Robust object recognition using a color co-occurrence histogram and the spatial relations of image patches

We propose a robust object recognition system where patch-based pyramid images and the spatial relationships among patches are utilized for our image model. In particular, both a color histogram (CH) and a color co-occurrence histogram (CCH) are applied to obtain image features for each patch. The locations of subregions to be tested are decided by a particle filter in our matching process. We show that the performance of object recognition can be improved by using the spatial relationships among patches. To show the validity of our proposed method, we employ input images from various environments as test images. This work was presented in part at the 13th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 31–February 2, 2008     

Hybrid tracking based on color histogram for intelligent space

The vision sensor network is expected to achieve a contact-free wide-area location system without any additional burden on users in intelligent environments. In this article, a tracking algorithm for a location system in an intelligent environment is described. A modified color tracker based on a Kalman filter and a mean shift procedure is proposed in order to improve the robustness for occlusion and rapid movement. To handle the sudden change in object movement, we propose a hybrid tracking algorithm, including an adaptive feedback loop, based on the statistics of color histogram models after the mean-shift process. Experimental results showed that the proposed method achieves more robust tracking of multiple objects than the conventional method.     

Using eigencolor normalization for illumination-invariant color object recognition

Color is one of salient features for color object recognition, however, the colors of object images sensitively depend on scene illumination. To overcome the lighting dependency problem, a color constancy or color normalization method has to be used. This paper presents a color image normalization method, called eigencolor normalization, which consists of two phases as follows. First, the compacting method, which was originally used for compensating the adverse effect due to shape distortion for 2-D planar objects, is exploited for 3-D color space to make the color distribution less correlated and more compact. Second, the compact color image is further normalized by rotating the histogram to align with the reference axis computed. Consequently, the object colors are transformed into a new color space, called eigencolor space, which reflects the inherent colors of the object and is more invariant to illumination changes. Experimental results show that our eigencolor normalization method is superior to other existing color constancy or color normalization schemes on achieving more accurate color object recognition.     

一种广义直方图及其在彩色图像增强中的应用

提出了一种广义直方图的构造方法并将其用于彩色图像均衡化增强。针对传统直方图均衡化方法实现彩色图像增强并不具有普适性的不足,将传统灰度图像直方图定义进行修改并得到一种广义灰度图像直方图,将其用于彩色图像在HSV空间实现均衡化增强。实验结果表明,所建议的广义直方图均衡化彩色图像增强方法是有效的,且比传统直方图均衡化方法能取得更好的增强效果。     

Using an ICA representation of local color histograms for object recognition

This paper applies a Bayesian classification scheme to the problem of object recognition through probabilistic modeling of local color histograms. In this context, the density estimation is generally performed via nonparametric kernel methods and the high dimensionality does not allow precision in the results. We propose a local independent component analysis (ICA) representation of the data. Within this representation, the components can be assumed statistically independent and, for this particular problem, sparsity of the independent components is observed. We show how these two characteristics simplify and add accuracy to the density estimation and develop a Bayesian decision scheme within this representation. We propose a set of possible density estimations for supergaussian densities, the density type associated with a sparse representation. Two experiments were performed. The first one illustrates the properties of the ICA representation for local color histograms. The second experiment tests the ICA classification model for a large set of pharmaceutical products and compares this scheme with a nonparametric technique based on Gaussian Kernels, two nearest-neighbor techniques and global histogram approach.     

Integration of multiresolution image segmentation and neural networks for object depth recovery

A novel technique for three-dimensional depth recovery based on two coaxial defocused images of an object with added pattern illumination is presented. The approach integrates object segmentation with depth estimation. Firstly segmentation is performed by a multiresolution based approach to isolate object regions from the background given the presence of blur and pattern illumination. The segmentation has three sub-procedures: image pyramid formation; linkage adaptation; and unsupervised clustering. These maximise the object recognition capability while ensuring accurate position information. For depth estimation, lower resolution information with a strong correlation to depth is fed into a three-layered neural network as input feature vectors and processed using a Back-Propagation algorithm. The resulting depth model of object recovery is then used with higher resolution data to obtain high accuracy depth measurements. Experimental results are presented that show low error rates and the robustness of the model with respect to pattern variation and inaccuracy in optical settings.     

Spatial color histogram based center voting method for subsequent object tracking and segmentation

In this paper, we introduce an algorithm for object tracking in video sequences. In order to represent the object to be tracked, we propose a new spatial color histogram model which encodes both the color distribution and spatial information. Using this spatial color histogram model, a voting method based on the generalized Hough transform is employed to estimate the object location from frame to frame. The proposed voting based method, called the center voting method, requests every pixel near the previous object center to cast a vote for locating the new object center in the new frame. Once the location of the object is obtained, the back projection method is used to segment the object from the background. Experiment results show successful tracking of the object even when the object being tracked changes in size and shares similar color with the background.     

Statistical characteristics in HSI color model and position histogram based vehicle license plate detection

Visual perception takes an important role in the implementation of intelligent robot and transportation systems. Such perception is to detect and recognize various objects in the real environment. Detecting license plate (LP) is a crucial and inevitable component of the vehicle license plate recognition (VLPR) system. In this proposed algorithm, initially, HSI color model is adopted to select automatically statistical threshold value for detecting candidate regions. According to different colored LP, these candidate regions may include LP regions; geometrical properties of LP are then used for classification. The proposed method is able to deal with candidate regions under independent orientation and scale of the plate. Finally, the decomposition of candidate regions contains predetermined LP alphanumeric character by using position histogram to verify and detect vehicle license plate (VLP) region. In experiment more than 150 images were used, and they were taken from the variety of conditions such as complex scenes, illumination changing, distances and varied weather etc. Under these conditions, success of LP detection has reached more than 94%.