A new image retrieval interface and its practical use in “View Search Hokkaido”

New image retrieval technology, which is used for a service demonstration project “View Search Hokkaido” in “Information Grand Voyage Project” conducted by Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan, is presented in this paper. The new technology enables image retrieval based on low-level features without utilizing any tag-based scheme and realizes a 3D interface for image retrieval. This 3D interface can provide new user experience, which has not been provided by the conventional retrieval services. The effectiveness of the 3D interface has been verified in “View Search Hokkaido”.