Quaero
Encyclopedia
Quaero is a Europe
an research and development program with the goal of developing multimedia and multilingual indexing and management tools for professional and general public applications (such as search engines). The European Commission approved the aid granted by France
on 11 March 2008.
This program is supported by the OSEO. It is a French project with the participation of several German
partners. The consortium is led by Thomson
. Other companies involved in the consortium are: France Télécom
, Exalead
, Bertin Technologies, Jouve, Grass Valley GmbH, Vecsys, Vocapia Research, LTU Technologies
, and Synapse Développement. Many public research institutes are also involved, including LIMSI
-CNRS, INRIA, IRCAM
, RWTH Aachen
, University of Karlsruhe, IRIT, Clips Imag, GET, INRA
; as well as other public organisations such as INA
, BNF
, LIPN, and DGA
.
According to the AII press release the main targeted applications can be divided in three broad classes: multimedia indexing and search tools for professional and general public use, including mobile environments; professional solutions for production, post-production, management and distribution of multimedia documents; and facilitation of access to cultural heritage such as audiovisual archives and digital libraries.
and Gerhard Schröder
during the French-German ministerial conference in April 2005. It was put forward again by Jacques Chirac in August 2005 at the inauguration of the new agency created to fund such programs, the Agence de l'innovation industrielle
(AII), and in January 2006 in his New Year addresses, which received much attention from the public. Quaero was part of the first programs selected by the AII in April 2006. In December 2006 the new German government announced that it will devote its share of the funding to a slightly modified program geared toward knowledge management and semantic web, under the name of Theseus
. Quaero received the approval of the European Commission in March 2008. €99m from the French government will go towards development of the program.
, as well as other commercial search engines such as Yahoo, Microsoft's Bing and Ask.com
.
Quaero is not intended to be a text-based search engine but is mainly meant for multimedia search. The search engine will use techniques for recognizing, transcribing, indexing, and automatic translation of audiovisual documents and it will operate in several languages. There is also mention of automatic recognition and indexing of images.
According to an article in The Economist
, Quaero will allow users to search using a "query image", not just a group of keywords. In a process known as "image mining", software that recognises shapes and colours will be used to look for and retrieve still images and video clips that contain images similar to the query image. (The software is supplied by LTU Technologies
.)
A technique called "keyword propagation" will be used so that when Quaero finds a descriptionless image which contains elements of or completely matches a properly labelled image, it will append the description from the labelled image to the unlabelled one. This will ensure faster searches and a definite enrichment of the web, also linguistically, as the primary interface and query terms were supposed to be in French and German.
As France will be researching image-searching, Germany was supposed to be advancing voice clip and sound media searches, with the intention of transcribing their content to text, and translating it to other languages, before they pulled out of the project. This would also allow for "query sound clips" following the paradigm of the "query image" mentioned above.
pointed out that the funding behind the project is dwarfed by both Microsoft or Google. Search experts Autonomy, (Financial Times) called the plan "a blatant case of misguided and unnecessary nationalism". The main issues being that: by the time of Quaero's launch, the search engine market will be a generation ahead of Quaero in media and device capabilities; some argue that Mr Chirac was more interested in defending French pride than global advancement of the Internet.
According to the print edition of The Economist
, January 6, 2007 (pp. 5), Quaero "was reportedly scrapped" since the German part "grumbled about the cost and have indicated they will produce their own, scaled-down search engine".
, announced during the IT-summit in Potsdam that a German consortium has put together a semantic search project called Theseus
that would be distinct from Quaero.
The main source of disagreement was the format of the search engine, with German engineers favoring a text-based search engine and the French engineers favoring a multimedia search engine. Many German engineers also balked at what they thought was becoming too much of an anti-Google project, rather than a project driven by its own ideals.
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an research and development program with the goal of developing multimedia and multilingual indexing and management tools for professional and general public applications (such as search engines). The European Commission approved the aid granted by France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
on 11 March 2008.
This program is supported by the OSEO. It is a French project with the participation of several German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
partners. The consortium is led by Thomson
Thomson SA
Technicolor SA , formerly Thomson SA and Thomson Multimedia, is a French international provider of solutions for the creation, management, post-production, delivery and access of video, for the Communication, Media and Entertainment industries. Technicolor’s headquarters are located in Issy les...
. Other companies involved in the consortium are: France Télécom
France Télécom
France Telecom S.A. is the main telecommunications company in France, the third-largest in Europe and one of the largest in the world. It currently employs about 180,000 people and has 192.7 million customers worldwide . In 2010 the group had revenue of €45.5 billion...
, Exalead
Exalead
Exalead is a software company that provides search platforms and search-based applications for consumer and business users. The company is headquartered in Paris, France, and is a subsidiary of Dassault Systèmes .- CloudView Platform :...
, Bertin Technologies, Jouve, Grass Valley GmbH, Vecsys, Vocapia Research, LTU Technologies
LTU Technologies
LTU TechnologiesFounded in 1999, LTU technologies is a global pioneer in the field of image recognition for commercial and government solutions...
, and Synapse Développement. Many public research institutes are also involved, including LIMSI
LIMSI
Founded in 1972, Laboratoire d'informatique pour la mécanique et les sciences de l'ingénieur is a CNRS laboratory associated with the Paris-VI and Paris-Sud-XI Universities. LIMSI is located in Orsay on the campus of the University of Paris-Sud...
-CNRS, INRIA, IRCAM
IRCAM
IRCAM is a European institute for science about music and sound and avant garde electro-acoustical art music. It is situated next to, and is organizationally linked with, the Centre Pompidou in Paris...
