CuZero: embracing the frontier of interactive visual search for informed users

Users of most visual search systems suffer from two primary sources of frustration. Before a search over this data is executed, a query must be formulated. Traditional keyword search systems offer only passive, non-interactive input, which frustrates users that are unfamiliar with the search topic or the target data set. Additionally, after query formulation, result inspection is often relegated to a tiresome, linear inspection of results bound to a single query. In this paper, we reexamine the struggles that users encounter with existing paradigms and present a solution prototype system, CuZero. CuZero employs a unique query process that allows zero-latency query formulation for an informed human search. Relevant visual concepts discovered from various strategies (lexical mapping, statistical occurrence, and search result mining) are automatically recommended in real time after users enter each single word. CuZero also introduces a new intuitive visualization system that allows users to navigate seamlessly in the concept space at-will and simultaneously while displaying the results corresponding to arbitrary permutations of multiple concepts in real time. The result is the creation of an environment that allows the user to rapidly scan many different query permutations without additional query reformulation. Such a navigation system also allows efficient exploration of different types of queries, such as semantic concepts, visual descriptors, and example content, all within one navigation session as opposed to the repetitive trials used in conventional systems.