Berlin University of Applied Sciences Designs New Image Search

In 2014 Kai Bartel, Professor at HTW Berlin (University of Applied Sciences) was a speaker on one of our panels at the DMLA Conference "The Future of Image Search and Retrieval, From Description to Decryption".  Since that time Dr. Bartel has continued his research in the field of image retrieval and has recently cooperated with pixabay in developing a visual image browsing tool similar to Google maps.  You can find their website here.Pixabay wrote about their relationship with the University of Berlin and their search tool pics buffet in their blog: " Picsbuffet was designed and implemented by the Visual Computing Group at the Berlin University of Applied Sciences (HTW Berlin). In order to make this image exploration possible, all images are visually arranged on an "image map" according to their similarities. The currently displayed section of the map can be interactively modified by dragging and zooming with your mouse: more similar images are displayed by zooming in and zooming out provides an overview of thematically related image concepts.  After entering keywords for a search, a region with appropriate results is displayed: The heat map in the upper left corner shows the regions where the corresponding pictures can be found. Clicking on the heat map or on one of the five images below the heat map will jump to the corresponding region. If you click on an image its preview image and a link to the Pixabay page will be shown. Alternatively, you can start a new search for similar images." You can see their entire blog here.Dr. Kai thought that DMLA members, especially those who attended the meeting in 2014, would be interested in how their research has evolved.  For more information you can contact him at Kai-Uwe.Barthel@HTW-Berlin.de