A region-based fuzzy feature matching approach to content-basedimage retrieval

This paper proposes a fuzzy logic approach, UFM (unified feature matching), for region-based image retrieval. In our retrieval system, an image is represented by a set of segmented regions, each of which is characterized by a fuzzy feature (fuzzy set) reflecting color, texture, and shape properties. As a result, an image is associated with a family of fuzzy features corresponding to regions. Fuzzy features naturally characterize the gradual transition between regions (blurry boundaries) within an image and incorporate the segmentation-related uncertainties into the retrieval algorithm. The resemblance of two images is then defined as the overall similarity between two families of fuzzy features and quantified by a similarity measure, UFM measure, which integrates properties of all the regions in the images. Compared with similarity measures based on individual regions and on all regions with crisp-valued feature representations, the UFM measure greatly reduces the influence of inaccurate segmentation and provides a very intuitive quantification. The UFM has been implemented as a part of our experimental SIMPLIcity image retrieval system. The performance of the system is illustrated using examples from an image database of about 60,000 general-purpose images     

Graphical Search for Images by <Emphasis Type="Italic">PictureFinder</Emphasis>

The text searching paradigm still prevails even when users are looking for image data for example in the Internet. Searching for images mostly means searching on basis of annotations that have been made manually. When annotations are left empty, which is usually the case, searches on image file names are performed. This may lead to surprising retrieval results. The graphical search paradigm, searching image data by querying graphically, either with an image or with a sketch, currently seems not to be the preferred method partly because of the complexity in designing the query.In this paper we present our PictureFinder system, which currently supports “full image retrieval” in analogy to full text retrieval. PictureFinder allows graphical queries for the image the user has in his mind by sketching colored and/or textured regions or by whole images (query by example). By adjusting the search tolerances for each region and image feature (i.e. hue, saturation, lightness, texture pattern and coverage) the user can tune his query either to find images matching his sketch or images which differing from the specified colors and/or textures to a certain degree. To compare colors we propose a color distance measure that takes into account the fact that different colors spread differently in the color space, and which take into account that the position of a region in an image may be important.Furthermore, we show our query by example approach. Based on the example image chosen by the user, a graphical query is generated automatically and presented to the user. One major advantage of this approach is the possibility to change and adjust a query by example in the same way as a query which was sketched by the user. By deleting unimportant regions and by adjusting the tolerances of the remaining regions the user may focus on image details which are important to him.     

Advancing content-based image retrieval by exploiting image color and region features

In this paper, we propose a novel system that strives to achieve advanced content-based image retrieval using seamless combination of two complementary approaches: on the one hand, we propose a new color-clustering method to better capture color properties of the original images; on the other hand, expecting that image regions acquired from the original images inevitably contain many errors, we make use of the available erroneous, ill-segmented image regions to accomplish the object-region-based image retrieval. We also propose an effective image-indexing scheme to facilitate fast and efficient image matching and retrieval. The carefully designed experimental evaluation shows that our proposed image retrieval system surpasses other methods under comparison in terms of not only quantitative measures, but also image retrieval capabilities.     

一种基于前景与背景划分的区域图像检索方法及实现

区域图像检索(RBIR)是基于内容图像检索(CBIR)的一个分支,它以图像分割为基础,通过图像局部视觉特征的相似性进行图像检索。由于准确的图像分割技术尚不成熟,区域图像检索性能容易受到冗余分割和错误分割的影响。为了降低RBIR中图像分割的影响,提出了一种基于前景和背景划分的区域图像检索方法。该方法通过规则分块、图像分类和有效区域定位来得到图像分割区域,然后应用中心对象提取算法(COEA)获得图像主体对象,最后提取颜色和纹理特征进行相似度匹配。实现了一个基于上述方法的RBIR系统ObFind,实验结果表明该方法不仅具有与SIMPLIcity相当的检索性能,而且计算复杂度更低。     

Integrated spatial and feature image query

We present a new system for querying for images by regions and their spatial and feature attributes. The system enables the user to find the images that contain arrangements of regions similar to those diagrammed in a query image. By indexing the attributes of regions, such as sizes, locations and visual features, a wide variety of complex joint spatial and feature queries are efficiently computed. In order to demonstrate the utility of the system, we develop a process for the extracting color regions from photographic images. We demonstrate that integrated spatial and feature querying using color regions improves image search capabilities over non-spatial content-based image retrieval methods.     

A neural network system for matching dental radiographs

This paper addresses the problem of creating a postmortem identification system by matching image features extracted from dental radiographs. We lay the architecture of a prototype automated dental identification system (ADIS), which tackles the dental image matching problem by first extracting high-level features to expedite retrieval of potential matches and then by low-level image comparison using inherent features of dental images. We propose the use of learnable inherent dental image features for tooth-to-tooth image comparisons. We treat the tooth-to-tooth matching problem as a binary classification problem for which we propose probabilistic models of class-conditional densities. We also propose an adaptive strategic searching technique and use it in conjunction with back propagation in order to estimate system parameters. We present promising experimental results that reflect the value of our approach.     

