A Weighted Common Subgraph Matching Algorithm

We propose a weighted common subgraph (WCS) matching algorithm to find the most similar subgraphs in two labeled weighted graphs. WCS matching, as a natural generalization of the equal-sized graph matching or subgraph matching, finds wide applications in many computer vision and machine learning tasks. In this paper, the WCS matching is first formulated as a combinatorial optimization problem over the set of partial permutation matrices. Then it is approximately solved by a recently proposed combinatorial optimization framework - Graduated NonConvexity and Concavity Procedure (GNCCP). Experimental comparisons on both synthetic graphs and real world images validate its robustness against noise level, problem size, outlier number, and edge density.

GNCGCP - Graduated NonConvexity and Graduated Concavity Procedure

In this paper we propose the Graduated NonConvexity and Graduated Concavity Procedure (GNCGCP) as a general optimization framework to approximately solve the combinatorial optimization problems on the set of partial permutation matrices. GNCGCP comprises two sub-procedures, graduated nonconvexity (GNC) which realizes a convex relaxation and graduated concavity (GC) which realizes a concave relaxation. It is proved that GNCGCP realizes exactly a type of convex-concave relaxation procedure (CCRP), but with a much simpler formulation without needing convex or concave relaxation in an explicit way. Actually, GNCGCP involves only the gradient of the objective function and is therefore very easy to use in practical applications. Two typical NP-hard problems, (sub)graph matching and quadratic assignment problem (QAP), are employed to demonstrate its simplicity and state-of-the-art performance.