Searching by Similarity

Once you find an Object, Image or Cluster that are of interest to you, Visual Layer allows you to perform visual similarity search to locate visually similar data.

The "Find Similar" button triggers a search that returns the most visually similar items, ordered from most similar to least similar. This could, for example, allow you to better inspect a blurry object in an image by finding similar ones where the object in question isn't distorted.

Visual Layer allows four distinct types of Similarity Search:

1. Similarity Search on a Cluster

To apply a Similarity Search on a Cluster, hover the Cluster that you're interested in and click on the "Find Similar" action at the bottom of the Card.

The results will look like this:

2. Similarity Search on an Image/Object

Whether you're in Objects View or Images view, you can apply Similarity Search to the item that is of interest to you.

Option 1:

In the Dataset Details Page, click on a Cluster:

In the Cluster Details Page, hover the Image/Object that you're interested in and click on the "Find Similar" action at the bottom of the card.

The results will look like this:

Option 2:

In the Cluster Details Page, click an Image/Object:

In the Image Details Page:

To apply Similarity Search to the full image, click on "Find Similar", then on the icon at the center of the Image:

The results will look like this:

Option 3:

To apply Similarity Search to an Object within the Image, hover over its bounding bow and click the "Find Similar" icon

The results will look like this:

3. Similarity Search using a Region of Interest

When you apply Similarity search to an image you can also crop it to focus on a Region of Interest - for example, an object or a collection of objects.

Navigate to an image that's of interest to you in the same way as you would in Case 1.

Click on "Find similar":

Crop the Image to apply the search to a Region of Interest or an object that you'd like to find more instances of:

Click on the "Find Similar" icon to see the results.

4. Similarity Search via Image Upload

If you click the "Find Similar' Icon adjacent to the textual search box at the top of the Dataset Page, you'll be prompted to upload an image:

You can crop the image prior to upload:

Visual Layer will return the Clusters/Images/Objects most similar to the uploaded image: