10. An apparatus for retrieving images comprising: a knowledge database for assisting inference for obtaining a new visual impression from a plurality of visual impressions; an image database in which image data and natural language data indicating a plurality of visual impressions of an image prepared based on the image data are correlated to each other and stored in the correlated form; a natural language input section for inputting natural language data indicating a text for retrieval; an inferring section for obtaining a new visual impression corresponding to a visual impression of natural language data inputted using said natural language input section from a plurality of visual impressions by referring to said knowledge database for each natural language data stored in said image database; and a retrieving section for extracting image data relating to the natural language data from said image database when there exists natural language data of which a new visual impression can be obtained with said inferring section among natural language data stored in said image database.
10. An apparatus for retrieving images comprising: a knowledge database for assisting inference for obtaining a new visual impression from a plurality of visual impressions; an image database in which image data and natural language data indicating a plurality of visual impressions of an image prepared based on the image data are correlated to each other and stored in the correlated form; a natural language input section for inputting natural language data indicating a text for retrieval; an inferring section for obtaining a new visual impression corresponding to a visual impression of natural language data inputted using said natural language input section from a plurality of visual impressions by referring to said knowledge database for each natural language data stored in said image database; and a retrieving section for extracting image data relating to the natural language data from said image database when there exists natural language data of which a new visual impression can be obtained with said inferring section among natural language data stored in said image database. 13. An apparatus for retrieving images according to claim 10 comprising a display for displaying the images based on the image data extracted by said retrieving section.