Shape recognition via an a contrario model for size functions

Shape recognition methods are often based on feature comparison. When features are of different natures, combining the value of distances or (dis-)similarity measures is not easy since each feature has its own amount of variability. Statistical models are therefore needed. This article proposes a statistical method, namely an a contrario method, to merge features derived from several families of size functions. This merging is usually achieved through a touchy normalizing of the distances. The proposed model consists in building a probability measure. It leads to a global shape recognition method dedicated to perceptual similarities. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.