A qualitative spatial relation called `arrangement' is proposed.Given an image, the relation describes the sequence in which neighborsof each part are situated around it. The relation captures a perceptualgestalt of the image. An application of the relation to similarityretrieval in medical image databases is discussed. `Arrangement' isclosely related to directional relations and extends the notion ofdirectional relations to parts that have complex shapes. A metric forcomparing `arrangements' is also proposed. The metric is obtained byinterpreting `arrangements' in terms of Voronoi diagrams. The metricenables robust use of the relation in real-world situations
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