Image retrieval via query-by-layout using MPEG-7 visual descriptors

Query-by-example (QBE) is a well-known method for image retrieval In reality, however an example image to be used for the query is rarely available. Therefore, it is often necessary to find a good example image to be used for the query before applying the QBE method. Query-by-layout (QBL) is our proposal for that purpose. In particular we make use of the visual descriptors such as the edge histogram descriptor (EHD) and the color layout descriptor (CLD) in MPEG-7. Since image features of the CLD and the EHD can be localized in terms of a 4X4 sub-image, we can specify image features such as color and edge distribution on each sub-image separately for image retrieval without a query image. Experimental results show that the proposed query method can be used to retrieve a good image as a starting point for further QBE-based image retrieval.