Image retrieval using efficient local-area matching

We present an efficient and accurate method for retrieving images based on color similarity with a given query image or histogram. The method matches the query against parts of the image using histogram intersection. Efficient searching for the best matching subimage is done by pruning the set of subimages using upper bound estimates. The method is fast, has high precision and recall and also allows queries based on the positions of one or more objects in the database image. Experimental results showing the efficiency of the proposed search method, and high precision and recall of retrieval are presented.