11. The method according to claim 10 , further comprising: comparing the one or more characteristics with the assigned human readable lexical representations stored in the database; determining whether one or more of the images stored in the database contains features that substantially match the one or more characteristics; and wherein retrieving at least one image from the database further comprises retrieving at least one image that contains features that substantially match the one or more characteristics.
11. The method according to claim 10 , further comprising: comparing the one or more characteristics with the assigned human readable lexical representations stored in the database; determining whether one or more of the images stored in the database contains features that substantially match the one or more characteristics; and wherein retrieving at least one image from the database further comprises retrieving at least one image that contains features that substantially match the one or more characteristics. 12. The method according to claim 11 , further comprising: ranking a plurality of images based on similarities between the one or more characteristics and the assigned human readable lexical representations of the images in response to a determination that a plurality of images contains features that substantially match the one or more characteristics.