Effective and efficient kernel-based image representations for classification and retrieval

Image representation is a challenging task. In particular, in order to obtain better performances in different image processing applications such as video surveillance, autonomous driving, crime scene detection and automatic inspection, effective and efficient image representation is a fundamental need. The performance of these applications usually depends on how accurately images are classified into their corresponding groups or how precisely relevant images are retrieved from a database based on a query. Accuracy in image classification and precision in image retrieval depend on the effectiveness of image representation. Existing image representation methods have some limitations. For example, spatial pyramid matching, which is a popular method incorporating spatial information in image-level representation, has not been fully studied to date. In addition, the strengths of pyramid match kernel and spatial pyramid matching are not combined for better image matching. Kernel descriptors based on gradient, colour and shape overcome the limitations of histogram-based descriptors, but suffer from information loss, noise effects and high computational complexity. Furthermore, the combined performance of kernel descriptors has limitations related to computational complexity, higher dimensionality and lower effectiveness. Moreover, the potential of a global texture descriptor which is based on human visual perception has not been fully explored to date. Therefore, in this research project, kernel-based effective and efficient image representation methods are proposed to address the above limitations. An enhancement is made to spatial pyramid matching in terms of improved rotation invariance. This is done by investigating different partitioning schemes suitable to achieve rotation-invariant image representation and the proposal of a weight function for appropriate level contribution in image matching. In addition, the strengths of pyramid match kernel and spatial pyramid are combined to enhance matching accuracy between images. The existing kernel descriptors are modified and improved to achieve greater effectiveness, minimum noise effects, less dimensionality and lower computational complexity. A novel fusion approach is also proposed to combine the information related to all pixel attributes, before the descriptor extraction stage. Existing kernel descriptors are based only on gradient, colour and shape information. In this research project, a texture-based kernel descriptor is proposed by modifying an existing popular global texture descriptor. Finally, all the contributions are evaluated in an integrated system. The performances of the proposed methods are qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated on two to four different publicly available image databases. The experimental results show that the proposed methods are more effective and efficient in image representation than existing benchmark methods.Doctor of Philosoph

An enhancement to the spatial pyramid matching for image classification and retrieval

Spatial pyramid matching (SPM) is one of the widely used methods to incorporate spatial information into the image representation. Despite its effectiveness, the traditional SPM is not rotation invariant. A rotation invariant SPM has been proposed in the literature but it has many limitations regarding the effectiveness. In this paper, we investigate how to make SPM robust to rotation by addressing those limitations. In an SPM framework, an image is divided into an increasing number of partitions at different pyramid levels. In this paper, our main focus is on how to partition images in such a way that the resulting structure can deal with image-level rotations. To do that, we investigate three concentric ring partitioning schemes. Apart from image partitioning, another important component of the SPM framework is a weight function. To apportion the contribution of each pyramid level to the final matching between two images, the weight function is needed. In this paper, we propose a new weight function which is suitable for the rotation-invariant SPM structure. Experiments based on image classification and retrieval are performed on five image databases. The detailed result analysis shows that we are successful in enhancing the effectiveness of SPM for image classification and retrieval. © 2013 IEEE

A novel fusion approach in the extraction of kernel descriptor with improved effectiveness and efficiency

Image representation using feature descriptors is crucial. A number of histogram-based descriptors are widely used for this purpose. However, histogram-based descriptors have certain limitations and kernel descriptors (KDES) are proven to overcome them. Moreover, the combination of more than one KDES performs better than an individual KDES. Conventionally, KDES fusion is performed by concatenating them after the gradient, colour and shape descriptors have been extracted. This approach has limitations in regard to the efficiency as well as the effectiveness. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to fuse different image features before the descriptor extraction, resulting in a compact descriptor which is efficient and effective. In addition, we have investigated the effect on the proposed descriptor when texture-based features are fused along with the conventionally used features. Our proposed descriptor is examined on two publicly available image databases and shown to provide outstanding performances

Exploratory studies on azido-bridged complexes (Ni2+ & Mn2+) as dual colourimetric chemosensors for S2- and Ag+: combined experimtal and theoretical outcome with real field application

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A kernel-based approach for content-based image retrieval

Content-based image retrieval (CBIR) is a popular approach to retrieve images based on a query. In CBIR, retrieval is executed based on the properties of image contents (e.g. gradient, shape, color, texture) which are generally encoded into image descriptors. Among the various image descriptors, histogram-based descriptors are very popular. However, they suffer from the limitation of coarse quantization. In contrast, the use of kernel descriptors (KDES) is proven to be more effective than histogram-based descriptors in other applications, e.g. image classification. This is because, in the KDES framework, instead of the quantization of pixel attributes, each pixel equally takes part in the similarity measurement between two images. In this paper, we propose an approach for how the conventional KDES and its improved version can be used for CBIR. In addition, we have provided a detailed insight into the effectiveness of improved kernel descriptors. Finally, our experiment results will show that kernel descriptors are significantly more effective than histogram-based descriptors in CBIR

Enhanced colour image retrieval with cuboid segmentation

In this paper, we further investigate our recently proposed cuboid image segmentation algorithm for effective image retrieval. Instead of using all cuboids (i.e. segments), we have proposed two approaches to choose different subsets of cuboids appropriately. With the experimental results on eBay dataset, we have shown that our proposals outperform retrieval performance of the existing technique. In addition, we have investigated how many segments are required for the most effective image retrieval and provide a quick method to determine the suitable number of cuboids.2018 International Conference on Digital Image Computing: Techniques and Applications, DICTA 201

Rotation invariant spatial pyramid matching for image classification

This paper proposes a new Spatial Pyramid representation approach for image classification. Unlike the conventional Spatial Pyramid, the proposed method is invariant to rotation changes in the images. This method works by partitioning an image into concentric rectangles and organizing them into a pyramid. Each pyramidal region is then represented using a histogram of visual words. Our experimental results show that our proposed method significantly outperforms the conventional method. © 2015 IEEE

Combining pyramid match kernel and spatial pyramid for image classification

This paper proposes a new approach for image classification by combining pyramid match kernel (PMK) with spatial pyramid. Unlike the conventional spatial pyramid matching (SPM) approach which only uses a single-resolution feature vector to represent an image, we use a multi-resolution feature vector to represent an image for SPM. We then calculate the match scores at each resolution of SPM representation and finally compute the matching between two images by applying the concept of PMK using the match scores obtained from the multiple resolutions. Our experimental results show that the proposed combined pyramid matching achieves a significant improvement on classification performance

Improved Tamura features for image classification using kernel based descriptors

Tamura features are based on human visual perception and have huge potential in image representation. Conventional Tamura features only work on homogeneous texture images and perform poor on generic images. Therefore, many researchers attempt to improve Tamura features and most of the improvements are based on histogram based representation. Kernel descriptors have been shown to outperform existing histogram based local features as such descriptors do not require coarse quantization of pixel attributes. Instead, in kernel descriptor framework, each pixel equally participates in matching between two image patches. In this paper, we propose a set of kernel descriptors that are based on Tamura features. Additionally, the proposed descriptors are invariant to local rotations. Experimental results show that our proposed approach outperforms the conventional Tamura features significantly