John Hunter and Dale Hartman (Bucknell University)
This poster displays the past development, present debates, and future possibilities of the Film Search Engine, a searchable database of feature films intended for the use of scholars and the general public. It began by developing a search feature that allows users to find any word or phrase from the closed caption files in the films in the database (sorted by user-chosen criteria). Recently, we have also developed a search feature that allows users to find still images using a color palette (rather than words) as the search criterion, thus allowing the analysis of films using purely a visual means. The poster also discusses the possibilities (and limitations) of histogram oriented gradient searches that would allow users to look for particular objects in the database. A demonstration of the engine will be available, and feedback from conference attendees is warmly solicited.
John Hunter is Associate Professor of Comparative Humanities at Bucknell University.
Dale Hartman is a junior majoring in Computer Science at Bucknell University.