I2Cnet: Content-based similarity search in geographically distributed repositories of medical images

The retrieval of images by content is rapidly gaining acceptance as an important function of image database systems. This paper discusses the architecture of I2Cnet, a network of servers which provide content-based query services through a WWW browser. In I2Cnet, algorithms for the representation, storage, and retrieval of medical images based on different descriptions of image content are implemented using description types. AttributeMatch, a description type supported by I2Cnet, aims to capture the knowledge of medical experts in queries by using a similarity criterion which can be tailored to user preferences. We present results showing the query response time of AttributeMatch, obtained with image classes of various sizes, and the degree of similarity of retrieved images to the query image under different similarity criteria.