Efficient learning of relational object class models

We present an efficient method for learning part-based object class models. The models include location and scale relations between parts, as well as part appearance. Models are learnt from raw object and background images, represented as an unordered set of features extracted using an interest point detector. The object class is generatively modeled using a simple Bayesian network with a central hidden node containing location and scale information, and nodes describing object parts. The model's parameters, however, are optimized to reduce a loss function which reflects training error, as in discriminative methods. Specifically, the optimization is done using a boosting-like technique with complexity linear in the number of parts and the number of features per image. This efficiency allows our method to learn relational models with many parts and features, and leads to improved results when compared with other methods. Extensive experimental results are described, using some common bench-mark datasets and three sets of newly collected data, showing the relative advantage of our method.