Shape recognition and retrieval based on edit distance and dynamic programming

An important aim in pattern recognition is to cluster the given shapes. This paper presents a shape recognition and retrieval algorithm. The algorithm first extracts the skeletal features using the medial axis transform. Then, the features are transformed into a string of symbols with the similarity among those symbols computed based on the edit distance. Finally, the shapes are identified using dynamic programming. Two public datasets are analyzed to demonstrate that the present approach is better than previous approaches.