Multi-object image retrieval based on shape and topology

We aim at developing a geometry-based retrieval system for multi-object images. We model both shape and topology of image objects including holes using a structured representation called curvature tree (CT); the hierarchy of the CT reflects the inclusion relationships between the objects and holes. To facilitate shape-based matching, triangle-area representation (TAR) of each object and hole is stored at the corresponding node in the CT. The similarity between two multi-object images is measured based on the maximum similarity subtree isomorphism (MSSI) between their CTs. For this purpose, we adapt a continuous optimization approach to solve the MSSI problem and a very effective dynamic programming algorithm to measure the similarity between the attributed nodes. Our matching scheme agrees with many recent findings in psychology about the human perception of multi-object images. Experiments on a database of 1500 logos and the MPEG-7 CE-1 database of 1400 shape images have shown the significance of the proposed method. r 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.