Review of shape representation and description techniques

More and more images have been generated in digital form around the world. There is a growing interest in finding images in large collections or from remote databases. In order to find an image, the image has to be described or represented by certain features. Shape is an important visual feature of an image. Searching for images using shape features has attracted much attention. There are many shape representation and description techniques in the literature. In this paper, we classify and review these important techniques. We examine implementation procedures for each technique and discuss its advantages and disadvantages. Some recent research results are also included and discussed in this paper. Finally, we identify some promising techniques for image retrieval according to standard principles. (C) 2003 Pattern Recognition Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.