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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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Marçal Rusiñol, David Aldavert, Ricardo Toledo, & Josep Llados. (2011). Browsing Heterogeneous Document Collections by a Segmentation-Free Word Spotting Method. In 11th International Conference on Document Analysis and Recognition (pp. 63–67).
Abstract: In this paper, we present a segmentation-free word spotting method that is able to deal with heterogeneous document image collections. We propose a patch-based framework where patches are represented by a bag-of-visual-words model powered by SIFT descriptors. A later refinement of the feature vectors is performed by applying the latent semantic indexing technique. The proposed method performs well on both handwritten and typewritten historical document images. We have also tested our method on documents written in non-Latin scripts.
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Jaime Moreno. (2011). Perceptual Criteria on Image Compresions (Xavier Otazu, Ed.). Ph.D. thesis, Ediciones Graficas Rey, .
Abstract: Nowadays, digital images are used in many areas in everyday life, but they tend to be big. This increases amount of information leads us to the problem of image data storage. For example, it is common to have a representation a color pixel as a 24-bit number, where the channels red, green, and blue employ 8 bits each. In consequence, this kind of color pixel can specify one of 224 ¼ 16:78 million colors. Therefore, an image at a resolution of 512 £ 512 that allocates 24 bits per pixel, occupies 786,432 bytes. That is why image compression is important. An important feature of image compression is that it can be lossy or lossless. A compressed image is acceptable provided these losses of image information are not perceived by the eye. It is possible to assume that a portion of this information is redundant. Lossless Image Compression is defined as to mathematically decode the same image which was encoded. In Lossy Image Compression needs to identify two features inside the image: the redundancy and the irrelevancy of information. Thus, lossy compression modifies the image data in such a way when they are encoded and decoded, the recovered image is similar enough to the original one. How similar is the recovered image in comparison to the original image is defined prior to the compression process, and it depends on the implementation to be performed. In lossy compression, current image compression schemes remove information considered irrelevant by using mathematical criteria. One of the problems of these schemes is that although the numerical quality of the compressed image is low, it shows a high visual image quality, e.g. it does not show a lot of visible artifacts. It is because these mathematical criteria, used to remove information, do not take into account if the viewed information is perceived by the Human Visual System. Therefore, the aim of an image compression scheme designed to obtain images that do not show artifacts although their numerical quality can be low, is to eliminate the information that is not visible by the Human Visual System. Hence, this Ph.D. thesis proposes to exploit the visual redundancy existing in an image by reducing those features that can be unperceivable for the Human Visual System. First, we define an image quality assessment, which is highly correlated with the psychophysical experiments performed by human observers. The proposed CwPSNR metrics weights the well-known PSNR by using a particular perceptual low level model of the Human Visual System, e.g. the Chromatic Induction Wavelet Model (CIWaM). Second, we propose an image compression algorithm (called Hi-SET), which exploits the high correlation and self-similarity of pixels in a given area or neighborhood by means of a fractal function. Hi-SET possesses the main features that modern image compressors have, that is, it is an embedded coder, which allows a progressive transmission. Third, we propose a perceptual quantizer (½SQ), which is a modification of the uniform scalar quantizer. The ½SQ is applied to a pixel set in a certain Wavelet sub-band, that is, a global quantization. Unlike this, the proposed modification allows to perform a local pixel-by-pixel forward and inverse quantization, introducing into this process a perceptual distortion which depends on the surround spatial information of the pixel. Combining ½SQ method with the Hi-SET image compressor, we define a perceptual image compressor, called ©SET. Finally, a coding method for Region of Interest areas is presented, ½GBbBShift, which perceptually weights pixels into these areas and maintains only the more important perceivable features in the rest of the image. Results presented in this report show that CwPSNR is the best-ranked image quality method when it is applied to the most common image compression distortions such as JPEG and JPEG2000. CwPSNR shows the best correlation with the judgement of human observers, which is based on the results of psychophysical experiments obtained for relevant image quality databases such as TID2008, LIVE, CSIQ and IVC. Furthermore, Hi-SET coder obtains better results both for compression ratios and perceptual image quality than the JPEG2000 coder and other coders that use a Hilbert Fractal for image compression. Hence, when the proposed perceptual quantization is introduced to Hi-SET coder, our compressor improves its numerical and perceptual e±ciency. When ½GBbBShift method applied to Hi-SET is compared against MaxShift method applied to the JPEG2000 standard and Hi-SET, the images coded by our ROI method get the best results when the overall image quality is estimated. Both the proposed perceptual quantization and the ½GBbBShift method are generalized algorithms that can be applied to other Wavelet based image compression algorithms such as JPEG2000, SPIHT or SPECK.
