A fast compression-based similarity measure with applications to content-based image retrieval

Compression-based similarity measures are effectively employed in applications on diverse data types with a basically parameter-free approach. Nevertheless, there are problems in applying these techniques to medium-to-large datasets which have been seldom addressed. This paper proposes a similarity measure based on compression with dictionaries, the Fast Compression Distance (FCD), which reduces the complexity of these methods, without degradations in performance. On its basis a content-based color image retrieval system is defined, which can be compared to state-of-the-art methods based on invariant color features. Through the FCD a better understanding of compression-based techniques is achieved, by performing experiments on datasets which are larger than the ones analyzed so far in literature.     

A new approach in content-based image retrieval using fuzzy

Finding an image from a large set of images is an extremely difficult problem. One solution is to label images manually, but this is very expensive, time consuming and infeasible for many applications. Furthermore, the labeling process depends on the semantic accuracy in describing the image. Therefore many Content based Image Retrieval (CBIR) systems are developed to extract low-level features for describing the image content. However, this approach decreases the human interaction with the system due to the semantic gap between low-level features and high-level concepts. In this study we make use of fuzzy logic to improve CBIR by allowing users to express their requirements in words, the natural way of human communication. In our system the image is represented by a Fuzzy Attributed Relational Graph (FARG) that describes each object in the image, its attributes and spatial relation. The texture and color attributes are computed in a way that model the Human Vision System (HSV). We proposed a new approach for graph matching that resemble the human thinking process. The proposed system is evaluated by different users with different perspectives and is found to match users’ satisfaction to a high degree.     

Hybrid textual-visual relevance learning for content-based image retrieval

Learning effective relevance measures plays a crucial role in improving the performance of content-based image retrieval (CBIR) systems. Despite extensive research efforts for decades, how to discover and incorporate semantic information of images still poses a formidable challenge to real-world CBIR systems. In this paper, we propose a novel hybrid textual-visual relevance learning method, which mines textual relevance from image tags and combines textual relevance and visual relevance for CBIR. To alleviate the sparsity and unreliability of tags, we first perform tag completion to fill the missing tags as well as correct noisy tags of images. Then, we capture users’ semantic cognition to images by representing each image as a probability distribution over the permutations of tags. Finally, instead of early fusion, a ranking aggregation strategy is adopted to sew up textual relevance and visual relevance seamlessly. Extensive experiments on two benchmark datasets well verified the promise of our approach.     

Semantic content-based image retrieval: A comprehensive study

The complexity of multimedia contents is significantly increasing in the current digital world. This yields an exigent demand for developing highly effective retrieval systems to satisfy human needs. Recently, extensive research efforts have been presented and conducted in the field of content-based image retrieval (CBIR). The majority of these efforts have been concentrated on reducing the semantic gap that exists between low-level image features represented by digital machines and the profusion of high-level human perception used to perceive images. Based on the growing research in the recent years, this paper provides a comprehensive review on the state-of-the-art in the field of CBIR. Additionally, this study presents a detailed overview of the CBIR framework and improvements achieved; including image preprocessing, feature extraction and indexing, system learning, benchmarking datasets, similarity matching, relevance feedback, performance evaluation, and visualization. Finally, promising research trends, challenges, and our insights are provided to inspire further research efforts.     

A novel long-term learning algorithm for relevance feedback in content-based image retrieval

Relevance feedback has proven to be a powerful tool to bridge the semantic gap between low-level features and high-level human concepts in content-based image retrieval (CBIR). However, traditional short-term relevance feedback technologies are confined to using the current feedback record only. Log-based long-term learning captures the semantic relationships among images in a database by analyzing the historical relevance information to boost the retrieval performance effectively. In this paper, we propose an expanded-judging model to analyze the historical log data’s semantic information and to expand the feedback sample set from both positive and negative relevant information. The index table is used to facilitate the log analysis. The expanded-judging model is applied in image retrieval by combining with short-term relevance feedback algorithms. Experiments were carried out to evaluate the proposed algorithm based on the Corel image database. The promising experimental results validate the effectiveness of our proposed expanded-judging model.     

基于多示例学习的图像检索方法

多示例学习对处理各类歧义问题有较好的效果,将它应用于周像检索问题,提出了一种新的基于多示例学习的图像检索方法。首先提取每幅图像的局部区域特征,通过对这些特征聚类求得一组基向量,并利用它们对每个局部特征向量进行编码,接着使用均值漂移聚类算法对图像进行分割,根据局部特征点位置所对应的分割块划分特征编码到相应的子集,最后将每组编码子集聚合成一个向量,这样每幅图像对应一个多示例包。根据用户选择的图像生成正包和反包,采用多示例学习算法进行学习,取得了较为满意的结果。     

一种有效的基于内容的图像检索方法

本文针对基于内容的图像检索中特征和相似度问题，提出新的距离模式，并以彩色空间中扩展共发矩阵作为纹理描述，在测试系统iPhoto上，数据库为56600幅图像时，实验结果显示，本文方法优于传统方法。     

基于内容的图像检索技术

目前各行业对图像的使用越来越广泛,如何有效、快速地从大规模图像数据库中检索出需要的图像,是目前一个相当重要而又富有挑战性的研究课题.但传统的图像检索技术是基于文本的检索技术,这种方法虽然简单易行,但存在一些致命的缺点,严重影响了对图像信息的有效使用.为了克服传统方法的缺点,提出了基于内容的图像检索技术,该技术能够全面客观地提取图像内容,能有效地获取所需的视觉信息,能使图像数据库中的信息得到有效的管理.     

