Identification of uncommon objects in containers

A method performed by a computing system for identifying an uncommon object within target image, the method comprising:

• accessing by the computing system representations of common objects identified from a collection of images;
• identifying by the computing system one or more portions of the target image that contains an object;
• for identified portions, determining by the computing system whether a representation of the identified portion is similar to a representation of a common object;
• and
• when an identified portion is determined to not be similar to a representation of any common object, indicating by the computing system that the identified portion contains an uncommon object.

A computing system for determining whether a target bag at an airport contains a prohibited object, the computing system comprising:

• one or more computer-readable storage mediums storing computer-executable instructions for controlling the computing system to:
• access representations of common objects identified from a collection of scans of bags at an airport;
• identify one or more portions of a target scan of the target bag that contain an object;
• and
• when an identified portion contains an object that is not similar to a representation of a common object, indicate that the identified portion may contain a prohibited object;
• and
• one or more processors for executing the computer-executable instructions stored in the computer-readable storage mediums.

A method performed by a computing system for determining whether a container contains an object that is not designated as being within the container, the method comprising:

• for each of a plurality of objects, accessing by the computing system a representation of the object and a type of the object;
• accessing by the computing system a designation of one or more types of objects that are within the container;
• identifying by the computing system one or more portions of a target image of the container that contains an object;
• and
• for identified portions,
• determining by the computing system whether a representation of the identified portion is similar to a representation of an object with whose type is designated as being within the container;
• and
• when an identified portion is determined to not be similar to a representation of an object with whose type is designated as being within the container, indicating by the computing system that the identified portion represents an object that is not designated as being within the container.