IMAGE MATCHING

• US 20140341475A1
• Filed: 05/16/2013
• Published: 11/20/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Shen, Ju, Tan, Wai-Tian
• Granted Patent: US 9,075,826 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/218
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/583 using metadata automatically derived from the content

Abstract

A method performed by a system. The method includes comparing at least one query image received from a mobile device with a plurality of planes stored in a memory, matching the query image with at least one of the plurality of planes, and determining a location based on the matching of the query image with the at least one plane. Comparing the at least one query image with the plurality of planes includes executing a warping function between the at least one query image and the plurality of planes to determine at least a first matching score for matching the at least one query image with at least one of the plurality of planes.

Claims

1. A method performed by a system, the method comprising:

comparing at least one query image received from a mobile device with a plurality of planes stored in a memory;

matching the query image with at least one of the plurality of planes; and

determining a location based on the matching of the query image with the at least one plane,

wherein comparing the at least one query image with the plurality of planes includes executing a warping function between the at least one query image and the plurality of planes to determine at least a first matching score for matching the at least one query image with at least one of the plurality of planes.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of planes is generated from a plurality of images, each image corresponding to a location in an environment, and each plane being associated with the location.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein comparing the at least one query image with the plurality of planes further includes performing pixel domain validation analysis.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein executing the warping function includes geometric analysis of matching feature descriptors between the at least one query image and the plurality of planes to determine the first matching score for matching the at least one query image with at least one of the plurality of planes.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein comparing the at least one query image with the plurality of planes further includes selecting at least one plane from the plurality of planes stored in the memory for pixel domain validation based on the geometric analysis of the matching feature descriptors.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein pixel domain validation includes comparing an image texture of the query image with an image texture of the at least one of the planes selected based on geometric analysis of the matching feature descriptors.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein comparing the at least one query image with the plurality of planes further includes determining a second matching score based on the pixel domain validation, when more than one plane from the plurality of planes stored in the memory is selected based on the geometric analysis of the matching feature descriptors.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein matching the query image with at least one of the plurality of planes further includes selecting a plane with a highest second matching score from the planes selected based on geometric verification to determine the location of the query image.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising computing a weighted score when there are multiple high second matching scores based on the pixel domain validation and using the weighted score to compute a refined second matching score to determine a location of the query image.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising automatically updating the plurality of planes in the memory based on the matching the query image with at least one of the plurality of planes.

11. A system comprising:

a computing device including a control unit to

receive a query image acquired by a mobile device,

compare the query image to a plurality of planes stored in a memory by executing a warping function and performing a pixel domain validation analysis,

match the query image with at least one of the plurality of planes based on the warping function and the pixel domain validation analysis by computing a first matching score and a second matching score.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the control unit is to perform geometric analysis of matching feature descriptors between the at least one query image and the plurality of planes in order to execute the warping function, and the control unit is to identify at least one plane for pixel domain validation analysis based on the geometric analysis of matching feature descriptors.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the control unit is to determine location based on a match of the query image with the at least one plane identified for pixel domain validation analysis, where the control unit is to compare a texture of the query image with a texture of the at least one plane identified for pixel domain validation analysis.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein each plane is stored with at least image texture information and plane location information, and the control unit is to determine feature descriptors for each plane based on the image texture information.

15. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium encoded with instructions executable by a processor of a system, the machine-readable storage medium comprising:

instructions to construct a plurality of planes from a plurality of images and to store the planes in a memory;

instructions to process a query image received from a mobile device and to identify feature descriptors of the query image;

instructions to compare the query image with the plurality of planes by using geometric analysis of matching feature descriptors between the query image and the plurality of planes;

instructions to compute a matching score to match the query image with at least one of the plurality of planes by performing pixel domain validation; and

instructions to determine a location based on a highest matching score.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein performing pixel domain validation includes comparing an image texture of the query image with an image texture of the at least one plane selected based on geometric analysis of matching feature descriptors.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, further comprising instructions to compute a weighted score when there are multiple matching scores based on the pixel domain validation and to use the weighted score to compute a refined matching score to determine a location of the query image.