A linear time histogram metric for improved SIFT matching

Ofir Pele*, Michael Werman

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

236 Scopus citations

Abstract

We present a new metric between histograms such as SIFT descriptors and a linear time algorithm for its computation. It is common practice to use the L 2 metric for comparing SIFT descriptors. This practice assumes that SIFT bins are aligned, an assumption which is often not correct due to quantization, distortion, occlusion etc. In this paper we present a new Earth Mover's Distance (EMD) variant. We show that it is a metric (unlike the original EMD [1] which is a metric only for normalized histograms). Moreover, it is a natural extension of the L 1 metric. Second, we propose a linear time algorithm for the computation of the EMD variant, with a robust ground distance for oriented gradients. Finally, extensive experimental results on the Mikolajczyk and Schmid dataset [2] show that our method outperforms state of the art distances.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationComputer Vision - ECCV 2008 - 10th European Conference on Computer Vision, Proceedings
PublisherSpringer Verlag
Pages495-508
Number of pages14
EditionPART 3
ISBN (Print)3540886893, 9783540886891
DOIs
StatePublished - 2008
Event10th European Conference on Computer Vision, ECCV 2008 - Marseille, France
Duration: 12 Oct 200818 Oct 2008

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
NumberPART 3
Volume5304 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference10th European Conference on Computer Vision, ECCV 2008
Country/TerritoryFrance
CityMarseille
Period12/10/0818/10/08

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A linear time histogram metric for improved SIFT matching'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this