases; image representation; knowledge based systems; query processing; visual databases; TAH generation; Type Abstraction Hierarchies; automatic clustering algorithm; conceptual image queries; domain specific image knowledge; image content; image representations; image retrieval; image semantics; knowledge based approach; knowledge based query processing; object contours; query relaxation technique; retrieval by content; similar-to predicates; spatial relationships; three layered model; user profile; Clustering algorithms; Content based retrieval; Feature extraction; Image databases; Image representation; Image retrieval; Image segmentation; Query processing; Shape; Spatial databases;
Journal_Title :
Knowledge and Data Engineering, IEEE Transactions on