, RWTH Aachen
RWTH Aachen
RWTH Aachen University is a research university located in Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany with roughly 33,000 students enrolled in 101 study programs....
, University of Karlsruhe, IRIT, Clips Imag, GET, INRA
Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique
The Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique is a French public research institute dedicated to scientific studies surrounding the problems of agriculture...
; as well as other public organisations such as INA
Institut national de l'audiovisuel
The Institut national de l'audiovisuel , is a repository of all French radio and television audiovisual archives. Additionally it provides customers with a free and immediate access to archives of countries such as Afghanistan and Cambodia...
, BNF
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...
, LIPN, and DGA
DGA
DGA may refer to:* Damned Good Airplane a series of planes, i.e. DGA-15 built by Howard Aircraft Corporation* Dangriga Airport in Dangriga, Belize...
.
According to the AII press release the main targeted applications can be divided in three broad classes: multimedia indexing and search tools for professional and general public use, including mobile environments; professional solutions for production, post-production, management and distribution of multimedia documents; and facilitation of access to cultural heritage such as audiovisual archives and digital libraries.
Announcements and history
Quaero was announced by Jacques ChiracJacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
and Gerhard Schröder
Gerhard Schröder
Gerhard Fritz Kurt Schröder is a German politician, and was Chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany , he led a coalition government of the SPD and the Greens. Before becoming a full-time politician, he was a lawyer, and before becoming Chancellor...
during the French-German ministerial conference in April 2005. It was put forward again by Jacques Chirac in August 2005 at the inauguration of the new agency created to fund such programs, the Agence de l'innovation industrielle
Agence de l'innovation industrielle
The Agence de l'innovation industrielle was a French governmental agency created in France in 2005 to support technological projects. As of 2006, it was supporting seven projects:*BioHub, a chemistry projects to create products with cereals, without using oil...
(AII), and in January 2006 in his New Year addresses, which received much attention from the public. Quaero was part of the first programs selected by the AII in April 2006. In December 2006 the new German government announced that it will devote its share of the funding to a slightly modified program geared toward knowledge management and semantic web, under the name of Theseus
Theseus Program
Theseus Program is a research program initiated in 2006 by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research with the goal of developing a new Internet-based infrastructure in order to better use and utilize the knowledge available on the Internet....
. Quaero received the approval of the European Commission in March 2008. €99m from the French government will go towards development of the program.
The search engine
The search engine application has been the focus of the attention of many news articles. As a consequence, Quaero is often cited as a European competitor to GoogleGoogle
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
, as well as other commercial search engines such as Yahoo, Microsoft's Bing and Ask.com
Ask.com
Ask is a Q&A focused search engine founded in 1996 by Garrett Gruener and David Warthen in Berkeley, California. The original software was implemented by Gary Chevsky from his own design. Warthen, Chevsky, Justin Grant, and others built the early AskJeeves.com website around that core engine...
.
Quaero is not intended to be a text-based search engine but is mainly meant for multimedia search. The search engine will use techniques for recognizing, transcribing, indexing, and automatic translation of audiovisual documents and it will operate in several languages. There is also mention of automatic recognition and indexing of images.
According to an article in The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
, Quaero will allow users to search using a "query image", not just a group of keywords. In a process known as "image mining", software that recognises shapes and colours will be used to look for and retrieve still images and video clips that contain images similar to the query image. (The software is supplied by LTU Technologies
LTU Technologies
LTU TechnologiesFounded in 1999, LTU technologies is a global pioneer in the field of image recognition for commercial and government solutions...
.)
A technique called "keyword propagation" will be used so that when Quaero finds a descriptionless image which contains elements of or completely matches a properly labelled image, it will append the description from the labelled image to the unlabelled one. This will ensure faster searches and a definite enrichment of the web, also linguistically, as the primary interface and query terms were supposed to be in French and German.
As France will be researching image-searching, Germany was supposed to be advancing voice clip and sound media searches, with the intention of transcribing their content to text, and translating it to other languages, before they pulled out of the project. This would also allow for "query sound clips" following the paradigm of the "query image" mentioned above.
Criticism
The French satirical newspaper Le Canard EnchaînéLe Canard enchaîné
Le Canard enchaîné is a satirical newspaper published weekly in France. Founded in 1915, it features investigative journalism and leaks from sources inside the French government, the French political world and the French business world, as well as many jokes and humorous cartoons.-Early...
pointed out that the funding behind the project is dwarfed by both Microsoft or Google. Search experts Autonomy, (Financial Times) called the plan "a blatant case of misguided and unnecessary nationalism". The main issues being that: by the time of Quaero's launch, the search engine market will be a generation ahead of Quaero in media and device capabilities; some argue that Mr Chirac was more interested in defending French pride than global advancement of the Internet.
According to the print edition of The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
, January 6, 2007 (pp. 5), Quaero "was reportedly scrapped" since the German part "grumbled about the cost and have indicated they will produce their own, scaled-down search engine".
German departure
On December 18, 2006, Hartmut Schauerte, a state secretary within the Ministry for Economics and LabourFederal Ministry for Economics and Labour (Germany)
The Federal Ministry for Economics and Labour was a Ministry of German Federal Government between 2002 and 2005...
, announced during the IT-summit in Potsdam that a German consortium has put together a semantic search project called Theseus
Theseus Program
Theseus Program is a research program initiated in 2006 by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research with the goal of developing a new Internet-based infrastructure in order to better use and utilize the knowledge available on the Internet....
that would be distinct from Quaero.
The main source of disagreement was the format of the search engine, with German engineers favoring a text-based search engine and the French engineers favoring a multimedia search engine. Many German engineers also balked at what they thought was becoming too much of an anti-Google project, rather than a project driven by its own ideals.