Object/Scene Recognition Based on a Directional Pixel Voting Descriptor

Abstract

Detecting objects in images is crucial for several applications, including surveillance, autonomous navigation, augmented reality, and so on. Although AI-based approaches such as Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have proven highly effective in object detection, in scenarios where the objects being recognized are unknow, it is difficult to generalize an AI model for such tasks. In another trend, feature-based approaches like SIFT, SURF, and ORB offer the capability to search any object but have limitations under complex visual variations. In this work, we introduce a novel edge-based object/scene recognition method. We propose that utilizing feature edges, instead of feature points, offers high performance under complex visual variations. Our primary contribution is a directional pixel voting descriptor based on image segments. Experimental results are promising; compared to previous approaches, ours demonstrates superior performance under complex visual variations and high processing speed.