Search

We have witnessed great interest and a wealth of promise in content-based image retrieval as an emerging technology. While the last decade laid foundation to such promise, it also paved the way for a large number of new techniques and systems, got many new people involved, and triggered stronger association of weakly related fields. In this article, we survey almost 300 key theoretical and empirical contributions in the current decade related to image retrieval and automatic image annotation, and in the process discuss the spawning of related subfields. We also discuss significant challenges involved in the adaptation of existing image retrieval techniques to build systems that can be useful in the real world. In retrospect of what has been achieved so far, we also conjecture what the future may hold for image retrieval research. Categories and Subject Descriptors: H.3.1 [Information Storage and Retrieval]: Content Analysis and Indexing--Indexing methods; 1.4.9 [Image Processing and Computer Vision]: Applications General Terms: Algorithms, Documentation, Performance Additional Key Words and Phrases: Content-based image retrieval, annotation, tagging, modeling, learning ACM Reference Format: Datta, R., Joshi, D., Li, J., and Wang, J. Z. 2008. Image retrieval: Ideas, influences, and trends of the new age. ACM Comput. Surv. 40, 2, Article 5 (April 2008), 60 pages DOI = 10.1145/1348246.1348248 http:// doi.acm.org/10.1145/1348246.1348248

Multiple-instance problems arise from the situations where training class labels are attached to sets of samples (named bags), instead of individual samples within each bag (called instances). Most previous multiple-instance learning (MIL) algorithms are developed based on the assumption that a bag is positive if and only if at least one of its instances is positive. Although the assumption works well in a drug activity prediction problem, it is rather restrictive for other applications, especially those in the computer vision area. We propose a learning method, MILES (Multiple-Instance Learning via Embedded instance Selection), which converts the multiple-instance learning problem to a standard supervised learning problem that does not impose the assumption relating instance labels to bag labels. MILES maps each bag into a feature space defined by the instances in the training bags via an instance similarity measure. This feature mapping often provides a large number of redundant or irrelevant features. Hence, 1-norm SVM is applied to select important features as well as construct classifiers simultaneously. We have performed extensive experiments. In comparison with other methods, MILES demonstrates competitive classification accuracy, high computation efficiency, and robustness to labeling uncertainty. Index Terms--Multiple-instance learning, feature subset selection, 1-norm support vector machine, image categorization, object recognition, drug activity prediction.

A computationally efficient parameter estimation algorithm for two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) hidden Markov models (HMMs) is explored and its applications to satellite image segmentation are demonstrated. Experiments reveal the computational efficiency of the proposed parameter technique for 2-D HMMs and a potential of 3-D HMM as a stochastic modeling tool for volume images.

The two-dimensional (2-D) multiresolution hidden Markov model (MHMM) is used to classify and compare the painting styles of artists. This system is tested and implemented using the high-resolution digital photographs of China's most renowned artists.

Automatic linguistic indexing of pictures is an important but highly challenging problem for researchers in computer vision and content-based image retrieval. In this paper, we introduce a statistical modeling approach to this problem. Categorized images are used to train a dictionary of hundreds of statistical models each representing a concept. Images of any given concept are regarded as instances of a stochastic process that characterizes the concept. To measure the extent of association between an image and the textual description of a concept, the likelihood of the occurrence of the image based on the characterizing stochastic process is computed. A high likelihood indicates a strong association. In our experimental implementation, we focus on a particular group of stochastic processes, that is, the two-dimensional multiresolution hidden Markov models (2D MHMMs). We implemented and tested our ALIP (Automatic Linguistic Indexing of Pictures) system on a photographic image database of 600 different concepts, each with about 40 training images. The system is evaluated quantitatively using more than 4,600 images outside the training database and compared with a random annotation scheme. Experiments have demonstrated the good accuracy of the system and its high potential in linguistic indexing of photographic images. Index Terms--Content-based image retrieval, image classification, hidden Markov model, computer vision, statistical learning, wavelets.

In the article, the author discusses the works of artist John Constable, particularly his cloud studies, to showcase the epistemological issues and concerns of 19th century realism.

Numerical precipitation prediction plays a crucial role in weather forecasting and has broad applications in public services including aviation management and urban disaster early-warning systems. However, numerical weather prediction (NWP) models are often constrained by a systematic bias due to coarse spatial resolution, lack of parameterizations, and limitations of observation and conventional meteorological models, including constrained sample size and long-tail distribution. To address these issues, we present a data-driven deep learning model, named the ordinal distribution autoencoder (ODA), which principally includes a precipitation confidence network and a combinatorial network that contains two blocks, i.e., a denoising autoencoder block and an ordinal distribution regression block. As an expert-free model for bias correction of precipitation, it can effectively correct numerical precipitation prediction based on meteorological data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and SMS-WARMS, an NWP model used in East China. Experiments in the two NWP models demonstrate that, compared with several classical machine-learning algorithms and deep learning models, our proposed ODA generally performs better in bias correction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a fuzzy logic approach, UFM (unified feature matching), for region-based image retrieval. In our retrieval system, an image is represented by a set of segmented regions, each of which is characterized by a fuzzy feature (fuzzy set) reflecting color, texture, and shape properties. As a result, an image is associated with a family of fuzzy features corresponding to regions. Fuzzy features naturally characterize the gradual transition between regions (blurry boundaries) within an image and incorporate the segmentation-related uncertainties into the retrieval algorithm. The resemblance of two images is then defined as the overall similarity between two families of fuzzy features and quantified by a similarity measure, UFM measure, which integrates properties of all the regions in the images. Compared with similarity measures based on individual regions and on all regions with crisp-valued feature representations, the UFM measure greatly reduces the influence of inaccurate segmentation and provides a very intuitive quantification. The UFM has been implemented as a part of our experimental SIMPLicity image retrieval system. The performance of the system is illustrated using examples from an image database of about 60,000 general-purpose images. Index Terms--Content-based image retrieval, image classification, similarity measure, fuzzified region features, fuzzy data analysis.