Editorial for the special issue on spoken content retrieval

A typical spoken content retrieval solution integrates multiple technologies that belong to the areas of automatic speech recognition and information retrieval. Due to the rich set of challenges – many of them language specific – as well as widespread impact, numerous research sites in the world are actively engaged in this research area. This special issue highlights some of the recent advances in spoken content retrieval.     

Content-based image retrieval with relevance feedback using random walks

In this paper, we propose a novel approach to content-based image retrieval with relevance feedback, which is based on the random walker algorithm introduced in the context of interactive image segmentation. The idea is to treat the relevant and non-relevant images labeled by the user at every feedback round as “seed” nodes for the random walker problem. The ranking score for each unlabeled image is computed as the probability that a random walker starting from that image will reach a relevant seed before encountering a non-relevant one. Our method is easy to implement, parameter-free and scales well to large datasets. Extensive experiments on different real datasets with several image similarity measures show the superiority of our method over different recent approaches.     

Improved AdaBoost-based image retrieval with relevance feedback via paired feature learning

Boost learning algorithm, such as AdaBoost, has been widely used in a variety of applications in multimedia and computer vision. Relevance feedback-based image retrieval has been formulated as a classification problem with a small number of training samples. Several machine learning techniques have been applied to this problem recently. In this paper, we propose a novel paired feature AdaBoost learning system for relevance feedback-based image retrieval. To facilitate density estimation in our feature learning method, we propose an ID3-like balance tree quantization method to preserve most discriminative information. By using paired feature combination, we map all training samples obtained in the relevance feedback process onto paired feature spaces and employ the AdaBoost algorithm to select a few feature pairs with best discrimination capabilities in the corresponding paired feature spaces. In the AdaBoost algorithm, we employ Bayesian classification to replace the traditional binary weak classifiers to enhance their classification power, thus producing a stronger classifier. Experimental results on content-based image retrieval (CBIR) show superior performance of the proposed system compared to some previous methods.     

综合颜色和纹理及SVM相关反馈的图像检索

由于单一特征不足以准确地描述图像特征,提出了一种结合颜色特征和纹理特征的图像检索方法。针对传统颜色直方图中图像对所有像素具有相同重要性的问题进行了改进,提出像素加权的改进颜色直方图方法;然后采用Gabor小波提取纹理特征。为提高图像检索的性能,提出了一种支持向量机的相关反馈方法。实验结果表明,该方法具有较好的检索性能。     

Independent query refinement and feature re-weighting using positive and negative examples for content-based image retrieval

Query refinement and feature re-weighting are the two core techniques underlying the relevance feedback of content-based image retrieval. Most existing relevance feedback mechanisms generally model the user’s query target with a single query point and weight each extracted feature with a single importance factor. A designed estimation procedure then estimates the best query point and all importance factors by optimizing a formulated criterion which measures the goodness of the estimation. This formulated criterion simultaneously encapsulates all positive and negative examples supplied from the user’s feedback. Under such formulation, the positive and negative examples may contribute contradictorily to the criterion and sometimes may introduce higher difficulty in attaining a good estimation. In this paper, we propose a different statistical formulation to estimate independently two pairs of query points and feature weights from the positive examples and negative examples, respectively. These two pairs then define the likelihood ratio, a criterion term used to rank the relevance of all database images. This approach simplifies the criterion formulation and also avoids the mutual impeditive influence between positive examples and negative examples. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach outperforms some other related approaches.

Combining spatial and colour information for content based image retrieval

Colour is one of the most important features in content based image retrieval. However, colour is rarely used as a feature that codes local spatial information, except for colour texture. This paper presents an approach to represent spatial colour distributions using local principal component analysis (PCA). The representation is based on image windows which are selected by two complementary data driven attentive mechanisms: a symmetry based saliency map and an edge and corner detector. The eigenvectors obtained from local PCA of the selected windows form colour patterns that capture both low and high spatial frequencies, so they are well suited for shape as well as texture representation. Projections of the windows selected from the image database to the local PCs serve as a compact representation for the search database. Queries are formulated by specifying windows within query images. System feedback makes both the search process and the results comprehensible for the user.     

Rotation invariant textural feature extraction for image retrieval using eigen value analysis of intensity gradients and multi-resolution analysis

In this paper a novel rotation invariant multi-resolution based texture retrieval technique is proposed. The rotation invariance is achieved by aligning the direction of maximum variation of intensity gradient (defined as principal texture direction) along the reference axis. The principal direction is determined using eigen value analysis of gradient image. Wavelet transform based techniques are applied on the rotated image. The independent representation of textural energies along various directions enhances the retrieval performance over the existing rotation invariant wavelet based techniques which achieve rotation invariance by averaging the direction sensitive components. Extensive experiments on Brodatz database support this postulate.     

Subcellular localization using fluorescence imagery: Utilizing ensemble classification with diverse feature extraction strategies and data balancing

Protein subcellular localization plays a vital role in understanding proteins’ behavior under different circumstances. The effectiveness of various drugs can be assessed by the successful prediction of protein locations. Therefore, it is important to develop a prediction system that is sufficiently reliable and accurate in making decisions regarding the protein localization. However, main problem in developing a reliable and high throughput prediction system is the presence of imbalanced data, which greatly affects the performance of a prediction system. In order to remedy this problem, we utilized the notion of oversampling through Synthetic Minority Oversampling TEchnique (SMOTE). Further, different feature extraction strategies and ensemble classification techniques are assessed for their contribution toward the solution of the challenging problem of subcellular localization. After applying SMOTE data balancing technique, a remarkable improvement is observed in the performance of random forest and rotation forest ensemble classifiers for CHO_M, CHO_A and Vero_A datasets. It is anticipated that our proposed model might be helpful for the research community in the field of functional and structural proteomics as well as in drug discovery.