ALSBIR: A local-structure-based image retrieval

The general-purpose shape retrieval problem is a challenging task. Particularly, an ideal technique, which can work in clustered environment, meet the requirements of perceptual similarity measure on partial query and overcoming dimensionality curse and adverse environment, is in demand. This paper reports our study on one local structural approach that addresses these issues. Shape representation and indexing are two key points in shape retrieval. The proposed approach combines a novel local-structure-based shape representation and a new histogram indexing structure. The former makes possible partial shape matching of objects without the requirement of segmentation (separation) of objects from complex background, while the latter has an advantage on indexing performance. The search time is linearly proportional to the input complexity. In addition, the method is relatively robust under adverse environments. It is able to infer retrieval results from incomplete information of an input by first extracting consistent and structurally unique local neighborhood information from inputs or models, and then voting on the optimal matches. Thousands of images have been used to test the proposed concepts on sensitivity analysis, similarity-based retrieval, partial query and mixed object query. Very encouraging experimental results with respect to efficiency and effectiveness have been obtained.