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Pierluigi Casale, Oriol Pujol, & Petia Radeva. (2011). Approximate Convex Hulls Family for One-Class Cassification. In Carlo Sansone, Josef Kittler, & Fabio Roli (Eds.), 10th International Workshop on Multiple Classifier Systems (Vol. 6713, pp. 106–115). LNCS. Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Abstract: In this work, a new method for one-class classification based on the Convex Hull geometric structure is proposed. The new method creates a family of convex hulls able to fit the geometrical shape of the training points. The increased computational cost due to the creation of the convex hull in multiple dimensions is circumvented using random projections. This provides an approximation of the original structure with multiple bi-dimensional views. In the projection planes, a mechanism for noisy points rejection has also been elaborated and evaluated. Results show that the approach performs considerably well with respect to the state the art in one-class classification.
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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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Olivier Penacchio, & C. Alejandro Parraga. (2011). What is the best criterion for an efficient design of retinal photoreceptor mosaics? PER - Perception, 40, 197.
Abstract: The proportions of L, M and S photoreceptors in the primate retina are arguably determined by evolutionary pressure and the statistics of the visual environment. Two information theory-based approaches have been recently proposed for explaining the asymmetrical spatial densities of photoreceptors in humans. In the first approach Garrigan et al (2010 PLoS ONE 6 e1000677), a model for computing the information transmitted by cone arrays which considers the differential blurring produced by the long-wavelength accommodation of the eye’s lens is proposed. Their results explain the sparsity of S-cones but the optimum depends weakly on the L:M cone ratio. In the second approach (Penacchio et al, 2010 Perception 39 ECVP Supplement, 101), we show that human cone arrays make the visual representation scale-invariant, allowing the total entropy of the signal to be preserved while decreasing individual neurons’ entropy in further retinotopic representations. This criterion provides a thorough description of the distribution of L:M cone ratios and does not depend on differential blurring of the signal by the lens. Here, we investigate the similarities and differences of both approaches when applied to the same database. Our results support a 2-criteria optimization in the space of cone ratios whose components are arguably important and mostly unrelated.
[This work was partially funded by projects TIN2010-21771-C02-1 and Consolider-Ingenio 2010-CSD2007-00018 from the Spanish MICINN. CAP was funded by grant RYC-2007-00484]
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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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Jordi Roca, A.Owen, G.Jordan, Y.Ling, C. Alejandro Parraga, & A.Hurlbert. (2011). Inter-individual Variations in Color Naming and the Structure of 3D Color Space. In Journal of Vision (Vol. 12, 166).
Abstract: 36.307
Many everyday behavioural uses of color vision depend on color naming ability, which is neither measured nor predicted by most standardized tests of color vision, for either normal or anomalous color vision. Here we demonstrate a new method to quantify color naming ability by deriving a compact computational description of individual 3D color spaces. Methods: Individual observers underwent standardized color vision diagnostic tests (including anomaloscope testing) and a series of custom-made color naming tasks using 500 distinct color samples, either CRT stimuli (“light”-based) or Munsell chips (“surface”-based), with both forced- and free-choice color naming paradigms. For each subject, we defined his/her color solid as the set of 3D convex hulls computed for each basic color category from the relevant collection of categorised points in perceptually uniform CIELAB space. From the parameters of the convex hulls, we derived several indices to characterise the 3D structure of the color solid and its inter-individual variations. Using a reference group of 25 normal trichromats (NT), we defined the degree of normality for the shape, location and overlap of each color region, and the extent of “light”-“surface” agreement. Results: Certain features of color perception emerge from analysis of the average NT color solid, e.g.: (1) the white category is slightly shifted towards blue; and (2) the variability in category border location across NT subjects is asymmetric across color space, with least variability in the blue/green region. Comparisons between individual and average NT indices reveal specific naming “deficits”, e.g.: (1) Category volumes for white, green, brown and grey are expanded for anomalous trichromats and dichromats; and (2) the focal structure of color space is disrupted more in protanopia than other forms of anomalous color vision. The indices both capture the structure of subjective color spaces and allow us to quantify inter-individual differences in color naming ability.
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C. Alejandro Parraga, Jordi Roca, & Maria Vanrell. (2011). Do Basic Colors Influence Chromatic Adaptation? VSS - Journal of Vision, 11(11), 85.
Abstract: Color constancy (the ability to perceive colors relatively stable under different illuminants) is the result of several mechanisms spread across different neural levels and responding to several visual scene cues. It is usually measured by estimating the perceived color of a grey patch under an illuminant change. In this work, we hypothesize whether chromatic adaptation (without a reference white or grey) could be driven by certain colors, specifically those corresponding to the universal color terms proposed by Berlin and Kay (1969). To this end we have developed a new psychophysical paradigm in which subjects adjust the color of a test patch (in CIELab space) to match their memory of the best example of a given color chosen from the universal terms list (grey, red, green, blue, yellow, purple, pink, orange and brown). The test patch is embedded inside a Mondrian image and presented on a calibrated CRT screen inside a dark cabin. All subjects were trained to “recall” their most exemplary colors reliably from memory and asked to always produce the same basic colors when required under several adaptation conditions. These include achromatic and colored Mondrian backgrounds, under a simulated D65 illuminant and several colored illuminants. A set of basic colors were measured for each subject under neutral conditions (achromatic background and D65 illuminant) and used as “reference” for the rest of the experiment. The colors adjusted by the subjects in each adaptation condition were compared to the reference colors under the corresponding illuminant and a “constancy index” was obtained for each of them. Our results show that for some colors the constancy index was better than for grey. The set of best adapted colors in each condition were common to a majority of subjects and were dependent on the chromaticity of the illuminant and the chromatic background considered.
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Debora Gil, Agnes Borras, Manuel Ballester, Francesc Carreras, Ruth Aris, Manuel Vazquez, et al. (2011). MIOCARDIA: Integrating cardiac function and muscular architecture for a better diagnosis. In Association for Computing Machinery (Ed.), 14th International Symposium on Applied Sciences in Biomedical and Communication Technologies. Barcelona, Spain.
Abstract: Deep understanding of myocardial structure of the heart would unravel crucial knowledge for clinical and medical procedures. The MIOCARDIA project is a multidisciplinary project in cooperation with l'Hospital de la Santa Creu i de Sant Pau, Clinica la Creu Blanca and Barcelona Supercomputing Center. The ultimate goal of this project is defining a computational model of the myocardium. The model takes into account the deep interrelation between the anatomy and the mechanics of the heart. The paper explains the workflow of the MIOCARDIA project. It also introduces a multiresolution reconstruction technique based on DT-MRI streamlining for simplified global myocardial model generation. Our reconstructions can restore the most complex myocardial structures and provides evidences of a global helical organization.
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Jorge Bernal, Fernando Vilariño, & F. Javier Sanchez. (2011). Towards Intelligent Systems for Colonoscopy. In Paul Miskovitz (Ed.), Colonoscopy (Vol. 1, pp. 257–282). Intech.
