keypoint

An image location a detector flags as distinctive enough to find again reliably.

A keypoint (or interest point) is an image location a detector judges to be distinctive and reliably re-findable -- typically a corner or blob-like structure rather than a flat region or a straight edge, both of which are ambiguous to relocate precisely. Keypoint detection is the first stage of a local-feature pipeline; describing each detected keypoint numerically is the second.

Examples

A corner where a window frame meets a wall makes a strong, reliably re-findable keypoint; a patch of blank sky does not.