EnjoyPhoto: a vertical image search engine for enjoying high-quality photos

  • Authors:

  • Lei Zhang;Le Chen;Feng Jing;Kefeng Deng;Wei-Ying Ma

  • Affiliations:

  • Microsoft Research Asia, Beijing, China;Tsinghua University, Beijing, China;Microsoft Research Asia, Beijing, China;Tsinghua University, Beijing, China;Microsoft Research Asia, Beijing, China

  • Venue:
  • MULTIMEDIA '06 Proceedings of the 14th annual ACM international conference on Multimedia
  • Year:
  • 2006

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Abstract

In this paper, we propose building a vertical image search engine called EnjoyPhoto that leverages rich metadata from various photo forum web sites to meet users' requirements for enjoying high-quality photos, which is virtually impossible in traditional image search engines. To solve the ranking problem when aggregating multiple photo forums, we propose a novel rank fusion algorithm that uses duplicate photos to normalize rating scores. To further improve user experiences in enjoying photos, we design an in-place image browsing interface, and compare it with several other interfaces in a user study. With rich metadata and rating information, more attractive user interfaces are enabled, including slideshow authoring and photo recommendations. We conducted experiments and user studies on a 2.5-million image database to evaluate the proposed rank fusion algorithm, investigate the rationale behind building a vertical image search engine, and study user interfaces and preferences for the purpose of enjoying high-quality photos. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed ranking algorithm. The results also show that the 2.5-million high-quality image database in EnjoyPhoto performs comparably with Google's 1- billion image database for queries related to location, nature, and daily life categories. Finally, our results show that the in-place browsing interface-called Force-Transfer view-is much more convenient for users than traditional interfaces.