Method and apparatus for representing and searching for an object in an image
AssigneesMitsubishi Electric Information Technology Centre Europe B.V., Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsMiroslaw Bober, James Cooper
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Abstract
A method of representing an object appearing in an image, the method comprising deriving a plurality of view descriptors of the object, each view descriptor corresponding to a different view of the object, and associating the two or more view descriptors, the method comprising indicating for each view descriptor when the respective view corresponds to a view of the object appearing in the image.
Claims19
A method of representing an object appearing in an image, the method comprising deriving a plurality of view descriptors of the object, each view descriptor corresponding to a different view of the object, the method comprising indicating for each view descriptor when the respective view corresponds to a view of the object appearing in the image.
A method of representing an object appearing in a group of images, the method comprising deriving a plurality of view descriptors of the object, each view descriptor corresponding to a different view of the object, the method comprising indicating for each view descriptor when the respective view corresponds to a view of the object appearing in the group of images.
A method as claimed in any preceding claim wherein at least one view descriptor comprises a representation of a visible feature of the object in the respective view.
A method as claimed in any preceding claim which is for indexing the image or collection of images for searching purposes.
A method of indexing images or groups of images stored in a database for searching purposes, the method comprising identifying an object appearing in an image or group of images, deriving representations of a plurality of different views of the object, and indicating when a represented view corresponds to the view of the object as it appears in an image.
A method of searching for a query object in stored images and groups of images, the method comprising inputting a query, matching the query with representations of the stored images derived using a method as claimed in any preceding claim, and retrieving the closest matches, wherein the query input includes indicating whether or not the search should be limited to images or groups of images which show the query object in the same view as the query view.
An image search and retrieval system adapted for implementing a method as claimed in any preceding claim.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.