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Embeddings are numerical representations of your data that make it possible to find items that are visually or contextually similar. This is especially useful for unstructured data like images, text, and video, where you can’t use traditional search methods. In Labelbox, this is called a similarity search. By using similarity search, you can quickly find more examples of rare edge cases, identify and remove bad data, and ultimately build a higher-quality dataset for training your models. The easiest way to get started with similarity search is to use the pre-computed embeddings that Labelbox provides for common data types. To perform a similarity search:
  1. Find an anchor: In the Catalog, hover over a data row you want to find more examples of and click the Find similar data icon. This initial data row will be your “anchor”.
    Find Similar Data
  2. Add more anchors: You can optionally select multiple data rows to use as anchors and then select Add selection as anchors.
  3. Refine your results:
    • Add or remove anchors: To add more examples and refine the search, select more data rows and click “Add selection to anchors”. To remove an anchor, click on “Anchors (n)” to view all anchors, and click the ”—” icon on the one you want to remove.
    • Adjust the similarity score: You can adjust the range of the similarity score (from 0 to 1) to broaden or narrow your search. A higher score means the results will be more similar to your anchors.
      Add Anchors And Refine Filters

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How to use your own embeddings

If you have your own embeddings, you can upload them to Labelbox to use in similarity searches.
View the limits page to learn the custom embedding limits per workspace and the maximum dimensions allowed per custom embedding.
To create and upload a custom embedding:
  1. Create an API key.
  2. Navigate to Schema > Embeddings.
  3. Click + Create and give your embedding a name and specify the number of dimensions.
  4. Once created, you can use this Google Colab notebook to upload your custom embeddings. You can view all of the embedding fields in JSON format by clicking the </> button.
To delete a custom embedding, you can do so from the same Schema > Embeddings page by selecting the embedding and clicking the gear icon. To learn more about custom embeddings, see our Custom embeddings developer guide.

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Advanced search techniques

To further refine your data curation workflow, you can combine a similarity search with other filters in the Catalog, such as metadata, annotations, or datasets. Once you have a set of filters that you want to reuse, you can save them as a “slice”. Slices are dynamic, so any new data that matches your filter criteria will automatically be added to the slice.