FRIP: a region-based image retrieval tool using automatic image segmentation and stepwise Boolean AND matching

We present our region-based image retrieval tool, finding region in the picture (FRIP), that is able to accommodate, to the extent possible, region scaling, rotation, and translation. Our goal is to develop an effective retrieval system to overcome a few limitations associated with existing systems. To do this, we propose adaptive circular filters used for semantic image segmentation, which are based on both Bayes' theorem and texture distribution of image. In addition, to decrease the computational complexity without losing the accuracy of the search results, we extract optimal feature vectors from segmented regions and apply them to our stepwise Boolean AND matching scheme. The experimental results using real world images show that our system can indeed improve retrieval performance compared to other global property-based or region-of-interest-based image retrieval methods.     

一种基于目标区域的彩色图像检索算法

提出了一种基于目标区域的彩色图像检索算法。首先，获取彩色图像HSV颜色空间中各个分量图像，然后计算各分量图像的二值边缘图像。根据边缘图像的连通性提取彩色图像的目标区域。在图像检索时，抽取彩色图像目标区域所对应的子图像特征，代替全局图像特征进行图像相似性匹配。实验表明，基于目标区域的彩色图像检索算法优于基于全局图像的检索算法。     

基于子向量距离索引的高维图像特征匹配算法

图像局部不变特征已经成功地应用在计算机视觉当中的许多领域,而如何快速有效地匹配高维图像局部特征向量是解决这类问题的关键步骤。提出了一种新的基于子向量距离索引的高维特征向量匹配算法,将高维空间中最近邻搜索问题转化为一维索引值的查找和局部搜索问题,在保证较高的搜索精度的同时大大提高了搜索速度。大量的图像匹配和图像检索实验验证了该算法的有效性。     

改进SURF特征的维吾尔文复杂文档图像匹配检索

针对图像局部特征的词袋模型（Bag-of-Word,BOW）检索研究中聚类中心的不确定性和计算复杂性问题,提出一种由不同种类的距离进行相似程度测量的检索和由匹配点数来检索的方法。这种方法首先需要改进文档图像的SURF特征,有效降低特征提取复杂度;其次,对FAST+SURF特征实现FLANN双向匹配与KD-Tree+BBF匹配,在不同变换条件下验证特征鲁棒性;最后,基于这两种检索方法对已收集整理好的各类维吾尔文文档图像数据库进行检索。实验结果表明:基于距离的相似性度量复杂度次于基于匹配数目的检索,而且两种检索策略都能满足快速、精确查找需求。     

WALRUS: a similarity retrieval algorithm for image databases

Approaches for content-based image querying typically extract a single signature from each image based on color, texture, or shape features. The images returned as the query result are then the ones whose signatures are closest to the signature of the query image. While efficient for simple images, such methods do not work well for complex scenes since they fail to retrieve images that match the query only partially, that is, only certain regions of the image match. This inefficiency leads to the discarding of images that may be semantically very similar to the query image since they may contain the same objects. The problem becomes even more apparent when we consider scaled or translated versions of the similar objects. We propose WALRUS (wavelet-based retrieval of user-specified scenes), a novel similarity retrieval algorithm that is robust to scaling and translation of objects within an image. WALRUS employs a novel similarity model in which each image is first decomposed into its regions and the similarity measure between a pair of images is then defined to be the fraction of the area of the two images covered by matching regions from the images. In order to extract regions for an image, WALRUS considers sliding windows of varying sizes and then clusters them based on the proximity of their signatures. An efficient dynamic programming algorithm is used to compute wavelet-based signatures for the sliding windows. Experimental results on real-life data sets corroborate the effectiveness of WALRUS'S similarity model.     

Region-based image retrieval using integrated color, shape, and location index

A technique to retrieve images by region matching using a combined feature index based on color, shape, and location is presented within the framework of MPEG-7. Dominant regions within each image are indexed using integrated color, shape, and location features. Various combinations of regions are also indexed. The resulting indices and related metadata are stored in a Hash structure, where similar images tend to form clusters. The retrieval process is non-cascading and images can be retrieved based on color, shape or location and also based on a combined color–shape–location index. Results obtained show that retrieval effectiveness increases in non-cascaded region-based querying by combined index.     

