Object recognition from local scale-invariant features
20 Sep 1999-Vol. 2, pp 1150-1157
TL;DR: Experimental results show that robust object recognition can be achieved in cluttered partially occluded images with a computation time of under 2 seconds.
Abstract: An object recognition system has been developed that uses a new class of local image features. The features are invariant to image scaling, translation, and rotation, and partially invariant to illumination changes and affine or 3D projection. These features share similar properties with neurons in inferior temporal cortex that are used for object recognition in primate vision. Features are efficiently detected through a staged filtering approach that identifies stable points in scale space. Image keys are created that allow for local geometric deformations by representing blurred image gradients in multiple orientation planes and at multiple scales. The keys are used as input to a nearest neighbor indexing method that identifies candidate object matches. Final verification of each match is achieved by finding a low residual least squares solution for the unknown model parameters. Experimental results show that robust object recognition can be achieved in cluttered partially occluded images with a computation time of under 2 seconds.
Citations
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TL;DR: The proposed aerial scene classification method can be highly effective in developing a detection system that can be used to automatically scan large-scale high-resolution satellite imagery for detecting large facilities such as a shopping mall.
Abstract: The rich data provided by high-resolution satellite imagery allow us to directly model aerial scenes by understanding their spatial and structural patterns. While pixel- and object-based classification approaches are widely used for satellite image analysis, often these approaches exploit the high-fidelity image data in a limited way. In this paper, we explore an unsupervised feature learning approach for scene classification. Dense low-level feature descriptors are extracted to characterize the local spatial patterns. These unlabeled feature measurements are exploited in a novel way to learn a set of basis functions. The low-level feature descriptors are encoded in terms of the basis functions to generate new sparse representation for the feature descriptors. We show that the statistics generated from the sparse features characterize the scene well producing excellent classification accuracy. We apply our technique to several challenging aerial scene data sets: ORNL-I data set consisting of 1-m spatial resolution satellite imagery with diverse sensor and scene characteristics representing five land-use categories, UCMERCED data set representing twenty one different aerial scene categories with sub-meter resolution, and ORNL-II data set for large-facility scene detection. Our results are highly promising and, on the UCMERCED data set we outperform the previous best results. We demonstrate that the proposed aerial scene classification method can be highly effective in developing a detection system that can be used to automatically scan large-scale high-resolution satellite imagery for detecting large facilities such as a shopping mall.
415 citations
Cites background from "Object recognition from local scale..."
...oriented filter responses, and local scale invariant feature transformation (SIFT)-based feature descriptors [12]....
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TL;DR: A SIFT-like algorithm specifically dedicated to SAR imaging, which includes both the detection of keypoints and the computation of local descriptors, and an application of SAR-SIFT to the registration of SAR images in different configurations, particularly with different incidence angles is presented.
Abstract: The scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) algorithm and its many variants are widely used in computer vision and in remote sensing to match features between images or to localize and recognize objects. However, mostly because of speckle noise, it does not perform well on synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. In this paper, we introduce a SIFT-like algorithm specifically dedicated to SAR imaging, which is named SAR-SIFT. The algorithm includes both the detection of keypoints and the computation of local descriptors. A new gradient definition, yielding an orientation and a magnitude that are robust to speckle noise, is first introduced. It is then used to adapt several steps of the SIFT algorithm to SAR images. We study the improvement brought by this new algorithm, as compared with existing approaches. We present an application of SAR-SIFT to the registration of SAR images in different configurations, particularly with different incidence angles.
414 citations
27 Jun 2004
TL;DR: This work shows that using local edge orientation histograms (EOH) as features can significantly improve performance compared to the standard linear features used in existing systems and enables learning a system that seems to outperform the state of the art in real-time systems even with a small number of training examples.
Abstract: Face detection systems have recently achieved high detection rates and real-time performance. However, these methods usually rely on a huge training database (around 5,000 positive examples for good performance). While such huge databases may be feasible for building a system that detects a single object, it is obviously problematic for scenarios where multiple objects (or multiple views of a single object) need to be detected. Indeed, even for multi-viewface detection the performance of existing systems is far from satisfactory. In this work we focus on the problem of learning to detect objects from a small training database. We show that performance depends crucially on the features that are used to represent the objects. Specifically, we show that using local edge orientation histograms (EOH) as features can significantly improve performance compared to the standard linear features used in existing systems. For frontal faces, local orientation histograms enable state of the art performance using only a few hundred training examples. For profile view faces, local orientation histograms enable learning a system that seems to outperform the state of the art in real-time systems even with a small number of training examples.
411 citations
Cites methods from "Object recognition from local scale..."
...Lowe [ 4 ] developed a recognition method which is based on local orientation histograms....
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13 Oct 2003
TL;DR: Large-scale recognition results are presented, which demonstrate that SVMs with the proposed kernel perform better than standard matching techniques on local features and that local feature representations significantly outperform global approaches.
Abstract: Recent developments in computer vision have shown that local features can provide efficient representations suitable for robust object recognition. Support vector machines have been established as powerful learning algorithms with good generalization capabilities. We combine these two approaches and propose a general kernel method for recognition with local features. We show that the proposed kernel satisfies the Mercer condition and that it is, suitable for many established local feature frameworks. Large-scale recognition results are presented on three different databases, which demonstrate that SVMs with the proposed kernel perform better than standard matching techniques on local features. In addition, experiments on noisy and occluded images show that local feature representations significantly outperform global approaches.
403 citations
Cites background from "Object recognition from local scale..."
