IMAGE RETRIEVAL RESEARCH INITIATIVES 1995-96
SI Art Image Browser
In this year, the project team completed the building of the database and
interface for the browser, and we are now evaluating the system with users
from art and other disciplines. The SI Art Image Browser is being evaluated
in three principle studies: 1) an examination of system usage by domain
and non-domain experts, 2) an examination of human-computer interactions,
and 3) a survey of World Wide Web users. The evaluation of system usage
compares the three primary image searching techniques -- browsing , direct
searching, and a combination of the two -- and utilizes a quasi-experimental
design. By evaluating how successfully different sample groups complete
tasks using the three systems, we can make inferences about system functions
required by different user populations. The human- computer interaction
study utilizes a variety of heuristics, cognitive walk-through, and key-stroke
analysis to identify problems with the design of the user interface. An
online survey of World Wide Web users provides additional data on general
system use patterns.
UM
Digital Library Earth and Space Sciences Browser
The strategy used for the Art Image Browser can serve as a model for intellectual
access in image databases of other subject domains. The basic browsing concept
used in the Art Image Browser project is being adapted, extended and tested
in the University of Michigan's
Digital Libraries Initiative sponsored by NSF/ARPA/NASA. This project
enables us to apply the concept of classification of images on a much larger
scale and in the very different subject domain of earth and space sciences.
A key premise of this research is that effective strategies for image retrieval
will benefit from containing multiple paths - visual and textual, browse
and search. We have currently a collection of over 800 images in the areas
of Earth and Space Science which can be searched using textual and image
content-based retrieval methods. We are using image retrieval software provided
by the Virage Corp.
By the end of this project period, we expect the collection will grow to
2000 images. This first collection of solar system images is created for
educational purposes for students in middle and high school. It contains
images accompanied with text descriptions of the sun, planets, moons, asteroids,
comets and meteoroids found within the solar system. The image
retrieval database contains digital collections of earth and space sciences
and will be deployed in middle and high schools to fit research activities
in learner-centered science education. This database provides a testbed
for the Virage content-based retrieval software.