A methodology of highly interactive intra-object
relevance feedback is used to retrieve
multimedia data from a
database. The query object could consist of one or more images, images derived from video, a
video sequence, or an audio clip. The query is adjusted using the information fed-back by the user about the relevance of previously extracted part(s) from the object itself, such that the adjusted query is a better approximation to the user's
perception. The information fed-back by the user during intra-query modification is used for intra-object learning of the user's
perception. The refined query is subsequently used for inter-object
relevance feedback where data is retrieved from the
database based on parameters learnt by intra-query object feedback mechanism, and the user provides feedback by
ranking the retrieved objects in order of their relevance to him or her. In the
system according to the invention, inter-object learning of user's
perception is expedited by utilizing the learnt parameters in the intra-object
relevance feedback. Furthermore, the methodology of the invention allows for building refined queries based on part(s) or sub-sequence(s) of the query object rather than the entire object itself, thereby reducing the number of irrelevant objects, retrieved from the
database. The methodology allows synthesis and modification of the input query object itself in the event a query object is not directly available, and, also to learn the user's perception.