The imagestore ontology and the bioimage database: semantic web tools for biological research images

The Biolmage Database is an ontology-driven image database for multidimensional images of biological specimens, designed to have a functionality, particularly for accuracy of retrieval, that goes significantly beyond conventional relational database technology. It is built using Open Source components around an ImageStore Ontology written in OWLDL, and within the database the image metadata is stored as RDF in a triple store. Extensive metadata provision permits description of all aspects of the image. Manual metadata entry is simplified by the dynamic creation from the underlying ontology of simple Web form user submission interfaces. Automated metadata entry will also be possible where metadata already exist in digital form. An advanced search interface permits accurate retrieval of relevant images. During this retrieval process, Web Service interactions with third-party services permit the textual descriptions of the image to be marked up on the fly with definitions of key terms, including the disambiguation of gene names.