Phickle: A System for Supporting Cross-Modal Information Access Triggered by Photographs

Abstract

We aim to support cross-modal information access triggered by photographs. Toward this purpose, we propose a method to facilitate information retrieval based on content (e.g., people, objects, events) or meta-data (e.g., date, place) of photographs. Among content or meta-data, we focus on the date on which a photograph is taken. We introduce Phickle, a system that facilitates time-series information retrieval. When a user focuses on the date of a photograph, the system provides access to other information at the time the photograph is taken. We conducted an experiment to find the points of improvement of the system. On the basis of the results of this experiment, we obtained positive opinions about a function for browsing time-series information related to users' photographs. However, we found that the availability of information access based on the date of photographs needs to be improved, because most participants didn't use this function.