The paper introduces VisualSEEk, a fully automated content-based image query system that allows users to search for images by diagramming spatial arrangements of color regions. The system automatically extracts and indexes salient color regions from images, enabling efficient retrieval of images with similar color and spatial arrangements. Key features include: 1. **Content-Based and Spatial Querying**: VisualSEEk integrates feature-based image indexing with spatial query methods, allowing users to specify both visual features and spatial properties of regions. 2. **Color Set Representation**: Color sets are used to represent color information, providing a compact alternative to color histograms. This representation facilitates automated region extraction and efficient indexing. 3. **Efficient Indexing Techniques**: The system utilizes efficient indexing techniques for color information, region sizes, and spatial locations, enabling complex joint color/spatial queries. 4. **Query Evaluation**: The effectiveness of the system is evaluated through synthetic image queries, demonstrating improved retrieval performance over non-spatial content-based approaches. 5. **Future Work**: The authors plan to extend the system to include texture extraction and shape comparison to further enhance the image region query capabilities. The paper also includes detailed descriptions of the system's components, query strategies, and experimental results, highlighting the system's efficiency and flexibility in handling complex queries.The paper introduces VisualSEEk, a fully automated content-based image query system that allows users to search for images by diagramming spatial arrangements of color regions. The system automatically extracts and indexes salient color regions from images, enabling efficient retrieval of images with similar color and spatial arrangements. Key features include: 1. **Content-Based and Spatial Querying**: VisualSEEk integrates feature-based image indexing with spatial query methods, allowing users to specify both visual features and spatial properties of regions. 2. **Color Set Representation**: Color sets are used to represent color information, providing a compact alternative to color histograms. This representation facilitates automated region extraction and efficient indexing. 3. **Efficient Indexing Techniques**: The system utilizes efficient indexing techniques for color information, region sizes, and spatial locations, enabling complex joint color/spatial queries. 4. **Query Evaluation**: The effectiveness of the system is evaluated through synthetic image queries, demonstrating improved retrieval performance over non-spatial content-based approaches. 5. **Future Work**: The authors plan to extend the system to include texture extraction and shape comparison to further enhance the image region query capabilities. The paper also includes detailed descriptions of the system's components, query strategies, and experimental results, highlighting the system's efficiency and flexibility in handling complex queries.