Efficient content-based image retrieval based on color homogeneous objects segmentation and their spatial relationship characterization

We introduce several techniques which characterize color homogeneous objects and their spatial relationships for a more precise and efficient content based image searching. We first present a region growing technique for efficient color homogeneous object segmentation, and then we extend the 2D string to express spatial signatures for an accurate description of spatial relationships of objects within an image. Several optimizations, including dominant color histogram clustering, have also been proposed to an efficient search engine implementation. The experimental results that we have drawn so far show that our content based image searching techniques give a high precision while keeping a very good recall rate.