Efficient object contour segment is a critical problem to describe the local features of objects.In order to solve the improper contour segments obtained by the existing recognition methods

a hierarchical description algorithm of contour description is proposed.Firstly

the whole contour is divided into several contour segments by the corners on the contour.Then the valuation scale is put forward via the distribution of contour segments.Thirdly

combine these contour segments into several contour feature segments according to the valuation scale.Finally

the similarity of different contour feature segments

in combination with their lengths

is jointly used to get the best recognized results.The experimental results of MPEG-7 database indicate that this algorithm has great advantage over recently published algorithms

especially for the objects with partial occlusion.Hence

this novel algorithm satisfies the requirements of accuracy

robust and anti-occlusion in object recognition and shape retrieval.