PicsLikeThat Offers Image Similarity Search
September 21, 2011
Prototype image search system, PicsLikeThat, claims to offer an easier image search than competitors. The site was developed by René Corinth, David Crome, Leonhard Palm, Natalia Ukhanova and Patrick Wieczorek during a student project at HTW Berlin. The system combines a keyword search with a visual similarity search. The site explains:
Due to the visual sorting PicsLikeThat can show several hundred images allowing easy inspection. In most cases this is sufficient to get a good overview of the entire search result set. The user can quickly identify desired images, which are used to refine the result by retrieving visually and semantically similar images. By tracking user interaction, PicsLikeThat learns the semantic relationships of the images.
At first trial, the concept is ideal for stock images and basic image searches. However, since the current site is still a demo, there are limited pictures available (my searches for celebrities and logos typically turned up null.) Also, the images they provide are from fotolia, which must be purchased. Compared to Google and Bing image searches, which both have the option for related searches and searches by size and/or color, the site still has a long journey ahead. I applaud their efforts for attempting to discover the user’s intention and look forward to the growth of the site.
Andrea Hayden, September 21, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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