Improved AdaBoost-based image retrieval with relevance feedback via paired feature learning

Boost learning algorithm, such as AdaBoost, has been widely used in a variety of applications in multimedia and computer vision. Relevance feedback-based image retrieval has been formulated as a classification problem with a small number of training samples. Several machine learning techniques have been applied to this problem recently. In this paper, we propose a novel paired feature AdaBoost learning system for relevance feedback-based image retrieval. To facilitate density estimation in our feature learning method, we propose an ID3-like balance tree quantization method to preserve most discriminative information. By using paired feature combination, we map all training samples obtained in the relevance feedback process onto paired feature spaces and employ the AdaBoost algorithm to select a few feature pairs with best discrimination capabilities in the corresponding paired feature spaces. In the AdaBoost algorithm, we employ Bayesian classification to replace the traditional binary weak classifiers to enhance their classification power, thus producing a stronger classifier. Experimental results on content-based image retrieval (CBIR) show superior performance of the proposed system compared to some previous methods.     

一种基于SVM的相关反馈图像检索算法

相关反馈技术是近年来图像检索中的研究热点,以MPEG-7的边缘直方图作为图像特征,以支持向蕈机(SvM)为分类器,提出一种新的相关反馈算法.在每次反馈中对用户标记的相关样本进行学习,用历次返回的结果更新训练样本集,建立SVM分类器模型,并根据模型进行检索.还对不同核函数的SVM进行了对比,得出RBF核函数的SVM有较高的检索精度.使用由10000幅图像组成的图像库进行实验,结果表明,算法可有效地检索出更多的相关图像,并且在有限训练样本情况下具有良好的泛化能力.     

一种基于SVM的相关反馈图像检索算法

相关反馈技术是近年来图像检索中的研究热点,本文以MPEG-7的边缘直方图作为图像特征,以支持向量机（SVM）为分类器,提出一种新的相关反馈算法。在每次反馈中对用户标记的相关样本进行学习,用历次返回的结果更新训练样本集,建立SVM分类器模型,并根据模型进行检索。本文还对不同核函数的SVM进行了对比,得出RBF核函数的SVM有较高的检索精度。使用由10000幅图像组成的图像库进行实验,结果表明,该算法可有效地检索出更多的相关图像,并且在有限训练样本情况下具有良好的泛化能力。     

SVM-based active feedback in image retrieval using clustering and unlabeled data

In content-based image retrieval, relevance feedback is studied extensively to narrow the gap between low-level image feature and high-level semantic concept. However, most methods are challenged by small sample size problem since users are usually not so patient to label a large number of training instances in the relevance feedback round. In this paper, this problem is solved by two strategies: (1) designing a new active selection criterion to select images for user's feedback. It takes both the informative and the representative measures into consideration, thus the diversities between these images are increased while their informative powers are kept. With this new criterion, more information gain can be obtained from the feedback images; and (2) incorporating unlabeled images within the co-training framework. Unlabeled data partially alleviates the training data scarcity problem, thus improves the efficiency of support vector machine (SVM) active learning. Systematic experimental results verify the superiority of our method over existing active learning methods.     

Asymmetric bagging and random subspace for support vector machines-based relevance feedback in image retrieval

Relevance feedback schemes based on support vector machines (SVM) have been widely used in content-based image retrieval (CBIR). However, the performance of SVM-based relevance feedback is often poor when the number of labeled positive feedback samples is small. This is mainly due to three reasons: 1) an SVM classifier is unstable on a small-sized training set, 2) SVM's optimal hyperplane may be biased when the positive feedback samples are much less than the negative feedback samples, and 3) overfitting happens because the number of feature dimensions is much higher than the size of the training set. In this paper, we develop a mechanism to overcome these problems. To address the first two problems, we propose an asymmetric bagging-based SVM (AB-SVM). For the third problem, we combine the random subspace method and SVM for relevance feedback, which is named random subspace SVM (RS-SVM). Finally, by integrating AB-SVM and RS-SVM, an asymmetric bagging and random subspace SVM (ABRS-SVM) is built to solve these three problems and further improve the relevance feedback performance.     

A novel relevance feedback method for CBIR

In this paper, we address the challenge about insufficiency of training set and limited feedback information in each relevance feedback (RF) round during the process of content based image retrieval (CBIR). We propose a novel active learning scheme to utilize the labeled and unlabeled images to build the initial Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier for image retrieving. In our framework, two main components, a pseudo-label strategy and an improved active learning selection method, are included. Moreover, a feature subspace partition algorithm is proposed to model the retrieval target from users by the analysis from relevance labeled images. Experimental results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method on a range of databases with respect to the retrieval accuracy.     

