2D-h trees: an index scheme for content-based retrieval of images in multimedia systems

An important feature to be considered in the design of a multimedia database system (MMDBS) is content based retrieval of images. Spatial features represent the spatial relationships among objects in an image. The salient objects (interesting objects) can be organized in an object hierarchy, based on object oriented concepts. The paper proposes an indexing scheme, called 2D-h trees, for content based retrieval of images. This scheme organizes the representations of the spatial relationships among objects in images and the hierarchical relationships among objects efficiently for query optimization. Our performance analysis indicates that the 2D-h-tree is an efficient index scheme for content based retrieval of images.