Texture classification using Gabor wavelets based rotation invariant features

Texture based image analysis techniques have been widely employed in the interpretation of earth cover images obtained using remote sensing techniques, seismic trace images, medical images and in query by content in large image data bases. The development in multiresolution analysis such as wavelet transform leads to the development of adequate tools to characterize different scales of textures effectively. But, the wavelet transform lacks in its ability to decompose input image into multiple orientations and this limits their application to rotation invariant image analysis. This paper presents a new approach for rotation invariant texture classification using Gabor wavelets. Gabor wavelets are the mathematical model of visual cortical cells of mammalian brain and using this, an image can be decomposed into multiple scales and multiple orientations. The Gabor function has been recognized as a very useful tool in texture analysis, due to its optimal localization properties in both spatial and frequency domain and found widespread use in computer vision. Texture features are found by calculating the mean and variance of the Gabor filtered image. Rotation normalization is achieved by the circular shift of the feature elements, so that all images have the same dominant direction. The texture similarity measurement of the query image and the target image in the database is computed by minimum distance criterion. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.