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Corner Detection and Classification Using Anisotropic Directional Derivative Representations PDF
Corner Detection and Classification Using Anisotropic Directional Derivative Representations PDF
Corner Detection and Classification Using Anisotropic Directional Derivative Representations PDF
L IST OF ACRONYMS
ANDD
CSS
CPDA
UCM
BCF
GT
ROC
I. I NTRODUCTION
ORNER detection, as a front-end processing in a featurebased image understanding system, is rather important
in computer vision and image processing. Corner detection
yields great effect on sequent tasks, such as object tracking
and recognition in images, image registration, etc. There have
existed considerable corner detectors and these can be broadly
classified into three groups: intensity-based detectors [1][8],
contour-based detectors [9][15], and model-based detectors
[16], [17]. Different types of detectors have individual merits and defects. The model-based detectors find corners by
matching image patches to the predefined models. Often, the
predefined models are difficult to cover all corners in real
images, limiting their performance in applications. Contourbased and intensity-based detectors attract more attention.
Intensity-based detectors use the first-order or second-order
derivatives of images for corner detection. Early detectors
using the second-order derivatives are found to be noisesensitive and are seldom used later. By developing the
Moravecs idea [1], Harris and Stephens proposed the famous
Harris detector [2] and the corner measure is constructed
from the local autocorrelation matrix of the gradients, which
is the base of many later studies. The local autocorrelation
matrix of the gradients is not enough to characterize high-order
corners. Harris corner detector can only detect L-type corners
(simple corners) and lacks the capability to classify high-order
corners or junctions [3]. The steerable-scalable kernels that
are generated by linear interpolation and finite combination
of several basic kernels were presented for edge detection
and junction analysis [4]. The Harris-Laplace corner detector
invariant to scale and the Harris-affine corner detector invariant
to affine transforms were established in [5], [6]. Multiscale
intensity variations improve corner detection, localization, and
repeatability but are insufficient in corner classification. Later,
multiscale and multidirectional intensity variations were used
in corner detection. The steerable filters were designed to
capture multidirectional intensity variations [7]. Multiscale and
multidirectional transforms, such as the Log-Gabor wavelet
[8], the shearlet [18], and the simplified Gabor wavelet [19],
were used to extract fine local intensity variations for edge
and corner detection. Fine directional intensity variations are
rather important in feature detection and classification and
have been utilized to successfully classify pixels into four
groups: regular pixels, edge pixels, pixels near edges, and
corners [18].
The contour-based corner detectors consist of three cascaded
basic blocks: edge detection, contour extraction, and corner
decision on contours [9][15]. The curvature scale space (CSS)
method is widely used in the third block. Each contour is
represented as a planar curve parameterized by arc-length.
It is smoothed by a set of multiscale Gaussian functions to
calculate multiscale local curvatures. The absolute curvature
maximum points constitute the candidate corners and from
which weak and false corners are removed by thresholding.
Also, some detectors use the multiscale tracking [10] and
multiscale curvature product [11]. The CSS corner detectors
SHUI AND ZHANG: CORNER DETECTION AND CLASSIFICATION USING ANDD REPRESENTATIONS
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x
x ,
g, (x) =
0 2
2 2
2 2
1, > 0, x = [x, y]T
(1)
(2)
The function I, (x; ), [0, 2] characterizes the intensity variations around a pixel x. Fig. 1 plots the anisotropic
Gaussian kernels and ANDD filters at eight orientations.
Some intensity-based corner detectors use the gradient operator and the gradients are calculated from smoothed image by
an isotropic Gaussian kernel. Isotropic Gaussian smoothing
assures that the image is differentiable at edges and corners
that are often singularities of an image function. However, the
smoothing also blurs local fine structures on edges and at corners. As a result, the directional derivatives at all orientations
are determined by two partial derivatives and two partial derivatives are difficult to distinguish different types of corners. The
recent edge or corner detectors use the multiscale directional
filter banks, such as the steerable filters [7], Log-Gabor wavelet
[8], shearlet [18], and simplified Gabor wavelet [19], instead of
the gradient operator, to characterize anisotropic local structures at edges and corners. Similarly, the ANND filters can
also be interpreted as a directional filter bank and can extract
anisotropic intensity variations around edge pixels and corners.
I, (x; )
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Fig. 2. Illustrative diagram of a BCF and it takes the value of one inside
the gray region and takes the value of zero outside the gray region.
The ANDD representations possess several additional merits. First, each orientation uses individual smoothing kernel.
The anisotropic smoothing suppresses noise but also preserves
anisotropic structures of corners and edges well. Second, the
analytic ANDD filters bring convenient in analysis. Third, the
adjustable scale of the ANDDs allows multiscale and multidirectional intensity variation descriptions as the Log-Gabor
wavelet [8], shearlet [18], and simplified Gabor wavelet [19].
