We developed a similarity image retrieval system for database consists of various kinds and large amount of image data. Our system has the following features. (1) The similarity retrieval algorithm selects the most similar group to the visual key step by step as a search space so that the system could achieve less computation and better precision. (2) The system can easily adapt each user’s subjective criterion for similarity. (3) The interface is so user friendly that just showing a key image is enough to invoke content-based image retrieval. Based on the features above, we developed and evaluated a similarity retrieval system using cellular phone with digital camera as a multimedia terminal.