Spatial-match iconic image retrieval with ranking in multimedia databases

In multimedia database applications, it is necessary to retrieve multimedia documents to satisfy a user's query based on image content. For this, we represent an image as a set of icon objects, and then do indexing by regarding the icon object as a representative of a given document. When users request content-based image retrieval, we convert a query image into a set of icon objects and retrieve relevant images in the multimedia database. In this paper, we propose new spatial-match iconic image representation schemes supporting ranking, called SRC scheme using MBC(Minimum Bounding Circle) and SRR scheme using MBR(Minimum Bounding Rectangle). Because our SRC and SRR schemes combine directional operators with positional operators, they can represent spatial relationships between icon objects precisely and can provide ranking for the retrieved images.