Introduction to the special issue on image and video retrieval: theory and applications

Abstract

This editorial introduces the Special Issue, which contains a selection of papers that present recent advances in a number of areas relating to image and video annotation and retrieval. Image and Video retrieval have now reached a state where successful techniques and applications have begun flourishing and technologies for retrieving multimedia content enable new applications and services for both commercial and personal end users. While existing techniques already provide promising results, recent advances such as the availability of large amounts of user-related data pose new challenges and generate the need for novel approaches to efficiently exploit them. Such data can be generated by the users explicitly, for example through tagging and participation in social media sharing properties, or implicitly, by analyzing user logs and feedback. In addition, affordable sensors provide further information, e.g. GPS data that can be used to increase the efficiency of existing solutions, such as concept detection. The aim of this special issue is to provide an overview of current research in emerging topics of image and video retrieval models and applications, while at the same time, including papers advancing the state of the art in related mature issues. Multimed Tools Appl (2011) 55:1–6 DOI 10.1007/s11042-010-0618-8