Learning semantic and visual similarity for endomicroscopy video retrieval

Content-based image retrieval (CBIR) is a valuable computer vision technique which is increasingly being applied in the medical community for diagnosis support. However, traditional CBIR systems only deliver visual outputs, i.e., images having a similar appearance to the query, which is not directly interpretable by the physicians. Our objective is to provide a system for endomicroscopy video retrieval which delivers both visual and semantic outputs that are consistent with each other. In a previous study, we developed an adapted bag-of-visual-words method for endomicroscopy retrieval, called "Dense-Sift," that computes a visual signature for each video. In this paper, we present a novel approach to complement visual similarity learning with semantic knowledge extraction, in the field of in vivo endomicroscopy. We first leverage a semantic ground truth based on eight binary concepts, in order to transform these visual signatures into semantic signatures that reflect how much the presence of each semantic concept is expressed by the visual words describing the videos. Using cross-validation, we demonstrate that, in terms of semantic detection, our intuitive Fisher-based method transforming visual-word histograms into semantic estimations outperforms support vector machine (SVM) methods with statistical significance. In a second step, we propose to improve retrieval relevance by learning an adjusted similarity distance from a perceived similarity ground truth. As a result, our distance learning method allows to statistically improve the correlation with the perceived similarity. We also demonstrate that, in terms of perceived similarity, the recall performance of the semantic signatures is close to that of visual signatures and significantly better than those of several state-of-the-art CBIR methods. The semantic signatures are thus able to communicate high-level medical knowledge while being consistent with the low-level visual signatures and much shorter than them. In our resulting retrieval system, we decide to use visual signatures for perceived similarity learning and retrieval, and semantic signatures for the output of an additional information, expressed in the endoscopist own language, which provides a relevant semantic translation of the visual retrieval outputs.     

A CBIR system based on saliency driven local image features and multi orientation texture features

In Content-based Image Retrieval (CBIR), the user provides the query image in which only a selective portion of the image carries the foremost vital information known as the object region of the image. However, the human visual system also focuses on a particular salient region of an image to instinctively understand its semantic meaning. Therefore, the human visual attention technique can be well imposed in the CBIR scheme. Inspired by these facts, we initially utilized the signature saliency map-based approach to decompose the image into its respective main object region (ObR) and non-object region (NObR). ObR possesses most of the vital image information, so block-level normalized singular value decomposition (SVD) has been used to extract salient features of the ObR. In most natural images, NObR plays a significant role in understanding the actual semantic meaning of the image. Accordingly, multi-directional texture features have been extracted from NObR using Gabor filter on different wavelengths. Since the importance of ObR and NObR features are not equal, a new homogeneity-based similarity matching approach has been devised to enhance retrieval accuracy. Finally, we have demonstrated retrieval performances using both the combined and distinct ObR and NObR features on seven standard coral, texture, object, and heterogeneous datasets. The experimental outcomes show that the proposed CBIR system has a promising retrieval efficiency and outperforms various existing systems substantially.     

基于潜在语义分析和相关反馈的图像检索方法

为了解决传统的CBIR系统中存在的"语义鸿沟"问题,提出一种基于潜在语义索引技术(LSI)和相关反馈技术的图像检索方法.在进行图像检索时,先在HSV空间下提取颜色直方图作为底层视觉特征进行图像检索,然后引入潜在语义索引技术试图将底层特征赋予更高层次的语义含义;并且结合相关反馈技术,通过与用户交互进一步提高检索精度.实验...     

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.     

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.     

Fusing semantic aspects for image annotation and retrieval

In this paper, we present an approach based on probabilistic latent semantic analysis (PLSA) to achieve the task of automatic image annotation and retrieval. In order to model training data precisely, each image is represented as a bag of visual words. Then a probabilistic framework is designed to capture semantic aspects from visual and textual modalities, respectively. Furthermore, an adaptive asymmetric learning algorithm is proposed to fuse these aspects. For each image document, the aspect distributions of different modalities are fused by multiplying different weights, which are determined by the visual representations of images. Consequently, the probabilistic framework can predict semantic annotation precisely for unseen images because it associates visual and textual modalities properly. We compare our approach with several state-of-the-art approaches on a standard Corel dataset. The experimental results show that our approach performs more effectively and accurately.     

