Search by image similiarity

[Nutter]

Any pointers where to look for information on searching on image similarity? I'd like to be able to plug in an image and find the 5 most similar images out of a library.

[coopster]

Have you ever tried Google's image search [google.com]?

[Nutter]

I'm sorry, I wasn't asking clearly... I'd like the image library and searching backend to reside on my server.

[eeek]

That's not exactly a trivial problem. Did you read the article in the Scientific American about image searching?

[the_nerd]

Scientific American about image searching

Do you know which issue that was?

[eeek]

It was the last one I got in the mail.

[Nutter]

That's not exactly a trivial problem.

I have no doubt of that. What I'm looking for is a starting point or a "for dummies" type explanation. Most of what I've read assumes a base level of knowledge above mine.

What I'm looking to do is find the 5 (or 10, or 15, or whatever) most similar images amid a library. It would probably be something that would be run as cron because I imagine it would be a very intensive search.

And if it matters the images are all 2 color (black & white) and are all pretty small.

[whoisgregg]

Here's some decent starting points:

[scholar.google.com...]
[google.com...]
[google.com...]

Added: This [grail.cs.washington.edu] is the most basic explanation of how it would work I could find.