Abstract
Shape matching plays an important role in various computer vision and graphics applications such as shape retrieval, object detection, image editing, image retrieval, etc. However, detecting shapes in cluttered images is still quite challenging due to the incomplete edges and changing perspective. In this paper, we propose a novel approach that can efficiently identify a queried shape in a cluttered image. The core idea is to acquire the transformation from the queried shape to the cluttered image by summarising all point-to-point transformations between the queried shape and the image. To do so, we adopt a point-based shape descriptor, the pyramid of arc-length descriptor (PAD), to identify point pairs between the queried shape and the image having similar local shapes. We further calculate the transformations between the identified point pairs based on PAD. Finally, we summarise all transformations in a 4D transformation histogram and search for the main cluster. Our method can handle both closed shapes and open curves, and is resistant to partial occlusions. Experiments show that our method can robustly detect shapes in images in the presence of partial occlusions, fragile edges, and cluttered backgrounds.
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This project was supported by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, under the RGC General Research Fund (Project No. CUHK 14217516).
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Chu Han graduated from South China Agricultural University in 2011 with a B.Sc. degree in computer science. He received his M.Phil. degree in computer science from South China University of Technology in 2014, under the supervision of Prof. Xuemiao Xu. He is now pursuing his Ph.D. degree in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, under the supervision of Prof. Tien-Tsin Wong. His current research interests include computer graphics, image processing, pattern recognition, and computer vision.
Xueting Liu received her B.Eng. degree from Tsinghua University and Ph.D. degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2009 and 2014 respectively. She is currently a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include computer graphics, computer vision, computational manga and anime, and non-photorealistic rendering.
Lok Tsun Sinn graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong with a B.Sc. degree in computer science, and is studying for his M.Phil. degree in computer science and engineering in the same department, under the supervision of Prof. Tien-Tsin Wong.
Tien-Tsin Wong received his B.Sc., M.Phil., and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1992, 1994, and 1998, respectively. He is currently a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His main research interests include computer graphics, computational manga, precomputed lighting, image-based rendering, GPU techniques, medical visualization, multimedia compression, and computer vision. He received an IEEE Transactions on Multimedia Prize Paper Award in 2005 and a Young Researcher Award in 2004.
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Han, C., Liu, X., Sinn, L.T. et al. TransHist: Occlusion-robust shape detection in cluttered images. Comp. Visual Media 4, 161–172 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41095-018-0104-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41095-018-0104-1
Keywords
- shape matching
- shape detection
- transformation histogram