动态匹配核函数图像检索

目的 在传统的词袋模型图像搜索问题中,许多工作致力于提高局部特征的辨识能力。图像搜索得到的图像在细节部分和查询图像相似,但是有时候这些图像在语义层面却差别很大。而基于全局特征的图像搜索在细节部分丢失了很多信息,致使布局相似实则不相关的图像被认为是相关图像。为了解决这个问题,本文利用深度卷积特征来构建一个动态匹配核函数。方法 利用这个动态匹配核函数,在鼓励相关图像之间产生匹配对的同时,抑制不相关图像之间匹配对的个数。该匹配核函数将图像在深度卷积神经网络全连接层最后一层特征作为输入,构建一个动态匹配核函数。对于相关图像,图像之间的局部特征匹配数量和质量都会相对增强。反之,对于不相关的图像,这个动态匹配核函数会在减少局部特征匹配的同时,降低其匹配得分。结果 从数量和质量上评估了提出的动态匹配核函数,提出了两个指标来量化匹配核函数的表现。基于这两个指标,本文对中间结果进行了分析,证实了动态匹配核函数相比于静态匹配核函数的优越性。最后,本文在5个公共数据集进行了大量的实验,在对各个数据集的检索工作中,得到的平均准确率从85.11%到98.08%,均高于此领域的同类工作。结论 实验结果表明了本文方法是有效的,并且其表现优于当前这一领域的同类工作。本文方法相比各种深度学习特征提取方法具有一定优势,由于本文方法使用特征用于构建动态匹配内核,而不是粗略编码进行相似性匹配,因此能在所有数据集上获得更好的性能。     

FReBIR: An image retrieval system based on fuzzy region matching

In this paper, we present a method of image indexing and retrieval which takes into account the relative positions of the regions within the image. Indexing is based on a segmentation of the image into fuzzy regions; we propose an algorithm which produces a fuzzy segmentation. The image retrieval is based on inexact graph matching, taking into account both the similarity between regions and the spatial relation between them. We propose, on one hand a solution to reduce the combinatorial complexity of the graph matching, and on the other hand, a measure of similarity between graphs allowing the result images ranking. A relevance feedback process based on region classifiers allows then a good generalization to a large variety of the regions. The method is adapted to partial queries, aiming for example at retrieving images containing a specific type of object. Applications may be of two types, firstly an on-line search from a partial query, with a relevance feedback aiming at interactively leading the search, and secondly an off-line learning of categories from a set of examples of the object. The name of the system is FReBIR for Fuzzy Region-Based Image Retrieval.     

一种基于目标区域的图像检索方法

为了弥补全局特征在描述图像内容上的不足,论文描述了一种基于目标区域的图像检索方法:从用户指定的区域中分割并提取出所包含的目标,然后利用目标区域的视觉特征进行图像检索。在图像检索时,提取目标区域对应的子图像特征代替全局图像特征进行图像相似性匹配。实验结果表明,基于目标区域的图像检索效果比基于全局图像特征的检索效果有较好的改善。     

基于层级匹配的维吾尔文关键词文档图像检索

为实现基于关键词的维吾尔文文档图像检索,提出一种基于由粗到细层级匹配的关键词文档图像检索方法。使用改进的投影切分法将经过预处理的文档图像切分成单词图像库,使用模板匹配对关键词进行粗匹配;在粗匹配的基础上,提取单词图像的方向梯度直方图(HOG)特征向量;通过支持向量机(SVM)分类器学习特征向量,实现关键词图像检索。在包含108张文档图像的数据库中进行实验,实验结果表明,检索准确率平均值为91.14%,召回率平均值为79.31%,该方法能有效实现基于关键词的维吾尔文文档图像检索。     

Visual image retrieval by elastic matching of user sketches

Effective image retrieval by content from database requires that visual image properties are used instead of textual labels to properly index and recover pictorial data. Retrieval by shape similarity, given a user-sketched template is particularly challenging, owing to the difficulty to derive a similarity measure that closely conforms to the common perception of similarity by humans. In this paper, we present a technique which is based on elastic matching of sketched templates over the shapes in the images to evaluate similarity ranks. The degree of matching achieved and the elastic deformation energy spent by the sketch to achieve such a match are used to derive a measure of similarity between the sketch and the images in the database and to rank images to be displayed. The elastic matching is integrated with arrangements to provide scale invariance and take into account spatial relationships between objects in multi-object queries. Examples from a prototype system are expounded with considerations about the effectiveness of the approach and comparative performance analysis     

基于区域的图像数据库检索方法

基于区域的图像检索方法不仅是基于内容的图像检索的行之有效的方法，而且能根据感兴趣区域进行图像检索。在对现有基于区域的图像检索系统进行深入研究的基础上，对应用在该领域的图像分割和图像匹配方法做了较为全面的分析和总结。     

Answering similarity queries in peer-to-peer networks

A variety of peer-to-peer (P2P) systems for sharing digital information are currently available and most of them perform searching by exact key matching. In this paper we focus on similarity searching and describe FuzzyPeer, a generic broadcast-based P2P system which supports a wide range of fuzzy queries. As a case study we present an image retrieval application implemented on top of FuzzyPeer. Users provide sample images whose sets of features are propagated through the peers. The answer consists of the top-k most similar images within the query horizon. In our system the participation of peers is ad hoc and dynamic, their functionality is symmetric and there is no centralized index.