Abstract: We propose an automatic system for user identification and object recognition based on multi-modal RGB-Depth data analysis. We model a RGBD environment learning a pixel-based background Gaussian distribution. Then, user and object candidate regions are detected and recognized online using robust statistical approaches over RGBD descriptions. Finally, the system saves the historic of user-object assignments, being specially useful for surveillance scenarios. The system has been evaluated on a novel data set containing different indoor/outdoor scenarios, objects, and users, showing accurate recognition and better performance than standard state-of-the-art approaches.

Abstract: The current paper proposes a novel color correction approach based on a probabilistic segmentation framework by using 3D Gaussian Mixture Models. Regions are used to compute local color correction functions, which are then combined to obtain the final corrected image. The proposed approach is evaluated using both a recently published metric and two large data sets composed of seventy images. The evaluation is performed by comparing our algorithm with eight well known color correction algorithms. Results show that the proposed approach is the highest scoring color correction method. Also, the proposed single step 3D color space probabilistic segmentation reduces processing time over similar approaches.

Abstract: Local image descriptors are generally designed for describing all possible image patches. Such patches may be subject to complex variations in appearance due to incidental object, scene and recording conditions. Because of this, a single-best descriptor for accurate image representation under all conditions does not exist. Therefore, we propose to automatically select from a pool of descriptors the one that is best suitable based on object surface and scene properties. These properties are measured on the fly from a single image patch through a set of attributes. Attributes are input to a classifier which selects the best descriptor. Our experiments on a large dataset of colored object patches show that the proposed selection method outperforms the best single descriptor and a-priori combinations of the descriptor pool.

Abstract: This article describes a new collection of still image dataset which are dedicated to interactions between people. Human action recognition from still images have been a hot topic recently, but most of them are actions performed by a single person, like running, walking, riding bikes, phoning and so on and there is no interactions between people in one image. The dataset collected in this paper are concentrating on human interaction between two people aiming to explore this new topic in the research area of action recognition from still images.

Abstract: In order to improve the results of automatically recognized handwritten text, information about the language is commonly included in the recognition process. A common approach is to represent a text line as a sequence. It is processed in one direction and the language information via n-grams is directly included in the decoding. This approach, however, only uses context on one side to estimate a word’s probability. Therefore, we propose a bidirectional recognition in this paper, using distinct forward and a backward language models. By combining decoding hypotheses from both directions, we achieve a significant increase in recognition accuracy for the off-line writer independent handwriting recognition task. Both language models are of the same type and can be estimated on the same corpus. Hence, the increase in recognition accuracy comes without any additional need for training data or language modeling complexity.

Abstract: The recognition of abnormal behaviors in video sequences has raised as a hot topic in video understanding research. Particularly, an important challenge resides on automatically detecting abnormality. However, there is no convention about the types of anomalies that training data should derive. In surveillance, these are typically detected when new observations differ substantially from observed, previously learned behavior models, which represent normality. This paper focuses on properly defining anomalies within trajectory analysis: we propose a hierarchical representation conformed by Soft, Intermediate, and Hard Anomaly, which are identified from the extent and nature of deviation from learned models. Towards this end, a novel Gaussian Mixture Model representation of learned route patterns creates a probabilistic map of the image plane, which is applied to detect and classify anomalies in real-time. Our method overcomes limitations of similar existing approaches, and performs correctly even when the tracking is affected by different sources of noise. The reliability of our approach is demonstrated experimentally.

Abstract: World Health Organization estimates that 80% of the world population is affected of back pain during his life. Current practices to analyze back problems are expensive, subjective, and invasive. In this work, we propose a novel tool for posture and range of movement estimation based on the analysis of 3D information from depth maps. Given a set of keypoints defined by the user, RGB and depth data are aligned, depth surface is reconstructed, keypoints are matching using a novel point-to-point fitting procedure, and accurate measurements about posture, spinal curvature, and range of movement are computed. The system shows high precision and reliable measurements, being useful for posture reeducation purposes to prevent musculoskeletal disorders, such as back pain, as well as tracking the posture evolution of patients in rehabilitation treatments.

Abstract: Facial trait judgments are an important information cue for people. Recent works in the Psychology field have stated the basis of face evaluation, defining a set of traits that we evaluate from faces (e.g. dominance, trustworthiness, aggressiveness, attractiveness, threatening or intelligence among others). We rapidly infer information from others faces, usually after a short period of time (< 1000ms) we perceive a certain degree of dominance or trustworthiness of another person from the face. Although these perceptions are not necessarily accurate, they influence many important social outcomes (such as the results of the elections or the court decisions). This topic has also attracted the attention of Computer Vision scientists, and recently a computational model to automatically predict trait evaluations from faces has been proposed. These systems try to mimic the human perception by means of applying machine learning classifiers to a set of labeled data. In this paper we perform an experimental study on the specific facial features that trigger the social inferences. Using previous results from the literature, we propose to use simple similarity maps to evaluate which regions of the face influence the most the trait inferences. The correlation analysis is performed using only appearance, and the results from the experiments suggest that each trait is correlated with specific facial characteristics.