Semantic image retrieval in magnetic resonance brain volumes

Practitioners in the area of neurology often need to retrieve multimodal magnetic resonance (MR) images of the brain to study disease progression and to correlate observations across multiple subjects. In this paper, a novel technique for retrieving 2-D MR images (slices) in 3-D brain volumes is proposed. Given a 2-D MR query slice, the technique identifies the 3-D volume among multiple subjects in the database, associates the query slice with a specific region of the brain, and retrieves the matching slice within this region in the identified volumes. The proposed technique is capable of retrieving an image in multimodal and noisy scenarios. In this study, support vector machines (SVM) are used for identifying 3-D MR volume and for performing semantic classification of the human brain into various semantic regions. In order to achieve reliable image retrieval performance in the presence of misalignments, an image registration-based retrieval framework is developed. The proposed retrieval technique is tested on various modalities. The test results reveal superior robustness performance with respect to accuracy, speed, and multimodality.     

Region-based image retrieval using color-size features of watershed regions

This paper presents a region-based image retrieval system that provides a user interface for helping to specify the watershed regions of interest within a query image. We first propose a new type of visual features, called color-size feature, which includes color-size histogram and moments, to integrate color and region-size information of watershed regions. Next, we design a scheme of region filtering that is based on color-size histogram to fast screen out some of most irrelevant regions and images for the preprocessing of the image retrieval. Our region-based image retrieval system applies the Earth Mover’s Distance in the design of the similarity measure for image ranking and matching. Finally, we present some experiments for the color-size feature, region filtering, and retrieval results that demonstrate the efficiency of our proposed system.     

DRM: dynamic region matching for image retrieval using probabilistic fuzzy matching and boosting feature selection

This paper considers the semantic gap in content-based image retrieval from two aspects: (1) irrelevant visual contents (e.g. background) scatter the mapping from image to human perception; (2) unsupervised feature extraction and similarity ranking method can not accurately reveal users’ image perception. This paper proposes a novel region-based retrieval framework—dynamic region matching (DRM) to bridge the semantic gap. (1) To address the first issue, a probabilistic fuzzy region matching algorithm is adopted to retrieve and match images precisely at object level, which copes with the problem of inaccurate segmentation. (2) To address the second issue, a “FeatureBoost” algorithm is proposed to construct an effective “eigen” feature set in relevance feedback (RF) process. And the significance of each region is dynamically updated in RF learning to automatically capture users’ region of interest (ROI). (3) User’s retrieval purpose is predicted using a novel log-learning algorithm, which predicts users’ retrieval target in the feature space using the accumulated user operations. Extensive experiments have been conducted on Corel image database with over 10,000 images. The promising experimental results reveal the effectiveness of our scheme in bridging the semantic gap.     

Structural image retrieval using automatic image annotation and region based inverted file

Image retrieval has lagged far behind text retrieval despite more than two decades of intensive research effort. Most of the research on image retrieval in the last two decades are on content based image retrieval or image retrieval based on low level features. Recent research in this area focuses on semantic image retrieval using automatic image annotation. Most semantic image retrieval techniques in literature, however, treat an image as a bag of features/words while ignore the structural or spatial information in the image. In this paper, we propose a structural image retrieval method based on automatic image annotation and region based inverted file. In the proposed system, regions in an image are treated the same way as keywords in a structural text document, semantic concepts are learnt from image data to label image regions as keywords and weight is assigned to each keyword according to spatial position and relationship. As the result, images are indexed and retrieved in the same way as structural document retrieval. Specifically, images are broken down to regions which are represented using colour, texture and shape features. Region features are then quantized to create visual dictionaries which are similar to monolingual dictionaries like English or Chinese dictionaries. In the next step, a semantic dictionary similar to a bilingual dictionary like the English–Chinese dictionary is learnt to mapping image regions to semantic concepts. Finally, images are then indexed and retrieved using a novel region based inverted file data structure. Results show the proposed method has significant advantage over the widely used Bayesian annotation models.     

Extracting salient region for pornographic image detection

Content-based pornographic image detection, in which region-of-interest (ROI) plays an important role, is effective to filter pornography. Traditionally, skin-color regions are extracted as ROI. However, skin-color regions are always larger than the subareas containing pornographic parts, and the approach is difficult to differentiate between human skins and other objects with the skin-colors. In this paper, a novel approach of extracting salient region is presented for pornographic image detection. At first, a novel saliency map model is constructed. Then it is integrated with a skin-color model and a face detection model to capture ROI in pornographic images. Next, a ROI-based codebook algorithm is proposed to enhance the representative power of visual-words. Taking into account both the speed and the accuracy, we fuse speed up robust features (SURF) with color moments (CM). Experimental results show that the precision of our ROI extraction method averagely achieves 91.33%, more precisely than that of using the skin-color model alone. Besides, the comparison with the state-of-the-art methods of pornographic image detection shows that our approach is able to remarkably improve the performance.     