Cross-modal social image clustering and tag cleansing

In this paper, a cross-modal approach is developed for social image clustering and tag cleansing. First, a semantic image clustering algorithm is developed for assigning large-scale weakly-tagged social images into a large number of image topics of interest. Spam tags are detected automatically via sentiment analysis and multiple synonymous tags are merged as one super-topic according to their inter-topic semantic similarity contexts. Second, multiple base kernels are seamlessly combined by maximizing the correlations between the visual similarity contexts and the semantic similarity context, which can achieve more precise characterization of cross-modal (semantic and visual) similarity contexts among weakly-tagged social images. Finally, a K-way min–max cut algorithm is developed for social image clustering by minimizing the cumulative inter-cluster cross-modal similarity contexts while maximizing the cumulative intra-cluster cross-modal similarity contexts. The optimal weights for base kernel combination are simultaneously determined by minimizing the cumulative within-cluster variances. The polysemous tags and their ambiguous images are further split into multiple sub-topics for reducing their within-topic visual diversity. Our experiments on large-scale weakly-tagged Flickr images have provided very positive results.     

Semisupervised biased maximum margin analysis for interactive image retrieval

With many potential practical applications, content-based image retrieval (CBIR) has attracted substantial attention during the past few years. A variety of relevance feedback (RF) schemes have been developed as a powerful tool to bridge the semantic gap between low-level visual features and high-level semantic concepts, and thus to improve the performance of CBIR systems. Among various RF approaches, support-vector-machine (SVM)-based RF is one of the most popular techniques in CBIR. Despite the success, directly using SVM as an RF scheme has two main drawbacks. First, it treats the positive and negative feedbacks equally, which is not appropriate since the two groups of training feedbacks have distinct properties. Second, most of the SVM-based RF techniques do not take into account the unlabeled samples, although they are very helpful in constructing a good classifier. To explore solutions to overcome these two drawbacks, in this paper, we propose a biased maximum margin analysis (BMMA) and a semisupervised BMMA (SemiBMMA) for integrating the distinct properties of feedbacks and utilizing the information of unlabeled samples for SVM-based RF schemes. The BMMA differentiates positive feedbacks from negative ones based on local analysis, whereas the SemiBMMA can effectively integrate information of unlabeled samples by introducing a Laplacian regularizer to the BMMA. We formally formulate this problem into a general subspace learning task and then propose an automatic approach of determining the dimensionality of the embedded subspace for RF. Extensive experiments on a large real-world image database demonstrate that the proposed scheme combined with the SVM RF can significantly improve the performance of CBIR systems.     

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.     

基于视觉感知的图像检索的研究

基于内容图像检索的一个突出问题是图像低层特征与高层语义之间存在的巨大鸿沟.针对相关反馈和感兴趣区检测在弥补语义鸿沟时存在主观性强、耗时的缺点,提出了视觉信息是一种客观反映图像高层语义的新特征,基于视觉信息进行图像检索可以有效减小语义鸿沟;并在总结视觉感知的研究进展和实现方法的基础上,给出了基于视觉感知的图像检索在感兴趣区检测、图像分割、相关反馈和个性化检索四个方面的研究思路.     

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.     

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.     

A new way for multidimensional medical data management: volume of interest (VOI)-based retrieval of medical images with visual and functional features.

The advances in digital medical imaging and storage in integrated databases are resulting in growing demands for efficient image retrieval and management. Content-based image retrieval (CBIR) refers to the retrieval of images from a database, using the visual features derived from the information in the image, and has become an attractive approach to managing large medical image archives. In conventional CBIR systems for medical images, images are often segmented into regions which are used to derive two-dimensional visual features for region-based queries. Although such approach has the advantage of including only relevant regions in the formulation of a query, medical images that are inherently multidimensional can potentially benefit from the multidimensional feature extraction which could open up new opportunities in visual feature extraction and retrieval. In this study, we present a volume of interest (VOI) based content-based retrieval of four-dimensional (three spatial and one temporal) dynamic PET images. By segmenting the images into VOIs consisting of functionally similar voxels (e.g., a tumor structure), multidimensional visual and functional features were extracted and used as region-based query features. A prototype VOI-based functional image retrieval system (VOI-FIRS) has been designed to demonstrate the proposed multidimensional feature extraction and retrieval. Experimental results show that the proposed system allows for the retrieval of related images that constitute similar visual and functional VOI features, and can find potential applications in medical data management, such as to aid in education, diagnosis, and statistical analysis.     

