A Robust Two Signature Descriptor with Orientation Bins and Colour Codes for Enhanced Feature Matching

This paper proposes a novel feature descriptor combining signatures of intensity and colour for increased descriptive power. The proposed approach, instead of just the grey channel, uses all three channels of an RGB image, colour codes pixels around the feature corresponding to Gaussian clusters on a CIExy colour chart and then distributes them into bins combined with an intensity gradient histogram. It is shown for a number of examples - 12 image sets - that this descriptor, dubbed HISTInC, outperforms a standalone gradient histogram for a number of conditions, giving on average a 27% increase in precision. Furthermore, in the interest of preserving memory, HIST-InC with a reduced (by 22%) intensity signature is also tested and yields mixed results.