Abstract: The aim of this work is to explain how to apply perceptual concepts to define a perceptual pre-quantizer and to improve JPEG2000 compressor. The approach consists in quantizing wavelet transform coefficients using some of the human visual system behavior properties. Noise is fatal to image compression performance, because it can be both annoying for the observer and consumes excessive bandwidth when the imagery is transmitted. Perceptual pre-quantization reduces unperceivable details and thus improve both visual impression and transmission properties. The comparison between JPEG2000 without and with perceptual pre-quantization shows that the latter is not favorable in PSNR, but the recovered image is more compressed at the same or even better visual quality measured with a weighted PSNR. Perceptual criteria were taken from the CIWaM (Chromatic Induction Wavelet Model).

Abstract: Cascading techniques are commonly used to speed-up the scan of an image for object detection. However, cascades of detectors are slow to train due to the high number of detectors and corresponding thresholds to learn. Furthermore, they do not use any prior knowledge about the scene structure to decide where to focus the search. To handle these problems, we propose a new way to scan an image, where we couple a recursive coarse-to-fine refinement together with spatial constraints of the object location. For doing that we split an image into a set of uniformly distributed neighborhood regions, and for each of these we apply a local greedy search over feature resolutions. The neighborhood is defined as a scanning region that only one object can occupy. Therefore the best hypothesis is obtained as the location with maximum score and no thresholds are needed. We present an implementation of our method using a pyramid of HOG features and we evaluate it on two standard databases, VOC2007 and INRIA dataset. Results show that the Recursive Coarse-to-Fine Localization (RCFL) achieves a 12x speed-up compared to standard sliding windows. Compared with a cascade of multiple resolutions approach our method has slightly better performance in speed and Average-Precision. Furthermore, in contrast to cascading approach, the speed-up is independent of image conditions, the number of detected objects and clutter.

Abstract: Distortion of Left Ventricle (LV) external anatomy is related to some dysfunctions, such as hypertrophy. The architecture of myocardial fibers determines LV electromechanical activation patterns as well as mechanics. Thus, their joined modelling would allow the design of specific interventions (such as peacemaker implantation and LV remodelling) and therapies (such as resynchronization). On one hand, accurate modelling of external anatomy requires either a dense sampling or a continuous infinite dimensional approach, which requires non-Euclidean statistics. On the other hand, computation of fiber models requires statistics on Riemannian spaces. Most approaches compute separate statistical models for external anatomy and fibers architecture. In this work we propose a general mathematical framework based on differential geometry concepts for computing a statistical model including, both, external and fiber anatomy. Our framework provides a continuous approach to external anatomy supporting standard statistics. We also provide a straightforward formula for the computation of the Riemannian fiber statistics. We have applied our methodology to the computation of complete anatomical atlas of canine hearts from diffusion tensor studies. The orientation of fibers over the average external geometry agrees with the segmental description of orientations reported in the literature.

Abstract: In this paper, we address the problem of symbol spotting in technical document images applied to scanned and vectorized line drawings. Like any information spotting architecture, our approach has two components. First, symbols are decomposed in primitives which are compactly represented and second a primitive indexing structure aims to efficiently retrieve similar primitives. Primitives are encoded in terms of attributed strings representing closed regions. Similar strings are clustered in a lookup table so that the set median strings act as indexing keys. A voting scheme formulates hypothesis in certain locations of the line drawing image where there is a high presence of regions similar to the queried ones, and therefore, a high probability to find the queried graphical symbol. The proposed approach is illustrated in a framework consisting in spotting furniture symbols in architectural drawings. It has been proved to work even in the presence of noise and distortion introduced by the scanning and raster-to-vector processes.

Abstract: Computer Vision Problems are usually ill-posed. Constraining de gamut of possible solutions is then a necessary step. Many constrains for different problems have been developed during years. In this paper, we present a different way of constraining some of these problems: the use of color names. In particular, we will focus on segmentation, representation ans constancy.

Abstract: Color and texture are visual cues of different nature, their integration in an useful visual descriptor is not an easy problem. One way to combine both features is to compute spatial texture descriptors independently on each color channel. Another way is to do the integration at the descriptor level. In this case the problem of normalizing both cues arises. In this paper we solve the latest problem by fusing color and texture through distances in texton spaces. Textons are the attributes of image blobs and they are responsible for texture discrimination as defined in Julesz’s Texton theory. We describe them in two low-dimensional and uniform spaces, namely, shape and color. The dissimilarity between color texture images is computed by combining the distances in these two spaces. Following this approach, we propose our TCD descriptor which outperforms current state of art methods in the two different approaches mentioned above, early combination with LBP and late combination with MPEG-7. This is done on an image retrieval experiment over a highly diverse texture dataset from Corel.

Abstract: Detection of lane markings based on a camera sensor can be a low-cost solution to lane departure and curve-over-speed warnings. A number of methods and implementations have been reported in the literature. However, reliable detection is still an issue because of cast shadows, worn and occluded markings, variable ambient lighting conditions, for example. We focus on increasing detection reliability in two ways. First, we employed an image feature other than the commonly used edges: ridges, which we claim addresses this problem better. Second, we adapted RANSAC, a generic robust estimation method, to fit a parametric model of a pair of lane lines to the image features, based on both ridgeness and ridge orientation. In addition, the model was fitted for the left and right lane lines simultaneously to enforce a consistent result. Four measures of interest for driver assistance applications were directly computed from the fitted parametric model at each frame: lane width, lane curvature, and vehicle yaw angle and lateral offset with regard the lane medial axis. We qualitatively assessed our method in video sequences captured on several road types and under very different lighting conditions. We also quantitatively assessed it on synthetic but realistic video sequences for which road geometry and vehicle trajectory ground truth are known.