Multi-exposure virtual photometer: A tool for evaluating the illumination robustness of feature detectors

Feature detection is a basic issue in computer vision, and the illumination robustness of the detector is an important evaluation indicator. However, no indicators that can directly and quantitatively evaluate the robustness of illumination have been found in the known evaluation methods. In this paper, we propose a novel evaluation method that can quantify the evaluation results. The proposed method constructs a multi-exposure virtual photometer, and finds the mapping relationship between feature points and photometric exposure based on the photometer. Further, experiments prove that the mapping relationship can be fitted by Gaussian function. Then, we designed a novel evaluation index based on the mapping relationship between features and photometric exposure. Extensive quantitative evaluation shows that our method can effectively reflect the illumination robustness of feature detectors. In particular, the quantitative display is more intuitive and facilitates the comparison of different detection methods. •Create an illumination robustness measurement tool for feature detectors.•Solve the problem of illumination robustness quantitative evaluation.•Established the functional relationship between features and photometric exposure.•A corresponding evaluation method is proposed based on the measurement tool.