图像检索中一种支持多例查询的新方法

基于内容的图像检索的关键问题之一是高层语义和低层图像特征之间的差异,相关反馈技术是缩短这个"语义鸿沟"的有效方法。本文提出了一种新的相关反馈算法,通过分析正例图像在特征空间中的散布来构造该类图像的投影空间,该空间对应于一个语义类在特征空间中分布密集的子空间,在投影空间中计算相似图像。同时根据每次反馈的信息不断修正投影空间来提高系统的检索性能。在Corel大图像库中的实验结果表明,该算法对多例图像查询有较好的检索效果。     

基于虚拟关联反馈与聚类的图像检索技术研究

基于虚拟相关反馈(PRF)技术,提出了一种新的自动关联反馈检索方法--外部自动相关反馈(OARF).该方法基于图像内容特征距离,应用K-均值聚类,自动扩展查询图像特征,从而提高检索性能.试验结果表明,OARF能够降低用户负担,显著提高原始检索算法的性能,缩小"语义鸿沟".     

Fuzzy SVM for content-based image retrieval: a pseudo-label support vector machine framework

Conventional relevance feedback in content-based image retrieval (CBIR) systems uses only the labeled images for learning. Image labeling, however, is a time-consuming task and users are often unwilling to label too many images during the feedback process. This gives rise to the small sample problem where learning from a small number of training samples restricts the retrieval performance. To address this problem, we propose a technique based on the concept of pseudo-labeling in order to enlarge the training data set. As the name implies, a pseudo-labeled image is an image not labeled explicitly by the users, but estimated using a fuzzy rule. Therefore, it contains a certain degree of uncertainty or fuzziness in its class information. Fuzzy support vector machine (FSVM), an extended version of SVM, takes into account the fuzzy nature of some training samples during its training. In order to exploit the advantages of pseudo-labeling, active learning and the structure of FSVM, we develop a unified framework called pseudo-label fuzzy support vector machine (PLFSVM) to perform content-based image retrieval. Experimental results based on a database of 10,000 images demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Kernel Vector Approximation Files for Relevance Feedback Retrieval in Large Image Databases

Many data partitioning index methods perform poorly in high dimensional space and do not support relevance feedback retrieval. The vector approximation file (VA-File) approach overcomes some of the difficulties of high dimensional vector spaces, but cannot be applied to relevance feedback retrieval using kernel distances in the data measurement space. This paper introduces a novel KVA-File (kernel VA-File) that extends VA-File to kernel-based retrieval methods. An efficient approach to approximating vectors in an induced feature space is presented with the corresponding upper and lower distance bounds. Thus an effective indexing method is provided for kernel-based relevance feedback image retrieval methods. Experimental results using large image data sets (approximately 100,000 images with 463 dimensions of measurement) validate the efficacy of our method.     

图像检索中的动态相似性度量方法

为提高图像检索的效率,近年来相关反馈机制被引入到了基于内容的图像检索领域。该文提出了一种新的相关反馈方法－－动态相似性度量方法。该方法建立在目前被广泛采用的图像相拟性度量方法的基础上,结合了相关反馈图像检索系统的时序特性,通过捕获用户的交互信息,动态地修正图像的相似性度量公式,从而把用户模型嵌入到了图像检索系统,在某种程度上使图像检索结果与人的主观感知更加接近。实验结果表明该方法的性能明显优于其它图像检索系统所采用的方法。     

融合相关反馈和流形学习的语义图像检索方法研究

融合相关反馈和流形学习的图像检索方法．既可以解决基于内容图像检索的“语义鸿沟”问题．又可以解决因为用户反馈标记样例较少所导致的较难学习用户语义概念问题。深入研究近年来比较有代表性的方法,包括ARE和MMP,并在具体的系统中比较二者的性能;此外。进一步分析此类方法面临的挑战和实际应用时需迫切解决的问题。     

一种基于SVM和主动学习的图像检索方法

为了提高图像检索的速度和准确性,提出了一种基于SVM和主动学习的图像检索方法,该方法分为两个阶段,第一阶段用K-means聚类算法在图像数据库中找出代表性样本,有效的缩小了目标图像的查找范围。第二阶段通过对未标注样本与分类边界之间的距离以及其近邻密度进行综合评价,选出最有价值的关键性样本作为训练样本,使得分类器可以通过较少的反馈次数快速达到较高的准确性。实验表明,本文算法可以有效提高图像的检索性能。     

Incorporating multiple distance spaces in optimum-path forest classification to improve feedback-based learning

