Haruspex: an image database system for query-by-examples

Describes a color-based approach to effectively resolve query-by-examples in an image database. We present a prototype database system designed to store and query a collection of ceramics. Our case study is a database of images representing ceramics from the International Museum of Ceramics in Faenza. We consider statistical features on color distribution, not requiring a strong segmentation procedure to detect the object from the background. Results on a collection of about 2000 images are reported providing a validation of the approach