UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- A picture is worth a thousand words, but computerized searches for a digital image involve only a few because they examine only the key words or descriptions attached to an image. A new method that looks at the picture itself, however, may soon change the way images are classified, sorted and retrieved.

On the Web
   According to Wang, Simplicity is faster and more efficient than existing image-retrieval methods, and it offers higher performance. He said that it could be extended to the estimated billion images on the World Wide Web and that a variation of the technique could be used to filter unwanted material, such as pornograpic images.
   For now, the researchers are working with biologists, physicians and other experts to make the system more useful for medical imaging applications.
   An online demonstration of Simplicity, which Wang developed while he was a graduate student at Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., is available online at wang.ist.psu.edu. 

by Hank Hogan