Ontology of Visual Objects

The focus of the paper is the Ontology of Visual Objects based on WordNet noun hierarchies. In particular, we present a methodology for bidirectional ontology engineering, which integrates the pre-existing knowledge resources and the selection of visual objects within the images representing particular thematic domains. The Ontology of Visual Objects organizes concepts labeled by corresponding classes (dominant classes, classes that are attributes to dominant classes, and classes that serve only as parents to dominant classes), relations between concepts and axioms defining the properties of the relations. The Ontology contains 851 classes (706 dominant and attribute classes), 15 relations and a number of axioms built upon them. The definition of relations between dominant and attribute classes and formulations of axioms based on the properties of the relations offers a reliable means for automatic object or image classification and description.