The VGG Image Classification (VIC) Engine

● Performs a visual search over a dataset of images with categories ● Automatically computes an image classifier to find images matching your query

within the dataset ● Input can be a text string or an image ● It can be used to make your images searchable

How to make searchable images from IIIF repositories

1. Start VIC

2. Remove previous images and metadata (OPTIONAL)

3. Login to the administrative tools

4. Stop the backend engine

5. Remove previous backend data (OPTIONAL)

6. Start the IIIF image downloading process

7. Input data download and check

8. Wait for the image processing pipeline to finish

9. Start the backend engine and reset the metadata service

10. Search your images !

1. Start VIC

Start VIC using Kitematic as described in

Mac: http://www.robots.ox.ac.uk/~vgg/software/vic/docker_deployment_mac.html

Windows: http://www.robots.ox.ac.uk/~vgg/software/vic/docker_deployment_win.html

Linux: Start VIC using the command-line or the helper scripts, as described in

http://www.robots.ox.ac.uk/~vgg/software/vic/docker_deployment_linux.html

2. Remove previous images and metadata

If you are ADDING ADDITIONAL IMAGES to your dataset, skip this step. Otherwise,

remove any previous files in [MY_FOLDER]/vgg/mydata/images/mydataset

(WARNING: Remove the contents of the folder but not the folder itself)

Also remove the contents (not the folder itself) of

[MY_FOLDER]/vgg/vic/frontend_data/searchdata

Please take into account that you are about to download

images from an IIIF repository and they can be quite large.

Therefore, please make sure that your docker service has

enough memory allocated (at least 4 GB) before attempting

the data ingestion, see

Win:https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-windows/#advanced

Mac: https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-mac/#advanced

2. Remove previous images and metadata

If you are ADDING ADDITIONAL IMAGES to your dataset, skip this step.

However, if you want to clear completely your previous metadata, remove the

[MY_FOLDER]/vgg/mydata/metadata/indexdir folder (if present) as well

as any previous file in [MY_FOLDER]/vgg/mydata/metadata/mydataset

(WARNING: in this case do not remove the folder itself).

Remove this folder completely (if present)

Remove just this file and other files INSIDE the folder,

but not the folder itself

3. Login

Use the “Sign In” link in the top-left corner of the VIC home page to go to the login

page. If you are already signed in, use the “Admin Tools” link and go to Step 4.

Use the credentials

user: admin

passwd: vggadmin

4. Stop the image classification engine

Go to the Manage Backend Service tab and Stop the backend service

5. Remove previous backend data

If you removed files in step #2, you should remove the existent backend data. Go

to the Manage Backend Data, and under Clear Backend Data make sure

the Search Engine is set to Category and then press the Clear button. This is

NOT necessary if you are just adding new images

6. Start the processing of your images

Go to Manage Backend Data. Under Ingest New Data make sure the Search

Engine is set to Category and Input Type is Images

Then, specify an IIIF Manifest

source and press Ingest

In this case, select a file in your

local storage

In this case, type the URL

pointing to an IIIF repository

Only one IIIF source can be

used at a time

7. Input data download and check

VIC will download the images from the IIIF source that you specified and will check if

they are valid. Please be aware that if the IIIF source specifies a large number of files

or there are any delays in downloading the files from the Internet, this process might

take a long time.

8. Wait for the image processing pipeline to finish

Wait until your images are processed (100 images in the example below)

9. Start the backend engine and reset the metadata

Go to the Manage Backend Service tab and Start the backend service

9. Start the backend engine and reset the metadata

Go to the Manage Backend Service tab and Reset the metadata service

10. Go back to the search page

Click on the Home link to go back to the main page and start a query !

Remember to Stop VIC

Stop VIC using Kitematic as described in

Mac: http://www.robots.ox.ac.uk/~vgg/software/vic/docker_deployment_mac.html

Windows: http://www.robots.ox.ac.uk/~vgg/software/vic/docker_deployment_win.html

For Linux: Stop VIC using the command-line or the helper scripts, as described in

http://www.robots.ox.ac.uk/~vgg/software/vic/docker_deployment_linux.html

Data Ingestion Tips

1. Images in IIIF repositories can be quite large, so in order to speed up the data ingestion as well

as the image queries, the downloaded images are scaled down to a maximum of 500 pixels in

width.

2. If you just want to ADD A FEW IMAGES to your dataset, you can choose to “Select files from a

local storage” in step #6 and press the “Choose Files” button. Then select manually the files you

want to add. Note that you can only select files, not folders. The new files will be automatically

copied to [MY_FOLDER]/vgg/mydata/images/mydataset.

3. If you want to add a large number of local images, and you choose to ingest the complete

images folder in step #6, the input data check in step #7 might take a long time because the

COMPLETE images folder is scanned to acquire the paths to the files. To avoid this, create a

text file (with extension “.txt”) with the paths to your image files, relative to the folder

[MY_FOLDER]/vgg/mydata/images/mydataset. After that choose to “Select files from a

local storage” and then press the “Choose Files” button shown in step #6 and specify the text

file you created. This will avoid the folder scanning and the data ingestion will start immediately.