B. Universal Corner Model and ANDD Representation
A grayscale image can be interpreted as a two-variable
piecewise smooth function. The boundaries of smooth regions
form edges of the image. A simple corner can be informally
characterized as a point at which only two smooth regions
meet, with one region subtending a smaller angle than the
other [22], [23]. A high-order corner or junction is a point
at which three or more smooth regions meet. A junction at
which three regions meet is a Y(T)-type corner, a junction at
which four regions meet is an X-type corner, and a junction
at which more than four regions meet is a star-like corner.
A universal corner model (UCM) is used to describe different types of corners and it consists of several disjoint
wedge-shaped regions sharing a vertex. In the polar coordinate
system, a basic corner function (BCF) is defined by
(r, )
BCF
1 ,2
1, 0 r < +, 1 2 , 2 1 =
=
0, otherwise
(6)
(7)
i=1
SHUI AND ZHANG: CORNER DETECTION AND CLASSIFICATION USING ANDD REPRESENTATIONS
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Fig. 3. (a) Illustration of a step edge model, a simple corner model, a Y-type corner model, an X-type corner model, and a star-like corner model. (b) ANDD
representations of the five models. (c) Isotropic directional derivatives of the five models.
BCF
( ) =
R2 BCF 1 ,2 (r, ),, (r, )r dr d
1 ,2
cos(1 )
=
2 2
cos2 (1 )+ 4 sin2 (1 )
cos(2 )
.
(8)
2
2
4
cos (2 )+ sin (2 )
=
2 2 i=1 cos2 ( i ) + 4 sin 2 ( i )
(9)
where Ts = T0 .
Step edge, simple corner, and high-order corners match
the ANDD representations with different parameter settings.
Substituting 1 = , 2 = + , s = 2 into (9) yields the
ANDD representation of a step edge,
( )
TUCM
i ,i ,s
(T1 T2 ) cos( )
E ( ) =
2
2 cos ( ) + 4 sin2 ( )
(10)
cos( )
cos2 ( ) + 4 sin 2 ( )
(11)
=
ai i , ( ), i = Ti Ti1 (12)
2 2 i=1
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TUCM
i ,i ,s
2 2 i=1
=
cos( )
(13)
2 2
Fig. 4. (a) Traces of the three peaks of the ANDD representations of the
Y-type corners and (b) traces of the three peaks of the ANDD representations
of a Y-type corner as varies from 1.8 to 8.
(14)
(16)
4 > 1 +
1
2
1 cos
(17)
.
2( 4 1)
(18)
The ANDD representation with a large anisotropic factor
has a strong
ability to classify corners and the constant
2arc sin 1/ 2( 4 1) is referred to as the corner resolution
constant of the ANDD representation. Generally, when all the
angle differences i = i+1 i of a high-order corner
satisfy (18), the peaks related to all the basic components can
be resolved from the ANDD representtation and the type of
the corner can be determined.
Two examples are illustrated to explain the corner resolution
constant. An example uses a family of Y-type corners with
1 = 90, 2 = 5, 3 = , T1 = 2, T2 = 3, and T3 = 1.
As varies from 90 to 150, the traces of the three peaks
of the ANDD representations with 2 = 2 = 6 are shown
in Fig. 4 (a). Only when 1 > 16, the peaks of the
first two basic components are resolvable. The
basically
result
accords with the resolution constant 2arc sin 1/ 70 14.
Another example is a Y-type corner with 1 = 5, 2 = 90,
3 = 105, T1 = 2, T2 = 3, and T3 = 1. Fig. 4 (b) illustrates
the traces of the three peaks of the ANDD representations
as varies from 1.8 to 8. The peaks of the first two basic
components are resolvable only when > 2.4, basically
according with > 2.3471 from (17). The corner resolution
constant gives a good evaluation of the ability for the ANDD
representation to classify corners.
2arc sin
2( 4 1)
SHUI AND ZHANG: CORNER DETECTION AND CLASSIFICATION USING ANDD REPRESENTATIONS
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(20)
) (
) sign{()}
R(
, ( )
(21)
3
arc sin
(24)
1
2( 4 1)
n = [n x , n y ]T Z2 , m = [m x , m y ]T Z2
(25)
(n; k)
, k0 = arg max{|(n; k)|},
max {|(n; k)|}
k
k
R(n;
k) (n;
k) sign{(n;
k0 )}k0 , (k) ,
P
2
2
.
R(n;
k) , =
R area(n) =
2
P
(26)
k=1
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Fig. 6.
any more. Several uncertain factors make that the values of the
residual area at edge pixels spread in a wide range. Here, we
regard the residual area as a random variable on edge pixels in
order to empirically determine the threshold in corner decision
by its empirical probability cumulative distribution.
