Fahad Shahbaz Khan, Joost Van de Weijer, Andrew Bagdanov, & Maria Vanrell. (2011). Portmanteau Vocabularies for Multi-Cue Image Representation. In 25th Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems.
Abstract: We describe a novel technique for feature combination in the bag-of-words model of image classification. Our approach builds discriminative compound words from primitive cues learned independently from training images. Our main observation is that modeling joint-cue distributions independently is more statistically robust for typical classification problems than attempting to empirically estimate the dependent, joint-cue distribution directly. We use Information theoretic vocabulary compression to find discriminative combinations of cues and the resulting vocabulary of portmanteau words is compact, has the cue binding property, and supports individual weighting of cues in the final image representation. State-of-the-art results on both the Oxford Flower-102 and Caltech-UCSD Bird-200 datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our technique compared to other, significantly more complex approaches to multi-cue image representation
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Naila Murray, Sandra Skaff, Luca Marchesotti, & Florent Perronnin. (2011). Towards Automatic Concept Transfer. In Proceedings of the ACM SIGGRAPH/Eurographics Symposium on Non-Photorealistic Animation and Rendering (167.176). ACM Press.
Abstract: This paper introduces a novel approach to automatic concept transfer; examples of concepts are “romantic”, “earthy”, and “luscious”. The approach modifies the color content of an input image given only a concept specified by a user in natural language, thereby requiring minimal user input. This approach is particularly useful for users who are aware of the message they wish to convey in the transferred image while being unsure of the color combination needed to achieve the corresponding transfer. The user may adjust the intensity level of the concept transfer to his/her liking with a single parameter. The proposed approach uses a convex clustering algorithm, with a novel pruning mechanism, to automatically set the complexity of models of chromatic content. It also uses the Earth-Mover's Distance to compute a mapping between the models of the input image and the target chromatic concept. Results show that our approach yields transferred images which effectively represent concepts, as confirmed by a user study.
Keywords: chromatic modeling, color concepts, color transfer, concept transfer
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Jordi Roca, C. Alejandro Parraga, & Maria Vanrell. (2011). Categorical Focal Colours are Structurally Invariant Under Illuminant Changes. In European Conference on Visual Perception (196). Perception 40.
Abstract: The visual system perceives the colour of surfaces approximately constant under changes of illumination. In this work, we investigate how stable is the perception of categorical \“focal\” colours and their interrelations with varying illuminants and simple chromatic backgrounds. It has been proposed that best examples of colour categories across languages cluster in small regions of the colour space and are restricted to a set of 11 basic terms (Kay and Regier, 2003 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 100 9085\–9089). Following this, we developed a psychophysical paradigm that exploits the ability of subjects to reliably reproduce the most representative examples of each category, adjusting multiple test patches embedded in a coloured Mondrian. The experiment was run on a CRT monitor (inside a dark room) under various simulated illuminants. We modelled the recorded data for each subject and adapted state as a 3D interconnected structure (graph) in Lab space. The graph nodes were the subject\’s focal colours at each adaptation state. The model allowed us to get a better distance measure between focal structures under different illuminants. We found that perceptual focal structures tend to be preserved better than the structures of the physical \“ideal\” colours under illuminant changes.
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Sergio Escalera, Ana Puig, Oscar Amoros, & Maria Salamo. (2011). Intelligent GPGPU Classification in Volume Visualization: a framework based on Error-Correcting Output Codes. CGF - Computer Graphics Forum, 30(7), 2107–2115.
