Clip Art Retrieval Using a Sketch Tablet Application

Currently, there is an exponential growth in the diversity of images, including clip arts. When a user searches for a clip art image to insert in its documents or other content, he wants to find it quickly and efficiently. In some cases, it is difficult to obtain the required clip art image using keywords or categories. Another solution can be to search through lists of clip arts, forcing the user to lose too much time on a task that should be simple and quick. More recent approaches are based on CBIR systems (Content-Based Image Retrieval), which in some situations represent a more efficient solution. In some instances, it may be easier to search for an image by drawing some basic shapes, than to associate a textual description that can not always capture the essence of the image [1]. In this paper, we describe a solution that allows users to search clip arts using mobile devices, based on their own sketches combined with image queries.