The use of color information for image retrieval has been used widely in many content-based r etrieval system with some success. However, histogram-based color retrieval techniques su er from a lack of important spatial knowledge. We discuss a technique of integrating color information with spatial knowledge to obtain an overall impression of the image. The technique involves three steps: the selection of a set of representative colors, the analysis of spatial information of the selected c olors, and the retrieval process based on the integrated c olor-spatial information. Two color histograms are used to aid in the process of color selection. After deriving the set of representative colors, spatial knowledge of the selected c olors is obtained using a maximum entropy discretization with event covering method. A r etrieval process is formulated to make use of the spatial knowledge to retrieve relevant images. A prototype image retrieval system has been implemented on the Unix system. It is tested on an image database consisting of 260 images. The result shows substantial improvement over the histogram-based c olor retrieval methods.
Another technique for integrating color information with spatial knowledge in order to obtain an overall impression of the image is discussed in REF .
An Integrated Color-Spatial Approach to Content-based Image Retrieval
MULTIMEDIA '95
Computer Science