Towards an All-Purpose Content-Based Multimedia Information Retrieval System

The growth of multimedia collections - in terms of size, heterogeneity, and variety of media types - necessitates systems that are able to conjointly deal with several forms of media, especially when it comes to searching for particular objects. However, existing retrieval systems are organized in silos and treat different media types separately. As a consequence, retrieval across media types is either not supported at all or subject to major limitations. In this paper, we present vitrivr, a content-based multimedia information retrieval stack. As opposed to the keyword search approach implemented by most media management systems, vitrivr makes direct use of the object's content to facilitate different types of similarity search, such as Query-by-Example or Query-by-Sketch, for and, most importantly, across different media types - namely, images, audio, videos, and 3D models. Furthermore, we introduce a new web-based user interface that enables easy-to-use, multimodal retrieval from and browsing in mixed media collections. The effectiveness of vitrivr is shown on the basis of a user study that involves different query and media types. To the best of our knowledge, the full vitrivr stack is unique in that it is the first multimedia retrieval system that seamlessly integrates support for four different types of media. As such, it paves the way towards an all-purpose, content-based multimedia information retrieval system

Automatic Summarization of Soccer Highlights Using Audio-visual Descriptors

Automatic summarization generation of sports video content has been object of great interest for many years. Although semantic descriptions techniques have been proposed, many of the approaches still rely on low-level video descriptors that render quite limited results due to the complexity of the problem and to the low capability of the descriptors to represent semantic content. In this paper, a new approach for automatic highlights summarization generation of soccer videos using audio-visual descriptors is presented. The approach is based on the segmentation of the video sequence into shots that will be further analyzed to determine its relevance and interest. Of special interest in the approach is the use of the audio information that provides additional robustness to the overall performance of the summarization system. For every video shot a set of low and mid level audio-visual descriptors are computed and lately adequately combined in order to obtain different relevance measures based on empirical knowledge rules. The final summary is generated by selecting those shots with highest interest according to the specifications of the user and the results of relevance measures. A variety of results are presented with real soccer video sequences that prove the validity of the approach

Partial shape matching using CCP map and weighted graph transformation matching

La détection de la similarité ou de la différence entre les images et leur mise en correspondance sont des problèmes fondamentaux dans le traitement de l'image. Pour résoudre ces problèmes, on utilise, dans la littérature, différents algorithmes d'appariement. Malgré leur nouveauté, ces algorithmes sont pour la plupart inefficaces et ne peuvent pas fonctionner correctement dans les situations d’images bruitées. Dans ce mémoire, nous résolvons la plupart des problèmes de ces méthodes en utilisant un algorithme fiable pour segmenter la carte des contours image, appelée carte des CCPs, et une nouvelle méthode d'appariement. Dans notre algorithme, nous utilisons un descripteur local qui est rapide à calculer, est invariant aux transformations affines et est fiable pour des objets non rigides et des situations d’occultation. Après avoir trouvé le meilleur appariement pour chaque contour, nous devons vérifier si ces derniers sont correctement appariés. Pour ce faire, nous utilisons l'approche « Weighted Graph Transformation Matching » (WGTM), qui est capable d'éliminer les appariements aberrants en fonction de leur proximité et de leurs relations géométriques. WGTM fonctionne correctement pour les objets à la fois rigides et non rigides et est robuste aux distorsions importantes. Pour évaluer notre méthode, le jeu de données ETHZ comportant cinq classes différentes d'objets (bouteilles, cygnes, tasses, girafes, logos Apple) est utilisé. Enfin, notre méthode est comparée à plusieurs méthodes célèbres proposées par d'autres chercheurs dans la littérature. Bien que notre méthode donne un résultat comparable à celui des méthodes de référence en termes du rappel et de la précision de localisation des frontières, elle améliore significativement la précision moyenne pour toutes les catégories du jeu de données ETHZ.Matching and detecting similarity or dissimilarity between images is a fundamental problem in image processing. Different matching algorithms are used in literature to solve this fundamental problem. Despite their novelty, these algorithms are mostly inefficient and cannot perform properly in noisy situations. In this thesis, we solve most of the problems of previous methods by using a reliable algorithm for segmenting image contour map, called CCP Map, and a new matching method. In our algorithm, we use a local shape descriptor that is very fast, invariant to affine transform, and robust for dealing with non-rigid objects and occlusion. After finding the best match for the contours, we need to verify if they are correctly matched. For this matter, we use the Weighted Graph Transformation Matching (WGTM) approach, which is capable of removing outliers based on their adjacency and geometrical relationships. WGTM works properly for both rigid and non-rigid objects and is robust to high order distortions. For evaluating our method, the ETHZ dataset including five diverse classes of objects (bottles, swans, mugs, giraffes, apple-logos) is used. Finally, our method is compared to several famous methods proposed by other researchers in the literature. While our method shows a comparable result to other benchmarks in terms of recall and the precision of boundary localization, it significantly improves the average precision for all of the categories in the ETHZ dataset