Abstract: IF JCR 1.455 2010 25/99
In volume visualization, the definition of the regions of interest is inherently an iterative trial-and-error process finding out the best parameters to classify and render the final image. Generally, the user requires a lot of expertise to analyze and edit these parameters through multi-dimensional transfer functions. In this paper, we present a framework of intelligent methods to label on-demand multiple regions of interest. These methods can be split into a two-level GPU-based labelling algorithm that computes in time of rendering a set of labelled structures using the Machine Learning Error-Correcting Output Codes (ECOC) framework. In a pre-processing step, ECOC trains a set of Adaboost binary classifiers from a reduced pre-labelled data set. Then, at the testing stage, each classifier is independently applied on the features of a set of unlabelled samples and combined to perform multi-class labelling. We also propose an alternative representation of these classifiers that allows to highly parallelize the testing stage. To exploit that parallelism we implemented the testing stage in GPU-OpenCL. The empirical results on different data sets for several volume structures shows high computational performance and classification accuracy.
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Laura Igual, Joan Carles Soliva, Antonio Hernandez, Sergio Escalera, Xavier Jimenez, Oscar Vilarroya, et al. (2011). A fully-automatic caudate nucleus segmentation of brain MRI: Application in volumetric analysis of pediatric attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. BEO - BioMedical Engineering Online, 10(105), 1–23.
Abstract: Background
Accurate automatic segmentation of the caudate nucleus in magnetic resonance images (MRI) of the brain is of great interest in the analysis of developmental disorders. Segmentation methods based on a single atlas or on multiple atlases have been shown to suitably localize caudate structure. However, the atlas prior information may not represent the structure of interest correctly. It may therefore be useful to introduce a more flexible technique for accurate segmentations.
Method
We present Cau-dateCut: a new fully-automatic method of segmenting the caudate nucleus in MRI. CaudateCut combines an atlas-based segmentation strategy with the Graph Cut energy-minimization framework. We adapt the Graph Cut model to make it suitable for segmenting small, low-contrast structures, such as the caudate nucleus, by defining new energy function data and boundary potentials. In particular, we exploit information concerning the intensity and geometry, and we add supervised energies based on contextual brain structures. Furthermore, we reinforce boundary detection using a new multi-scale edgeness measure.
Results
We apply the novel CaudateCut method to the segmentation of the caudate nucleus to a new set of 39 pediatric attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) patients and 40 control children, as well as to a public database of 18 subjects. We evaluate the quality of the segmentation using several volumetric and voxel by voxel measures. Our results show improved performance in terms of segmentation compared to state-of-the-art approaches, obtaining a mean overlap of 80.75%. Moreover, we present a quantitative volumetric analysis of caudate abnormalities in pediatric ADHD, the results of which show strong correlation with expert manual analysis.
Conclusion
CaudateCut generates segmentation results that are comparable to gold-standard segmentations and which are reliable in the analysis of differentiating neuroanatomical abnormalities between healthy controls and pediatric ADHD.
Keywords: Brain caudate nucleus; segmentation; MRI; atlas-based strategy; Graph Cut framework
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Mario Rojas, David Masip, A. Todorov, & Jordi Vitria. (2011). Automatic Prediction of Facial Trait Judgments: Appearance vs. Structural Models. Plos - PloS one, 6(8), e23323.
