when all else fails, try cartoogle; a small interactive window that allows you to make your own drawing/cartoon, using different sized brush strokes and a basic assortment of colours. click “find” for a selection of relevant webpages and images.

not happy with your search, you can return to your sketch, start again or tweak the original and then try another search.

even if your search is unsuccessful, it might just prove *lucky*
-- po, Feb 20 2005

3d search engine http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4750721/
Only for 3D at the moment, but... [moomintroll, Feb 20 2005]

Kilroy was here http://www.kilroywa...0KilroyLegends.html
[normzone, Feb 20 2005]

Droodles http://www.archimed...b.org/droodles.html
Popularized by Roger Price [reensure, Feb 21 2005]

The great and the good of Princeton are working on it http://shape.cs.princeton.edu/search.html
The sketching is a bit ropy, but it recognized a banana. Eventually. [moomintroll, Feb 22 2005]

this month's sciam article http://www.sciam.co...ageNumber=3&catID=2
"Find that shape" [sophocles, Feb 22 2005]

scholar.google query http://scholar.goog...8&hl=en&btnG=Search
What you want is called "content-based search" of images, and has been around for quite a while. I threw in "hand-drawn" to limit it to sketches. [jutta, Feb 27 2005]

Retrivr - Search by sketch http://labs.systemone.at/retrievr/
[A_SN, Aug 23 2006]

First Retrievr match when fed HB croissant logo http://www.flickr.c...182052@N00/21088722
Not bad, actually. [jutta, Aug 23 2006]

Draw a sphericon and you get thousands of halfbakery hits.
-- FarmerJohn, Feb 20 2005


3D version is being developed... but a 2D version would be incredibly useful. Why hasn't anyone thought of this before? Don't understand. [+]
-- moomintroll, Feb 20 2005


I was looking for a famous world war 2 cartoon of a man peering over a wall. no way could I find it but I could draw it in a moment.
-- po, Feb 20 2005


John Varley did something like this in "Golden Globes", and William Gibson had a piece of software that determined which celebrity you most resembled called "Separated At Birth".

I've always wanted a tool like this for 2D images. [+]
-- normzone, Feb 20 2005


norm, buggar you are quick - thank you!
-- po, Feb 20 2005


The pleasure is mine - anything for you.
-- normzone, Feb 20 2005


Three big circles will throw up Mickey Mouse, Yes?
-- The Kat, Feb 20 2005


a great idea, but since I read essentially the same thing in an article in this month's "Scientific American" magazine, I'd say I'll pass on giving it a bun.
-- sophocles, Feb 22 2005


I don't subscribe to that one.

anything on electrically assisted eggs?
-- po, Feb 22 2005


Splendid link [moomintroll], my little sketch picked up 100 similar shapes that were about 50% human figure and 20% furniture. It was comforting to see included was a set of handcuffs.
-- reensure, Feb 22 2005


I think they all picked up a grand piano but yes, what reensure said.

sophocles, I found on that link, eventually, a *find that shape* which is a 3d model I believe. Princeton again? believe me I did search for this before posting.
-- po, Feb 22 2005


triangles after triangulation: 2160. Thanks, [moomintroll]
-- yabba do yabba dabba, Feb 22 2005


po, I'm not impugning your integrity. I'm just saying that in my own little world view, when I read something over breakfast and then the next day see it posted on HB as a new idea, I do a little shoulder shrug and move on to the next idea. There's oodles of creativity in and out of the HB, and it's only natural to have some unintentional overlap.
-- sophocles, Feb 22 2005


<beats chest> ouch!
-- po, Feb 23 2005


now you tell me! dear, gorilla.
-- po, Feb 23 2005


zeno, honey, no need to be shy, (where did he go?) - funny, I thought I did. one draws a simple drawing in the interactive window (and I have seen something similar) and a search engine interprets the drawing to the best of its ability and plucks webpages and images from the wonderful internet for one to peruse.
-- po, Feb 26 2005


< zeno, honey, no need to be shy, (where did he go?) - funny, I thought I did. >

I don't get it. Are you refering to me? What does it mean?

I'll not sleep tonight, maybe PO CALLED ME HONEY!
-- zeno, Feb 26 2005


Thankfull? I dream of it.
-- zeno, Feb 27 2005


Nice link [A_SN]. It recognized my tree, eventually.
-- moomintroll, Aug 23 2006


What [moomintroll] said. Also kinda fun to feed photos of yourself and friends to it and see what comes up. I'm a designer seat, a baby, a cat's nose...
-- imaginality, Sep 15 2006



random, halfbakery