Joint detection for potsherds of broken earthenware

In this paper, we propose a new strategy for detecting the joint among two potsherds. Joint detection problems were studied in jigsaw puzzle assembling. However, the shape assumptions of a piece used in the past researches cannot be applied to joint detection to reconstruct broken earthenware. To detect the joint, the most similar section among two contours must be detected by partial verification. In our strategy, each contour is segmented for partial verification without making any assumption about the shape of a potsherd, unlike previous jigsaw puzzle assembling methods. Our strategy consists of five processes: the contour segmentation process, the segment description process, the segment verification process, the candidate extraction process, and the candidate verification process. We also present experimental results of our strategy with two-dimensional images of potsherds