Graph-based online image queries

A system comprising:

• a plurality of hardware servers;
• a database application executing in a workload layer on top of said plurality of hardware servers;
• and
• a network interface in data communication with said database application;
• wherein:
• said database application obtains a query image over said network interface;
• said database application comprises a plurality of reference image graphs, and identifies at least one of said reference image graphs with feature vectors similar to said query image;
• said database application carries out image querying by graph traversal on said at least one of said reference image graphs with said feature vectors similar to said query image;
• and
• said database application returns, as a response to said query image, via said network interface, an image from said at least one of said reference image graphs having a highest matching score in said graph traversal.

A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions which when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform the method of:

• obtaining a query image;
• in a database comprising a plurality of reference image graphs, identifying at least one of said reference image graphs with feature vectors similar to said query image;
• carrying out image querying by graph traversal on said at least one of said reference image graphs with said feature vectors similar to said query image;
• and
• returning, as a response to said query image, an image from said at least one of said reference image graphs having a highest matching score in said graph traversal.