TensorFlow adds a new library for on-device text-to-image search

TensorFlow has announced a new on-device embedding-based search library feature that allows one to quickly find similar images, text or audio from millions of data samples in a few milliseconds. It works by using a model to embed the search query into a high-dimensional vector representing the semantic meaning of the query. Then it uses ScaNN (Scalable Nearest Neighbors) to search for similar items from a predefined database. Given below is a walkthrough of an end-to-end example of building a text-to-image search feature (retrieve the images given textual queries) using the new TensorFlow Lite Searcher Library. The dual encoder model consists of an image encoder and a text encoder.