Method and apparatus for classifying and identifying images

41 Pages·2013·2.86 MB·English

US006549660B1
United States Patent
(12) (10) Patent N0.: US 6,549,660 B1
Lipson et a1. (45) Date of Patent: Apr. 15, 2003
(54) METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR OTHER PUBLICATIONS
CLASSIFYING AND IDENTIFYING IMAGES _
Mahesh Venkatraman et al., Zero Crossmgs of a Non—Or
(75) Inventors; Pamela R_ Lipson, Cambridge, M A thogonal Wavkelet Transform for Object Location, IEEE, p.
(US); W. Eric L. Grimson, Lexington, 57_60> 1995
M A (Us); Pawan Sinha, Cambridge, W. Niblack et al., The QBIC Project: Quering Images by
M A (Us); Tomaso poggio, weuesley, Content Using Color, Texture, and Shape SPIE vol. 1908, p.
MA (Us) 173—168, 1993*
Rohini K Srihari, “Automatic Indexing & Content—based
(73) Assignee: Massachusetts Institute of Retrieval of Captioned Images”, IEEE, pp. 49—56, 1995 .*
Technology, Cambridge, MA (US) Kathleen PereZ—LopeZ, “Comparison of Subband Features
for Automatic Indexing of Scienti?c Image Database”,
( * ) Notice: Subject‘ to any disclaimer, the term of this SPIE, V01- 2185, PP~ 94—94, 1994*
Patent 15 extended or adlusted under 35 Akio Yamamoto, “Extraction of Object Features & its Appli
U-S-C- 154(k)) by 0 days- cation to Image Retrieval”, The Transactions of the IEICE,
vol. E72, No. 6, pp. 771—781, 1989.*
(21) Appl- NOJ 09/270,995 Hong Jiang Zhang et al., “A Scheme for Visual Features
(22) Filed: Man 17’ 1999 based Image Indexing”, SPIE vol. 2420, pp. 36—46, 1995.*
Related US. Application Data (List Continued on next page)
_ _ _ _ Primary Examiner—Samir Ahmed
(63) i320niglélgnggsggg’pggatgog6gags/600378’ ?led on Feb‘ (74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Daly, Crowley & Mofford,
(51) Int: . Cl.7a ............' ......'. ...a. .....a. ......' ............. .. G06K 9/62 (57) ABSTRACT
An image processing system for generating a class model
(52) US. Cl. ...................................... .. 382/224; 345/581 3.0m an Image by ldennfymg Ida?“ relanenshlns between
ifferent properties of different image regions, mcludes a
_ region partitioner a relationship processor, a template gen
(58) Fleld of seagcshz 330852/ erator and an image detector. The image processing system
/ 5_ ’ ’_ 5 ’ 5 ’ 55’ 5 ’ 5 ’ utilizes a class model de?ned by one or more relative
164’ 22 346864436151 34’545 15872’ relationships betWeen a plurality of image patches. The
’ ’ ’ ’ / _ relative relationships describe the overall organization of
(56) References Cited images Within an image class. The relative relationships are
encoded in a global deformable template Which can be used
US. PATENT DOCUMENTS to classify or detect images. The class model may be
pre-de?ned or generated by the image processing system. In
4,633,506 A 12/1986 Kato ......................... .. 382/56
one embodiment, the class model is generated from a low
4,742,558 A * 5/1988 Ishibashi et a1. 382/240
resolution image.
5,157,743 A 10/1992 Maeda et a1. . . . . . . . . . . . .. 382/56
5,164,992 A 11/1992 Turk et a1. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 382/2
29 Claims, 21 Drawing Sheets
5,384,868 A 1/1995 Maeda et a1. . . . . . . . . . . . .. 382/56
5,390,259 A 2/1995 Withgott et a1. ......... .. 382/9
5,404,435 A 4/1995 Rosenbaum ....... .. 395/147
5,440,401 A 8/1995 Parulski et a1. ........... .. 358/342 (14 of 21 Drawing Sheet(s) Filed in Color)
IMAGE DATABASE [12
IMAGE RETRIEVAL IMAGE STORAGE!
DEVICE SCANNING DEVICE 26
DEFORMABLE TEMPLATE
TEMPLATE IMAGE GENERATOR
IMAGE TRANSFER DETECTOR
APPARATUS
/_ 24 2a
{- 22
SUBSAMPLER H REGION RELATIONSHIP Ag?gg?gg"
PARTITIONER PROCESSOR
US 6,549,660 B1
Page 2
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US 6,549,660 B1
Page 3
“Visual Image Retrieval for Applications in Art and Art “Object Recognition via Image Invariants”,by PaWan Sinha,
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70—81. b—homepage/eWb—homepage.html.
Individual pages each numbered 1, (total of 9 pages) by
Virage, Inc., available on—line at: http://WWW.virage.com/. * cited by examiner

U.S. Patent Apr. 15,2003 Sheet 2 0f 21 US 6,549,660 B1
U.S. Patent Apr. 15,2003 Sheet 3 0f 21 US 6,549,660 B1
I START I
36
\ PROVIDE REFERENCE IMAGE
37
\" IDENTIFY IMAGE PROPERTIES
38
EXTARCT LOW
FREQUENCY IMAGE
COMPONENTS?
Yes
I
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IMAGE
42
\ SUBSAMPLE REFERENCE IMAGE
43
\ PARTITION IMAGE INTO
IMAGE REGIONS
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\ COMPUTE REGION
RELATIONSHIPS
FIG. 2
U.S. Patent Apr. 15,2003 Sheet 4 0f 21 US 6,549,660 B1
46
ASSIGN PATCH COLOR 1/
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EQUIVALENCE CLASSES
l 52
STORE RELATIVE -
RELATIONSHIPS
FIG. 2A
U.S. Patent Apr. 15,2003 Sheet 5 0f 21 US 6,549,660 B1
IDENTIFY CONSISTENT 53
ATTRIBUTES RELATIONSHIPS /
AT EACH PATCH ACROSS ALL
REFERENCE IMAGES
. N0 54
YES
55
ASSDCIATE ATFR‘BUTES .
BETVV‘EEN REGfONS’
GENERATE GOMPOSITE /“ 56
IMAGE T
l
51
SH THRESHOLD 1/
l 58
GENERATE A DEFORMABLE
TEMPLATE
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NO TO 36 (FIG. )
REFERENCE
IMAGES
U.S. Patent
Apr. 15, 2003 Sheet 6 0f 21 US 6,549,660 B1
U.S. Patent Apr. 15,2003 Sheet 7 0f 21 US 6,549,660 B1