SIFT MCQ 15 Questions
Time: ~25 mins Advanced · Popular

SIFT (Scale-Invariant Feature Transform) MCQ

Gaussian pyramid, DoG extrema, subpixel refinement, gradient orientation histograms, and 4×4×8 descriptor layout.

Easy: 5 Q Medium: 6 Q Hard: 4 Q
Pyramid

σ octaves

DoG

G1−G2

Orientation

8-bin hist

128-D

4×4×8

SIFT overview

SIFT finds scale-space extrema of Difference-of-Gaussian, refines location/scale, assigns dominant orientation(s), then samples gradient histograms into a 128-dimensional vector.

Why DoG?

DoG approximates scale-normalized LoG extrema—efficient multi-scale blob/corner detection.

Stages

Extrema

Compare pixel to 26 neighbors in scale-space cube; reject low contrast / edge-like points.

Orientation

Histogram of gradient orientations weighted by magnitude; peaks create multiple oriented features.

Descriptor

4×4 spatial grid × 8 orientation bins, normalized for illumination robustness.

Patents / use

Historically patent encumbered; now widely usable in research and OpenCV—know licensing for products.

Descriptor layout

16 cells × 8 directions → 128 values (with truncation/normalization steps)

Pro tip: RootSIFT (L1 normalize + sqrt) can improve matching with same pipeline.