Generic Object Recognition via Shock Patch Fragments

We propose a new methodology to partition a natural image into regions based on the shock graph of its contour fragments. We show that these regions, or shock patch fragments, are often object fragments, thus effecting a partial segmentation of the image. We utilize shock patch fragments to recognize objects with dominant shape cues eliminating the need to segment out the entire object from the image first. Our preliminary results with minimal training are promising with respect to the state of the art recognition systems.