Image retrieval using both color and texture features

In order to improve the retrieval performance of images, this paper proposes an efficient approach for extracting and retrieving color images. The block diagram of our proposed approach to content-based image retrieval (CBIR) is given firstly, and then we introduce three image feature extracting arithmetic including color histogram, edge histogram and edge direction histogram, the histogram Euclidean distance, cosine distance and histogram intersection are used to measure the image level similarity. On the basis of using color and texture features separately, a new method for image retrieval using combined features is proposed. With the test for an image database including 766 general-purpose images and comparison and analysis of performance evaluation for features and similarity measures, our proposed retrieval approach demonstrates a promising performance. Experiment shows that combined features are superior to every single one of the three features in retrieval.     

CLUE: cluster-based retrieval of images by unsupervised learning.

In a typical content-based image retrieval (CBIR) system, target images (images in the database) are sorted by feature similarities with respect to the query. Similarities among target images are usually ignored. This paper introduces a new technique, cluster-based retrieval of images by unsupervised learning (CLUE), for improving user interaction with image retrieval systems by fully exploiting the similarity information. CLUE retrieves image clusters by applying a graph-theoretic clustering algorithm to a collection of images in the vicinity of the query. Clustering in CLUE is dynamic. In particular, clusters formed depend on which images are retrieved in response to the query. CLUE can be combined with any real-valued symmetric similarity measure (metric or nonmetric). Thus, it may be embedded in many current CBIR systems, including relevance feedback systems. The performance of an experimental image retrieval system using CLUE is evaluated on a database of around 60,000 images from COREL. Empirical results demonstrate improved performance compared with a CBIR system using the same image similarity measure. In addition, results on images returned by Google's Image Search reveal the potential of applying CLUE to real-world image data and integrating CLUE as a part of the interface for keyword-based image retrieval systems.     

MRI and CT image indexing and retrieval using local mesh peak valley edge patterns

In this paper, a new pattern based feature, local mesh peak valley edge pattern (LMePVEP) is proposed for biomedical image indexing and retrieval. The standard LBP extracts the gray scale relationship between the center pixel and its surrounding neighbors in an image. Whereas the proposed method extracts the gray scale relationship among the neighbors for a given center pixel in an image. The relations among the neighbors are peak/valley edges which are obtained by performing the first-order derivative. The performance of the proposed method (LMePVEP) is tested by conducting two experiments on two benchmark biomedical databases. Further, it is mentioned that the databases used for experiments are OASIS−MRI database which is the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) database and VIA/I–ELCAP-CT database which includes region of interest computer tomography (CT) images. The results after being investigated show a significant improvement in terms average retrieval precision (ARP) and average retrieval rate (ARR) as compared to LBP and LBP variant features.     

Content-based image retrieval using local visual attention feature

Content-based image retrieval (CBIR) has been an active research topic in the last decade. As one of the promising approaches, salient point based image retrieval has attracted many researchers. However, the related work is usually very time consuming, and some salient points always may not represent the most interesting subset of points for image indexing. Based on fast and performant salient point detector, and the salient point expansion, a novel content-based image retrieval using local visual attention feature is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the salient image points are extracted by using the fast and performant SURF (Speeded-Up Robust Features) detector. Then, the visually significant image points around salient points can be obtained according to the salient point expansion. Finally, the local visual attention feature of visually significant image points, including the weighted color histogram and spatial distribution entropy, are extracted, and the similarity between color images is computed by using the local visual attention feature. Experimental results, including comparisons with the state-of-the-art retrieval systems, demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposal.     

综合颜色和形状特征的图像检索

提出了一种组合颜色和形状特征的图像检索方法，将彩色图像转变成灰度图象，计算查询图像和数据库图像的直方图距离，通过图像分割提取图像的形状特征，利用两特征的加权距离计算图像之间的相似度，而后进行图像检索。通过实验表明该组合方法优于单纯特征的图像检索。     

A framework for medical image retrieval using machine learning and statistical similarity matching techniques with relevance feedback.

A content-based image retrieval (CBIR) framework for diverse collection of medical images of different imaging modalities, anatomic regions with different orientations and biological systems is proposed. Organization of images in such a database (DB) is well defined with predefined semantic categories; hence, it can be useful for category-specific searching. The proposed framework consists of machine learning methods for image prefiltering, similarity matching using statistical distance measures, and a relevance feedback (RF) scheme. To narrow down the semantic gap and increase the retrieval efficiency, we investigate both supervised and unsupervised learning techniques to associate low-level global image features (e.g., color, texture, and edge) in the projected PCA-based eigenspace with their high-level semantic and visual categories. Specially, we explore the use of a probabilistic multiclass support vector machine (SVM) and fuzzy c-mean (FCM) clustering for categorization and prefiltering of images to reduce the search space. A category-specific statistical similarity matching is proposed in a finer level on the prefiltered images. To incorporate a better perception subjectivity, an RF mechanism is also added to update the query parameters dynamically and adjust the proposed matching functions. Experiments are based on a ground-truth DB consisting of 5000 diverse medical images of 20 predefined categories. Analysis of results based on cross-validation (CV) accuracy and precision-recall for image categorization and retrieval is reported. It demonstrates the improvement, effectiveness, and efficiency achieved by the proposed framework.     

