Arabo-moorish decor images retrieval method based on the edit distance

This paper describes a new indexing and retrieval method that can be used for indexing Arabo-Moresque decor database where each image is characterized by its tiles. This method is based on the edit distance. The proposed method represents the spatial relationships of tiles by an adjacency graph, coded in the form of an adjacency matrix. The search of similar designs to a given one is then realized by calculating the edit distance. This edit distance represents the balanced sum of the costs of edit transformations (insert and/or delete of vertices or arcs) used to make the adjacency matrix of a query decor image similar to that of a decor image database. The performance of the proposed method is tested by using image decors database of rosettes (decors which begin at a central point and grow radially outward) built for the purpose of this work.