Re: ORACLE vs INFORMIX vs MS SQL SERVER

In article <36474018.3688@bloomberg.net>, Art S. Kagel <kagel@bloomberg.net> wrote: >Axel Sander wrote: >> >> On Mon, 9 Nov 1998 07:15:52 +0200, "Billy Wheeler" <billy@west.co.za> >> wrote: >> >> >Could be useful, especially if you upgraded to IDS/UDO and got the >> >ability to do contextual searches of your images... >> >> I'm still using an SE engine, so I can't say anything on IDS/UDO but a >> database with the ability of analyzing images sounds strange to me. > >There are datablades for IDS/UDO that can search BLOB data for matching >image segments or video or audio and return all rows containing that >image. Ie 'find all episodes of Star Trek Classic containing a image of >a phaser rifle' by supplying a clip of such a phaser rifle. Yes it >can be done. > Hi Art, It doesn't quite do that sort of search. What the Excalabur Image DataBlade and the Virage Visual Information Retrieval(VIR) DataBlade do is create a complex feature vector for each image that is stored in your database. Each query is then run using the resembles() function in the where clause i.e. SELECT (image) WHERE ... resembles (my_image, image)... This query is assisted by a searchable index that is created for feature vector searches. The resembles function has some parameters (that differ between the two blades), but they allow you to choose more based on pictures composition, or on color, or texture. Examples of this sort of use would be to pull a series of pictures that have an overall similar composition (blue sky, green grass, single item in center of picture) or a texture/color search to match cloth swatches or carpet and linoleum patterns from a database. The ability to pull an explicit item out of picture just doesn't exist. It's tough enough with the human eye, which is a fine discriminator of visual detail. Some specialized blades are being worked on or discussed which will be able to do more specialized tasks (and nothing else) like face recognition or fingerprint analysis. Albert -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Albert Landeck Never assume malice when Informix DataBlade Engineering Group stupidity can explain a landeck@informix.com situation just as well.