title: Are MSER features really interesting?
abstract: Detection and description of affine-invariant features is a cornerstone component in numerous computer vision applications. In this note, we analyze the notion of maximally stable extremal regions (MSERs) through the prism of the curvature scale space, and conclude that in its original definition, MSER prefers regular (round) regions. Arguing that interesting features in natural images usually have irregular shapes, we propose alternative definitions of MSER which are free of this bias, yet maintain their invariance properties.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel. ron@cs.technion.ac.il
authors.forename: Ron
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kimmel
authors.forename: Cuiping
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Alexander M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Bronstein
authors.forename: Michael M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Bronstein