Symbolic image indexing and retrieval by spatial similarity: An approach based on B-tree

In this paper, the problem of indexing symbolic images based on spatial similarity is addressed. A model based on modified triangular spatial relationship (TSR) and B-tree is proposed. The model preserves TSR among the components in a symbolic image by the use of quadruples. A Symbolic Image Database (SID) is created through the construction of B-tree, an efficient multilevel indexing structure. A methodology to retrieve similar symbolic images for a given query image is also presented. The presented retrieval model has logarithmic search time complexity. The study made in this work reveals that the model bears various advantages when compared to other existing models and it could be extended towards dynamic databases. An extensive experimentation is conducted on various symbolic images and also on the ORL and YALE face databases. The results of the experimentation conducted have revealed that the proposed scheme outperforms the existing algorithms and is of practical relevance.