Visual search is a method of searching through a collection of images by visual attributes such as shape, colour, texture, etc. Visual search does not rely on the use of keywords or any other metadata–it relies strictly on the appearance of the image. Unlike traditional search methods, visual search uses a query image rather than a keyword as the search input. A very interesting example of this visual search, of Web surfing by the colours is Idée Labs.
Idée Labs‘ visual search technology uses sophisticated algorithms to analyze hundreds of image attributes such as colour, shape, texture, luminosity, complexity, objects, and regions.These attributes form a compact digital signature that describes the appearance of each image, and these signatures are calculated by and indexed by the software. When performing a visual search, these signatures are quickly compared by the search engine to return visually similar results.
Idée Labs extracts the colours from 10 million of the most “interesting” Creative Commons (cost free) images on Flickr. Using the similarity technology you can navigate the collection by colour.
In Italiano:
Oggi sono molto contento di aver scoperto Idée Labs, un motore di ricerca per immagini che privilegia l’accostamento algoritmico dello spettro cromatico per presentare risultati con colori congruenti. Idée Labs utilizza la “tecnologia della similarità“. Da fotografo appassionato, ho sempre desiderato avere uno strumento simile a disposizione, specie se bisogna mettere assieme idee e immagini. Le foto e immagini trovate con Idée Labs sono Creative Commons, con licenza d’uso gratuita e reperibili attraverso Flickr.
Didattica col Web 2.0 