You'll Never Walk Alone: A Sketch and Text Duet for Fine-Grained Image Retrieval

Abstract

Two primary input modalities prevail in image retrieval: sketch and text. While text is widely used for inter-category retrieval tasks sketches have been established as the sole preferred modality for fine-grained image retrieval due to their ability to capture intricate visual details. In this paper we question the reliance on sketches alone for fine-grained image retrieval by simultaneously exploring the fine-grained representation capabilities of both sketch and text orchestrating a duet between the two. The end result enables precise retrievals previously unattainable allowing users to pose ever-finer queries and incorporate attributes like colour and contextual cues from text. For this purpose we introduce a novel compositionality framework effectively combining sketches and text using pre-trained CLIP models while eliminating the need for extensive fine-grained textual descriptions. Last but not least our system extends to novel applications in composed image retrieval domain attribute transfer and fine-grained generation providing solutions for various real-world scenarios.