Abstract  In image retrieval systems, user information needs  is expressed using multiple types of query. Unfortunately, due to  user  subjectivity  perception  to  visual  features  and   semantic  depths  of  images,  the  conventional  query  submitted  to  the  system  encounter  difficulties  to  identify  user  information   need.  The  blooming  of  interest  in  semantic  image  r etrieval  requires  current  research  direction  to  be  more  concerned  into  semant ics.  This  paper  describes  our  on-going  research  work  in  formulating  a  new  query  approach  for  image  databases.  The  enablin g  technologies  of  the  semantic  web  formed  the  building  blocks  of  our  query  specification.  Using  the  MRML  as  the  communic ation  protocol,  XML  in  the  form  of  SVG  as  the  visual  content  description (sketch based) and RDF for binding the  semantic meanings of images, this research provides  an initial framework  towards semantic based query formulation framework.    

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[24] Van J., Information Retrieval, 2 nd Edition, Butterworth-Heinemann, London, 1979. Shahrul Noah received his MSc and PhD in information studies from the University of Sheffiled, UK in 1994 and 1998, respectively. His research interests include information retrieval, knowledge representation, and semantic web. He currently leads the knowledge technology research group at the national university of Malaysia. He is a member of the IEEE computer society. Saiful Sabtu received his Bsc of Information Technology degree from the same university. His research interests include information retrieval and multimedia information systems. Binding Semantic to a Sketch Based Query Specification Tool 123 Appendix 1: Example of a duck drawn using the query canvas and its linearization output Title of the query: "Duck Image" A simple duck image Information on #duck A duck drawn with polylines Information on #theDuck A drawing of the duck Raster form Text-based output Real SVG Code