Abstract: An efficient snake formulation should conform to the idea of picking the smoothest curve among all the shapes approximating an object of interest. In current geodesic snakes, the regularizing curvature also affects the convergence stage, hindering the latter at concave regions. In the present work, we make use of characteristic functions to define a novel geodesic formulation that decouples regularity and convergence. This term decoupling endows the snake with higher adaptability to non-convex shapes. Convergence is ensured by splitting the definition of the external force into an attractive vector field and a repulsive one. In our paper, we propose to use likelihood maps as approximation of characteristic functions of object appearance. The better efficiency and accuracy of our decoupled scheme are illustrated in the particular case of feature space-based segmentation.

Abstract: La comunicación y expresión oral es una competencia de especial relevancia en el EEES. No obstante, en muchas enseñanzas superiores la puesta en práctica de esta competencia ha sido relegada principalmente a la presentación de proyectos fin de carrera. Dentro de un proyecto de innovación docente, se ha desarrollado una herramienta informática para la extracción de información objetiva para el análisis de la expresión oral y gestual de los alumnos. El objetivo es dar un “feedback” a los estudiantes que les permita mejorar la calidad de sus presentaciones. El prototipo inicial que se presenta en este trabajo permite extraer de forma automática información audiovisual y analizarla mediante técnicas de aprendizaje. El sistema ha sido aplicado a 15 proyectos fin de carrera y 15 exposiciones dentro de una asignatura de cuarto curso. Los resultados obtenidos muestran la viabilidad del sistema para sugerir factores que ayuden tanto en el éxito de la comunicación así como en los criterios de evaluación.

Abstract: We present a methodology to automatically obtain Pose Space Deformation (PSD) basis for rigged garments through deep learning. Classical approaches rely on Physically Based Simulations (PBS) to animate clothes. These are general solutions that, given a sufficiently fine-grained discretization of space and time, can achieve highly realistic results. However, they are computationally expensive and any scene modification prompts the need of re-simulation. Linear Blend Skinning (LBS) with PSD offers a lightweight alternative to PBS, though, it needs huge volumes of data to learn proper PSD. We propose using deep learning, formulated as an implicit PBS, to unsupervisedly learn realistic cloth Pose Space Deformations in a constrained scenario: dressed humans. Furthermore, we show it is possible to train these models in an amount of time comparable to a PBS of a few sequences. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to propose a neural simulator for cloth.
While deep-based approaches in the domain are becoming a trend, these are data-hungry models. Moreover, authors often propose complex formulations to better learn wrinkles from PBS data. Supervised learning leads to physically inconsistent predictions that require collision solving to be used. Also, dependency on PBS data limits the scalability of these solutions, while their formulation hinders its applicability and compatibility. By proposing an unsupervised methodology to learn PSD for LBS models (3D animation standard), we overcome both of these drawbacks. Results obtained show cloth-consistency in the animated garments and meaningful pose-dependant folds and wrinkles. Our solution is extremely efficient, handles multiple layers of cloth, allows unsupervised outfit resizing and can be easily applied to any custom 3D avatar.