Armin Mehri, & Angel Sappa. (2019). Colorizing Near Infrared Images through a Cyclic Adversarial Approach of Unpaired Samples. In IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition-Workshops.
Abstract: This paper presents a novel approach for colorizing near infrared (NIR) images. The approach is based on image-to-image translation using a Cycle-Consistent adversarial network for learning the color channels on unpaired dataset. This architecture is able to handle unpaired datasets. The approach uses as generators tailored networks that require less computation times, converge faster and generate high quality samples. The obtained results have been quantitatively—using standard evaluation metrics—and qualitatively evaluated showing considerable improvements with respect to the state of the art
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Patricia Suarez, Angel Sappa, Boris X. Vintimilla, & Riad I. Hammoud. (2019). Image Vegetation Index through a Cycle Generative Adversarial Network. In IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition-Workshops.
Abstract: This paper proposes a novel approach to estimate the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) just from an RGB image. The NDVI values are obtained by using images from the visible spectral band together with a synthetic near infrared image obtained by a cycled GAN. The cycled GAN network is able to obtain a NIR image from a given gray scale image. It is trained by using unpaired set of gray scale and NIR images by using a U-net architecture and a multiple loss function (gray scale images are obtained from the provided RGB images). Then, the NIR image estimated with the proposed cycle generative adversarial network is used to compute the NDVI index. Experimental results are provided showing the validity of the proposed approach. Additionally, comparisons with previous approaches are also provided.
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Henry Velesaca, Steven Araujo, Patricia Suarez, Angel Sanchez, & Angel Sappa. (2020). Off-the-Shelf Based System for Urban Environment Video Analytics. In 27th International Conference on Systems, Signals and Image Processing.
Abstract: This paper presents the design and implementation details of a system build-up by using off-the-shelf algorithms for urban video analytics. The system allows the connection to
public video surveillance camera networks to obtain the necessary information to generate statistics from urban scenarios (e.g., amount of vehicles, type of cars, direction, numbers of persons, etc.). The obtained information could be used not only for traffic management but also to estimate the carbon footprint of urban scenarios. As a case study, a university campus is selected to evaluate the performance of the proposed system. The system is implemented in a modular way so that it is being used as a testbed to evaluate different algorithms. Implementation results are provided showing the validity and utility of the proposed approach.
Keywords: greenhouse gases; carbon footprint; object detection; object tracking; website framework; off-the-shelf video analytics
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Jorge Charco, Angel Sappa, Boris X. Vintimilla, & Henry Velesaca. (2020). Transfer Learning from Synthetic Data in the Camera Pose Estimation Problem. In 15th International Conference on Computer Vision Theory and Applications.
Abstract: This paper presents a novel Siamese network architecture, as a variant of Resnet-50, to estimate the relative camera pose on multi-view environments. In order to improve the performance of the proposed model a transfer learning strategy, based on synthetic images obtained from a virtual-world, is considered. The transfer learning consists of first training the network using pairs of images from the virtual-world scenario
considering different conditions (i.e., weather, illumination, objects, buildings, etc.); then, the learned weight
of the network are transferred to the real case, where images from real-world scenarios are considered. Experimental results and comparisons with the state of the art show both, improvements on the relative pose estimation accuracy using the proposed model, as well as further improvements when the transfer learning strategy (synthetic-world data transfer learning real-world data) is considered to tackle the limitation on the
training due to the reduced number of pairs of real-images on most of the public data sets.
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Xavier Soria, Edgar Riba, & Angel Sappa. (2020). Dense Extreme Inception Network: Towards a Robust CNN Model for Edge Detection. In IEEE Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision.
Abstract: This paper proposes a Deep Learning based edge detector, which is inspired on both HED (Holistically-Nested Edge Detection) and Xception networks. The proposed approach generates thin edge-maps that are plausible for human eyes; it can be used in any edge detection task without previous training or fine tuning process. As a second contribution, a large dataset with carefully annotated edges has been generated. This dataset has been used for training the proposed approach as well the state-of-the-art algorithms for comparisons. Quantitative and qualitative evaluations have been performed on different benchmarks showing improvements with the proposed method when F-measure of ODS and OIS are considered.