Perceptually based techniques for image segmentation and semantic classification

We present a new approach for semantic image analysis that combines knowledge of human perception with an understanding of signal characteristics to segment natural scenes into perceptually uniform regions, and then uses the region statistics to extract semantic information. Applications include content-based image retrieval and region of interest extraction for efficient compression/transmission over heterogeneous networks     

Temporal integration method for image-processing-basedsuper-high-resolution image acquisition

The authors propose an image processing-based approach towards the development of a super-high-resolution image acquisition system. Imaging methods based on this approach can be classified into two main categories: a spatial integration imaging method and a temporal integration imaging method. With regard to the spatial integration imaging method, the authors have previously presented a method for acquiring an improved-resolution image by integrating multiple images taken simultaneously with multiple different cameras. They develop their work, aiming at a particular class of application where a user indicates a region of interest (ROI) on an observed image in advance, and apply a prototypal temporal integration imaging method. The prototypal temporal integration imaging method does not involve global image segmentation, but uses a subpixel registration algorithm which describes an image warp within the ROI, with subpixel accuracy, as a deformation of quadrilateral patches. The method then performs a subpixel registration by warping an observed image with the warping function recovered from the deformed quadrilateral patches. Experimental simulations demonstrate that the temporal integration imaging is promising as a basic means of high resolution imaging     

Medical image categorization and retrieval for PACS using the GMM-KL framework.

This paper presents an image representation and matching framework for image categorization in medical image archives. Categorization enables one to determine automatically, based on the image content, the examined body region and imaging modality. It is a basic step in content-based image retrieval (CBIR) systems, the goal of which is to augment text-based search with visual information analysis. CBIR systems are currently being integrated with picture archiving and communication systems for increasing the overall search capabilities and tools available to radiologists. The proposed methodology is comprised of a continuous and probabilistic image representation scheme using Gaussian mixture modeling (GMM) along with information-theoretic image matching via the Kullback-Leibler (KL) measure. The GMM-KL framework is used for matching and categorizing X-ray images by body regions. A multidimensional feature space is used to represent the image input, including intensity, texture, and spatial information. Unsupervised clustering via the GMM is used to extract coherent regions in feature space that are then used in the matching process. A dominant characteristic of the radiological images is their poor contrast and large intensity variations. This presents a challenge to matching among the images, and is handled via an illumination-invariant representation. The GMM-KL framework is evaluated for image categorization and image retrieval on a dataset of 1500 radiological images. A classification rate of 97.5% was achieved. The classification results compare favorably with reported global and local representation schemes. Precision versus recall curves indicate a strong retrieval result as compared with other state-of-the-art retrieval techniques. Finally, category models are learned and results are presented for comparing images to learned category models.     

Regions of interest extraction from SPECT images for neural degeneration assessment using multimodality image fusion

The aging population highlights the importance of early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases in the elderly. Current diagnoses of such diseases rely on visual assessment of the neuron activity of the specific regions in the brain revealed by SPECT imaging with a specific tracer, 99mTc-TRODAT-1. However, due to the difficulties in defining the regions of interest (ROI) in SPECT images, efficient indices are lacking for quantitative analysis. In this study, we performed simultaneous CT and SPECT scans and used the CT images as the medium to register the MR and SPECT images, such that the ROI delineated in the MR image can be mapped onto the SPECT image in the corresponding area. A robust registration scheme is proposed, including coarse registration using principal axes alignment and then fine-tuning the registration using a combination of maximal cross-section area detection and the general Hough transform. The results from three clinical datasets all show improved accuracy of registration as compared with the results obtained using conventional principal axes alignment alone. Based on these registration results, a correct ROI can be defined in the SPECT images and ROI-based quantitative indices can be further derived.     

基于LVE和ARG算法的冠状动脉分割

为克服传统区域生长方法中容易发生的欠分割和过分割现象,引入局部图像分析技术,设定一系列感兴趣区域(ROI),对冠状动脉的多层螺旋CT(MSCT)图像进行分割。首先应用基于Hessian矩阵的局部血管增强(LVE)滤波,提升图像的对比度;随后采用自适应性区域生长(ARG)算法,并对阈值适时调整。分割后的局部图像经过全局融合得到整体冠脉树。算法综合了图像的局部形状信息和灰度信息,确保了分割结果的准确性和完整性。实验结果表明,算法对左前降支(LAD)、左回旋支(LCX)、对角支(Diag)及右冠状动脉(RCA)均有较好的分割效果。     

一种有效的序列图像自动拼接方法

提出了一种基于相位相关法和加速鲁棒特性（SURF：Speeded-Up Robust Features）特征点匹配相结合的序列图像自动拼接算法。首先,利用相位相关法计算归一化相位相关度,通过最大相关度求交进行序列图像的自动排序,并计算得到平移参数;在平移参数指导下,粗估测特征检测感兴趣区域（ROI：Region of ...     

