Image retrieval method and image retrieval device

The embodiment of the invention provides an image retrieval method and an image retrieval device. The method comprises the following steps: matching feature points of a queried image with visual words of a visual word list to obtain a first visual word collection; matching feature points of a candidate image with visual words of the visual word list to obtain a second visual word collection; determining a third visual word collection; aiming at the visual words in the third visual word collection, determining a feature point collection of the candidate image and a feature point collection of the queried image matched with the visual words in the third visual word collection; determining the space consistency similarities of the feature point collection of the candidate image and the feature point collection of the queried image; adding the space consistency similarities to obtain the space consistency similarities of the candidate image and the queried image; according to the space consistency similarities, determining the targeted retrieval image of the queried image. The image retrieval method and the image retrieval device, disclosed by the embodiment of the invention, can improve the accuracy of image retrieval.