IBM Content Manager

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/cm/cmgr/

Content Manager manages all types of digitized content across multiple platforms, databases and applications. It provides imaging, digital asset management, Web content management and content integration. Built on a multi-tier distributed architecture, it provides the scalability to grow from a single department to a geographically dispersed enterprise. The products and solutions help large and smaller organizations meet regulatory compliance requirements, collaborate with greater productivity and improve customer service.

 

An 1995 IBM paper described the prototype

http://www.cis.temple.edu/~vasilis/Courses/CIS750/Papers/qbic.pdf

Lots of potential applications include 

• Medical (`Give me other images that contain a tumor with a texture like this one');
  
• photo-journalism (`Give me images that have blue at the top and red at the bottom');
  
• Fashion;
  
• Retail;