A Benchmark for Image Retrieval using Distributed Systems over the Internet: BIRDS-I

Gunther, Neil J.; Beretta, Giordano

HPL-2000-162

Keyword(s): Content Based Image Retrieval; client/server; Internet; performance metrics; benchmarking; ground truth; ontology; taxonomy; distributed systems; response time

Abstract: The performance of CBIR algorithms is usually measured on an isolated workstation. In a real-world environment the algorithms would only constitute a minor component among the many interacting components. The Internet dramatically changes many of the usual assumptions about measuring CBIR performance. Any CBIR benchmark should be designed from a networked systems standpoint. These benchmarks typically introduce communication overhead because the real systems they model are distributed applications. We present our implementation of a client/server benchmark called BIRDS-I to measure image retrieval performance over the Internet. It has been designed with the trend toward the use of small personalized wireless systems in mind. Web-based CBIR implies the use of heterogeneous image sets, imposing certain constraints on how the images are organized and the type of performance metrics applicable. BIRDS-I only requires controlled human intervention for the compilation of the image collection and none for the generation of ground truth in the measurement of retrieval accuracy. Benchmark image collections need to be evolved incrementally toward the storage of millions of images and that scaleup can only be achieved through the use of computer-aided compilation. Finally, our scoring metric introduces a tightly optimized image-ranking window. Notes: To be presented at the IS&T/SPIE's 13th International Symposium on Electronic Imaging 2001, held in San Jose, CA. Notes: To be published in SPIE volume 4311 titled Internet Imaging II in January 2001.

24 Pages

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