XML Image Data Repository

There are large amounts of image data lying around the place in various formats and in various stages of processing, and yet every time I want to test a parameter estimation algorithm I seem to need to take more pictures. The kind of data we're talking about is images, feature points and lines detected in the images and other information that meay be usefull in, or created by the process of estimating the relationships between the images. So Fundamental Matrices, Projection Matrices, Trif-focal Tensors and the like, but also principal points, focal lengths, reconstructed scene points and the like.

In order to alleviate this problem whereby data is constantly having to be regenerated I'm in the process of defining an XML data type definition that will allow existing data to be stored in a consistent form so it can be re-used. A subsidiary goal is to set up a standard set of test images (and point data) against which estimation methods can be tested.

The advantage of XML is that it's not platform dependent, it's extensible (and so relatively future proof), it's not all that hard to process, and it can be displayed on the web easily (so we can see what we've actually got).

The files

• The DTD file for the data and the ideas behind it
• The data itself
• Some information about how to use and create data in this format