Ariel Amato, Felipe Lumbreras, & Angel Sappa. (2014). A General-purpose Crowdsourcing Platform for Mobile Devices. In 9th International Conference on Computer Vision Theory and Applications (Vol. 3, pp. 211–215).
Abstract: This paper presents details of a general purpose micro-task on-demand platform based on the crowdsourcing philosophy. This platform was specifically developed for mobile devices in order to exploit the strengths of such devices; namely: i) massivity, ii) ubiquity and iii) embedded sensors. The combined use of mobile platforms and the crowdsourcing model allows to tackle from the simplest to the most complex tasks. Users experience is the highlighted feature of this platform (this fact is extended to both task-proposer and tasksolver). Proper tools according with a specific task are provided to a task-solver in order to perform his/her job in a simpler, faster and appealing way. Moreover, a task can be easily submitted by just selecting predefined templates, which cover a wide range of possible applications. Examples of its usage in computer vision and computer games are provided illustrating the potentiality of the platform.
Keywords: Crowdsourcing Platform; Mobile Crowdsourcing
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Ariel Amato, Ivan Huerta, Mikhail Mozerov, Xavier Roca, & Jordi Gonzalez. (2014). Moving Cast Shadows Detection Methods for Video Surveillance Applications. In Augmented Vision and Reality (Vol. 6, pp. 23–47). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Abstract: Moving cast shadows are a major concern in today’s performance from broad range of many vision-based surveillance applications because they highly difficult the object classification task. Several shadow detection methods have been reported in the literature during the last years. They are mainly divided into two domains. One usually works with static images, whereas the second one uses image sequences, namely video content. In spite of the fact that both cases can be analogously analyzed, there is a difference in the application field. The first case, shadow detection methods can be exploited in order to obtain additional geometric and semantic cues about shape and position of its casting object (‘shape from shadows’) as well as the localization of the light source. While in the second one, the main purpose is usually change detection, scene matching or surveillance (usually in a background subtraction context). Shadows can in fact modify in a negative way the shape and color of the target object and therefore affect the performance of scene analysis and interpretation in many applications. This chapter wills mainly reviews shadow detection methods as well as their taxonomies related with the second case, thus aiming at those shadows which are associated with moving objects (moving shadows).
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Ariel Amato, Mikhail Mozerov, Andrew Bagdanov, & Jordi Gonzalez. (2011). Accurate Moving Cast Shadow Suppression Based on Local Color Constancy detection. TIP - IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, 20(10), 2954–2966.
Abstract: This paper describes a novel framework for detection and suppression of properly shadowed regions for most possible scenarios occurring in real video sequences. Our approach requires no prior knowledge about the scene, nor is it restricted to specific scene structures. Furthermore, the technique can detect both achromatic and chromatic shadows even in the presence of camouflage that occurs when foreground regions are very similar in color to shadowed regions. The method exploits local color constancy properties due to reflectance suppression over shadowed regions. To detect shadowed regions in a scene, the values of the background image are divided by values of the current frame in the RGB color space. We show how this luminance ratio can be used to identify segments with low gradient constancy, which in turn distinguish shadows from foreground. Experimental results on a collection of publicly available datasets illustrate the superior performance of our method compared with the most sophisticated, state-of-the-art shadow detection algorithms. These results show that our approach is robust and accurate over a broad range of shadow types and challenging video conditions.
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Ariel Amato, Mikhail Mozerov, Ivan Huerta, Jordi Gonzalez, & Juan J. Villanueva. (2008). ackground Subtraction Technique Based on Chromaticity and Intensity Patterns. In 19th International Conference on Pattern Recognition, (1–4).
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Ariel Amato, Mikhail Mozerov, Xavier Roca, & Jordi Gonzalez. (2010). Robust Real-Time Background Subtraction Based on Local Neighborhood Patterns. EURASIPJ - EURASIP Journal on Advances in Signal Processing, , 7.
Abstract: Article ID 901205
This paper describes an efficient background subtraction technique for detecting moving objects. The proposed approach is able to overcome difficulties like illumination changes and moving shadows. Our method introduces two discriminative features based on angular and modular patterns, which are formed by similarity measurement between two sets of RGB color vectors: one belonging to the background image and the other to the current image. We show how these patterns are used to improve foreground detection in the presence of moving shadows and in the case when there are strong similarities in color between background and foreground pixels. Experimental results over a collection of public and own datasets of real image sequences demonstrate that the proposed technique achieves a superior performance compared with state-of-the-art methods. Furthermore, both the low computational and space complexities make the presented algorithm feasible for real-time applications.
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Arjan Gijsenij, R. Lu, Theo Gevers, & De Xu. (2012). Color Constancy for Multiple Light Source. TIP - IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, 21(2), 697–707.
