Size functions for image retrieval: A demonstrator on randomly generated curves

Abstract

Size functions, a class of topological-geometrical shape descriptors, are applied to the search of image datasets by a hand-drawn input: This is the core of a demonstrator accessible through the Internet. Two datasets are provided, of about 700 curves each; both are unstructured sets of randomly generated curves. One consists of piecewise smooth curves, the other of polygonals. The curve generator has been explicitly designed so that the curves have no semantic content; they don’t have any kind of indexing or textualc aption either. The characteristics of the demonstrator and some experimentalresu lts are presented. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2002.