Two grayscale images, 256 256 Block and 512 512
Lab, are used in experiments. Their edges are extracted by
the Canny edge detector [24] and the residual areas at the
edge pixels are computed in terms of (26). The empirical
cumulative distributions of the residual area on the edges
of the two images are shown in Fig. 5. When the simple
threshold decision is applied on edge pixels to find corners,
it can be observed that the probability of edge pixels to
be falsely declared as corners is about 0.2 if the decision
threshold is taken as 0.12 and the probability is about 0.02
if the decision threshold is taken as 0.40. Thus, the decision threshold in corner detection is taken from the interval
[0.12, 0.40]. In corner detection, the non-maximum suppres-
SHUI AND ZHANG: CORNER DETECTION AND CLASSIFICATION USING ANDD REPRESENTATIONS
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(28)
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P is a simple corner,
2,
3,
P is a Y - type corner,
(P) =
(31)
Fig. 8. Test images (a) Block and (b) Lab and their GTs where corners
are labeled by small squares.
The third index to evaluate a corner detector is the repeatability under geometric transforms. It is important in applications such as image feature matching and image registration.
A. ROC Curve Evaluation of Detection Performance
The He & Yung detector [13], CPDA detector [14] and
the proposed detector realize corner detection on contours
and their performance depends upon edge detection. Edge
detection results are relevant to the parameter setting of
the Canny edge detector [24]. Thus, the Gaussian smooth
scale s , low threshold TL , and high threshold TH are taken
as adjustable parameters in the ROC curve evaluation of the
three contour-based detectors. Besides the three adjustable
SHUI AND ZHANG: CORNER DETECTION AND CLASSIFICATION USING ANDD REPRESENTATIONS
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Fig. 9. ROC curve comparison of the proposed detector, He & Yung detector [13], CPDA detector, and Harris detector, where the optimal parameter settings
of the detectors are labeled for (a) Block when three corners are missed and (b) Lab when sixty corners are missed.
s = 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3
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Fig. 10. ROC curve comparison of the four detectors for the test images (a) Block and (b) Lab corrupted by additive zero-mean white Gaussian noise of a
variance 100.
TABLE I
L OCALIZATION E RRORS OF THE D ETECTORS FOR THE N OISELESS AND
N OISY I MAGES (U NIT IS A P IXEL )
Noiseless Test Images
Test
image
Missed
corners
Harris
CPDA [14]
He &Yung
[13]
Proposed
Block
1.932
1.528
1.603
1.597
Lab
60
1.950
1.460
1.492
1.436
Block
1.981
1.607
1.643
1.641
Lab
75
2.115
1.526
1.558
1.483
SHUI AND ZHANG: CORNER DETECTION AND CLASSIFICATION USING ANDD REPRESENTATIONS
Fig. 11. Nine test images to compute the average repeatablity under affine
transforms.
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Fig. 12.
Average repeatabilities of the four detectors under (a) rotation, (b) uniform scaling, (c) nonuniform scaling, and (d) shear transforms.
TABLE II
C LASSIFICATION R ESULTS OF THE T EST I MAGES B LOCK AND C HRISTOPHER
Test images
Block
Classifier
Proposed classifier
Classifier in [25]
Christopher
Proposed classifier
Classifier in [25]
YType
X-Type or
Star-Like
28
26
19
25
17
31
31
21
0
0
0
19
14
13
12
10
36
31
21
Types of Corners
Simple
31
18
30
25
18
57
35
SHUI AND ZHANG: CORNER DETECTION AND CLASSIFICATION USING ANDD REPRESENTATIONS
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VI. C ONCLUSION
In this paper, we have proposed the corner detector and
classifier based on the ANDD representations on contours. The
detector is evaluated from detection capability, localization
error, and repeatability under image affine transforms. The
experimental results show that it is very completitive with
the recent state-of-the-art corner detectors. Its good detection
performance is owing to the reasonable fusion of the contourbased detection with intensity-based detection. Contour extraction reduces the occurence probability of false corners and
the fine intensity variation information on contours enhances
the ability to capture true corners. Corners are anisotropic
local features in images. The fine description of local intensity
variations of corners becomes the key of corner detection and
classification. The ANDD representations provide a powerful
tool of the fine description. Starting from the analytic ANDD
representation of the UCM, the corner resultion can be quantitively analyzed and the corner measure can be analytically
defined. Moreover, based on the characteristics of the ANDD
representations of different kinds of corners, the simple but
efficient corner classifier is developed, which can classify
corners into simple corners, Y-type corners, and higher order
corners.
As a tool to represent anisotropic local features in images,
the ANDD representations have some potential worthy to
further exploit. Color images are used in most of visual
systems and it is an interesting issue to extend the ANDD
representations for edge and corner detection as well as corner
classification of color images. The antisymmetry of the ANDD
filters brings the limitation in detecting and classifying some
special high-order corners. Developing asymmetric ANDD
filters is a possible way to overcome the limitation. Corner
classification is an important issue in image feature matching
but receives rather little attention. The proposed corner classifier provides a fair ability to classify corners. However, from
demands of applications, corner classification ability needs to
be improved further.
Fig. 13. Corner classification results of the test images Block and Christopher: (a)-(b) test images Block and Christopher, (c)-(d) classification
results by the classifier in [25], (e)-(f) classification results by the proposed
classifier.
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