Content-based image retrieval by shape matching

Successful retrieval of images from large-scale image collections is one of the current problems in the field of multimedia digital libraries. In this context, the use of textual descriptions to represent and query images may provide poor results, due to subjectivity of descriptions. Conversely, image retrieval based on visual content of images has revealed more powerful. In this paper, we present a system, which combines different techniques from Computer Vision to perform content-based image retrieval based on shape matching. The architecture of the system is portrayed and algorithms underpinning the developed Matlab toolbox are briefly described. As an application example, the proposed system is employed to retrieve images in a database of real-world pictorial images.