Salient edge and region aware image retargeting

The purpose of image retargeting is to automatically adapt a given image to fit the size of various displays without introducing severe visual distortions. The seam carving method can effectively achieve this task and it needs to define image importance to detect the salient context of images. In this paper we present a new image importance map and a new seam criterion for image retargeting. We first decompose an image into a cartoon and a texture part. The higher order statistics (HOS) on the cartoon part provide reliable salient edges. We construct a salient object window and a distance dependent weight to modify the HOS. The weighted HOS effectively protects salient objects from distortion by seam carving. We also propose a new seam criterion which tends to spread seam uniformly in nonsallient regions and helps to preserve large scale geometric structures. We call our method salient edge and region aware image retargeting (SERAR). We evaluate our method visually, and compare the results with related methods. Our method performs well in retargeting images with cluttered backgrounds and in preserving large scale structures.     

Combining spatial and scale-space techniques for edge detection to provide a spatially adaptive wavelet-based noise filtering algorithm

New methods for detecting edges in an image using spatial and scale-space domains are proposed. A priori knowledge about geometrical characteristics of edges is used to assign a probability factor to the chance of any pixel being on an edge. An improved double thresholding technique is introduced for spatial domain filtering. Probabilities that pixels belong to a given edge are assigned based on pixel similarity across gradient amplitudes, gradient phases and edge connectivity. The scale-space approach uses dynamic range compression to allow wavelet correlation over a wider range of scales. A probabilistic formulation is used to combine the results obtained from filtering in each domain to provide a final edge probability image which has the advantages of both spatial and scale-space domain methods. Decomposing this edge probability image with the same wavelet as the original image permits the generation of adaptive filters that can recognize the characteristics of the edges in all wavelet detail and approximation images regardless of scale. These matched filters permit significant reduction in image noise without contributing to edge distortion. The spatially adaptive wavelet noise-filtering algorithm is qualitatively and quantitatively compared to a frequency domain and two wavelet based noise suppression algorithms using both natural and computer generated noisy images.     

Similarity relation matrix-based color edge detection

A novel edge detection algorithm for color images was described in this paper. In the proposed method, smoothness of each pixel in color image is firstly calculated by means of similarity relation matrix and is normalized to maximum gray level. In other words, color image in three-dimensional color spaces is mapped into one dimension. Accordingly the edges are performed in such a way that pixels lower than thresholds are assigned to be edge. Thus with proposed method, edge pixels in a color image are detected simultaneously without any complex calculations such as gradient, Laplace and statistical calculations.     

基于显著点特征多示例学习的图像检索方法

提出了一种基于图像显著点特征进行多示例学习(Multiple-instance learning)的图像检索方法.该方法对图像进行小波分解并跟踪不同尺度小波系数提取图像显著点;然后利用显著点特征进行检索,并在相关反馈中将图像看作多示例包,通过期望最大多样性密度(EM-DD,expectation maximization diverse density)方法进行多示例学习,获得体现图像语义的日标特征.在Corel和SIVAL两个图像库进行实验,结果表明该方法明显提高了检索的准确性.     

A Novel Web Image Retrieval Method

Traditional image retrieval methods, make use of color, shape and texture features, are based on local image database. But in the condition of which much more images are available on the internet, so big an image database includes various types of image information. In this paper, we introduce an intellectualized image retrieval method based on internet, which can grasp images on Internet automatically using web crawler and build the feature vector in local host. The method involves three parts: the capture-node, the manage-node, and the calculate-node. The calculate-node has two functions: feature extract and similarity measurement. According to the results of our experiments, we found the proposed method is simple to realization and has higher processing speed and accuracy.     

An efficient signature representation for retrieval of spatially similar images

Multimedia applications involving image retrieval demand fast and efficient response. Efficiency of search and retrieval of information in a database system is index dependent. Generally, a two-level indexing scheme in an image database can help to reduce the search space against a given query image. In such type of indexing scheme, the first level is required to significantly reduce the search space for second stage of comparisons and must be computationally efficient. It is also required to guarantee that no false negatives may result. The second level of indexing involves more detailed analysis and comparison of potentially relevant images. In this paper, we present an efficient signature representation scheme for first level of a two-level image indexing scheme that is based on hierarchical decomposition of image space into spatial arrangement of image features. Experimental results demonstrate that our signature representation scheme results in fewer number of matching signatures in the first level and significantly improves the overall computational time. As this scheme relies on corner points as the salient feature points in an image to describe its contents, we also compare results using several different contemporary corner detection methods. Further, we formally prove that the proposed signature representation scheme not only results in fewer number of signatures but also does not result in any false negative.     