Abstract: JCR Impact Factor 2010: 4.411
Evaluating other individuals with respect to personality characteristics plays a crucial role in human relations and it is the focus of attention for research in diverse fields such as psychology and interactive computer systems. In psychology, face perception has been recognized as a key component of this evaluation system. Multiple studies suggest that observers use face information to infer personality characteristics. Interactive computer systems are trying to take advantage of these findings and apply them to increase the natural aspect of interaction and to improve the performance of interactive computer systems. Here, we experimentally test whether the automatic prediction of facial trait judgments (e.g. dominance) can be made by using the full appearance information of the face and whether a reduced representation of its structure is sufficient. We evaluate two separate approaches: a holistic representation model using the facial appearance information and a structural model constructed from the relations among facial salient points. State of the art machine learning methods are applied to a) derive a facial trait judgment model from training data and b) predict a facial trait value for any face. Furthermore, we address the issue of whether there are specific structural relations among facial points that predict perception of facial traits. Experimental results over a set of labeled data (9 different trait evaluations) and classification rules (4 rules) suggest that a) prediction of perception of facial traits is learnable by both holistic and structural approaches; b) the most reliable prediction of facial trait judgments is obtained by certain type of holistic descriptions of the face appearance; and c) for some traits such as attractiveness and extroversion, there are relationships between specific structural features and social perceptions
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Miguel Angel Bautista, Sergio Escalera, Xavier Baro, Oriol Pujol, Jordi Vitria, & Petia Radeva. (2011). On the Design of Low Redundancy Error-Correcting Output Codes. In Ensembles in Machine Learning Applications (Vol. 373, pp. 21–38). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Abstract: The classification of large number of object categories is a challenging trend in the Pattern Recognition field. In the literature, this is often addressed using an ensemble of classifiers . In this scope, the Error-Correcting Output Codes framework has demonstrated to be a powerful tool for combining classifiers. However, most of the state-of-the-art ECOC approaches use a linear or exponential number of classifiers, making the discrimination of a large number of classes unfeasible. In this paper, we explore and propose a compact design of ECOC in terms of the number of classifiers. Evolutionary computation is used for tuning the parameters of the classifiers and looking for the best compact ECOC code configuration. The results over several public UCI data sets and different multi-class Computer Vision problems show that the proposed methodology obtains comparable (even better) results than the state-of-the-art ECOC methodologies with far less number of dichotomizers.
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Miguel Angel Bautista, Oriol Pujol, Xavier Baro, & Sergio Escalera. (2011). Introducing the Separability Matrix for Error Correcting Output Codes Coding. In Carlo Sansone, Josef Kittler, & Fabio Roli (Eds.), 10th International Conference on Multiple Classifier Systems (Vol. 6713, pp. 227–236). LNCS. Springer-Verlag Berlin, Heidelberg.
Abstract: Error Correcting Output Codes (ECOC) have demonstrate to be a powerful tool for treating multi-class problems. Nevertheless, predefined ECOC designs may not benefit from Error-correcting principles for particular multi-class data. In this paper, we introduce the Separability matrix as a tool to study and enhance designs for ECOC coding. In addition, a novel problem-dependent coding design based on the Separability matrix is tested over a wide set of challenging multi-class problems, obtaining very satisfactory results.
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Ruth Aylett, Ginevra Castellano, Bogdan Raducanu, Ana Paiva, & Marc Hanheide. (2011). Long-term socially perceptive and interactive robot companions: challenges and future perspectives. In 13th International Conference on Multimodal Interaction (pp. 323–326). ACM.
Abstract: This paper gives a brief overview of the challenges for multi-model perception and generation applied to robot companions located in human social environments. It reviews the current position in both perception and generation and the immediate technical challenges and goes on to consider the extra issues raised by embodiment and social context. Finally, it briefly discusses the impact of systems that must function continually over months rather than just for a few hours.
Keywords: human-robot interaction, multimodal interaction, social robotics
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Antonio Hernandez, Carlos Primo, & Sergio Escalera. (2011). Automatic user interaction correction via Multi-label Graph cuts. In In ICCV 2011 1st IEEE International Workshop on Human Interaction in Computer Vision HICV (pp. 1276–1281).
Abstract: Most applications in image segmentation requires from user interaction in order to achieve accurate results. However, user wants to achieve the desired segmentation accuracy reducing effort of manual labelling. In this work, we extend standard multi-label α-expansion Graph Cut algorithm so that it analyzes the interaction of the user in order to modify the object model and improve final segmentation of objects. The approach is inspired in the fact that fast user interactions may introduce some pixel errors confusing object and background. Our results with different degrees of user interaction and input errors show high performance of the proposed approach on a multi-label human limb segmentation problem compared with classical α-expansion algorithm.
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Miguel Reyes, Gabriel Dominguez, & Sergio Escalera. (2011). Feature Weighting in Dynamic Time Warping for Gesture Recognition in Depth Data. In 1st IEEE Workshop on Consumer Depth Cameras for Computer Vision (pp. 1182–1188).
