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## Help For The QBIC Browser Page

#### The QBIC browser page allows you to search image collections by keywords and by image content using our QBIC technology. To search using kewords you type them in and the system will give you images, sorted by closeness of match to your keywords (the more keywords matched the better). To search by the QBIC methods for image content (color histogram, color layout, texture) you either click on image similar to what you want, or you use customized query. To use both keywords and QBIC, you type in the keywords and select the image (or customize the query) - the result images will be from a set of images with at least one query keyword, sorted by similarity to QBIC query.

### The Similarity Methods

  Each search method allows users to find pictures using different criteria. Keyword sercah can be combined with graphical QBIC search. The following are the methods:

  (1) Keyword Search - Default Method
    Typing in keywords to search will return images sorted by the following formula: 1 - Nm/Nq where Nm is the number of keywords that match query set and image set, and Nq is the number of keywords in the query set.

    Example: If you type in "dog" and "house" and hit enter, images with descriptors "dog" and "house" will be displayed first, followed by images that have only "dog" or only "house".

  (2a) QBIC Method: Color Percentages
    This method finds pictures that have similar color amounts to what you specify. Example: If you click on a beach scene with a certain shade of blue, images with approximate the same quantity and shade of blue will be returned first.

  (2b) QBIC Method: Color Layout
    Given an existing picture, this method will find others with the similar colors in the similar locations. The location of the color DOES matter in this search.

### Finding pictures similar to existing ones

  First select the graphical similarity methods to want to use. Then click on the picture you want to see similar ones of and wait for the results to come back. If you want to find visually similar pictures from a restricted set, add desired keywords. For example, to find all shirts made of cotton, and to look for red ones, enter keywords "shirt" and "cotton", and select the color from the color palette (customized query) or from and example image.

### Customizing Your Own Search

  The following methods are available to do customized search with.
  (1) Color Percentages
    You can specify how much of each color you want in the picture. Again, the location of the color does not matter.
    Example: Specifying 80% green may return several pictures containing approximately 80% green(grass scenes).
  (2) Color Layout
    You can make a rough sketch of the picture you want with different colors. The location of the color blocks DO matter in this search.
    Example: If you want a picture with blue sky you would paint the top part of the drawing area blue.
  (3) Keyword Search
    Currently, customized search on text is the exact same as from the Image Browser screen. We will be putting in more complex text search engines in the near future.

    ### Changing the number of images displayed

      You can set the image browser size be any size from 2x4 to 4x8 by clicking on the appropriate column and row sizes directly underneath the thumbnail images.

    ### Going back to a previous search result or customized search

      Click on the built in BACK button in WWW browsers to cycle back to what you want. In some browsers, there are faster ways to go back several pages
      Netscape: The GO menu lets you go back to a cached page.

    ### Prev Button

      Takes you to the previous page of images.

    ### Next Button

      Takes you to the next page of images.

    ### Random Button

      Displays random images from the current database.

    ### Comments?

      Please mail comments, suggestions or criticisms by clicking on the "mailto" link at the bottom of the browser or editor pages