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.     

A Unified Relevance Feedback Framework for Web Image Retrieval

Although relevance feedback (RF) has been extensively studied in the content-based image retrieval community, no commercial Web image search engines support RF because of scalability, efficiency, and effectiveness issues. In this paper, we propose a unified relevance feedback framework for Web image retrieval. Our framework shows advantage over traditional RF mechanisms in the following three aspects. First, during the RF process, both textual feature and visual feature are used in a sequential way. To seamlessly combine textual feature-based RF and visual feature-based RF, a query concept-dependent fusion strategy is automatically learned. Second, the textual feature-based RF mechanism employs an effective search result clustering (SRC) algorithm to obtain salient phrases, based on which we could construct an accurate and low-dimensional textual space for the resulting Web images. Thus, we could integrate RF into Web image retrieval in a practical way. Last, a new user interface (UI) is proposed to support implicit RF. On the one hand, unlike traditional RF UI which enforces users to make explicit judgment on the results, the new UI regards the users' click-through data as implicit relevance feedback in order to release burden from the users. On the other hand, unlike traditional RF UI which hardily substitutes subsequent results for previous ones, a recommendation scheme is used to help the users better understand the feedback process and to mitigate the possible waiting caused by RF. Experimental results on a database consisting of nearly three million Web images show that the proposed framework is wieldy, scalable, and effective.      

Clustering results of image searches by annotations and visual features

Image on web has become one of the most important information for browsers; however, the large number of results retrieved from images search engine increases the difficulty in finding the intended images. Image search result clustering (ISRC) is a solution to this problem. Currently, the ISRC-based methods separately utilized textual and visual features to present clustering result. In this paper, we proposed a new ISRC method as called Incremental-Annotations-based image search with clustering (IAISC), which adopted annotation as textual features and category model as visual features. IAISC can provide clustering result based on the semantic meaning and visual trail; further, presented by the iteratively structure, a user can obtain the intended image easily. The experimental result shows our method has high precision that the average precision rate is 73.4%; particularly, the precision rate is 96.5% when the user drills down the intended images till the last round. Regarding efficiency, our system is one and a half times as efficient as the previous studies.     

一种针对大规模网络图像的自动标注改善算法

在对网络图像进行索引时,人们往往利用网页中图像周围的文字作为其近似标注信息,但是这些文字信息质量不高,不足以良好地描述图像内容。该文提出一种综合利用图像视觉特征、相关文本信息以及词汇间语义关系的方法对这些不精确的文本信息进行改善,从而提高图像的索引和搜索质量。在大规模数据集上的实验证明了所提出的方法能够有效改善图像的标注。     

Fixation prediction for advertising images: Dataset and benchmark

Existing saliency prediction methods focus on exploring a universal saliency model for natural images, relatively few on advertising images which typically consists of both textual regions and pictorial regions. To fill this gap, we first build an advertising image database, named ADD1000, recording 57 subjects’ eye movement data of 1000 ad images. Compared to natural images, advertising images contain more artificial scenarios and show stronger persuasiveness and deliberateness, while the impact of this scene heterogeneity on visual attention is rarely studied. Moreover, text elements and picture elements express closely related semantic information to highlight product or brand in ad images, while their respective contribution to visual attention is also less known. Motivated by these, we further propose a saliency prediction model for advertising images based on text enhanced learning (TEL-SP), which comprehensively considers the interplay between textual region and pictorial region. Extensive experiments on the ADD1000 database show that the proposed model outperforms existing state-of-the-art methods.     

一种基于区域的动态分块图象检索方法

本文提出一种新颖的基于内容和图像检索方法，基于运动子块分割并根据视觉特性对不同区域做不同的加权，比较各子块相似度，分析相似度矩阵，并检索查询物体。通过将图象分割细化，充分利用了原图的颜色位置信息，通过实验，实现了对特定物体进行检索。该物体检索方法可进一步发展，为特定的后续处理奠定基础，如在人脸识别等功能中发挥重要作用。