Abstract: Impact factor 2010: 2.92
Impact factor 2011/2012?: 3.32
Color constancy algorithms are generally based on the simplifying assumption that the spectral distribution of a light source is uniform across scenes. However, in reality, this assumption is often violated due to the presence of multiple light sources. In this paper, we will address more realistic scenarios where the uniform light-source assumption is too restrictive. First, a methodology is proposed to extend existing algorithms by applying color constancy locally to image patches, rather than globally to the entire image. After local (patch-based) illuminant estimation, these estimates are combined into more robust estimations, and a local correction is applied based on a modified diagonal model. Quantitative and qualitative experiments on spectral and real images show that the proposed methodology reduces the influence of two light sources simultaneously present in one scene. If the chromatic difference between these two illuminants is more than 1° , the proposed framework outperforms algorithms based on the uniform light-source assumption (with error-reduction up to approximately 30%). Otherwise, when the chromatic difference is less than 1° and the scene can be considered to contain one (approximately) uniform light source, the performance of the proposed method framework is similar to global color constancy methods.
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Arjan Gijsenij, & Theo Gevers. (2011). Color Constancy Using Natural Image Statistics and Scene Semantics. TPAMI - IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 33(4), 687–698.
Abstract: Existing color constancy methods are all based on specific assumptions such as the spatial and spectral characteristics of images. As a consequence, no algorithm can be considered as universal. However, with the large variety of available methods, the question is how to select the method that performs best for a specific image. To achieve selection and combining of color constancy algorithms, in this paper natural image statistics are used to identify the most important characteristics of color images. Then, based on these image characteristics, the proper color constancy algorithm (or best combination of algorithms) is selected for a specific image. To capture the image characteristics, the Weibull parameterization (e.g., grain size and contrast) is used. It is shown that the Weibull parameterization is related to the image attributes to which the used color constancy methods are sensitive. An MoG-classifier is used to learn the correlation and weighting between the Weibull-parameters and the image attributes (number of edges, amount of texture, and SNR). The output of the classifier is the selection of the best performing color constancy method for a certain image. Experimental results show a large improvement over state-of-the-art single algorithms. On a data set consisting of more than 11,000 images, an increase in color constancy performance up to 20 percent (median angular error) can be obtained compared to the best-performing single algorithm. Further, it is shown that for certain scene categories, one specific color constancy algorithm can be used instead of the classifier considering several algorithms.
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Arjan Gijsenij, Theo Gevers, & Joost Van de Weijer. (2012). Improving Color Constancy by Photometric Edge Weighting. TPAMI - IEEE Transaction on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 34(5), 918–929.
Abstract: : Edge-based color constancy methods make use of image derivatives to estimate the illuminant. However, different edge types exist in real-world images such as material, shadow and highlight edges. These different edge types may have a distinctive influence on the performance of the illuminant estimation. Therefore, in this paper, an extensive analysis is provided of different edge types on the performance of edge-based color constancy methods. First, an edge-based taxonomy is presented classifying edge types based on their photometric properties (e.g. material, shadow-geometry and highlights). Then, a performance evaluation of edge-based color constancy is provided using these different edge types. From this performance evaluation it is derived that specular and shadow edge types are more valuable than material edges for the estimation of the illuminant. To this end, the (iterative) weighted Grey-Edge algorithm is proposed in which these edge types are more emphasized for the estimation of the illuminant. Images that are recorded under controlled circumstances demonstrate that the proposed iterative weighted Grey-Edge algorithm based on highlights reduces the median angular error with approximately $25\%$. In an uncontrolled environment, improvements in angular error up to $11\%$ are obtained with respect to regular edge-based color constancy.
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Arjan Gijsenij, Theo Gevers, & Joost Van de Weijer. (2011). Computational Color Constancy: Survey and Experiments. TIP - IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, 20(9), 2475–2489.
Abstract: Computational color constancy is a fundamental prerequisite for many computer vision applications. This paper presents a survey of many recent developments and state-of-the- art methods. Several criteria are proposed that are used to assess the approaches. A taxonomy of existing algorithms is proposed and methods are separated in three groups: static methods, gamut-based methods and learning-based methods. Further, the experimental setup is discussed including an overview of publicly available data sets. Finally, various freely available methods, of which some are considered to be state-of-the-art, are evaluated on two data sets.
Keywords: computational color constancy;computer vision application;gamut-based method;learning-based method;static method;colour vision;computer vision;image colour analysis;learning (artificial intelligence);lighting
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Arjan Gijsenij, Theo Gevers, & Joost Van de Weijer. (2010). Generalized Gamut Mapping using Image Derivative Structures for Color Constancy. IJCV - International Journal of Computer Vision, 86(2-3), 127–139.
