Interactive image retrieval by natural language

This paper presents a method of building an image data retrieval system that can accept Japanese sentences and handle subjective expressions. A naive user who has little knowledge about objects in the database is likely to use subjective words to explain what he or she wants, for instance, ‘‘show me a cute one,’’ or ‘‘I would like to have a simpler one.’’ Objective interpretation of those expressions is difficult but is indispensable to retrieval systems. In this paper we propose a technique for matching subjective expressions with color features and discuss usability of our natural language interface.