Social computing for image matching

PLoS One. 2018 May 29;13(5):e0197576. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0197576. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

One of the main technological trends in the last five years is mass data analysis. This trend is due in part to the emergence of concepts such as social networks, which generate a large volume of data that can provide added value through their analysis. This article is focused on a business and employment-oriented social network. More specifically, it focuses on the analysis of information provided by different users in image form. The images are analyzed to detect whether other existing users have posted or talked about the same image, even if the image has undergone some type of modification such as watermarks or color filters. This makes it possible to establish new connections among unknown users by detecting what they are posting or whether they are talking about the same images. The proposed solution consists of an image matching algorithm, which is based on the rapid calculation and comparison of hashes. However, there is a computationally expensive aspect in charge of revoking possible image transformations. As a result, the image matching process is supported by a distributed forecasting system that enables or disables nodes to serve all the possible requests. The proposed system has shown promising results for matching modified images, especially when compared with other existing systems.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms*
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data*
  • Causality
  • Forecasting
  • Humans
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / methods*
  • Online Social Networking*
  • Probability
  • User-Computer Interface

Associated data

  • figshare/10.6084/m9.figshare.5692723

Grants and funding

This work has been supported by projects “MOVIURBAN: Máquina social para la gestión sostenible de ciudades inteligentes: movilidad urbana, datos abiertos, sensores móviles”, SA070U 16, project co-financed with Junta Castilla y León to SR, Consejería de Educación; and ii) “BeEMP: Inteligencia social para la dinamización de la empleabilidad”, RTC-2016-5642-6, project co-financed by European Social Fund and Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitivity (Spain). The research of Pablo Chamoso has been financed by the Regional Ministry of Education in Castilla y León and the European Social Fund grant EDU/310/2015. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.