A novel shape descriptor based on salient keypoints detection for binary image matching and retrieval

We introduce a shape descriptor that extracts keypoints from binary images and automatically detects the salient ones among them. The proposed descriptor operates as follows: First, the contours of the image are detected and an image transformation is used to generate background information. Next, pixels of the transformed image that have specific characteristics in their local areas are used to extract keypoints. Afterwards, the most salient keypoints are automatically detected by filtering out redundant and sensitive ones. Finally, a feature vector is calculated for each keypoint by using the distribution of contour points in its local area. The proposed descriptor is evaluated using public datasets of silhouette images, handwritten math expressions, hand-drawn diagram sketches, and noisy scanned logos. Experimental results show that the proposed descriptor compares strongly against state of the art methods, and that it is reliable when applied on challenging images such as fluctuated handwriting and noisy scanned images. Furthermore, we integrate our descripto

Participation of INRIA & Pl@ntNet to ImageCLEF 2011 plant images classification task

International audienceThis paper presents the participation of INRIA IMEDIA group and the Pl@ntNet project to ImageCLEF 2011 plant identification task. ImageCLEF's plant identification task provides a testbed for the system-oriented evaluation of tree species identification based on leaf images. The aim is to investigate image retrieval approaches in the context of crowdsourced images of leaves collected in a collaborative manner. IMEDIA submitted two runs to this task and obtained the best evaluation score for two of the three image categories addressed within the benchmark. The paper presents the two approaches employed, and provides an analysis of the obtained evaluation results

Shape-based image retrieval in iconic image databases.

