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.ml.annotation;
031
032import java.util.List;
033import java.util.Set;
034
035import org.openimaj.experiment.evaluation.classification.Classifier;
036
037/**
038 * Base class for objects capable of annotating things. Annotators are
039 * essentially general forms of classifiers; annotation and classification
040 * should be seen as synonymous.
041 * <p>
042 * The annotation interface extends the idea of a classifier with support for
043 * feature-extraction from certain forms of object in order to generate the
044 * classifications/annotations. The {@link #annotate(Object)} and
045 * {@link #classify(Object)} methods do exactly the same thing, but return
046 * results in different forms. Which method is used might depend on the task at
047 * hand. A simple implementation of the {@link #classify(Object)} method that
048 * calls the {@link #annotate(Object)} method can be found in the
049 * {@link AbstractAnnotator} class. Implementors are advised to extend the
050 * {@link AbstractAnnotator} class or one of its subclasses.
051 * 
052 * @author Jonathon Hare (jsh2@ecs.soton.ac.uk)
053 * 
054 * @param <OBJECT>
055 *            Type of object being annotated
056 * @param <ANNOTATION>
057 *            Type of annotation
058 */
059public interface Annotator<OBJECT, ANNOTATION>
060                extends
061                Classifier<ANNOTATION, OBJECT>
062{
063        /**
064         * @return a {@link Set} of all annotations this {@link Annotator} knows
065         *         about
066         */
067        public abstract Set<ANNOTATION> getAnnotations();
068
069        /**
070         * Generate annotations for the given object.
071         * 
072         * @param object
073         *            the image
074         * @return generated annotations
075         */
076        public abstract List<ScoredAnnotation<ANNOTATION>> annotate(OBJECT object);
077}