We present a framework for representing and matching multi-scale, qualitative feature hierarchies. The coarse shape of an
object is captured by a set of blobs and ridges, representing compact and elongated parts of an object. These parts, in turn,
map to nodes in a directed acyclic graph, in which parent/child edges represent feature overlap, sibling edges join nodes
with shared parents, and all edges encode geometric relations between the features. Given two feature hierarchies, represented
as directed acyclic graphs, we present an algorithm for computing both similarity and node correspondence in the presence
of noise and occlusion. Similarity, in turn, is a function of structural similarity, contextual similarity (geometric relations
among neighboring nodes), and node contents similarity. Moreover, the weights of these components can be varied on a node by node basis, allowing a graph-based model to effectively parameterize the saliency of its constraints. We demonstrate the approach on
two domains: gesture recognition and face detection.
Dr. Shokoufandeh gratefully acknowledges the support of the US National Science Foundation (NSF-IDM0136337).
Dr. Dickinson gratefully acknowledges the support of NSERC Canada.