Visual media retrieval using transform-based layered query scheme

This paper presents a visual media querying scheme referred to as transform-based layered query (TLQ) scheme. The TLQ scheme mainly aims at decreasing retrieval processing time and run-time memory consumption without degrading retrieval results semantically. The scheme contains abstract layers in indexing and retrieval phases, where each indexing layer corresponds to a retrieval layer. The layers are constructed based on transformations for reducing visual frame and feature data dimensions. The proposed TLQ scheme also involves an unsupervised method for eliminating irrelevant media items between the retrieval layers. A two-layer TLQ system is implemented and integrated into MUVIS content-based multimedia indexing and retrieval framework, and its theoretical advantages are verified with dedicated experiments on image and video databases. The experiments reveal that 75% retrieval performance improvement in terms of process time can be achieved depending on transformation parameters.