...Recent years have seen impressive improvements in object recognition performance under such conditions [3, 19], and it seems that appearance-based methods [21, 22, 6, 3] are gaining popularity over structural methods [15]....
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11 May 2004
TL;DR: A novel technique for detecting salient regions in an image is described, which is a generalization to affine invariance of the method introduced by Kadir and Brady.
Abstract: In this paper we describe a novel technique for detecting salient regions in an image. The detector is a generalization to affine invariance of the method introduced by Kadir and Brady [10]. The detector deems a region salient if it exhibits unpredictability in both its attributes and its spatial scale.
403 citations
Cites methods from "Object recognition from local scale..."
...In these experiments we used similarity invariant versions of three detectors: similarity Saliency (ScaleSal), Difference-Of-Gaussian (DoG) blob detector [16] and the multi-scale Harris (MSHar) with Laplacian scale selection — this is Affine MSHar without the affine adaptation [19]....
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References
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TL;DR: In this paper, color histograms of multicolored objects provide a robust, efficient cue for indexing into a large database of models, and they can differentiate among a large number of objects.
Abstract: Computer vision is moving into a new era in which the aim is to develop visual skills for robots that allow them to interact with a dynamic, unconstrained environment. To achieve this aim, new kinds of vision algorithms need to be developed which run in real time and subserve the robot's goals. Two fundamental goals are determining the identity of an object with a known location, and determining the location of a known object. Color can be successfully used for both tasks.
This dissertation demonstrates that color histograms of multicolored objects provide a robust, efficient cue for indexing into a large database of models. It shows that color histograms are stable object representations in the presence of occlusion and over change in view, and that they can differentiate among a large number of objects. For solving the identification problem, it introduces a technique called Histogram Intersection, which matches model and image histograms and a fast incremental version of Histogram Intersection which allows real-time indexing into a large database of stored models. It demonstrates techniques for dealing with crowded scenes and with models with similar color signatures. For solving the location problem it introduces an algorithm called Histogram Backprojection which performs this task efficiently in crowded scenes.
5,672 citations
TL;DR: It is shown how the boundaries of an arbitrary non-analytic shape can be used to construct a mapping between image space and Hough transform space, which makes the generalized Houghtransform a kind of universal transform which can beused to find arbitrarily complex shapes.
4,310 citations
TL;DR: A near real-time recognition system with 20 complex objects in the database has been developed and a compact representation of object appearance is proposed that is parametrized by pose and illumination.
Abstract: The problem of automatically learning object models for recognition and pose estimation is addressed. In contrast to the traditional approach, the recognition problem is formulated as one of matching appearance rather than shape. The appearance of an object in a two-dimensional image depends on its shape, reflectance properties, pose in the scene, and the illumination conditions. While shape and reflectance are intrinsic properties and constant for a rigid object, pose and illumination vary from scene to scene. A compact representation of object appearance is proposed that is parametrized by pose and illumination. For each object of interest, a large set of images is obtained by automatically varying pose and illumination. This image set is compressed to obtain a low-dimensional subspace, called the eigenspace, in which the object is represented as a manifold. Given an unknown input image, the recognition system projects the image to eigenspace. The object is recognized based on the manifold it lies on. The exact position of the projection on the manifold determines the object's pose in the image. A variety of experiments are conducted using objects with complex appearance characteristics. The performance of the recognition and pose estimation algorithms is studied using over a thousand input images of sample objects. Sensitivity of recognition to the number of eigenspace dimensions and the number of learning samples is analyzed. For the objects used, appearance representation in eigenspaces with less than 20 dimensions produces accurate recognition results with an average pose estimation error of about 1.0 degree. A near real-time recognition system with 20 complex objects in the database has been developed. The paper is concluded with a discussion on various issues related to the proposed learning and recognition methodology.
2,037 citations
TL;DR: This paper addresses the problem of retrieving images from large image databases with a method based on local grayvalue invariants which are computed at automatically detected interest points and allows for efficient retrieval from a database of more than 1,000 images.
Abstract: This paper addresses the problem of retrieving images from large image databases. The method is based on local grayvalue invariants which are computed at automatically detected interest points. A voting algorithm and semilocal constraints make retrieval possible. Indexing allows for efficient retrieval from a database of more than 1,000 images. Experimental results show correct retrieval in the case of partial visibility, similarity transformations, extraneous features, and small perspective deformations.
1,756 citations
"Object recognition from local scale..." refers background or methods in this paper
...This allows for the use of more distinctive image descriptors than the rotation-invariant ones used by Schmid and Mohr, and the descriptor is further modified to improve its stability to changes in affine projection and illumination....
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...For the object recognition problem, Schmid & Mohr [19] also used the Harris corner detector to identify interest points, and then created a local image descriptor at each interest point from an orientation-invariant vector of derivative-of-Gaussian image measurements....
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..., Schmid & Mohr [19]) has shown that efficient recognition can often be achieved by using local image descriptors sampled at a large number of repeatable locations....
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...However, recent research on the use of dense local features (e.g., Schmid & Mohr [19]) has shown that efficient recognition can often be achieved by using local image descriptors sampled at a large number of repeatable locations....
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TL;DR: A robust approach to image matching by exploiting the only available geometric constraint, namely, the epipolar constraint, is proposed and a new strategy for updating matches is developed, which only selects those matches having both high matching support and low matching ambiguity.
1,574 citations
"Object recognition from local scale..." refers methods in this paper
...[23] used the Harris corner detector to identify feature locations for epipolar alignment of images taken from differing viewpoints....
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