Abstract: The gamut mapping algorithm is one of the most promising methods to achieve computational color constancy. However, so far, gamut mapping algorithms are restricted to the use of pixel values to estimate the illuminant. Therefore, in this paper, gamut mapping is extended to incorporate the statistical nature of images. It is analytically shown that the proposed gamut mapping framework is able to include any linear filter output. The main focus is on the local n-jet describing the derivative structure of an image. It is shown that derivatives have the advantage over pixel values to be invariant to disturbing effects (i.e. deviations of the diagonal model) such as saturated colors and diffuse light. Further, as the n-jet based gamut mapping has the ability to use more information than pixel values alone, the combination of these algorithms are more stable than the regular gamut mapping algorithm. Different methods of combining are proposed. Based on theoretical and experimental results conducted on large scale data sets of hyperspectral, laboratory and realworld scenes, it can be derived that (1) in case of deviations of the diagonal model, the derivative-based approach outperforms the pixel-based gamut mapping, (2) state-of-the-art algorithms are outperformed by the n-jet based gamut mapping, (3) the combination of the different n-jet based gamut
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Arjan Gijsenij, Theo Gevers, & Joost Van de Weijer. (2009). Physics-based Edge Evaluation for Improved Color Constancy. In 22nd IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (581 – 588).
Abstract: Edge-based color constancy makes use of image derivatives to estimate the illuminant. However, different edge types exist in real-world images such as shadow, geometry, material and highlight edges. These different edge types may have a distinctive influence on the performance of the illuminant estimation.
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Arjan Gijsenij, Theo Gevers, & Joost Van de Weijer. (2008). Edge Classification for Color Constancy. In 4th European Conference on Colour in Graphics, Imaging and Vision Proceedings (231–234).
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Arka Ujjal Dey, Suman Ghosh, & Ernest Valveny. (2018). Don't only Feel Read: Using Scene text to understand advertisements. In IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshops.
Abstract: We propose a framework for automated classification of Advertisement Images, using not just Visual features but also Textual cues extracted from embedded text. Our approach takes inspiration from the assumption that Ad images contain meaningful textual content, that can provide discriminative semantic interpretetion, and can thus aid in classifcation tasks. To this end, we develop a framework using off-the-shelf components, and demonstrate the effectiveness of Textual cues in semantic Classfication tasks.
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Arka Ujjal Dey, Suman Ghosh, Ernest Valveny, & Gaurav Harit. (2021). Beyond Visual Semantics: Exploring the Role of Scene Text in Image Understanding. PRL - Pattern Recognition Letters, 149, 164–171.
Abstract: Images with visual and scene text content are ubiquitous in everyday life. However, current image interpretation systems are mostly limited to using only the visual features, neglecting to leverage the scene text content. In this paper, we propose to jointly use scene text and visual channels for robust semantic interpretation of images. We do not only extract and encode visual and scene text cues, but also model their interplay to generate a contextual joint embedding with richer semantics. The contextual embedding thus generated is applied to retrieval and classification tasks on multimedia images, with scene text content, to demonstrate its effectiveness. In the retrieval framework, we augment our learned text-visual semantic representation with scene text cues, to mitigate vocabulary misses that may have occurred during the semantic embedding. To deal with irrelevant or erroneous recognition of scene text, we also apply query-based attention to our text channel. We show how the multi-channel approach, involving visual semantics and scene text, improves upon state of the art.
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Armin Mehri. (2023). Deep learning based architectures for cross-domain image processing (Angel Sappa, Ed.). Ph.D. thesis, IMPRIMA, .
Abstract: Human vision is restricted to the visual-optical spectrum. Machine vision is not.
Cameras sensitive to diverse infrared spectral bands can improve the capacities of
autonomous systems and provide a comprehensive view. Relevant scene content
can be made visible, particularly in situations when sensors of other modalities,
such as a visual-optical camera, require a source of illumination. As a result, increasing the level of automation not only avoids human errors but also reduces
machine-induced errors. Furthermore, multi-spectral sensor systems with infrared
imagery as one modality are a rich source of information and can conceivably
increase the robustness of many autonomous systems. Robotics, automobiles,
biometrics, security, surveillance, and the military are some examples of fields
that can profit from the use of infrared imagery in their respective applications.
Although multimodal spectral sensors have come a long way, there are still several
bottlenecks that prevent us from combining their output information and using
them as comprehensive images. The primary issue with infrared imaging is the lack
of potential benefits due to their cost influence on sensor resolution, which grows
exponentially with greater resolution. Due to the more costly sensor technology
required for their development, their resolutions are substantially lower than thoseof regular digital cameras.
This thesis aims to improve beyond-visible-spectrum machine vision by integrating multi-modal spectral sensors. The emphasis is on transforming the produced images to enhance their resolution to match expected human perception, bring the color representation close to human understanding of natural color, and improve machine vision application performance. This research focuses mainly on two tasks, image Colorization and Image Super resolution for both single- and cross-domain problems. We first start with an extensive review of the state of the art in both tasks, point out the shortcomings of existing approaches, and then present our solutions to address their limitations. Our solutions demonstrate that low-cost channel information (i.e., visible image) can be used to improve expensive channel
information (i.e., infrared image), resulting in images with higher quality and closer to human perception at a lower cost than a high-cost infrared camera.
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