基于感兴趣区域的图像检索方法

提出了一种新的基于感兴趣区域的图像检索算法。首先基于多曲率多项式提取图像显著点,并依据显著点提取图像感兴趣区域,然后基于感兴趣区域的颜色和纹理特征进行图像检索。实验结果表明该方法可有效地提取图像感兴趣区域,并取得了较好的检索效果。     

Hierarchical color image region segmentation for content-basedimage retrieval system

In this work, we propose a model of a content-based image retrieval system by using the new idea of combining a color segmentation with relationship trees and a corresponding tree-matching method. We retain the hierarchical relationship of the regions in an image during segmentation. Using the information of the relationships and features of the regions, we can represent the desired objects in images more accurately. In retrieval, we compare not only region features but also region relationships.     

SensIR: Towards privacy-sensitive image retrieval in the cloud

With the advance in content-based image retrieval and the popularity of Data-as-a-Service, enterprises can outsource their image retrieval systems on cloud platforms to reduce heavy storage, computation, and communication burdens. However, this brings many privacy problems. Although several privacy-preserving image retrieval schemes have been proposed to protect users’ privacy, they have two major drawbacks: i) the outsourced images are fully encrypted and thus cannot be used for other applications, which makes them impractical; ii) they mainly focus on traditional image retrieval systems and do not use new techniques such as convolutional neural network (CNN) to improve the accuracy. To address the above problems, we propose a novel privacy-sensitive image retrieval scheme, named SensIR, to search for similar images from an outsourced image database. In particular, we propose a privacy region detection, PRDet, to prevent private regions of images from exposing. We also propose a partial CNN (PCNN) to reduce the impact of the encrypted pseudorandom pixels. Further, we use similarity-preserving hash encoding and propose a systematic methodology to improve the accuracy of PCNN-based image retrieval when the privacy regions are large. Extensive experiments are conducted to illustrate the efficiency of privacy protection and the superior of the proposed scheme.     

一种基于区域的图像检索方法的研究

针对目前基于全局特征的图像检索系统存在的局限性,提出了一种基于区域的检索方案.首先应用K均值聚类算法将图像中的像素按颜色进行聚类,每一类近似对应于图像中的一个一致性区域,在区域上提取颜色和纹理特征.这种方式将检索过程深入到图像内部的物体中去,在一定程度上体现了图像的语义特性;在相似性匹配阶段,提出了一种基于区域的相似性匹配算法,并在实验中证明了其有效性.     

Representation of image content based on RoI-BoW

Representation of image content is an important part of image annotation and retrieval, and it has become a hot issue in computer vision. As an efficient and accurate image content representation model, bag-of-words (BoW) has attracted more attention in recent years. After segmentation, BoW treats all of the image regions equally. In fact, some regions of image are more important than others in image retrieval, such as salient object or region of interest. In this paper, a novel region of interest based bag-of-words model (RoI-BoW) for image representation is proposed. At first, the difference of Gaussian (DoG) is adopted to find key points in an image and generates different size grid as RoI to construct visual words by the BoW model. Furthermore, we analyze the influence of different size segmentation on image content representation by content based image retrieval. Experiments on Corel 5K verify the effectiveness of RoI-BoW on image content representation, and prove that RoI-BoW outperforms the BoW model significantly. Moreover, amounts of experiments illustrate the influence of different size segmentation on image representation based on the Bow model and RoI-BoW model respectively. This work is helpful to choose appropriate grid size in different situations when representing image content, and meaningful to image classification and retrieval.     

基于人眼视觉特性的ROI渐进编码算法

一般基于感兴趣区域(ROI)的图像编码算法都没有充分考虑人眼视觉特性,在分析了JPEG2000中感兴趣区域编码的优缺点后,利用小波变换的特点并结合人眼视觉的掩蔽效应,提出了一种改进的ROI图像编码算法。首先将图像小波域中的所有低频系数进行移位处理,而对于小波域中的高频系数,仅对其属于ROI区域的系数进行移位处理,再利用等级树集合分割(SPIHT)算法进行编码传输。仿真实验证明了该算法比原有算法的图像主观质量更好。     

基于假设检验的红外弱小目标感兴趣区域提取算法

根据假设检验的基本原理,提出了一种红外弱小目标感兴趣区域检测算法.该方法首先按照最小错误概率准则抽取图像中目标的感兴趣区域,然后在这些区域里进行目标提取和分析.实验结果表明,该方法很好地克服了一些传统方法中冗余计算多和分析难度高等缺点,非常适合于红外弱小目标的高性能检测.     

基于小波的感兴趣区域无人机侦察图像的压缩

由于无人机飞行高度高、速度快,所以无人机侦察图像的目标和细节多、数据量大。为了实现图像数据的高速实时传输,需要对无人机侦察图像进行高压缩比压缩;但是在实际应用中,往往只对某些细节和目标感兴趣,要求这些区域清晰可见,这与图像的高压缩比压缩相矛盾,因此,本文提出了一种基于小波的无人机侦察图像压缩方法。该方法将感兴趣的军事目标从原图像中分离开来,对ROI（感兴趣区域）采用低压缩比甚至无损压缩,而对BG（背景区域）采用高压缩比压缩,最后合成两幅图像,解决了无人侦察机图像高压缩比和高质量之间的矛盾。