by Chan Yuk Ming.Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1999.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-124).Abstract also in Chinese.Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1Chapter 1.1 --- Content-based Image Retrieval --- p.3Chapter 1.2 --- Designing a Shape-based Image Retrieval System --- p.4Chapter 1.3 --- Information on Trademark --- p.6Chapter 1.3.1 --- What is a Trademark? --- p.6Chapter 1.3.2 --- Search for Conflicting Trademarks --- p.7Chapter 1.3.3 --- Research Scope --- p.8Chapter 1.4 --- Information on Chinese Cursive Script Character --- p.9Chapter 1.5 --- Problem Definition --- p.9Chapter 1.6 --- Contributions --- p.11Chapter 1.7 --- Thesis Organization --- p.13Chapter 2 --- Literature Review --- p.14Chapter 2.1 --- Trademark Retrieval using QBIC Technology --- p.14Chapter 2.2 --- STAR --- p.16Chapter 2.3 --- ARTISAN --- p.17Chapter 2.4 --- Trademark Retrieval using a Visually Salient Feature --- p.18Chapter 2.5 --- Trademark Recognition using Closed Contours --- p.19Chapter 2.6 --- Trademark Retrieval using a Two Stage Hierarchy --- p.19Chapter 2.7 --- Logo Matching using Negative Shape Features --- p.21Chapter 2.8 --- Chapter Summary --- p.22Chapter 3 --- Background on Shape Representation and Matching --- p.24Chapter 3.1 --- Simple Geometric Features --- p.25Chapter 3.1.1 --- Circularity --- p.25Chapter 3.1.2 --- Rectangularity --- p.26Chapter 3.1.3 --- Hole Area Ratio --- p.27Chapter 3.1.4 --- Horizontal Gap Ratio --- p.27Chapter 3.1.5 --- Vertical Gap Ratio --- p.28Chapter 3.1.6 --- Central Moments --- p.28Chapter 3.1.7 --- Major Axis Orientation --- p.29Chapter 3.1.8 --- Eccentricity --- p.30Chapter 3.2 --- Fourier Descriptors --- p.30Chapter 3.3 --- Chain Codes --- p.31Chapter 3.4 --- Seven Invariant Moments --- p.33Chapter 3.5 --- Zernike Moments --- p.35Chapter 3.6 --- Edge Direction Histogram --- p.36Chapter 3.7 --- Curvature Scale Space Representation --- p.37Chapter 3.8 --- Chapter Summary --- p.39Chapter 4 --- Genetic Algorithm for Weight Assignment --- p.42Chapter 4.1 --- Genetic Algorithm (GA) --- p.42Chapter 4.1.1 --- Basic Idea --- p.43Chapter 4.1.2 --- Genetic Operators --- p.44Chapter 4.2 --- Why GA? --- p.45Chapter 4.3 --- Weight Assignment Problem --- p.46Chapter 4.3.1 --- Integration of Image Attributes --- p.46Chapter 4.4 --- Proposed Solution --- p.47Chapter 4.4.1 --- Formalization --- p.47Chapter 4.4.2 --- Proposed Genetic Algorithm --- p.43Chapter 4.5 --- Chapter Summary --- p.49Chapter 5 --- Shape-based Trademark Image Retrieval System --- p.50Chapter 5.1 --- Problems on Existing Methods --- p.50Chapter 5.1.1 --- Edge Direction Histogram --- p.51Chapter 5.1.2 --- Boundary Based Techniques --- p.52Chapter 5.2 --- Proposed Solution --- p.53Chapter 5.2.1 --- Image Preprocessing --- p.53Chapter 5.2.2 --- Automatic Feature Extraction --- p.54Chapter 5.2.3 --- Approximated Boundary --- p.55Chapter 5.2.4 --- Integration of Shape Features and Query Processing --- p.58Chapter 5.3 --- Experimental Results --- p.58Chapter 5.3.1 --- Experiment 1: Weight Assignment using Genetic Algorithm --- p.59Chapter 5.3.2 --- Experiment 2: Speed on Feature Extraction and Retrieval --- p.62Chapter 5.3.3 --- Experiment 3: Evaluation by Precision --- p.63Chapter 5.3.4 --- Experiment 4: Evaluation by Recall for Deformed Images --- p.64Chapter 5.3.5 --- Experiment 5: Evaluation by Recall for Hand Drawn Query Trademarks --- p.66Chapter 5.3.6 --- "Experiment 6: Evaluation by Recall for Rotated, Scaled and Mirrored Images" --- p.66Chapter 5.3.7 --- Experiment 7: Comparison of Different Integration Methods --- p.68Chapter 5.4 --- Chapter Summary --- p.71Chapter 6 --- Shape-based Chinese Cursive Script Character Image Retrieval System --- p.72Chapter 6.1 --- Comparison to Trademark Retrieval Problem --- p.79Chapter 6.1.1 --- Feature Selection --- p.73Chapter 6.1.2 --- Speed of System --- p.73Chapter 6.1.3 --- Variation of Style --- p.73Chapter 6.2 --- Target of the Research --- p.74Chapter 6.3 --- Proposed Solution --- p.75Chapter 6.3.1 --- Image Preprocessing --- p.75Chapter 6.3.2 --- Automatic Feature Extraction --- p.76Chapter 6.3.3 --- Thinned Image and Linearly Normalized Image --- p.76Chapter 6.3.4 --- Edge Directions --- p.77Chapter 6.3.5 --- Integration of Shape Features --- p.78Chapter 6.4 --- Experimental Results --- p.79Chapter 6.4.1 --- Experiment 8: Weight Assignment using Genetic Algorithm --- p.79Chapter 6.4.2 --- Experiment 9: Speed on Feature Extraction and Retrieval --- p.81Chapter 6.4.3 --- Experiment 10: Evaluation by Recall for Deformed Images --- p.82Chapter 6.4.4 --- Experiment 11: Evaluation by Recall for Rotated and Scaled Images --- p.83Chapter 6.4.5 --- Experiment 12: Comparison of Different Integration Methods --- p.85Chapter 6.5 --- Chapter Summary --- p.87Chapter 7 --- Conclusion --- p.88Chapter 7.1 --- Summary --- p.88Chapter 7.2 --- Future Research --- p.89Chapter 7.2.1 --- Limitations --- p.89Chapter 7.2.2 --- Future Directions --- p.90Chapter A --- A Representative Subset of Trademark Images --- p.91Chapter B --- A Representative Subset of Cursive Script Character Images --- p.93Chapter C --- Shape Feature Extraction Toolbox for Matlab V53 --- p.95Chapter C.l --- central .moment --- p.95Chapter C.2 --- centroid --- p.96Chapter C.3 --- cir --- p.96Chapter C.4 --- ess --- p.97Chapter C.5 --- css_match --- p.100Chapter C.6 --- ecc --- p.102Chapter C.7 --- edge一directions --- p.102Chapter C.8 --- fourier-d --- p.105Chapter C.9 --- gen_shape --- p.106Chapter C.10 --- hu7 --- p.108Chapter C.11 --- isclockwise --- p.109Chapter C.12 --- moment --- p.110Chapter C.13 --- normalized-moment --- p.111Chapter C.14 --- orientation --- p.111Chapter C.15 --- resample-pts --- p.112Chapter C.16 --- rectangularity --- p.113Chapter C.17 --- trace-points --- p.114Chapter C.18 --- warp-conv --- p.115Bibliography --- p.11

Simulation to help calibration of a {MEMS} Sensor Network

International audienceThe Smart Surface project aims at designing an integrated micro-manipulator based on an array of micromodules connected with a 2D array topology network. Each micromodule comprises a sensor, an actuator and a processing unit. One of the aims of the processing unit is to differentiate the shape of the part that is put on top of the Smart Surface. From a set of shapes this differentiation is done through a distributed algorithm that we call a criterion. The article presents Sensor Network Calibrator (SNC), a calibrator which allows to parametrize the Smart Surface and to determine the necessary number of sensors required by our Smart Surface. The tests will show that SNC is of great importance for choosing the number of sensors, and therefore to determine the size of the sensors grid