Shape and spatial color information extraction for image retrieval

Digital visual data has been rapidly becoming more and more ubiquitous, and so content-based techniques to perform indexing are imperative. This paper outlines research geared towards an image retrieval system that identifies shapes in images and classify them into appropriate categories. The system functions on pre-processed, segmented images extracting component regions on the basis of color. This is followed by shape analysis using invariant moments with perceptual considerations made on the basis of subjective testing. The subjectivity is incorporated into the system via a set of thresholds whose strictness can be manipulated by the user. The implementation employing SQL and DB2 provided and 84% placement rate for the various images investigated.