Body color sets: A compact and reliable representation of images

This paper proposes a novel definition of color sets, called body color sets and lines. The proposed technique refers to the dichromatic reflectance model, which states that the colors of a uniform lambertian object are roughly located around straight vectors going from the black to the body color, in relation to physical properties of the object. Ends of body vectors are robustly detected, from the clearest to the darkest through a multi-level histogram analysis, a key step of the algorithm. Finally, instead of defining the topographic map along the one and only luminance direction, body lines are designed along each body vector. The resulting topographic map is more compact and requires less executing times and resources than in previous works [gouiffes08]. Experimental results show that this approach provides a better trade-off between compactness and quality of a topographic map. Furthermore, it provides increased stability under temperature changes of the illuminant.

Research highlights
► A novel definition of a color topographic map.
► Use of the dichromatic reflectance model to define a new color representation for lambertian model.
► Detection of the body vectors directly in the RGB space.
► The color images are designed along each body vector.
► Results prove a good trade-off between compactness and quality of the topographic map.