Graph matching via sequential Monte Carlo

Abstract

Graph matching is a powerful tool for computer vision and machine learning. In this paper, a novel approach to graph matching is developed based on the sequential Monte Carlo framework. By constructing a sequence of intermediate target distributions, the proposed algorithm sequentially performs a sampling and importance resampling to maximize the graph matching objective. Through the sequential sampling procedure, the algorithm effectively collects potential matches under one-to-one matching constraints to avoid the adverse effect of outliers and deformation. Experimental evaluations on synthetic graphs and real images demonstrate its higher robustness to deformation and outliers. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.