FACERET: An Interactive Face Retrieval System Based on Self-Organizing Maps

Abstract. The basic problem in content-based image retrieval is the gap between the high-level descriptions used by humans to describe image contents and the low-level features, such as color, texture and shape, used to automatically index images in databases. This problem is even harder when there are non-trivial high-level human descriptions of the images, as in the case of face images. In these cases the employment of user interaction in the retrieval process is a good possibility to solve this task. In this context, FACERET, a content-based face retrieval system that uses self-organizing maps and user feedback is here introduced. Some simulations of the FACERET operation are also shown.