Abstract: We present a gesture recognition approach for depth video data based on a novel Feature Weighting approach within the Dynamic Time Warping framework. Depth features from human joints are compared through video sequences using Dynamic Time Warping, and weights are assigned to features based on inter-intra class gesture variability. Feature Weighting in Dynamic Time Warping is then applied for recognizing begin-end of gestures in data sequences. The obtained results recognizing several gestures in depth data show high performance compared with classical Dynamic Time Warping approach.
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Marçal Rusiñol, R.Roset, Josep Llados, & C.Montaner. (2011). Automatic Index Generation of Digitized Map Series by Coordinate Extraction and Interpretation. In In Proceedings of the Sixth International Workshop on Digital Technologies in Cartographic Heritage.
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Sergio Vera, Debora Gil, Agnes Borras, F. Javier Sanchez, Frederic Perez, & Marius G. Linguraru. (2011). Computation and Evaluation of Medial Surfaces for Shape Representation of Abdominal Organs. In In H. Yoshida et al (Ed.), Workshop on Computational and Clinical Applications in Abdominal Imaging (Vol. 7029, pp. 223–230). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Abstract: Medial representations are powerful tools for describing and parameterizing the volumetric shape of anatomical structures. Existing methods show excellent results when applied to 2D objects, but their quality drops across dimensions. This paper contributes to the computation of medial manifolds in two aspects. First, we provide a standard scheme for the computation of medial manifolds that avoid degenerated medial axis segments; second, we introduce an energy based method which performs independently of the dimension. We evaluate quantitatively the performance of our method with respect to existing approaches, by applying them to synthetic shapes of known medial geometry. Finally, we show results on shape representation of multiple abdominal organs, exploring the use of medial manifolds for the representation of multi-organ relations.
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Jaime Moreno, & Xavier Otazu. (2011). Image compression algorithm based on Hilbert scanning of embedded quadTrees: an introduction of the Hi-SET coder. In IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo (pp. 1–6).
Abstract: In this work we present an effective and computationally simple algorithm for image compression based on Hilbert Scanning of Embedded quadTrees (Hi-SET). It allows to represent an image as an embedded bitstream along a fractal function. Embedding is an important feature of modern image compression algorithms, in this way Salomon in [1, pg. 614] cite that another feature and perhaps a unique one is the fact of achieving the best quality for the number of bits input by the decoder at any point during the decoding. Hi-SET possesses also this latter feature. Furthermore, the coder is based on a quadtree partition strategy, that applied to image transformation structures such as discrete cosine or wavelet transform allows to obtain an energy clustering both in frequency and space. The coding algorithm is composed of three general steps, using just a list of significant pixels. The implementation of the proposed coder is developed for gray-scale and color image compression. Hi-SET compressed images are, on average, 6.20dB better than the ones obtained by other compression techniques based on the Hilbert scanning. Moreover, Hi-SET improves the image quality in 1.39dB and 1.00dB in gray-scale and color compression, respectively, when compared with JPEG2000 coder.
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Jaime Moreno, & Xavier Otazu. (2011). Image coder based on Hilbert scanning of embedded quadTrees. In Data Compression Conference (p. 470).
Abstract: In this work we present an effective and computationally simple algorithm for image compression based on Hilbert Scanning of Embedded quadTrees (Hi-SET). It allows to represent an image as an embedded bitstream along a fractal function. Embedding is an important feature of modern image compression algorithms, in this way Salomon in [1, pg. 614] cite that another feature and perhaps a unique one is the fact of achieving the best quality for the number of bits input by the decoder at any point during the decoding. Hi-SET possesses also this latter feature. Furthermore, the coder is based on a quadtree partition strategy, that applied to image transformation structures such as discrete cosine or wavelet transform allows to obtain an energy clustering both in frequency and space. The coding algorithm is composed of three general steps, using just a list of significant pixels.
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