LightSGM: Local feature matching with lightweight seeded

Abstract

Addressing the quintessential challenge of local feature matching in computer vision, this study introduces a novel fast sparse seed graph structure named LightSGM. This structure aims to refine the characterization of graph features while minimizing superfluous connections. Initially, a subset of high-quality seed feature points is curated using a confidence filter. Subsequently, keypoint features are assimilated into this seed set via graph pooling, and the composite features are further processed through a memory and computation-efficient seed transformer to capture rich contextual information about the keypoints. The seed feature points are then relayed back to the original keypoints using an inverse process known as graph unpooling. The paper also introduce an adaptive mechanism to determine the optimal number of model layers based on the intricacy of matching image pairs. A Matching Point Prediction Header is employed to extract the final set of matching points. Through extensive experimentation on image matching and position estimation, LightSGM has demonstrated its prowess in delivering competitive matching accuracy while maintaining a balance with real-time processing capabilities.