An Automatic Approach for Accurate Edge Detection of Concrete Crack Utilizing 2D Geometric Features of Crack

The automatic edge detection of cracks on concrete structures plays an important role in the damage assessment process for cracked structures. In this paper, we proposed an automatic method for accurate edge detection of concrete cracks from real 2D images of concrete surfaces containing noisy and unintended objects. In the 2D image of a damaged concrete surface, cracks are usually observed as tree-like topology dark objects of which the branches are line-like and have local symmetry across their center axes. We utilize these two geometric properties of cracks to detect crack edges and discriminate them with edges of other unintended objects. The novel automatic crack edge detection is composed of two sequential stages. In the first stage, cracks are enhanced by a novel phase symmetry-based crack enhancement filter (PSCEF) based on their symmetric and line-like properties while non-crack objects are removed. Estimated crack center-lines are then obtained by thresholding the filtered images and applying morphological thinning algorithm to the binary image. In the second stage, the estimated center lines of the detected cracks are fitted by cubic splines and the pixel intensity profiles in the directions perpendicular to the splines are used to determine the edge points. The edge points are linked together to form the desired continuous crack edges. Various experiments of real concrete crack images are used to demonstrate the excellent performance of the proposed method.     

一种基于DexiNed改进的红外图像边缘检测算法

相对于可见光图像边缘检测,目前针对红外图像边缘检测的研究较少,且大多基于传统方法,如边缘检测算子、数学形态学等,其本质上都是只考虑红外图像局部的急剧变化来检测边缘,因而始终受限于低层次特征。本文提出了一种基于深度学习的红外图像边缘检测算法,在DexiNed（Dense Extreme Inception Network for Edge Detection）的基础上,缩减了网络规模,并在损失函数中引入了图像级的差异,精心设置了损失函数的参数,进而优化了网络性能。此外,还通过调整自然图像边缘检测数据集来近似模拟红外图像边缘检测数据集,对改进后的模型进行训练,进一步提高了网络对红外图像中边缘信息的提取能力。定性评价结果表明,本文方法提取的红外图像边缘定位准确、层次清晰、细节丰富、贴合人眼视觉,使用了SSIM（Structural Similarity Index Measure）和FSIM（Feature Similarity Index Measure）指标的定量评价结果进一步体现了本文方法相比于其他方法的优越性。     

A similarity learning approach to content-based image retrieval: application to digital mammography

In this paper, we describe an approach to content-based retrieval of medical images from a database, and provide a preliminary demonstration of our approach as applied to retrieval of digital mammograms. Content-based image retrieval (CBIR) refers to the retrieval of images from a database using information derived from the images themselves, rather than solely from accompanying text indices. In the medical-imaging context, the ultimate aim of CBIR is to provide radiologists with a diagnostic aid in the form of a display of relevant past cases, along with proven pathology and other suitable information. CBIR may also be useful as a training tool for medical students and residents. The goal of information retrieval is to recall from a database information that is relevant to the user's query. The most challenging aspect of CBIR is the definition of relevance (similarity), which is used to guide the retrieval machine. In this paper, we pursue a new approach, in which similarity is learned from training examples provided by human observers. Specifically, we explore the use of neural networks and support vector machines to predict the user's notion of similarity. Within this framework we propose using a hierarchal learning approach, which consists of a cascade of a binary classifier and a regression module to optimize retrieval effectiveness and efficiency. We also explore how to incorporate online human interaction to achieve relevance feedback in this learning framework. Our experiments are based on a database consisting of 76 mammograms, all of which contain clustered microcalcifications (MCs). Our goal is to retrieve mammogram images containing similar MC clusters to that in a query. The performance of the retrieval system is evaluated using precision-recall curves computed using a cross-validation procedure. Our experimental results demonstrate that: 1) the learning framework can accurately predict the perceptual similarity reported by human observers, thereby serving as a basis for CBIR; 2) the learning-based framework can significantly outperform a simple distance-based similarity metric; 3) the use of the hierarchical two-stage network can improve retrieval performance; and 4) relevance feedback can be effectively incorporated into this learning framework to achieve improvement in retrieval precision based on online interaction with users; and 5) the retrieved images by the network can have predicting value for the disease condition of the query.     

Effective image retrieval based on hidden concept discovery in image database.

This paper addresses content-based image retrieval in general, and in particular, focuses on developing a hidden semantic concept discovery methodology to address effective semantics-intensive image retrieval. In our approach, each image in the database is segmented into regions associated with homogenous color, texture, and shape features. By exploiting regional statistical information in each image and employing a vector quantization method, a uniform and sparse region-based representation is achieved. With this representation, a probabilistic model based on statistical-hidden-class assumptions of the image database is obtained, to which the expectation-maximization technique is applied to analyze semantic concepts hidden in the database. An elaborated retrieval algorithm is designed to support the probabilistic model. The semantic similarity is measured through integrating the posterior probabilities of the transformed query image, as well as a constructed negative example, to the discovered semantic concepts. The proposed approach has a solid statistical foundation; the experimental evaluations on a database of 10000 general-purposed images demonstrate its promise and effectiveness.