Image retrieval system and image retrieval method

An image retrieval method, comprising the steps of:

• extracting a plurality of image characteristic values from pieces of input image data to produce a characteristic descriptor for each piece of input image data;
• storing the produced characteristic descriptors while holding the correspondence of each characteristic descriptor to one piece of input image data;
• producing an attribute list according to a piece of attribute information attached to each piece of input image data;
• receiving a first retrieval condition relating to attribute information;
• searching the attribute list for one piece of attribute information conforming to the first retrieval condition;
• outputting the piece of attribute information conforming to the first retrieval condition;
• receiving a second retrieval condition relating to a characteristic descriptor;
• searching the pieces of stored image data for one piece of image data conforming to the second retrieval condition while referring to the piece of attribute information conforming to the first retrieval condition;
• and
• outputting the piece of image data conforming to the second retrieval condition.

An image retrieval system, comprising:

• a characteristic descriptor producing unit for extracting a plurality of image characteristic values from pieces of input image data and producing a characteristic descriptor for each piece of input image data;
• a for-retrieval description data producing unit for describing each characteristic descriptor as a piece of for-retrieval description data while holding the correspondence of the piece of for-retrieval description data to a space-time structure of the pieces of input image data;
• an image information storing unit for storing each piece of for-retrieval description data with the piece of input image data corresponding to the piece of for-retrieval description data;
• a first retrieval processing unit;
• a second retrieval processing unit;
• and
• a user interface unit,
• wherein a retrieval request received from a user through the user interface unit is sent from the second retrieval processing unit to the first retrieval processing unit as retrieval request information, a retrieval result sent from the first retrieval processing unit is received in the second retrieval processing unit, the second retrieval processing unit presents the retrieval result to the user through the user interface unit, the pieces of for-retrieval description data of the pieces of input image data stored in the image information storing unit are analyzed in the first retrieval processing unit according to the retrieval request information sent from the second retrieval processing unit to extract the characteristic descriptors, a conformity judgment processing is performed in the first retrieval processing unit according to the extracted characteristic descriptors to obtain the retrieval result, and the retrieval result is sent from the first retrieval processing unit to the second retrieval processing unit to make the second retrieval processing unit present the retrieval result to the user through the user interface unit.

An image retrieval method, comprising the steps of:

• extracting a plurality of image characteristic values from pieces of input image data to produce a characteristic descriptor for each piece of input image data;
• describing each characteristic descriptor as a piece of for-retrieval description data while holding the correspondence of the piece of for-retrieval description data to a space-time structure of the pieces of input image data;
• storing each piece of for-retrieval description data with the piece of input image data corresponding to the piece of for-retrieval description data;
• analyzing the pieces of stored for-retrieval description data of the pieces of input image data according to a retrieval request sent from a user to extract the characteristic descriptors;
• performing a conformity judgment processing according to the extracted characteristic descriptors to obtain a retrieval result;
• and
• presenting the retrieval result to the user.