Syntactic Pattern Recognition

Syntactic Pattern Recognition

Statistical pattern recognition attempts to classify patterns based on
a set of extracted features and an underlying statistical model for the
generation of these patterns. Ideally, this is achieved with a rather
straightforward method.
 determine the feature vector,
 train the system,
 classify the patterns
Patterns that include structural or relational information are difficult
to represent as feature vectors.
Syntactic pattern recognition uses this structural information for
classification and description.
Syntactic Pattern Recognition
Grammars can be used to create a definition of the structure of each
pattern class.
Then, recognition and classification are done using either:
Parsing using formal grammars (called Syntactic Pattern Recognition)
or
Relational graph matching( called Hierarchical approach )
Classification
Classification can be done based on a measure of structural similarity
in patterns.
Each pattern class can be represented by a structural representation
or description.
Description
 A description of the pattern structure is useful for recognizing
entities when a simple classification isn’t possible.
 Can also describe aspects that cause a pattern not to be assigned
to a particular class.
 In complex cases, recognition can only be achieved through a
description for each pattern rather than through classification.
Definitions
The simplest sub-patterns are called pattern primitives, and should
be much easier to recognize than the overall patterns.
The language used to describe the structure of the patterns in terms
of sets of pattern primitives is called the pattern description language.
The pattern description language will have a grammar that specifies
how primitives can be composed into patterns
Syntax Analysis

When a primitive within the pattern is identified, syntax analysis

(parsing) is performed on the sentence describing the pattern to
determine if it is correct with respect to the grammar.
Syntax analysis also gives a structural description of the sentence
associated with the pattern.
One advantage of this approach is that a grammar (rewriting) rule
can be applied many times.
Pattern Description Using Grammar

a b

Fig 1: (a) Staircase structure (b) structure encoded in terms of primitive

a and b to yield the description …ababab…
Pattern Description Using Grammar

Fig 2: A grammar describing four blocks arranged in 2-block stacks. (i) An example. (ii) Graphical description
corresponding to (i). (iii) Another example. (iv) Graphical description corresponding to (iii).
Pattern Description Using Grammar
A grammar describing four blocks arranged in 2-block stacks:
 VT = { table , block , + , ↑ } (terminal symbols)
VN = { DESK,LEFT STACK,RIGHT STACK}
(non-terminal symbols)
S = DESK ∈ VN (root symbol)
P = {DESK → LEFT STACK + RIGHT STACK
DESK → RIGHT STACK + LEFT STACK
LEFT STACK → block ↑ block ↑ table
RIGHT STACK → block ↑ block ↑ table}
(production rules)
Pattern Description Using Grammar

Fig 3: A 2-D line drawing picture description grammar

A set of terminal symbols { t, b, u, o, s ,*,-,+} where

+ represents head to tail concatenation,
* represents head-head and tail-tail attachment,
– represents the head-tail reversal. ( x should be * in (iii) )
Pattern Description Using Grammar
•.

Fig 4: Representation of four characters using the line drawing picture description grammar
(a) Pattern data. (b) Primitive representation and interconnection. (c) Corresponding descriptions
Pattern Description Using Grammar
When to Use It
Picture recognition and scene analysis are problems in which there
are a large number of features and the patterns are complex.
For example, recognizing areas such as highways, rivers, and bridges in
satellite pictures.
In this case, a complex pattern can be described in terms of a
hierarchical composition of simpler sub patterns.
 Syntactic System
.
Pattern Representation
Input Segmentation Syntax (or Classification
preprocessing or Primitive structural)
pattern Recognition
Decomposition analysis And Description

recognition
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --
Analysis Primitive (and Grammatical (or
sample
relation) structural)
pattern inference
selection

Fig 6 :Block Diagram of a syntactic pattern recognition system

Syntactic System

Library of
classes Class1
Structure
Class2
Structure
…. Class C
Structure
categorized by
structures

Structural Structural Relevant

Input Matches
Analysis Matcher

Fig 7: Using Syntactic Patter Recognition for Classification

Syntactic System

Consists of two main parts:

Analysis -primitive selection and grammatical or structural inference
Recognition -preprocessing, segmentation or decomposition, primitive and
relation recognition, and syntax analysis.
Preprocessing includes the tasks of pattern encoding and
approximation, filtering, restoration, and enhancement.
After preprocessing, the pattern is segmented into sub-patterns and
primitives using predefined operations.
Sub-patterns are identified with a given set of primitives, so each
pattern is represented by a set of primitives with the specified
syntactic operations.
Syntax Parsing
For example, using the concatenation operation, each pattern is
recognized by a string of concatenated primitives.
At this point, the parser will determine if the pattern is syntactically
correct.
It belongs to the class of patterns described by the grammar if it is correct.
During parsing/syntax analysis, a description is produced in terms of
a parse tree, assuming the pattern is syntactically correct.
If it isn’t correct, it will either be rejected or analyzed based on a
different grammar, which could represent other possible pattern
classes.
Matching
The simplest form of recognition is template matching, in which a string of
primitives representing an input pattern is compared to strings of primitives
representing reference patterns.
The input pattern is classified in the same class as the prototype that is the best
match, which is determined by a similarity criterion.

Matching vs. Complete Parsing

 In this case, the structural description is ignored.
 The opposite approach is a complete parsing that uses the entire
structural description.
 There are many intermediate approaches; for example, a series of tests
designed to test the occurrence of certain primitives, sub-patterns, or
combinations of these. The result of these tests will determine a
classification
 Parsing is required if the problem necessitates using a complete
pattern description for recognition.
Efficiency of the recognition process is improved by simpler
approaches that do not require a complete parsing.
Basically, parsing can be expensive, so don’t use it unnecessarily.

Inferring Grammars
Grammatical inference machine similar to “learning” in the
discriminant approach; it infers a grammar from a set of training
patterns.
The inferred grammar can then be used for pattern description and
syntax analysis.
Hierarchical Approach

 The hierarchical approach comes from the similarity that can be seen
between the structure of patterns and the syntax or grammar of
languages.
 Basic idea: use graphs to represent structural relationships
 Primitives: nodes/vertices of a graph
 Relationships: arcs/edges of a graph
 Essential component: graph matching
 Following this analogy, patterns can be built up from sub-patterns in
a number of ways, similarly to how one builds words by
concatenating characters, and builds a phrase or sentence by
concatenating words.
Definitions

Homomorphism:
 A function that relabels one graph into another.
 Merging nodes is allowed so long as it preserves the edge relationships.
Isomorphism:
 A homomorphism that is 1-to-1 and onto.
 Merging nodes not allowed—exact match with nothing changed but labels.
Quick Rejection Criteria

For a match to exist, several things must hold:

 same number of vertices
 same number of nodes
 in-degree of vertices must match
 out-degree of vertices must match
 cycles and lengths must match
Failure of any of these to match means you can reject the match, but
determine the isomorphism requires that you actually find the
relabeling
Finding Isomorphisms

Use an adjacency matrix representation of the graph

Reorder the rows and corresponding columns
Compare all possible reorderings
Comparison: O(n2)
 Possible Permutations: O(n!)
Only really feasible for small n.
Subisomorphisms
Harder problem: is one pattern part of another one?
Equivalent to finding subgraph that is isomorphic to another:
subisomorphism.
Finding subisomorphisms not only requires determining isomorphism
between graph and subgraph, but also considering all possible
subgraphs.
Graph Similarity
What if we want to find not only identical matches but similar
patterns?
What does it mean for graphs to be similar?
One way is to count modifications required to make one match the
other
 inserting an edge
 deleting an edge
 inserting a node
 deleting a node
 splitting a node
 merging two nodes
Match Graphs
I Create a new graph where
each node is a pairing between a node from one attributed graph and
compatible node from the other, and
each edge represents consistency (mutual compatibility) between two pairing
A subisomorphism is indicated by a completely-connected subgraph
(clique) of the match graph.
The best match is the largest clique.
Attributed Graphs
Idea: can relabel graph nodes, but must match apples to apples and
oranges to oranges.
An attributed graph has attributes attached to each vertex.
Matching attributed graphs must not only produce a
(sub)isomorphism but must also match attributes