Texture classification from single uncalibrated images: Random matrix theory approach

Abstract

We studied the problem of classifying textured-materials from their single-imaged appearance, under general viewing and illumination conditions, using the theory of random matrices. To evaluate the performance of our algorithm, two distinct databases of images were used: The CUReT database and our database of colorectal polyp images collected from patients undergoing colon capsule endoscopy for early cancer detection. During the learning stage, our classifier algorithm established the universality laws for the empirical spectral density of the largest singular value and normalized largest singular value of the image intensity matrix adapted to the eigenvalues of the information-plus-noise model. We showed that these two densities converge to the generalized extreme value (GEV-Frechet) and Gaussian G1 distribution with rate O(N1/2), respectively. To validate the algorithm, we introduced a set of unseen images to the algorithm. Misclassification rate of approximately 1%–6%, depending on the database, was obtained, which is superior to the reported values of 5%–45% in previous research studies.