An Imagination-based Query Creation Method for Image Retrieval

Our imagination-based query creation method is a new approach to image-recall functions reflecting color-based imaginations in human brains. This method dynamically represents user's imaginations and creates queries for image retrieval. The important aim of this method is to express user's abstract intentions in a computable objects and to recall those imaginations from image databases with color-analytical image retrieval. The main features of this method are: (1) a hierarchical model for color indexing to express image contexts, (2) color zooming for context-dependent color histogram generation by utilizing color names as contextual words, (3) integrating several histograms by using five histogram-combining operations and dynamic semantic weighting, and (4) threshold controlling for semantic correlation. This method exploits color information to retrieve intended images expressing a user's imagination. This paper also represents a “Database for Imagination Expression” (DBIE), which stores, shares and reuses created queries. Additionally, several qualitative experiments are also represented to examine the effectiveness and the feasibility of our method.