Sketch-based retrieval of ClipArt drawings

These days there are a lot of vector drawings available for people to integrate into documents. These come in a variety of formats, such as Corel, Postscript, CGM, WMF and recently SVG. Typically, such ClipArt drawings tend to be archieved and accessed by categories (e.g. food, shapes, transportation, etc.). However, to find a drawing among hundreds of thousands is not an easy task. While text-driven attempts at classifying image data have been recently supplemented with query-by-image content, these have been developed for bitmap-type data and cannot handle vectorial information. In this paper we present an approach to allow indexing and retrieving vector drawings by content from large datasets. Our prototype can already handle databases with thousands of drawings using commodity hardware. Furthermore, preliminary usability assessments show promising results and suggest good acceptance of sketching as a query mechanism by users.

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