001/**
002 * Copyright (c) 2011, The University of Southampton and the individual contributors.
003 * All rights reserved.
004 *
005 * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification,
006 * are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
007 *
008 *   *  Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice,
009 *      this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
010 *
011 *   *  Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice,
012 *      this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation
013 *      and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
014 *
015 *   *  Neither the name of the University of Southampton nor the names of its
016 *      contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this
017 *      software without specific prior written permission.
018 *
019 * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND
020 * ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
021 * WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
022 * DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR
023 * ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
024 * (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
025 * LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON
026 * ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
027 * (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
028 * SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
029 */
030package org.openimaj.feature.local.matcher;
031
032import java.util.List;
033
034import org.openimaj.feature.local.LocalFeature;
035import org.openimaj.util.pair.Pair;
036
037/**
038 * Interface for objects able to match sets of local features against each
039 * other.
040 * 
041 * @author Jonathon Hare (jsh2@ecs.soton.ac.uk)
042 * @param <T>
043 * 
044 */
045public interface LocalFeatureMatcher<T extends LocalFeature<?, ?>> {
046        /**
047         * Set the features that represent the database to match queries against
048         * 
049         * @param modelkeys
050         *            database of features
051         */
052        public void setModelFeatures(List<T> modelkeys);
053
054        /**
055         * Attempt to find matches between the model features from the database, and
056         * given query features.
057         * 
058         * @param queryfeatures
059         *            features from the query
060         * @return whether matches were found
061         */
062        public boolean findMatches(List<T> queryfeatures);
063
064        /**
065         * Get the matches detected by the underlying algorithm
066         * 
067         * @return the matches
068         */
069        public List<Pair<T>> getMatches();
070}