Constructing the topological solution of jigsaw puzzles

In this paper we present a novel approach to the jigsaw puzzle solving problem. The main components are a shape based local contour matching followed by a global solving procedure that constructs the topological solution of the jigsaw puzzle. The shape based local contour matching is discussed briefly, but the main focus of the paper is the construction of the topological solution. The solving procedure starts with the classification of the puzzle pieces. Next, the edge topology is constructed and finally the internal topology is constructed. We tested the developed algorithms on five different jigsaw puzzles. Ultimately, we were able to solve a jigsaw puzzle consisting of 300 puzzle pieces, the largest one solved automatically to date.