Content based image retrieval using motif cooccurrence matrix

We present a new technique for content based image retrieval using motif cooccurrence matrix (MCM). The MCM is derived from the motif transformed image. The whole image is divided into 2 X 2 pixel grids. Each grid is replaced by a scan motif that minimizes the local gradient while traversing the 2 X 2 grid forming a motif transformed image. The MCM is then defined as a 3D matrix whose (i,j,k) entry denotes the probability of finding a motif i at a distance k from the motif j in the transformed image. Conceptually, the MCM is quite similar to the color cooccurrence matrix (CCM), however, the retrieval using the MCM is better than the CCM since it captures the third order image statistics in the local neighborhood. Experiments confirm that the use of MCM considerably improves the retrieval performance. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.