Coarse representation of visual object's shape for search/query/filtering applications

• US 7,155,033 B1
• Filed: 02/01/2000
• Issued: 12/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Gvbb Holdings SARL (Vislink Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Thomson Licensing (Vantiva SA)
• Inventors: Tabatabai, Ali, Murching, Anil M., Naveen, Thumpudi
• Primary Examiner(s): Mehta, Bravesh M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): STREGE, JOHN B
• Application Number:
  US09/494,514
• Time in Patent Office: 2,520 Days
• Field of Search: 382/305, 382/108, 382/190, 382/192, 382/205, 707 1- 7, 707/104.1
• US Class Current: 382/108
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 9/20 Contour coding, e.g. using detection of edges
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99937 Sorting

Abstract

A method of coarse representation of a visual object'"'"'s shape for search/query/filtering applications uses a binding box that fully encompasses the object of interest within the image to extract a feature vector. Once the feature vector is available, matching based on specific queries may be performed using a search engine to compare the query number to an appropriate element of the feature vector, performing sorting to pick the best matches.

Claims

1. A method of coarse representation of a shape of a visible object in a digital picture comprising the steps of:

segmenting visible objects from the digital picture;

extracting a bitmap for an object of interest from the segmented visible objects; and

estimating from the bitmap a display aspect ratio and a binding box for the object of interest, wherein said estimation step additional comprises

estimating in pixel units a set of parameters for the binding box; and

normalizing the pixel units to form a feature vector representing the binding box;

searching a video database having visible objects, each visible object having an associated feature vector, as to find those objects whose feature vectors match the feature vector of the object of interest;

wherein said searching step additionally comprises

computing aspect ratios for all visible objects in the video database;

computing distances according to a specified distance metric between the desired aspect ratio and the aspect ratios for the visible objects in the video database;

sorting the distances in descending order to produce a sort list of aspect ratios and associated visible objects; and

displaying the visible objects associated with the aspect ratios that are at the top of the sort list.