A Unifying Approach To Iconic Indexing for 2-D and 3-D Scenes

Several iconic indexes for representing three-dimensional scenes are presented. The approach extends previous work in iconic indexing of 2-D scenes in a unified manner. Good characteristics for iconic indexes are also pointed out. OPP2 and OPP3, two-dimensional iconic indexes for three-dimensional scenes, are introduced. The problem of ambiguity in the OPP2 and OPP3 representations of 3-D scenes is studied in detail and a class of images for which they are unambiguous is identified. The Gen_string, a linear iconic index which can be used to represent two, three, or higher dimensional scenes, is introduced. It provides a compact, unambiguous representation of a three-dimensional scene. The Gen_string takes advantage of previous work, thus providing fast pattern matching for higher dimensional scenes. in fact, the pattern matching algorithm given for k-dimensional scenes is as fast as that previously given for two-dimensional scenes. © 1992 IEEE.