PictureRelate compares pictures by similarity.
Of course computers can't understand what's in a picture.
Pattern recognition and image analysis has tried for many decades and has failed, so far.
But there are some basic image properties that can be analyzed by a computer.
PictureRelate uses a set of such features to classify images.
These features were designed to mimic the human eye, i.e. they use
what neurologists like to call "pop-out" features.
The human brain uses pop-out features to find interesting visual elements
fast. So a major benefit of using this technique is: it is fast!
Using a large number of such features and combining them in a weighted way
often gives surprisingly good results. Therefore I decided to publish my
experimental program as a technology demonstrator. Try it!
With a bit of experience you can browse your pictures by similarity the following way:
a) choose a picture close to what you are looking for.
b) adjust feature weights (called criterias in the GUI) so that as many
similar pictures as possible appear as close as possible to the selected image. Since version 2.0 auto-adjust functionality is available too.
c) select several of these similar pictures to see if they are a better
d) repeat the above steps. Use the history functionality to recover from
As an additional benefit you can search for duplicate pictures, which
have a different image format, or different size, or even for duplicates
which have different text stamped into the image.
Another feature is to create a mosaic image, which is composed from thumbnail pictures and looks like another picture when watched from far away.
If you are interested to use PictureRelate with a commercial product
or for a commercial application, you are very welcome to contact me.
If you would like to create a demonstration version for a different operating system
or if you would like to translate the program into your native language, you are
also welcome to contact me.
Any volunteers to translate PictureRelate into a new languange are also welcome to contact me.
Screenshots to give you a quick idea
Browse pictures from different directories and drives in a
View, Rename, Delete, Copy&Paste, Drag&Drop, switch to
Can handle large lists with 50.000 pictures and more!!!
Image formats: JPG, BMP, PNG, TIFF, PPM, PGM, PBM, RAS
Reads any other format via import filter command (IfranView,
Search for images similar to the selected picture. Fast!!!
Adjust criterias for similarity interactively. See effects
Examples: prefer pictures with similar colors appearance...
Example: prefer pictures with similar yellow blobs...
Search for duplicate pictures.
Create a list of more or less similar pictures.
Create a mosaic picture composed from many other pictures.
It was created using a random collection of images from my hard
disk, mostly from cached web pages and the following picture, which you
will regognize when you go away from the screen a few steps: