Comparative study of descriptors with dense key points

A great deal of features detectors and descriptors are proposed every years for several computer vision applications. In this paper, we concentrate on dense detector applied to different descriptors. Eight descriptors are compared, three from gradient based family (SIFT, SURF, DAISY), others from binary category (BRIEF, ORB, BRISK, FREAK and LATCH). These descriptors are created and defined with certain invariance properties. We want to verify their invariances with various geometric and photometric transformations, varying one at a time. Deformations are computed from an original image. Descriptors are tested on five transformations: scale, rotation, viewpoint, illumination plus reflection. Overall, descriptors display the right invariances. This paper's objective is to establish a reproducible protocol to test descriptors invariances.