Design meets artificial intelligence to create new visual search engine

Novel methods of searching the nation's gallery, library and museum collections could soon be revolutionized by a visual search platform designed in collaboration with Northumbria University. As the sector worldwide moves towards presenting collections online, the Deep Discoveries project was launched to explore ways of creating a computer vision search platform that can identify and match images across digitized collections on a national scale. The expertise of Dr. Jo Briggs and Associate Professor Jamie Steane, from Northumbria School of Design, were enlisted to help deliver the collaboration between The National Archives, the University of Surrey and the V&A Museum. Rather than typing a keyword into an empty search box, visual search uses a query image and computer vision artificial intelligence (AI), to match similar images from across digitized collections based on properties such as color, pattern and shape. The Northumbria design team--made up of Jo, Jamie and talented graduate Andy Cain--joined the project at a later stage to help with information sharing and developing the user experience.