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Angel Morera, Angel Sanchez, A. Belen Moreno, Angel Sappa, & Jose F. Velez. (2020). SSD vs. YOLO for Detection of Outdoor Urban Advertising Panels under Multiple Variabilities. SENS - Sensors, 20(16), 4587.
Abstract: This work compares Single Shot MultiBox Detector (SSD) and You Only Look Once (YOLO) deep neural networks for the outdoor advertisement panel detection problem by handling multiple and combined variabilities in the scenes. Publicity panel detection in images offers important advantages both in the real world as well as in the virtual one. For example, applications like Google Street View can be used for Internet publicity and when detecting these ads panels in images, it could be possible to replace the publicity appearing inside the panels by another from a funding company. In our experiments, both SSD and YOLO detectors have produced acceptable results under variable sizes of panels, illumination conditions, viewing perspectives, partial occlusion of panels, complex background and multiple panels in scenes. Due to the difficulty of finding annotated images for the considered problem, we created our own dataset for conducting the experiments. The major strength of the SSD model was the almost elimination of False Positive (FP) cases, situation that is preferable when the publicity contained inside the panel is analyzed after detecting them. On the other side, YOLO produced better panel localization results detecting a higher number of True Positive (TP) panels with a higher accuracy. Finally, a comparison of the two analyzed object detection models with different types of semantic segmentation networks and using the same evaluation metrics is also included.
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Jorge Charco, Angel Sappa, & Boris X. Vintimilla. (2022). Human Pose Estimation through a Novel Multi-view Scheme. In 17th International Conference on Computer Vision Theory and Applications (VISAPP 2022) (Vol. 5, pp. 855–862).
Abstract: This paper presents a multi-view scheme to tackle the challenging problem of the self-occlusion in human pose estimation problem. The proposed approach first obtains the human body joints of a set of images, which are captured from different views at the same time. Then, it enhances the obtained joints by using a
multi-view scheme. Basically, the joints from a given view are used to enhance poorly estimated joints from another view, especially intended to tackle the self occlusions cases. A network architecture initially proposed for the monocular case is adapted to be used in the proposed multi-view scheme. Experimental results and
comparisons with the state-of-the-art approaches on Human3.6m dataset are presented showing improvements in the accuracy of body joints estimations.
Keywords: Multi-view Scheme; Human Pose Estimation; Relative Camera Pose; Monocular Approach
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Rafael E. Rivadeneira, Angel Sappa, & Boris X. Vintimilla. (2022). Multi-Image Super-Resolution for Thermal Images. In 17th International Conference on Computer Vision Theory and Applications (VISAPP 2022) (Vol. 4, pp. 635–642).
Abstract: This paper proposes a novel CNN architecture for the multi-thermal image super-resolution problem. In the proposed scheme, the multi-images are synthetically generated by downsampling and slightly shifting the given image; noise is also added to each of these synthesized images. The proposed architecture uses two
attention blocks paths to extract high-frequency details taking advantage of the large information extracted from multiple images of the same scene. Experimental results are provided, showing the proposed scheme has overcome the state-of-the-art approaches.
Keywords: Thermal Images; Multi-view; Multi-frame; Super-Resolution; Deep Learning; Attention Block
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Henry Velesaca, Patricia Suarez, Angel Sappa, Dario Carpio, Rafael E. Rivadeneira, & Angel Sanchez. (2022). Review on Common Techniques for Urban Environment Video Analytics. In Anais do III Workshop Brasileiro de Cidades Inteligentes (pp. 107–118).
Abstract: This work compiles the different computer vision-based approaches
from the state-of-the-art intended for video analytics in urban environments.
