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Searching for images visually no longer a dream

The image you are looking for is out there, finding it visually is now a reality.

Idée releases first visual search application for digital asset management: Espion™ Visual Search

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Seybold Seminars San Francisco Booth #1345, September 26, 2001 Today at Seybold San Francisco – the world's largest and most prestigious event for cross–media publishing professionals – Idée announced the release of their visual search application: Espion– Visual Search. Already recognized as a Hot Pick by the Seybold Editors, Espion Visual Search allows users to perform visual searches within a digital asset management application. Users of Espion will be able to search for images that are visually similar to another, or alternatively for altered originals. Espion uses proprietary image comparison algorithms that allow users to control how specific the search is and which visual attributes are significant in the search. Espion displays pairs of matched images instantly and details the likelihood of the match as well as the degree of difference between the original image and the match.

"Idée has been successful at providing one of the first solutions for visual search. We are excited that our innovative approaches and hard work have been recognized by the editors of Seybold Publications," said Leila Boujnane, CEO of Idée.

About Espion
Using Espion, owners of large image databases can now search visually for images.

– Espion is an advanced application integrating a number of proprietary algorithms used to analyze, index and retrieve images.
– Users can select an image from their database and using Espion search for identical images, similar or modified ones.
– Comparison algorithms include algorithms highly sensitive to colour
composition, spatial distribution and a number of complex visual attributes.
– The core of the Espion application is an image comparison engine which allows users to compare an original image to images and find identical or similar images.
– The Espion Image Comparison Server is written in C++. It performs all image searches requested via client applications and sends the results to the client for display.
– The comparison engine characterizes images using image recognition algorithms and image indexing. The algorithms used within Espion are sensitive to image content such as colour, composition, and spatial configuration.
– When performing visual searches with Espion users receive images as search results and can see similar images in shape, color, size and composition. The "Find Duplicate" algorithm is an extremely fast algorithm which finds duplicate images in a database of images even if the duplicates have been cropped or resized. Each found image is displayed with its name, creation date, and a score. A similarity square indicates the areas of the image which are similar to the original. Once the search is completed, users can re–query the database using one of the search results as an original.
– Espion has been designed to support images from all major industry–standard formats: (JPEG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, etc.)

Availability
The Espion Visual Search will be available by year–end for Mac OS X, Solaris, Linux and Windows platforms and users will be able to purchase a copy from Idée at idéeinc.com. A beta version will be available for download by October 31, 2001 at idéeinc.com.

For more information on all Idée products and services email info@ideeinc.com.

About Idée

Idée Inc. develops advanced image identification and visual search software. Read more...