Envisioning sketch recognition : a local feature based approach to recognizing informal sketches

Abstract

Hand drawn sketches are an important part of the early design process and are an important aspect of creative design. They are used in many fields including electrical engineering, software engineering and web design. Recognizing shapes in these sketches is a challenging task due to the imprecision with which they are drawn. We tackle this challenge with a visual approach to recognition. The approach is based on a representation of a sketched shape in terms of the visual parts it is made of. By taking this part-based visual approach we are able to recognize shapes that are extremely difficult to recognize with current sketch recognition systems that focus on the individual strokes.