Scene/Object Recognition (SOR) is a module within f2’s Image Recognition Suite. It’s designed to match virtually any solid object with distinguishing features against a database containing such objects and return the closest matches. It works similar to f2’s face and tattoo matching, i.e. a probe image is copied in and encoded using f2’s algorithms to produce a unique digital array which is then compared with all available images in the database. A key feature of SOR is its ability to identify objects which are a part of a larger object, often due to something else in front of it partly concealing it.
f2 has included a scene recognition module for some time now. However this was designed to match relatively large images, for example – rooms. Yet, there remained a clear need for object matching and a prototype module was developed for this. The experience gained emphasized that with minor modifications, such as image enhancement, the two modules could be combined into one.
SOR can process images from any source, including photos stored on PCs, and in the Cloud. It can process very large volumes of images even if they’re significantly obscured).
There’s no practical limit to the size of database that SOR can work with, subject to an appropriate hardware configuration.
- Ability to match objects in static images, video files, Cloud, and website images
- Ability to identify partially concealed objects
- Being able to link scenes with the same object in them
- Being able to optionally filter searches by dominant color, and text description if present
SOR does not actually match an image against other images; it matches a numeric string called an encode array describing the characteristics of an image against a database of encode arrays describing images. This increases speed, accuracy and minimizes the space required.
Within SOR the primary entity is the crime scene, i.e. a still shot or video frame. SOR analyzes the image to find multiple areas with strong contrasting features and transforms the characteristics of these mathematically into an encode array that uniquely identifies the image. The encode arrays for all the images in the database are in a master database in server memory.
(SOR comes with small sample databases of images to match against, so it can be tested immediately after installation).