Rate-distortion approach to databases: storage and content-based retrieval

This paper investigates the relationship between rate-distortion theory and efficient content-based data retrieval from high-dimensional databases. We consider database design as the encoding of a data object sequence, and retrieval from the database as the decoding of the sequence using side information (i.e., the query) available only at the decoder. We show that, in this setting, the optimal asymptotic tradeoff between the search time R/sub s/ (bits per data object read from the storage device) and the expected search accuracy D/sub s/ (relevance of the retrieved data set) is given by the Wyner-Ziv solution with a side-information-dependent distortion measure. Moreover, the data indexing and retrieval problem is, in general, inseparable from the data compression problem. Data items selected by the search procedure, which can be stored in the disk with a limited total rate of R/sub r/ /spl ges/ R/sub s/, need to be presented at a prescribed expected reconstruction quality D/sub r/. This is, hence, a problem of scalable source coding or successive refinement, albeit with differing layer distortion measures to quantify search and reconstruction quality, respectively. We derive a single-letter characterization of all achievable quadruples {R/sub s/,R/sub r/,D/sub s/,D/sub r/}, and prove conditions for "successive refinability" without rate loss. Finally, we show that the special case D/sub s/=D/sub r/=0 is nontrivial and of practical interest in this context, as it can impose "acceptable" search and reconstruction qualities for each individual data item and for the entire query space with high probability, in contradistinction with standard average distortion requirements. The region of achievable {R/sub s/,R/sub r/} is obtained by adapting Rimoldi's characterization to a new regular scalable coding problem.     

Feature selection for content-based image retrieval

In this article, we propose a novel system for feature selection, which is one of the key problems in content-based image indexing and retrieval as well as various other research fields such as pattern classification and genomic data analysis. The proposed system aims at enhancing semantic image retrieval results, decreasing retrieval process complexity, and improving the overall system usability for end-users of multimedia search engines. Three feature selection criteria and a decision method construct the feature selection system. Two novel feature selection criteria based on inner-cluster and intercluster relations are proposed in the article. A majority voting-based method is adapted for efficient selection of features and feature combinations. The performance of the proposed criteria is assessed over a large image database and a number of features, and is compared against competing techniques from the literature. Experiments show that the proposed feature selection system improves semantic performance results in image retrieval systems. This work was supported by the Academy of Finland, Project No. 213,462 (Finnish Centre of Excellence Program 2006–2011).     

基于内容的图像检索技术研究

随着互联网技术的快速发展,传统的基于关键字的图像检索已无法满足人们的需要,基于内容的图像检索技术(CBIR)越来越受到人们的青睐.现阐述了基于内容的图像检索系统的组成和基本原理,并着重介绍了CBIR的特征提取,相关反馈的关键技术,最后指出了基于内容的图像检索存在的问题和发展方向.     

A privacy-preserving content-based image retrieval method in cloud environment

In order to protect data privacy, image with sensitive or private information needs to be encrypted before being outsourced to a cloud service provider. However, this causes difficulties in image retrieval and data management. A privacy-preserving content-based image retrieval method based on orthogonal decomposition is proposed in the paper. The image is divided into two different components, for which encryption and feature extraction are executed separately. As a result, cloud server can extract features from an encrypted image directly and compare them with the features of the queried images, so that users can thus obtain the image. Different from other methods, the proposed method has no special requirements to encryption algorithms, which makes it more universal and can be applied in different scenarios. Experimental results prove that the proposed method can achieve better security and better retrieval performance.     

Relevance feedback in content-based image retrieval: Bayesian framework, feature subspaces, and progressive learning

Research has been devoted in the past few years to relevance feedback as an effective solution to improve performance of content-based image retrieval (CBIR). In this paper, we propose a new feedback approach with progressive learning capability combined with a novel method for the feature subspace extraction. The proposed approach is based on a Bayesian classifier and treats positive and negative feedback examples with different strategies. Positive examples are used to estimate a Gaussian distribution that represents the desired images for a given query; while the negative examples are used to modify the ranking of the retrieved candidates. In addition, feature subspace is extracted and updated during the feedback process using a principal component analysis (PCA) technique and based on user's feedback. That is, in addition to reducing the dimensionality of feature spaces, a proper subspace for each type of features is obtained in the feedback process to further improve the retrieval accuracy. Experiments demonstrate that the proposed method increases the retrieval speed, reduces the required memory and improves the retrieval accuracy significantly.     