The manuscript groups the different approaches according to the typical modules present in video analysis, including image preprocessing, object detection,
classification, and tracking. This proposed pipeline serves as a basic guide to
representing these most representative approaches in this topic of video analysis
that will be addressed in this work. Furthermore, the manuscript is not intended
to be an exhaustive review of the most advanced approaches, but only a list of
common techniques proposed to address recurring problems in this field.
Keywords: Video Analytics; Review; Urban Environments; Smart Cities
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Rafael E. Rivadeneira, Angel Sappa, Boris X. Vintimilla, Lin Guo, Jiankun Hou, Armin Mehri, et al. (2020). Thermal Image Super-Resolution Challenge – PBVS 2020. In 16h IEEE Workshop on Perception Beyond the Visible Spectrum.
Abstract: This paper summarizes the top contributions to the first challenge on thermal image super-resolution (TISR), which was organized as part of the Perception Beyond the Visible Spectrum (PBVS) 2020 workshop. In this challenge, a novel thermal image dataset is considered together with state-of-the-art approaches evaluated under a common framework. The dataset used in the challenge consists of 1021 thermal images, obtained from three distinct thermal cameras at different resolutions (low-resolution, mid-resolution, and high-resolution), resulting in a total of 3063 thermal images. From each resolution, 951 images are used for training and 50 for testing while the 20 remaining images are used for two proposed evaluations. The first evaluation consists of downsampling the low-resolution, mid-resolution, and high-resolution thermal images by x2, x3 and x4 respectively, and comparing their super-resolution results with the corresponding ground truth images. The second evaluation is comprised of obtaining the x2 super-resolution from a given mid-resolution thermal image and comparing it with the corresponding semi-registered high-resolution thermal image. Out of 51 registered participants, 6 teams reached the final validation phase.
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Daniela Rato, Miguel Oliveira, Vitor Santos, Manuel Gomes, & Angel Sappa. (2022). A sensor-to-pattern calibration framework for multi-modal industrial collaborative cells. JMANUFSYST - Journal of Manufacturing Systems, 64, 497–507.
Abstract: Collaborative robotic industrial cells are workspaces where robots collaborate with human operators. In this context, safety is paramount, and for that a complete perception of the space where the collaborative robot is inserted is necessary. To ensure this, collaborative cells are equipped with a large set of sensors of multiple modalities, covering the entire work volume. However, the fusion of information from all these sensors requires an accurate extrinsic calibration. The calibration of such complex systems is challenging, due to the number of sensors and modalities, and also due to the small overlapping fields of view between the sensors, which are positioned to capture different viewpoints of the cell. This paper proposes a sensor to pattern methodology that can calibrate a complex system such as a collaborative cell in a single optimization procedure. Our methodology can tackle RGB and Depth cameras, as well as LiDARs. Results show that our methodology is able to accurately calibrate a collaborative cell containing three RGB cameras, a depth camera and three 3D LiDARs.
Keywords: Calibration; Collaborative cell; Multi-modal; Multi-sensor
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Michael Teutsch, Angel Sappa, & Riad I. Hammoud. (2022). Cross-Spectral Image Processing. In Computer Vision in the Infrared Spectrum. Synthesis Lectures on Computer Vision (pp. 23–34). SLCV. Springer.
Abstract: Although this book is on IR computer vision and its main focus lies on IR image and video processing and analysis, a special attention is dedicated to cross-spectral image processing due to the increasing number of publications and applications in this domain. In these cross-spectral frameworks, IR information is used together with information from other spectral bands to tackle some specific problems by developing more robust solutions. Tasks considered for cross-spectral processing are for instance dehazing, segmentation, vegetation index estimation, or face recognition. This increasing number of applications is motivated by cross- and multi-spectral camera setups available already on the market like for example smartphones, remote sensing multispectral cameras, or multi-spectral cameras for automotive systems or drones. In this chapter, different cross-spectral image processing techniques will be reviewed together with possible applications. Initially, image registration approaches for the cross-spectral case are reviewed: the registration stage is the first image processing task, which is needed to align images acquired by different sensors within the same reference coordinate system. Then, recent cross-spectral image colorization approaches, which are intended to colorize infrared images for different applications are presented. Finally, the cross-spectral image enhancement problem is tackled by including guided super resolution techniques, image dehazing approaches, cross-spectral filtering and edge detection. Figure 3.1 illustrates cross-spectral image processing stages as well as their possible connections. Table 3.1 presents some of the available public cross-spectral datasets generally used as reference data to evaluate cross-spectral image registration, colorization, enhancement, or exploitation results.
