Have you labeled a few objects?
Before downloading the dataset, we ask that you label someimages using the online annotation tool. Itonly takes a few minutes to label several objects. In return, you willreceive thousands of annotated images. Also, the new annotations thatyou just provided will be immediately included in the downloadeddataset.
LabelMeis a WEB-based image annotation tool that allows researchers to labelimages and share the annotations with the rest of the community. Ifyou use the database, we only ask that you contribute to it,from time to time, by using the labeling tool.
B. C. Russell, A. Torralba, K. P. Murphy, W. T. Freeman, LabelMe: adatabase and web-based tool for image annotation. MIT AI Lab MemoAIM-2005-025, September, 2005. (PDF)
There are three ways to download the images and annotations: (1)via the LabelMe Matlab toolbox, allowing you to customize the portionof the database that you want to download, (2) by clicking on linkspointing to a set of large tar files, (3) via the LabelMe Matlabtoolbox, without directly downloading the images.
Once you have installed the database, you can use the LabelMeMatlab toolbox to read the annotation files and query the images toextract specific objects.
Option 1: Customizable download using the LabelMe Matlab toolbox
This is the most flexible way of downloading the dataset. It requires using the Matlab toolbox. Follow the next steps:
Step 1
Download the LabelMe Matlab toolbox and add the toolbox to the Matlab path.
Step 2
The function LMinstallwill download the database. There are three ways to use this function:
HOMEIMAGES = '/desired/path/to/Images';
HOMEANNOTATIONS = '/desired/path/to/Annotations';
LMinstall (HOMEIMAGES, HOMEANNOTATIONS);
where "/desired/path/to/" is the desired location where theannotations and images will be stored. This process will create thefollowing directory structure under "/desired/path/to/":
./Images./Annotations
./Annotations/folder1
...
./Annotations/folderN
./Images/folder1
...
./Images/folderN
where folder1 through folderN aredirectories containing the images and annotations.
HOMEIMAGES = '/desired/path/to/Images';
HOMEANNOTATIONS = '/desired/path/to/Annotations';
folderlist = {'05june05_static_street_porter'};
LMinstall (folderlist, HOMEIMAGES, HOMEANNOTATIONS);
This will download only one folder from the collection.You can see the complete list of folders here.
LMinstall (folders, images, HOMEIMAGES, HOMEANNOTATIONS);
Before downloading the dataset, we only ask you to label some images using the annotation tool online. Any new labels that you will add, will be inmediately ready for download.
Step 1
Download the annotations into a local folder:
Annotations (<5MB)updated dynamically; this may take a minute to load
Step 2
Uncompress the annotation tarball. This process will create the following directorystructure:
./Annotations
./Annotations/folder1
...
./Annotations/folderN
The annotations are stored as XML files and are extremely easy toparse. Note that the annotatiions tarball is dynamically created, soyou will get an updated version with each download.
Step 3
Download the desired sets of images into a local folder. Create adirectory called Images and untar the image tar filesinto this folder. Your directory structure should look like thefollowing:
./Images
./Images/folder1
...
./Images/folderN
Step 4
Download the LabelMeMatlab toolbox.
Option 3: Access the online database directlywith the LabelMe Matlab toolbox
Before downloading the dataset, we only ask you to label some images using the annotation tool online. Any new labels that you will add, will be inmediately ready for download.
If you use the LabelMeMatlab toolbox, it is not necesary to download the database. Youcan use the online images and annotations in the same way as if theywere on your local hard drive. This might be slow, but it will let youexplore the database before downloading it. If youplan to use the database extensively, it is better to download a localcopy for yourself.
Here are a few Matlab commands that show how to use the online database:
HOMEIMAGES = 'http://people.csail.mit.edu/brussell/research/LabelMe/Images'; D = LMdatabase(HOMEANNOTATIONS); % This will build an index, which will take few minutes. % Now you can visualize the images % Or read an image
HOMEANNOTATIONS = 'http://people.csail.mit.edu/brussell/research/LabelMe/Annotations';
LMplot(D, 1, HOMEIMAGES);
[annotation, img] = LMread(D, 1, HOMEIMAGES);
You can query the database to select the images you want and installonly those ones. For instance, if you are interested only in imagescontaining cars, you can run the following:
% First create the list of images that you want: % Install the selected images:
[Q,j] = LMquery(D, 'object.name', 'car');
clear folderlist filelist
for i = 1:length(Q);
      folderlist{i} = Q(i).annotation.folder;
      filelist{i} = Q(i).annotation.filename;
end
HOMEIMAGES = '/desired/path/to/Images';
HOMEANNOTATIONS = '/desired/path/to/Annotations';
LMinstall (folderlist, filelist, HOMEIMAGES, HOMEANNOTATIONS);
