Automatic salient-object extraction using the contrast map and salient points

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a salient object extraction method using the contrast map and salient points for object-based image retrieval. In order to make the contrast map, we generate three-feature maps such as luminance map, color map and orientation map and extract salient points from an image. By using these features, we can decide the Attention Window (AW) location easily. The purpose of the AW is to remove the useless regions included in the image such as background as well as reducing the amount of image processing. To create the exact location and flexible size of the AW, we use above features with some proposed rules instead of using pre-assumptions or heuristic parameters. After determining of the AW, we apply the image segmentation to inner area of the AW and combine the candidate salient regions as one salient object. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2004.