A PARTIAL MATCHING FRAMEWORK BASED ON SET EXCLUSION CRITERIA

This article introduces a partial matching framework, based on set theory criteria, for the measurement of shape similarity. The matching framework is described in an abstract way because the proposed scheme is independent of the selection of a segmentation method and feature space. This paradigm ensures the high adaptability of the algorithm and brings the implementer a wide control over the robustness, the ability to balance between selectivity and sensitivity, and the freedom to deal with more general and arbitrary image transformations required for some particular problem. A strategy to establish a descriptor set obtained from components segmented from the main shape is expounded, and two exclusion measure functions are formulated. Proofs are given to show that it is not required to match the entire descriptor sets to determine that two shapes are similar. The methodology provides a dissimilarity score that may be used for shape-based retrieval and object recognition; this is demonstrated applying the proposed approach in a cattle brand identi¯cation system