Abstract: Shape representation and registration are two important problems in computer vision and graphics. Representing the given cloud of points through an implicit function provides a higher level information describing the data. This representation can be more compact more robust to noise and outliers, hence it can be exploited in different computer vision application. In the first part of this thesis implicit shape representations, including both implicit B-spline and polynomial, are tackled. First, an approximation of a geometric distance is proposed to measure the closeness of the given cloud of points and the implicit surface. The analysis of the proposed distance shows an accurate estimation with smooth behavior. The distance by itself is used in a RANSAC based quadratic fitting method. Moreover, since the gradient information of the distance with respect to the surface parameters can be analytically computed, it is used in Levenberg-Marquadt algorithm to refine the surface parameters. In a different approach, an algebraic fitting method is used to represent an object through implicit B-splines. The outcome is a smooth flexible surface and can be represented in different levels from coarse to fine. This property has been exploited to solve the registration problem in the second part of the thesis. In the proposed registration technique the model set is replaced with an implicit representation provided in the first part; then, the point-to-point registration is converted to a point-to-model one in a higher level. This registration error can benefit from different distance estimations to speed up the registration process even without need of correspondence search. Finally, the non-rigid registration problem is tackled through a quadratic distance approximation that is based on the curvature information of the model set. This approximation is used in a free form deformation model to update its control lattice. Then it is shown how an accurate distance approximation can benefit non-rigid registration problems.

Abstract: Developing human-like digital characters is a challenging task since humans are used to recognizing our fellows, and find the computed generated characters inadequately humanized. To fulfill the standards of the videogame and digital film productions it is necessary to model and animate these characters the most closely to human beings. However, it is an arduous and expensive task, since many artists and specialists are required to work on a single character. Therefore, to fulfill these requirements we found an interesting option to study the automatic creation of detailed characters through inexpensive setups. In this work, we develop novel techniques to bring detailed characters by combining different aspects that stand out when developing realistic characters, skin detail, facial hairs, expressions, and microexpressions. We examine each of the mentioned areas with the aim of automatically recover each of the parts without user interaction nor training data. We study the problems for their robustness but also for the simplicity of the setup, preferring single-image with uncontrolled illumination and methods that can be easily computed with the commodity of a standard laptop. A detailed face with wrinkles and skin details is vital to develop a realistic character. In this work, we introduce our method to automatically describe facial wrinkles on the image and transfer to the recovered base face. Then we advance to facial hair recovery by resolving a fitting problem with a novel parametrization model. As of last, we develop a mapping function that allows transfer expressions and microexpressions between different meshes, which provides realistic animations to our detailed mesh. We cover all the mentioned points with the focus on key aspects as (i) how to describe skin wrinkles in a simple and straightforward manner, (ii) how to recover 3D from 2D detections, (iii) how to recover and model facial hair from 2D to 3D, (iv) how to transfer expressions between models holding both skin detail and facial hair, (v) how to perform all the described actions without training data nor user interaction. In this work, we present our proposals to solve these aspects with an efficient and simple setup. We validate our work with several datasets both synthetic and real data, prooving remarkable results even in challenging cases as occlusions as glasses, thick beards, and indeed working with different face topologies like single-eyed cyclops.

Abstract: Making Ground Autonomous Vehicles (GAVs) a reality as a service for the society is one of the major scientific and technological challenges of this century. The potential benefits of autonomous vehicles include reducing accidents, improving traffic congestion and better usage of road infrastructures, among others. These vehicles must operate in our cities, towns and highways, dealing with many different types of situations while respecting traffic rules and protecting human lives. GAVs are expected to deal with all types of scenarios and situations, coping with an uncertain and chaotic world.
Therefore, in order to fulfill these demanding requirements GAVs need to be endowed with the capability of understanding their surrounding at many different levels, by means of affordable sensors and artificial intelligence. This capacity to understand the surroundings and the current situation that the vehicle is involved in is called scene understanding. In this work we investigate novel techniques to bring scene understanding to autonomous vehicles by combining the use of cameras as the main source of information—due to their versatility and affordability—and algorithms based on computer vision and machine learning. We investigate different degrees of understanding of the scene, starting from basic geometric knowledge about where is the vehicle within the scene. A robust and efficient estimation of the vehicle location and pose with respect to a map is one of the most fundamental steps towards autonomous driving. We study this problem from the point of view of robustness and computational efficiency, proposing key insights to improve current solutions. Then we advance to higher levels of abstraction to discover what is in the scene, by recognizing and parsing all the elements present on a driving scene, such as roads, sidewalks, pedestrians, etc. We investigate this problem known as semantic segmentation, proposing new approaches to improve recognition accuracy and computational efficiency. We cover these points by focusing on key aspects such as: (i) how to leverage computation moving semantics to an offline process, (ii) how to train compact architectures based on deconvolutional networks to achieve their maximum potential, (iii) how to use virtual worlds in combination with domain adaptation to produce accurate models in a cost-effective fashion, and (iv) how to use transfer learning techniques to prepare models to new situations. We finally extend the previous level of knowledge enabling systems to reasoning about what has change in a scene with respect to a previous visit, which in return allows for efficient and cost-effective map updating.

Abstract: This paper proposes a non-rigid registration formulation capturing both global and local deformations in a single framework. This formulation is based on a quadratic estimation of the registration distance together with a quadratic regularization term. Hence, the optimal transformation parameters are easily obtained by solving a liner system of equations, which guarantee a fast convergence. Experimental results with challenging 2D and 3D shapes are presented to show the validity of the proposed framework. Furthermore, comparisons with the most relevant approaches are provided.