Content-Based Image Classification and Retrieval: A Rule-based System Using Rough Sets Framework

Advances in data storage and image acquisition technologies have enabled the creation of large image datasets. Thus, it is necessary to develop appropriate information systems to efficiently manage these datasets. Image classification and retrieval is one of the most important services that must be supported by such systems. The most common approach used is content-based image retrieval (CBIR) systems. This paper presents a new application of rough sets to feature reduction, classification, and retrieval for image databases in the framework of content-based image retrieval systems. The suggested approach combines image texture features with color features to form a powerful discriminating feature vector for each image. Texture features are extracted, represented, and normalized in an attribute vector, followed by a generation of rough set dependency rules from the real value attribute vector. The rough set reduction technique is applied to find all reducts with the minimal subset of attributes associated with a class label for classification.