Image retrieval by comparing wavelet encoded database images with input shapes

摘要

Since images stored in an image database are encoded, they must be decoded to detect their features. For this reason, when the number of test images is large or each image size is large, the search speed lowers. To solve this problem, a shape information generation unit (4) generates query data on the basis of an image shape input by a shape input unit (3). A comparison unit (5) compares the query data with encoded data of an image read out from an image database (1). If similarity between these two data is high, the comparison unit makes a decoder (6) decode the encoded data of the image; if the similarity is low, it requests the input unit (2) to input encoded data of the next image.