In content-based image retrieval (CBIR) using feedback-based learning, the user marks the relevance of returned images and the system learns how to return more relevant images in a next iteration. In this learning process, image comparison may be based on distinct distance spaces due to multiple visual content representations. This work improves the retrieval process by incorporating multiple distance spaces in a recent method based on optimum-path forest (OPF) classification. For a given training set with relevant and irrelevant images, an optimization algorithm finds the best distance function to compare images as a combination of their distances according to different representations. Two optimization techniques are evaluated: a multi-scale parameter search (MSPS), never used before for CBIR, and a genetic programming (GP) algorithm. The combined distance function is used to project an OPF classifier and to rank images classified as relevant for the next iteration. The ranking process takes into account relevant and irrelevant representatives, previously found by the OPF classifier. Experiments show the advantages in effectiveness of the proposed approach with both optimization techniques over the same approach with single distance space and over another state-of-the-art method based on multiple distance spaces.     

基于目标区域和相关反馈的图像检索

提出了一种基于目标区域和相关反馈的图像检索方法,首先采用改进的K均值无监督分割方法将图像分割成区域,然后提取每个区域的颜色、位置、形状特征进行相似度计算;最后采用基于支持向量机（SVM）的相关反馈算法提高检索精度。实验结果表明,方法具有良好的检索性能。     

Active learning paradigms for CBIR systems based on optimum-path forest classification

This paper discusses methods for content-based image retrieval (CBIR) systems based on relevance feedback according to two active learning paradigms, named greedy and planned. In greedy methods, the system aims to return the most relevant images for a query at each iteration. In planned methods, the most informative images are returned during a few iterations and the most relevant ones are only presented afterward. In the past, we proposed a greedy approach based on optimum-path forest classification (OPF) and demonstrated its gain in effectiveness with respect to a planned method based on support-vector machines and another greedy approach based on multi-point query. In this work, we introduce a planned approach based on the OPF classifier and demonstrate its gain in effectiveness over all methods above using more image databases. In our tests, the most informative images are better obtained from images that are classified as relevant, which differs from the original definition. The results also indicate that both OPF-based methods require less user involvement (efficiency) to satisfy the user's expectation (effectiveness), and provide interactive response times.     

基于多示例学习的图像检索方法

由于多示例学习能够有效处理图像的歧义性,因此被应用于基于内容的图像检索(CBIR)。本文提出一种基于多示例学习的CBIR方法,该方法将图像作为多示例包,基于高斯混合模型和改进的EM算法全自动分割图像,并提取颜色、纹理、形状和不变矩等区域信息作为示例向量生成测试图像包。根据用户选择的实例图像生成正包和反包,使用多种多示例学习算法进行学习,实现图像检索和相关反馈,得到了较好的效果。     

Learning a Maximum Margin Subspace for Image Retrieval

One of the fundamental problems in Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) has been the gap between low-level visual features and high-level semantic concepts. To narrow down this gap, relevance feedback is introduced into image retrieval. With the user-provided information, a classifier can be learned to distinguish between positive and negative examples. However, in real-world applications, the number of user feedbacks is usually too small compared to the dimensionality of the image space. In order to cope with the high dimensionality, we propose a novel semisupervised method for dimensionality reduction called Maximum Margin Projection (MMP). MMP aims at maximizing the margin between positive and negative examples at each local neighborhood. Different from traditional dimensionality reduction algorithms such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), which effectively see only the global euclidean structure, MMP is designed for discovering the local manifold structure. Therefore, MMP is likely to be more suitable for image retrieval, where nearest neighbor search is usually involved. After projecting the images into a lower dimensional subspace, the relevant images get closer to the query image; thus, the retrieval performance can be enhanced. The experimental results on Corel image database demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed algorithm.     

基于内容的图像检索中SVM和Boosting方法集成应用

提出一种适用于图像内容检索的AdaBoostSVM算法。算法思想是采用支持向量机(SVM)作为AdaBoost算法的分量分类器;基于相关反馈检索机制,通过增加重要样本来模拟AdaBoost算法的权重调整方法。在包含2000幅图像的数据库中进行了检索实验,结果表明AdaBoostSVM算法能有效提高系统的检索性能。     

基于二值信息的颜色和形状特征的图像检索

由于单一特征不足以准确地描述图像,提出了一种结合颜色、形状特征的图像检索方法.提出了新的用二值信息来表示图像的主色、全局色和形状特征的方法,并由此特征构造两个过滤器快速地过滤图像库中明显不相同的图像,以提高检索速度;采用改进的颜色直方图和形状基本特征进行相似度计算,为进一步提高图像检索的质量引入相关反馈机制,提出了一种动态调整两幅图像相似度中颜色特征和形状特征的权值系数的方法.文中方法与其它方法进行了比较实验,结果表明,该方法优于其它方法.