Comments on: Searching for images by colour http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/2009/09/16/searching-for-images-by-colour/ News and comments on search tools and electronic resources for business information Sun, 05 Feb 2012 02:28:54 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Karen Blakeman http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/2009/09/16/searching-for-images-by-colour/comment-page-1/#comment-4632 Karen Blakeman Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:36:07 +0000 http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/?p=773#comment-4632 Hi Will, You are quite right - it is mostly people involved in marketing or graphic design. But I did meet someone on of my workshops who wanted a photo of autumn tress for a local community newsletter. Autumn trees as a search wasn't that effective but searching on trees and then the colour worked. Of course they still had to double check the copyright situation of the image. Then there was the poor person who was landed on from a great height by corporate communications and told that the image at the top of their blog was not in the "corporate colours". Comms didn't care what the subject was - "just make sure it's in the right colours"! I often wonder what he came up with, but he's still employed by them so I guess he was selective about content :-) On a frivolous note, I recently demonstrated these tools to a group of librarians who laughed hysterically: "Brilliant. We can get rid of Dewey and all of our cataloguing data. The punters always ask for books by colour!" One might be looking for an image of a particular colour of a subject, for example green rather than red apples but from the workshops I run many people who are interested in images are looking for something like Google Labs similar images. They run a search on, say, Blackpool Tower, and like the angle at which a particular photo was taken. Similar images can then find other photos taken from a similar angle. It's not foolproof but it's a start. Searching for similar images/colours is not that new. I remember Altavista some years ago had an option to search for "similar images". It was not that good at the content but did a fantastic job at finding images with the same mix and concentration of colours. I'd love to know how your research goes, so do try and keep us posted. Regards Karen Hi Will,

You are quite right – it is mostly people involved in marketing or graphic design. But I did meet someone on of my workshops who wanted a photo of autumn tress for a local community newsletter. Autumn trees as a search wasn’t that effective but searching on trees and then the colour worked. Of course they still had to double check the copyright situation of the image. Then there was the poor person who was landed on from a great height by corporate communications and told that the image at the top of their blog was not in the “corporate colours”. Comms didn’t care what the subject was – “just make sure it’s in the right colours”! I often wonder what he came up with, but he’s still employed by them so I guess he was selective about content :-)

On a frivolous note, I recently demonstrated these tools to a group of librarians who laughed hysterically: “Brilliant. We can get rid of Dewey and all of our cataloguing data. The punters always ask for books by colour!”

One might be looking for an image of a particular colour of a subject, for example green rather than red apples but from the workshops I run many people who are interested in images are looking for something like Google Labs similar images. They run a search on, say, Blackpool Tower, and like the angle at which a particular photo was taken. Similar images can then find other photos taken from a similar angle. It’s not foolproof but it’s a start.

Searching for similar images/colours is not that new. I remember Altavista some years ago had an option to search for “similar images”. It was not that good at the content but did a fantastic job at finding images with the same mix and concentration of colours.

I’d love to know how your research goes, so do try and keep us posted.

Regards

Karen

]]> By: Will Plant http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/2009/09/16/searching-for-images-by-colour/comment-page-1/#comment-4627 Will Plant Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:01:49 +0000 http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/?p=773#comment-4627 I am currently researching these colour based image searches but need a fundamental question answered... who needs this search application? I can think primarily of people involved in marketing or graphic design, but from my research these users tend to search more on shape and content, before modifying the colour of the image manually to suit their project. There are also some sites which allow you to shop by colour which could be more useful. Apart from time critical uses i.e. someone does not have enough time to modify the image manually, who else may need/want to search based on colour? Any ideas on this matter would be greatly appreciated! I am currently researching these colour based image searches but need a fundamental question answered… who needs this search application? I can think primarily of people involved in marketing or graphic design, but from my research these users tend to search more on shape and content, before modifying the colour of the image manually to suit their project. There are also some sites which allow you to shop by colour which could be more useful. Apart from time critical uses i.e. someone does not have enough time to modify the image manually, who else may need/want to search based on colour?

Any ideas on this matter would be greatly appreciated!

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