SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COMPARING IMAGES USING AN EDIT DISTANCE

A system and method for comparing images by calculating an edit distance between the images using the results of matching portions of one image to the other. The first image is divided into blocks of pixels. For every block of pixels, a closest match is found in the second image. Substitution is equated to the sum of the errors in the closet matches. Deletion is equated to the percentage of the second image not involved in any of the matching. Insertion is equated to the percentage of the second image simultaneously involved in matching more than one block. The image edit distance may then be calculated as the weighted sum of the insertion, deletion and substitution. Recognition may be done by finding a minimum edit distance between an image of an unknown object and a set of reference images.