Enhanced Fourier shape descriptor using zero-padding

Abstract

The shapes occurring in the images are essential features in image classification and retrieval. Due to their compactness and classification accuracy, Fourier-based shape descriptors are popular boundary-based methods for shape description. However, in the case of short boundary functions, the frequency resolution of the Fourier spectrum is low, which yields to inadequate shape description. Therefore, we have applied zero-padding method for the short boundary functions to improve their Fourier-based shape description. In this paper, we show that using this method the Fourier-based shape classification can be significantly improved. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.