Sketch creation utilizing shape matching techniques

This paper describes a sketch creation method that can act as a front-end to a visual image retrieval system by allowing the user to draw the types of images s/he is interested in. In addition, the method supports sketch generation processes, in general, by allowing the designer to automatically replace sketch components in the current sketch with similar components from a shape database. The method consists of a shape matching step in which the contents of the user sketch are compared with the contents of a shape database and of a placement step in which similar shapes from the database are properly aligned and replace automatically the contents of the user sketch. Shape matching uses a mixture of local and global shape features such as the turning function difference and the degree of openness of a curve.