PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image retrieval method improving retrieval performance by properly combining a color characteristic with a material feeling characteristic. SOLUTION: This image retrieval method has (a) a stage 102 for finding a color distance and a material feeling distance between a query image and a data image; (b) a stage 104 for weighting the color distance and the material feeling distance with prescribed weighting values; (c) a stage 106 for finding a characteristic distance wherein the weighted color distance and material feeling distance are combined in consideration of human visual characteristics; and (d) a stage 108 for deciding the image similar to the query image by use of the combined characteristic distance. Thereby, a retrieval result fitter for a human visual mechanism can be obtained by simultaneously combining information about the color and material feeling characteristics extracted from the area image. Especially, the information and a large number of objects included in one image can be retrieved with higher accuracy with a small calculation amount by the retrieval by areas.
IMAGE RETRIEVAL METHOD BASED ON COMBINATION OF COLOR AND MATERIAL FEELING