A model for knowledge retrieval based on semantic images

This paper presents a model that aims to support the visualization of the knowledge stored in digital repositories through semantic images. In this model images contain representations of the real world that are a priori known by the target group, and which have semantic structures that allows identifying the entities of the domain represented in each region. The proposed model is supported by the framework for knowledge visualization proposed by Burkhard and describes the users' interactions with the images. The user through the images can retrieve and view the knowledge related to the entities represented in each region. A prototype was developed to demonstrate the feasibility of the model using images in the biomedical field, the Foundational Model of Anatomy and the Unified Medical Language System as domain knowledge and the Scientific Electronic Library Online database as a document repository. The use of images facilitates the dissemination of knowledge, because these compose user's world view and can easily be related with prior knowledge. Visual representations are processed quickly in the brain and require less effort than the processing of textual information.