Reachability based Ranking in Interactive Image Retrieval

In some interactive image retrieval systems, users can select images from image search results and click to view their similar or related images until they reach the targets. Existing image ranking options are based on relevance, update time, interestingness and so on. Because the inexact description of user targets or unsatisfying performance of image retrieval methods, it is possible that users cannot reach their targets in single-round interaction. When we consider multi-round interactions, how to assist users to select the images that are easier to reach the targets in fewer rounds is a useful issue. In this paper, we propose a new kind of ranking option to users by ranking the images according to their difficulties of reaching potential targets. We model the interactive image search behavior as navigation on information network constructed by an image collection and an image retrieval method. We use the properties of this information network for reachability based ranking. Experiments based on a social image collection show the efficiency of our approach.