GSOC Student Project Idea

In brief, I would like to implement a state-of-the-art indexing algorithm (named iDistance) directly in PostgreSQL using GiST or SP-GiST trees and whatever means necessary. It is an ideal follow-up to last year's project with Mr. Korotkov, which implemented classical indexing structures for range queries. I strongly believe the community would greatly benefit from the inclusion of iDistance, which has been shown to be dramatically more effective than R-trees and KD-trees, especially for knn queries and above 10-20 dimensions.

A major focus of my current PhD thesis is high-dimensional data indexing and retrieval, with an emphasis towards applied use in CBIR systems. Recently, I published work which introduced a new open source implementation of iDistance in C++ (and some Python), which I believe makes me highly qualified and motivated for this opportunity. I have been strongly considering a PostgreSQL implementation for an easy plug-and-play use in existing applications, but with academic grant funding, the priority is low. Below are links to my google code repository and recent publication. I am happy to discuss any of this in further detail if you'd like.