Abstract: The design and the validation of an automatic plaque characterization technique based on Intravascular Ultrasound (IVUS) usually requires a data ground-truth. The histological analysis of post-mortem coronary arteries is commonly assumed as the state-of-the-art process for the extraction of a reliable data-set of atherosclerotic plaques. Unfortunately, the amount of data provided by this technique is usually few, due to the difficulties in collecting post-mortem cases and phenomena of tissue spoiling during histological analysis. In this paper we tackle the process of fusing in-vivo and in-vitro IVUS data starting with the analysis of recently proposed approaches for the creation of an enhanced IVUS data-set; furthermore, we propose a new approach, named pLDS, based on semi-supervised learning with a data selection criterion. The enhanced data-set obtained by each one of the analyzed approaches is used to train a classifier for tissue characterization purposes. Finally, the discriminative power of each classifier is quantitatively assessed and compared by classifying a data-set of validated in-vitro IVUS data.

Abstract: General object recognition in mobile robots is of primary importance in order to enhance the representation of the environment that robots will use for their reasoning processes. Therefore, we contribute reduce this gap by evaluating the SIFT Object Recognition method in a challenging dataset, focusing on issues relevant to mobile robotics. Resistance of the method to the robotics working conditions was found, but it was limited mainly to well-textured objects.

Abstract: Sequential learning is that discipline of machine learning that deals with dependent data. In this paper, we use the Multi-scale Stacked Sequential Learning approach (MSSL) to solve the task of pixel-wise classification based on contextual information. The main contribution of this work is a shifting technique applied during the testing phase that makes possible, thanks to template images, to classify objects at different sizes. The results show that the proposed method robustly classifies such objects capturing their spatial relationships.

Abstract: In real-world problems, it is mandatory to design a termination condition for Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs) ensuring stabilization close to the unknown optimum. Distribution-based quantities are good candidates as far as suitable parameters are used. A main limitation for application to real-world problems is that such parameters strongly depend on the topology of the objective function, as well as, the EA paradigm used.
We claim that the termination problem would be fully solved if we had a model measuring to what extent a distribution-based quantity asymptotically behaves like the solution accuracy. We present a regression-prediction model that relates any two given quantities and reports if they can be statistically swapped as termination conditions. Our framework is applied to two issues. First, exploring if the parameters involved in the computation of distribution-based quantities influence their asymptotic behavior. Second, to what extent existing distribution-based quantities can be asymptotically exchanged for the accuracy of the EA solution.

Abstract: An exportable and robust system for turn control using only camera images is proposed for path execution in robot navigation. Robot motion information is extracted in the form of optical flow from SURF robust descriptors of consecutive frames in the image sequence. This information is used to compute the instantaneous rotation angle. Finally, control loop is closed correcting robot displacements when it is requested for a turn command. The proposed system has been successfully tested on the four-legged Sony Aibo robot.

Abstract: Detecting hands in multi-modal RGB-Depth visual data has become a challenging Computer Vision problem with several applications of interest. This task involves dealing with changes in illumination, viewpoint variations, the articulated nature of the human body, the high flexibility of the wrist articulation, and the deformability of the hand itself. In this work, we propose an accurate and efficient automatic hand detection scheme to be applied in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) applications in which the user is seated at the desk and, thus, only the upper body is visible. Our main hypothesis is that hand landmarks remain at a nearly constant geodesic distance from an automatically located anatomical reference point.
In a given frame, the human body is segmented first in the depth image. Then, a
graph representation of the body is built in which the geodesic paths are computed from the reference point. The dense optical flow vectors on the corresponding RGB image are used to reduce ambiguities of the geodesic paths’ connectivity, allowing to eliminate false edges interconnecting different body parts. Finally, we are able to detect the position of both hands based on invariant geodesic distances and optical flow within the body region, without involving costly learning procedures.

Abstract: In this work we build a system for automatic emotion classification from image sequences. We analyze subtle changes in facial expressions by detecting a subset of 12 representative facial action units (AUs). Then, we classify emotions based on the output of these AUs classifiers, i.e. the presence/absence of AUs. We base the AUs classification upon a set of spatio-temporal geometric and appearance features for facial representation, fusing them within the emotion classifier. A decision tree is trained for emotion classifying, making the resulting model easy to interpret by capturing the combination of AUs activation that lead to a particular emotion. For Cohn-Kanade database, the proposed system classifies 7 emotions with a mean accuracy of near 90%, attaining a similar recognition accuracy in comparison with non-interpretable models that are not based in AUs detection.

Abstract: Automated video and image analysis can be a very efficient tool to analyze
animal behavior based on sociality, especially in hard access environments
for researchers. The understanding of this social behavior can play a key role in the sustainable design of capture policies of many species. This paper proposes the use of computer vision algorithms to identify and track a specific specie, the Norway lobster, Nephrops norvegicus, a burrowing decapod with relevant commercial value which is captured by trawling. These animals can only be captured when are engaged in seabed excursions, which are strongly related with their social behavior.
This emergent behavior is modulated by the day-night cycle, but their social
interactions remain unknown to the scientific community. The paper introduces an identification scheme made of four distinguishable black and white tags (geometric shapes). The project has recorded 15-day experiments in laboratory pools, under monochromatic blue light (472 nm.) and darkness conditions (recorded using Infra Red light). Using this massive image set, we propose a comparative of state-ofthe-art computer vision algorithms to distinguish and track the different animals’ movements. We evaluate the robustness to the high noise presence in the infrared video signals and free out-of-plane rotations due to animal movement. The experiments show promising accuracies under a cross-validation protocol, being adaptable to the automation and analysis of large scale data. In a second contribution, we created an extensive dataset of shapes (46027 different shapes) from four daily experimental video recordings, which will be available to the community.