thumb|General scheme of content-based image retrieval

Content-based image retrieval, also known as query by image content (QBIC) and content-based visual information retrieval (CBVIR), is the application of computer vision techniques to the image retrieval problem, that is, the problem of searching for digital images in large databases (see this survey for a scientific overview of the CBIR field). Content-based image retrieval is opposed to traditional concept-based approaches (see Concept-based image indexing).

"Content-based" means that the search analyzes the contents of the image rather than the metadata such as keywords, tags, or descriptions associated with the image. The term "content" in this context might refer to colors, shapes, textures, or any other information that can be derived from the image itself. CBIR is desirable because searches that rely purely on metadata are dependent on annotation quality and completeness.

Comparison with metadata searching

An image meta search requires humans to have manually annotated images by entering keywords or metadata in a large database, which can be time-consuming and may not capture the keywords desired to describe the image. The evaluation of the effectiveness of keyword image search is subjective and has not been well-defined. In the same regard, CBIR systems have similar challenges in defining success. "Keywords also limit the scope of queries to the set of predetermined criteria." and, "having been set up" are less reliable than using the content itself. Since then, the term has been used to describe the process of retrieving desired images from a large collection on the basis of syntactical image features. The techniques, tools, and algorithms that are used originate from fields such as statistics, pattern recognition, signal processing, and computer vision. Recent network- and graph-based approaches have presented a simple and attractive alternative to existing methods.

While the storing of multiple images as part of a single entity preceded the term BLOB (Binary Large OBject), the ability to fully search by content, rather than by description, had to await IBM's QBIC.

VisualRank

Technical progress

The interest in CBIR has grown because of the limitations inherent in metadata-based systems, as well as the large range of possible uses for efficient image retrieval. Textual information about images can be easily searched using existing technology, but this requires humans to manually describe each image in the database. This can be impractical for very large databases or for images that are generated automatically, e.g. those from surveillance cameras. It is also possible to miss images that use different synonyms in their descriptions. Systems based on categorizing images in semantic classes like "cat" as a subclass of "animal" can avoid the miscategorization problem, but will require more effort by a user to find images that might be "cats", but are only classified as an "animal". Many standards have been developed to categorize images, but all still face scaling and miscategorization issues. that involves providing the CBIR system with an example image that it will then base its search upon. The underlying search algorithms may vary depending on the application, but result images should all share common elements with the provided example.

This query technique removes the difficulties that can arise when trying to describe images with words.

Semantic retrieval

Semantic retrieval starts with a user making a request like "find pictures of Abraham Lincoln". This type of open-ended task is very difficult for computers to perform - Lincoln may not always be facing the camera or in the same pose. Many CBIR systems therefore generally make use of lower-level features like texture, color, and shape. These features are either used in combination with interfaces that allow easier input of the criteria or with databases that have already been trained to match features (such as faces, fingerprints, or shape matching). However, in general, image retrieval requires human feedback in order to identify higher-level concepts. CBIR systems can make use of relevance feedback, where the user progressively refines the search results by marking images in the results as "relevant", "not relevant", or "neutral" to the search query, then repeating the search with the new information. Examples of this type of interface have been developed.

Other query methods

Other query methods include browsing for example images, navigating customized/hierarchical categories, querying by image region (rather than the entire image), querying by multiple example images, querying by visual sketch, querying by direct specification of image features, and multimodal queries (e.g. combining touch, voice, etc.)

Content comparison using image distance measures

The most common method for comparing two images in content-based image retrieval (typically an example image and an image from the database) is using an image distance measure. An image distance measure compares the similarity of two images in various dimensions such as color, texture, shape, and others. For example, a distance of 0 signifies an exact match with the query, with respect to the dimensions that were considered. As one may intuitively gather, a value greater than 0 indicates various degrees of similarities between the images. Search results then can be sorted based on their distance to the queried image.

Color

Computing distance measures based on color similarity is achieved by computing a color histogram for each image that identifies the proportion of pixels within an image holding specific values. The problem is in identifying patterns of co-pixel variation and associating them with particular classes of textures such as silky, or rough.

Other methods of classifying textures include:

  • Co-occurrence matrix
  • Laws texture energy
  • Wavelet transform
  • Orthogonal transforms (discrete Chebyshev moments)

Shape

Shape does not refer to the shape of an image but to the shape of a particular region that is being sought out. Shapes will often be determined first applying segmentation or edge detection to an image. Other methods use shape filters to identify given shapes of an image. Shape descriptors may also need to be invariant to translation, rotation, and scale. It is shown that retrieved ranking could be dramatically altered with only small perturbations imperceptible to human beings. In addition, model-agnostic transferable adversarial examples are also possible, which enables black-box adversarial attacks on deep ranking systems without requiring access to their underlying implementations.

Conversely, the resistance to such attacks can be improved via adversarial defenses such as the Madry defense.

Image retrieval evaluation

Measures of image retrieval can be defined in terms of precision and recall. However, there are other methods being considered.

Image retrieval in CBIR system simultaneously by different techniques

An image is retrieved in CBIR system by adopting several techniques simultaneously such as Integrating Pixel Cluster Indexing, histogram intersection and discrete wavelet transform methods.

Applications

Potential uses for CBIR include:

  • Facial recognition system
  • Textiles Industry

Commercial Systems that have been developed include: