Web-based image indexing and retrieval in JPEG compressed domain

As the majority of content-based image retrieval systems operate on full images in pixel domain, decompression is a prerequisite for the retrieval of compressed images. To provide a possible on-line indexing and retrieval technique for those jpg image files, we propose a novel pseudo-pixel extraction algorithm to bridge the gap between the existing image indexing technology, developed in the pixel domain, and the fact that an increasing number of images stored on the Web are already compressed by JPEG at the source. Further, we describe our Web-based image retrieval system, WEBimager, by using the proposed algorithm to provide a prototype visual information system toward automatic management, indexing, and retrieval of compressed images available on the Internet. This provides users with efficient tools to search the Web for compressed images and establish a database or a collection of special images to their interests. Experiments using texture- and colour-based indexing techniques support the idea that the proposed algorithm achieves significantly better results in terms of computing cost than their full decompression or partial decompression counterparts. This technology will help control the explosion of media-rich content by offering users a powerful automated image indexing and retrieval tool for compressed images on the Web.J. Jiang: Contacting author     

基于Boosting学习的图片自动语义标注

图片自动语义标注是基于内容图像检索中很重要且很有挑战性的工作。本文提出了一种基于Boosting学习的图片自动语义标注方法，建立了一个图片语义标注系统BLIR（boosting for linguistic indexing image retrievalsystem）。假设一组具有同一语义的图像能够用一个由一组特征组合而成的视觉模型来表示。2D-MHMM（2维多分辨率隐马尔科夫模型）实际上就是一种颜色和纹理特殊组合的模板。BLIR系统首先生成大量的2D-MHMM模型，然后用Boosting算法来实现关键词与2D-MHMM模型的关联。在一个包含60000张图像的图库上实现并测试了这个系统。结果表明，对这些测试图像，BLIR方法比其他方法具有更高的检索正确率。     

A novel evolutionary approach for optimizing content-based image indexing algorithms.

Optimization of content-based image indexing and retrieval (CBIR) algorithms is a complicated and time-consuming task since each time a parameter of the indexing algorithm is changed, all images in the database should be indexed again. In this paper, a novel evolutionary method called evolutionary group algorithm (EGA) is proposed for complicated time-consuming optimization problems such as finding optimal parameters of content-based image indexing algorithms. In the new evolutionary algorithm, the image database is partitioned into several smaller subsets, and each subset is used by an updating process as training patterns for each chromosome during evolution. This is in contrast to genetic algorithms that use the whole database as training patterns for evolution. Additionally, for each chromosome, a parameter called age is defined that implies the progress of the updating process. Similarly, the genes of the proposed chromosomes are divided into two categories: evolutionary genes that participate to evolution and history genes that save previous states of the updating process. Furthermore, a new fitness function is defined which evaluates the fitness of the chromosomes of the current population with different ages in each generation. We used EGA to optimize the quantization thresholds of the wavelet-correlogram algorithm for CBIR. The optimal quantization thresholds computed by EGA improved significantly all the evaluation measures including average precision, average weighted precision, average recall, and average rank for the wavelet-correlogram method.     

Color indexing for efficient image retrieval

Content based image retrieval is an active area of research. Many approaches have been proposed to retrieve images based on matching of some features derived from the image content. Color is an important feature of image content. The problem with many traditional matching-based retrieval methods is that the search time for retrieving similar images for a given query image increases linearly with the size of the image database. We present an efficient color indexing scheme for similarity-based retrieval which has a search time that increases logarithmically with the database size.In our approach, the color features are extracted automatically using a color clustering algorithm. Then the cluster centroids are used as representatives of the images in 3-dimensional color space and are indexed using a spatial indexing method that usesR-tree. The worst case search time complexity of this approach isOn _q log(N^* n_avg)), whereN is the number of images in the database, andn _q andn _avg are the number of colors in the query image and the average number of colors per image in the database respectively. We present the experimental results for the proposed approach on two databases consisting of 337 Trademark images and 200 Flag images.     

一种有效的支持海量图像数据库QBE查询的聚类索引算法

对海量图像数据进行基于内容的查询与检索有赖于高效的索引和检索机制。因此,如何将海量图像数据进行合理的分类,人而建立相应的索引机制就成为了一个亟待解决的问题。本文提出了一种有效的支持海量图像数据库QBE查询的聚类索引算法。实验在1万多幅的图像数据库上进行了反复测试,结果表明该算法可以极大地提高检索效率。     

一种高效的图像数据库检索方法

对于大型图像库,如何高效地检索出相似图像是图像检索系统的一大挑战。提出了一种改进的K-均值聚类算法建立分层结构的索引,再利用A*树算法和三角不等式原则及N近邻方法对索引库快速高效地搜索,达到对图像库快速高效检索相似图像的目的。实验在Corel图像库上进行,实验结果表明该方法以对数时间复杂度实现基于内容的高效检索。     

Image and video indexing using vector quantization

Visual (image and video) database systems require efficient indexing to enable fast access to the images in a database. In addition, the large memory capacity and channel bandwidth requirements for the storage and transmission of visual data necessitate the use of compression techniques. We note that image/video indexing and compression are typically pursued independently. This reduces the storage efficiency and may degrade the system performance. In this paper, we present novel algorithms based on vector quantization (VQ) for indexing of compressed images and video. To start with, the images are compressed using VQ. In the first technique, for each codeword in the codebook, a histogram is generated and stored along with the codeword. We note that the superposition of the histograms of the codewords, which are used to represent an image, is a close approximation of the histogram of the image. This histogram is used as an index to store and retrieve the image. In the second technique, the histogram of the labels of an image is used as an index to access the image. We also propose an algorithm for indexing compressed video sequences. Here, each frame is encoded in the intraframe mode using VQ. The labels are used for the segmentation of a video sequence into shots, and for indexing the representative frame of each shot. The proposed techniques not only provide fast access to stored visual data, but also combine compression and indexing. The average retrieval rates are 95% and 94% at compression ratios of 16:1 and 64:1, respectively. The corresponding cut detection rates are 97% and 90%, respectively.     

Archival image indexing with connectivity features using randomized masks

Connectivity properties capture a natural spatial feature of a binary image. Albeit they are easy to compute, more often than not, they alone fail to provide a good characterization of the image because of the fact that several different images may have the same connectivity features. Typically, other types of parameters, e.g., moments, are used to augment the connectivity feature for efficient indexing and retrieval purposes. In this work, an alternative approach is proposed. Instead of considering other diverse features, which are computationally intensive, only the connectivity features of the image are used iteratively using a novel concept of spatial masking. For this purpose, a greedy algorithm for constructing a spatial feature vector of variable length for a binary image, is proposed. The algorithm is based on XOR-ing the image bit-plane with a few pseudo-random synthetic masks, and its novelty lies in computing the feature vector iteratively, depending on the size and diversity of the image database. The classical Euler number and the two primary connectivity features from which it is derived, namely, the number of connected components and the number of holes, are used to finally generate a unique feature vector for each binary image in the database using a fuzzy membership function customized for the given database. The method is particularly suitable for large-sized image archives of a digital library, where each image contains one or more objects. It is found to converge within only three iterations for a postal stamp database consisting of 2598 images, and also for a logo database of 1034 images. A data structure called discrimination tree has been introduced for supporting efficient storage and indexing of the images using the above feature vector.     

颜色不变量的自适应聚类网络量化方法

给出了颜色不变量的自适应聚类网络量化算法。这种方法采用一组图象能自适应地影响量化矢量。把这种算法和均匀量化算法应用于CBIR系统中，并对它们的检索结果和时间复杂度进行比较，结果表明，该算法在检索的正确率时间的复杂度上均优于均匀量化方法。因而颜色不变量的自适应聚类网络量化方法是一种很好的矢量量化算法。     

AUTOMATIC TEXT LOCATION IN IMAGES AND VIDEO FRAMES

Textual data is very important in a number of applications such as image database indexing and document understanding. The goal of automatic text location without character recognition capabilities is to extract image regions that contain only text. These regions can then be either fed to an optical character recognition module or highlighted for a user. Text location is a very difficult problem because the characters in text can vary in font, size, spacing, alignment, orientation, color and texture. Further, characters are often embedded in a complex background in the image. We propose a new text location algorithm that is suitable in a number of applications, including conversion of newspaper advertisements from paper documents to their electronic versions, World Wide Web search, color image indexing and video indexing. In many of these applications, it is not necessary to extract all the text, so we emphasize on extracting important text with large size and high contrast. Our algorithm is very fast and has been shown to be successful in extracting important text in a large number of test images.     

Image database design based on 9D-SPA representation for spatial relations

Spatial relationships between objects are important features for designing a content-based image retrieval system. We propose a new scheme, called 9D-SPA representation, for encoding the spatial relations in an image. With this representation, important functions of intelligent image database systems such as visualization, browsing, spatial reasoning, iconic indexing, and similarity retrieval can be easily achieved. The capability of discriminating images based on 9D-SPA representation is much more powerful than any spatial representation method based on minimum bounding rectangles or centroids of objects. The similarity measures using 9D-SPA representation provide a wide range of fuzzy matching capability in similarity retrieval to meet different user's requirements. Experimental results showed that our system is very effective in terms of recall and precision. In addition, the 9D-SPA representation can be incorporated into a two-level index structure to help reduce the search space of each query processing. The experimental results also demonstrated that, on average, only 0.1254 percent /spl sim/ 1.6829 percent of symbolic pictures (depending on various degrees of similarity) were accessed per query in an image database containing 50,000 symbolic pictures.     

A fractal-based clustering approach in large visual database systems

Large visual database systems require effective and efficient ways of indexing and accessing visual data on the basis of content. In this process, significant features must first be extracted from image data in their pixel format. These features must then be classified and indexed to assist efficient access to image content. With the large volume of visual data stored in a visual database, image classification is a critical step to achieve efficient indexing and retrieval. In this paper, we investigate an effective approach to the clustering of image data based on the technique of fractal image coding, a method first introduced in conjunction with fractal image compression technique. A joint fractal coding technique, applicable to pairs of images, is used to determine the degree of their similarity. Images in a visual database can be categorized in clusters on the basis of their similarity to a set of iconic images. Classification metrics are proposed for the measurement of the extent of similarity among images. By experimenting on a large set of texture and natural images, we demonstrate the applicability of these metrics and the proposed clustering technique to various visual database applications.     

A content-based goods image recommendation system

The information of e-commerce images varies and different users may focus on different contents of the same image for different purpose. So the research on recommendation by computers is becoming more and more important. But retrieval based only on keywords obviously falls short for massive numbers of resource images. In this paper, we focus on a recommendation system of goods images based on image content. Goods images have a relatively homogenous background and have a wide range of applications. The recommendation consists of three stages. First, the image is pre-processed by removing the background. Second, a weighted representation model is proposed to represent the image. The separated features are extracted and normalized, and then the weights of each feature are computed based on the samples browsed by the users. Third, a feature indexing scheme is put forward based on the proposed representation. A binary-tree is used for the indexing, and a binary-tree updating algorithm is also given. Finally, the recommended images are given by a features combination searching scheme. Experimental results on a real goods image database show that our algorithm can achieve high accuracy in recommending similar goods images with high speed.     

基于互信息的自然图像分割

自然图像分割在图像处理和计算机视觉等领域中占据重要地位。基于聚类的图像分割算法是无监督图像分割算法中的一种重要方法,〖JP2〗但是这类方法存在2个问题。首先特征提取一般是基于像素的,这导致分割结果与边界拟合比较差,针对此问题提出引入超像素对待分割图像预处理;其次,分割块数很难确定,针对此问题提出一种基于互信息的能量差,能够自动确定分割块数。在标准数据库上的实验结果表明,本文算法克服了上述问题,取得了比较好的实验结果。     

Colour Image Indexing Using SOM for Region-of-Interest Retrieval

In this paper, we present a novel approach to image indexing by incorporating a neural network model, Kohonen’s Self-Organising Map (SOM), for content-based image retrieval. The motivation stems from the idea of finding images by regarding users’ specifications or requirements imposed on the query, which has been ignored in most existing image retrieval systems. An important and unique aspect of our interactive scheme is to allow the user to select a Region-Of-Interest (ROI) from the sample image, and subsequent query concentrates on matching the regional colour features to find images containing similar regions as indicated by the user. The SOM algorithm is capable of adaptively partitioning each image into several homogeneous regions for representing and indexing the image. This is achieved by unsupervised clustering and classification of pixel-level features, called Local Neighbourhood Histograms (LNH), without a priori knowledge about the data distribution in the feature space. The indexes generated from the resultant prototypes of SOM learning demonstrate fairly good performance over an experimental image database, and therefore suggest the effectiveness and significant potential of our proposed indexing and retrieval strategy for application to content-based image retrieval. Receiveed: 4 June 1998?,Received in revised form: 7 January 1999?Accepted: 7 January 1999     

Polyhedral object recognition by indexing

In computer vision, the indexing problem is the problem of recognizing a few objects in a large database of objects while avoiding the help of the classical image-feature-to-object-feature matching paradigm. In this paper we address the problem of recognizing three-dimensional (3-D) polyhedral objects from 2-D images by indexing. Both the objects to be recognized and the images are represented by weighted graphs. The indexing problem is therefore the problem of determining whether a graph extracted from the image is present or absent in a database of model graphs. We introduce a novel method for performing this graph indexing process which is based both on polynomial characterization of binary and weighted graphs and on hashing. We describe in detail this polynomial characterization and then we show how it can be used in the context of polyhedral object recognition. Next we describe a practical recognition-by-indexing system that includes the organization of the database, the representation of polyhedral objects in terms of 2-D characteristic views, the representation of this views in terms of weighted graphs and the associated image processing. Finally, some experimental results allow the evaluation of the system performance.     

ClassView: hierarchical video shot classification, indexing, and accessing

Recent advances in digital video compression and networks have made video more accessible than ever. However, the existing content-based video retrieval systems still suffer from the following problems. 1) Semantics-sensitive video classification problem because of the semantic gap between low-level visual features and high-level semantic visual concepts; 2) Integrated video access problem because of the lack of efficient video database indexing, automatic video annotation, and concept-oriented summary organization techniques. In this paper, we have proposed a novel framework, called ClassView, to make some advances toward more efficient video database indexing and access. 1) A hierarchical semantics-sensitive video classifier is proposed to shorten the semantic gap. The hierarchical tree structure of the semantics-sensitive video classifier is derived from the domain-dependent concept hierarchy of video contents in a database. Relevance analysis is used for selecting the discriminating visual features with suitable importances. The Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm is also used to determine the classification rule for each visual concept node in the classifier. 2) A hierarchical video database indexing and summary presentation technique is proposed to support more effective video access over a large-scale database. The hierarchical tree structure of our video database indexing scheme is determined by the domain-dependent concept hierarchy which is also used for video classification. The presentation of visual summary is also integrated with the inherent hierarchical video database indexing tree structure. Integrating video access with efficient database indexing tree structure has provided great opportunity for supporting more powerful video search engines.     

Scalable color image indexing and retrieval using vector wavelets

This paper presents a scalable content-based image indexing and retrieval system based on vector wavelet coefficients of color images. Highly decorrelated wavelet coefficient planes are used to acquire a search efficient feature space. The feature space is subsequently indexed using properties of all the images in the database. Therefore, the feature key of an image not only corresponds to the content of the image itself but also to how much the image is different from the other images being stored in the database. The search time linearly depends on the number of images similar to the query image and is independent of the database size. We show that, in a database of 5,000 images, query search takes less than 30 msec on a 266 MHz Pentium II processor, compared to several seconds of retrieval time in the earlier systems proposed in the literature     

Visual guided navigation for image retrieval

In this work, we are interested in technologies that will allow users to actively browse and navigate large image databases and to retrieve images through interactive fast browsing and navigation. The development of a browsing/navigation-based image retrieval system has at least two challenges. The first is that the system's graphical user interface (GUI) should intuitively reflect the distribution of the images in the database in order to provide the users with a mental picture of the database content and a sense of orientation during the course of browsing/navigation. The second is that it has to be fast and responsive, and be able to respond to users actions at an interactive speed in order to engage the users. We have developed a method that attempts to address these challenges of a browsing/navigation based image retrieval systems. The unique feature of the method is that we take an integrated approach to the design of the browsing/navigation GUI and the indexing and organization of the images in the database. The GUI is tightly coupled with the algorithms that run in the background. The visual cues of the GUI are logically linked with various parts of the repository (image clusters of various particular visual themes) thus providing intuitive correspondences between the GUI and the database contents. In the backend, the images are organized into a binary tree data structure using a sequential maximal information coding algorithm and each image is indexed by an n-bit binary index thus making response to users’ action very fast. We present experimental results to demonstrate the usefulness of our method both as a pre-filtering tool and for developing browsing/navigation systems for fast image retrieval from large image databases.