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Michael Teutsch, Angel Sappa, & Riad I. Hammoud. (2022). Detection, Classification, and Tracking. In Computer Vision in the Infrared Spectrum. Synthesis Lectures on Computer Vision (pp. 35–58). SLCV. Springer.
Abstract: Automatic image and video exploitation or content analysis is a technique to extract higher-level information from a scene such as objects, behavior, (inter-)actions, environment, or even weather conditions. The relevant information is assumed to be contained in the two-dimensional signal provided in an image (width and height in pixels) or the three-dimensional signal provided in a video (width, height, and time). But also intermediate-level information such as object classes [196], locations [197], or motion [198] can help applications to fulfill certain tasks such as intelligent compression [199], video summarization [200], or video retrieval [201]. Usually, videos with their temporal dimension are a richer source of data compared to single images [202] and thus certain video content can be extracted from videos only such as object motion or object behavior. Often, machine learning or nowadays deep learning techniques are utilized to model prior knowledge about object or scene appearance using labeled training samples [203, 204]. After a learning phase, these models are then applied in real world applications, which is called inference.
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Michael Teutsch, Angel Sappa, & Riad I. Hammoud. (2022). Image and Video Enhancement. In Computer Vision in the Infrared Spectrum. Synthesis Lectures on Computer Vision (pp. 9–21). SLCV. Springer.
Abstract: Image and video enhancement aims at improving the signal quality relative to imaging artifacts such as noise and blur or atmospheric perturbations such as turbulence and haze. It is usually performed in order to assist humans in analyzing image and video content or simply to present humans visually appealing images and videos. However, image and video enhancement can also be used as a preprocessing technique to ease the task and thus improve the performance of subsequent automatic image content analysis algorithms: preceding dehazing can improve object detection as shown by [23] or explicit turbulence modeling can improve moving object detection as discussed by [24]. But it remains an open question whether image and video enhancement should rather be performed explicitly as a preprocessing step or implicitly for example by feeding affected images directly to a neural network for image content analysis like object detection [25]. Especially for real-time video processing at low latency it can be better to handle image perturbation implicitly in order to minimize the processing time of an algorithm. This can be achieved by making algorithms for image content analysis robust or even invariant to perturbations such as noise or blur. Additionally, mistakes of an individual preprocessing module can obviously affect the quality of the entire processing pipeline.
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Jorge Charco, Angel Sappa, Boris X. Vintimilla, & Henry Velesaca. (2022). Human Body Pose Estimation in Multi-view Environments. In ICT Applications for Smart Cities. Intelligent Systems Reference Library (Vol. 224, pp. 79–99). ISRL. Springer.
Abstract: This chapter tackles the challenging problem of human pose estimation in multi-view environments to handle scenes with self-occlusions. The proposed approach starts by first estimating the camera pose—extrinsic parameters—in multi-view scenarios; due to few real image datasets, different virtual scenes are generated by using a special simulator, for training and testing the proposed convolutional neural network based approaches. Then, these extrinsic parameters are used to establish the relation between different cameras into the multi-view scheme, which captures the pose of the person from different points of view at the same time. The proposed multi-view scheme allows to robustly estimate human body joints’ position even in situations where they are occluded. This would help to avoid possible false alarms in behavioral analysis systems of smart cities, as well as applications for physical therapy, safe moving assistance for the elderly among other. The chapter concludes by presenting experimental results in real scenes by using state-of-the-art and the proposed multi-view approaches.
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