System profiles in content-based image indexing and retrieval

In this paper, a novel study on system profiles and adaptation of parameters for end-users of content-based indexing and retrieval (CBIR) applications are presented. The main objective of the study is improving the overall CBIR application performance in different hardware platforms having different technical capabilities and conditions. We define CBIR system profiles in terms of hardware and system platform attributes and propose CBIR parameters for each profile. Hence, the study consists of two main parts: system profiling and adaptation of indexing and retrieval parameters for each profile. The proposed CBIR parameters are appropriate configurations for optimal CBIR use on every platform. The proposed parameters for each system profile are assessed over a large set of experiments. Experimental studies show that the proposed parameters for each system profile have satisfactory semantic retrieval performance, with reduced computational complexity and storage space requirement. 45 to 78% improvement is achieved in the computational complexity of the retrieval process depending on the profile.     

Frequency layered color indexing for content-based image retrieval

Image patches of different spatial frequencies are likely to have different perceptual significance as well as reflect different physical properties. Incorporating such concept is helpful to the development of more effective image retrieval techniques. We introduce a method which separates an image into layers, each of which retains only pixels in areas with similar spatial frequency characteristics and uses simple low-level features to index the layers individually. The scheme associates indexing features with perceptual and physical significance thus implicitly incorporating high level knowledge into low level features. We present a computationally efficient implementation of the method, which enhances the power and at the same time retains the simplicity and elegance of basic color indexing. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method.     

Similarity-based online feature selection in content-based image retrieval.

Content-based image retrieval (CBIR) has been more and more important in the last decade, and the gap between high-level semantic concepts and low-level visual features hinders further performance improvement. The problem of online feature selection is critical to really bridge this gap. In this paper, we investigate online feature selection in the relevance feedback learning process to improve the retrieval performance of the region-based image retrieval system. Our contributions are mainly in three areas. 1) A novel feature selection criterion is proposed, which is based on the psychological similarity between the positive and negative training sets. 2) An effective online feature selection algorithm is implemented in a boosting manner to select the most representative features for the current query concept and combine classifiers constructed over the selected features to retrieve images. 3) To apply the proposed feature selection method in region-based image retrieval systems, we propose a novel region-based representation to describe images in a uniform feature space with real-valued fuzzy features. Our system is suitable for online relevance feedback learning in CBIR by meeting the three requirements: learning with small size training set, the intrinsic asymmetry property of training samples, and the fast response requirement. Extensive experiments, including comparisons with many state-of-the-arts, show the effectiveness of our algorithm in improving the retrieval performance and saving the processing time.     

Expert content-based image retrieval system using robust local patterns

A new image indexing and retrieval algorithm for content based image retrieval is proposed in this paper. The local region of the image is represented by making the use of local difference operator (LDO), separating it into two components i.e. sign and magnitude. The sign LBP operator (S_LBP) is a generalized LBP operator. The magnitude LBP (M_LBP) operator is calculated using the magnitude of LDO. A robust LBP (RLBP) operator is presented employing robust S_LBP and robust M_LBP. Further, the combination of Gabor transform and RLBP operator has also been presented. The robustness is established by conducting four experiments on different image database i.e. Corel 1000 (DB1), Brodatz texture database (DB2) and MIT VisTex database (DB3) under different lighting (illumination) and noise conditions. Investigations reveal a promising achievement of the technique presented when compared to S_LBP and other existing transform domain techniques in terms of their evaluation measures.     

Zernike moments and LDP-weighted patches for content-based image retrieval

This paper proposes a new algorithm using global and local features for content-based image retrieval. Global features are extracted using the magnitude of Zernike moments (ZMs). Local features are obtained through local directional pattern (LDP). Generally, LDP is used to extract texture-based features from an image. In this paper, LDP is used to encode both texture and shape information of an image to represent more meaningful features. To encode texture-based features, original image is used to compute the LDP features. To extract shape information from an image, dual-tree complex wavelet transform (DT-CWT) is applied on image which generates six directional wavelets. These six directional wavelets are superimposed in order to obtain shape-encoded image. LDP is then applied on this wavelet-based shape-encoded image. Further, to enhance retrieval accuracy, LDP features are extracted from patches of both original and shape-encoded images. These patches are assigned with weights based on average discrimination capability of features in a patch. Experiments are performed using three different standard databases with various variations such as pose, distortion, partial occlusion and complex structure. The proposed technique achieves 96.4 and 98.76 % retrieval accuracy at a recall of 50 %, for Kimia-99 and COIL-100 databases, respectively. For MPEG-7 CE-2 shape database, retrieval accuracy of 61.93 % is achieved in terms of average Bull’s eye performance (BEP). The proposed technique is also tested on Springer medical image database to explore its scope in other areas, wherein it attains average BEP of 69.68 % in comparison with 61.52 % with ZMs. It is observed that the proposed technique outperforms other well-known existing methods of image retrieval.