A Comparative Study on Shape Retrieval Using Fourier Descriptors with Different Shape Signatures

Shape is one of the most important features in Content Based Image Retrieval (CBIR). Many shape representations and retrieval methods exists. However, most of those methods either do not well represent shape or are difficult to do normalization (making matching hard). Among them, methods based Fourier descriptors (FD) achieve both well representation and well normalization. Different shape signatures have been exploited to derive FDs, however, FDs derived from different signatures can have significant different effect on the result of retrieval. In this paper, we build a Java retrieval framework to compare shape retrieval using FDs derived from different signatures. Common issues and techniques for shape representation and normalization are also analyzed in the paper. Data is given to show the retrieval result.