Abstract: In this paper, we present a word spotting framework that follows the query-by-string paradigm where word images are represented both by textual and visual representations. The textual representation is formulated in terms of character $n$-grams while the visual one is based on the bag-of-visual-words scheme. These two representations are merged together and projected to a sub-vector space. This transform allows to, given a textual query, retrieve word instances that were only represented by the visual modality. Moreover, this statistical representation can be used together with state-of-the-art indexation structures in order to deal with large-scale scenarios. The proposed method is evaluated using a collection of historical documents outperforming state-of-the-art performances.

Abstract: The measure of lumen volume on radial arteries can be used to evaluate the vessel response to different vasodilators. In this paper, we present a framework for automatic lumen segmentation in longitudinal cut images of radial artery from Intravascular ultrasound sequences. The segmentation is tackled as a classification problem where the contextual information is exploited by means of Conditional Random Fields (CRFs). A multi-class classification framework is proposed, and inference is achieved by combining binary CRFs according to the Error-Correcting-Output-Code technique. The results are validated against manually segmented sequences. Finally, the method is compared with other state-of-the-art classifiers.

Abstract: TA7.4
Intelligent vehicle lighting systems aim at automatically regulating the headlights' beam to illuminate as much of the road ahead as possible while avoiding dazzling other drivers. A key component of such a system is computer vision software that is able to distinguish blobs due to vehicles' headlights and rear lights from those due to road lamps and reflective elements such as poles and traffic signs. In a previous work, we have devised a set of specialized supervised classifiers to make such decisions based on blob features related to its intensity and shape. Despite the overall good performance, there remain challenging that have yet to be solved: notably, faint and tiny blobs corresponding to quite distant vehicles. In fact, for such distant blobs, classification decisions can be taken after observing them during a few frames. Hence, incorporating tracking could improve the overall lighting system performance by enforcing the temporal consistency of the classifier decision. Accordingly, this paper focuses on the problem of constructing blob tracks, which is actually one of multiple-target tracking (MTT), but under two special conditions: We have to deal with frequent occlusions, as well as blob splits and merges. We approach it in a novel way by formulating the problem as a maximum a posteriori inference on a Markov random field. The qualitative (in video form) and quantitative evaluation of our new MTT method shows good tracking results. In addition, we will also see that the classification performance of the problematic blobs improves due to the proposed MTT algorithm.

Abstract: TB6.2
Road segmentation is an essential functionality for supporting advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) such as road following and vehicle and pedestrian detection. Significant efforts have been made in order to solve this task using vision-based techniques. The major challenge is to deal with lighting variations and the presence of objects on the road surface. In this paper, we propose a new road detection method to infer the areas of the image depicting road surfaces without performing any image segmentation. The idea is to previously segment manually or semi-automatically the road region in a traffic-free reference video record on a first drive. And then to transfer these regions to the frames of a second video sequence acquired later in a second drive through the same road, in an on-line manner. This is possible because we are able to automatically align the two videos in time and space, that is, to synchronize them and warp each frame of the first video to its corresponding frame in the second one. The geometric transform can thus transfer the road region to the present frame on-line. In order to reduce the different lighting conditions which are present in outdoor scenarios, our approach incorporates a shadowless feature space which represents an image in an illuminant-invariant feature space. Furthermore, we propose a dynamic background subtraction algorithm which removes the regions containing vehicles in the observed frames which are within the transferred road region.

Abstract: Small bowel motility dysfunctions are a widespread functional disorder characterized by abdominal pain and altered bowel habits in the absence of specific and unique organic pathology. Current methods of diagnosis are complex and can only be conducted at some highly specialized referral centers. Wireless Video Capsule Endoscopy (WCE) could be an interesting diagnostic alternative that presents excellent clinical advantages, since it is non-invasive and can be conducted by non specialists. The purpose of this work is to present a new method for the detection of wrinkle frames in WCE, a critical characteristic to detect one of the main motility events: contractions. The method goes beyond the use of one of the classical image feature, the Histogram

Abstract: In this paper we present a segmentation-free system for reading text in natural scenes. A CNN architecture is trained in an end-to-end manner, and is able to directly output readings without any explicit text localization step. In order to validate our proposal, we focus on the specific case of reading utility meters. We present our results in a large dataset of images acquired by different users and devices, so text appears in any location, with different sizes, fonts and lengths, and the images present several distortions such as
dirt, illumination highlights or blur.