Abstract: In this chapter we present tools that can be used to build intelligent systems for colonoscopy.
The idea is, by using methods based on computer vision and artificial intelligence, add significant value to the colonoscopy procedure. Intelligent systems are being used to assist in other medical interventions
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Patricia Marquez, Debora Gil, & Aura Hernandez-Sabate. (2011). A Confidence Measure for Assessing Optical Flow Accuracy in the Absence of Ground Truth. In IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision – Workshops (pp. 2042–2049). Barcelona (Spain): IEEE.
Abstract: Optical flow is a valuable tool for motion analysis in autonomous navigation systems. A reliable application requires determining the accuracy of the computed optical flow. This is a main challenge given the absence of ground truth in real world sequences. This paper introduces a measure of optical flow accuracy for Lucas-Kanade based flows in terms of the numerical stability of the data-term. We call this measure optical flow condition number. A statistical analysis over ground-truth data show a good statistical correlation between the condition number and optical flow error. Experiments on driving sequences illustrate its potential for autonomous navigation systems.
Keywords: IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision – Workshops
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Eduard Vazquez, Ramon Baldrich, Joost Van de Weijer, & Maria Vanrell. (2011). Describing Reflectances for Colour Segmentation Robust to Shadows, Highlights and Textures. TPAMI - IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 33(5), 917–930.
Abstract: The segmentation of a single material reflectance is a challenging problem due to the considerable variation in image measurements caused by the geometry of the object, shadows, and specularities. The combination of these effects has been modeled by the dichromatic reflection model. However, the application of the model to real-world images is limited due to unknown acquisition parameters and compression artifacts. In this paper, we present a robust model for the shape of a single material reflectance in histogram space. The method is based on a multilocal creaseness analysis of the histogram which results in a set of ridges representing the material reflectances. The segmentation method derived from these ridges is robust to both shadow, shading and specularities, and texture in real-world images. We further complete the method by incorporating prior knowledge from image statistics, and incorporate spatial coherence by using multiscale color contrast information. Results obtained show that our method clearly outperforms state-of-the-art segmentation methods on a widely used segmentation benchmark, having as a main characteristic its excellent performance in the presence of shadows and highlights at low computational cost.
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Jorge Bernal, F. Javier Sanchez, & Fernando Vilariño. (2011). Current Challenges on Polyp Detection in Colonoscopy Videos: From Region Segmentation to Region Classification. a Pattern Recognition-based Approach.ased Approach. In K. Djemal (Ed.), 2nd International Workshop on Medical Image Analysis and Descriptionfor Diagnosis Systems (pp. 62–71). SciTePress.
Abstract: In this paper we present our approach on real-time polyp detection in colonoscopy videos. Our method consists of three stages: Image Segmentation, Region Description and Image Classification. Taking into account the constraints of our project, we introduce our segmentation system that is based on the model of appearance of the polyp that we have defined after observing real videos from colonoscopy processes. The output of this stage will ideally be a low number of regions of which one of them should cover the whole polyp region (if there is one in the image). This regions will be described in terms of features and, as a result of a machine learning schema, classified based on the values that they have for the several features that we will use on their description. Although we are still on the early stages of the project, we present some preliminary segmentation results that indicates that we are going in a good direction.
Keywords: Medical Imaging, Colonoscopy, Pattern Recognition, Segmentation, Polyp Detection, Region Description, Machine Learning, Real-time.
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Victor Ponce, Mario Gorga, Xavier Baro, Petia Radeva, & Sergio Escalera. (2011). Analisis de la Expresion Oral y Gestual en Proyectos Fin de Carrera Via un Sistema de Vision Artificial (Vol. 4).
Abstract: La comunicación y expresión oral es una competencia de especial relevancia en el EEES. No obstante, en muchas enseñanzas superiores la puesta en práctica de esta competencia ha sido relegada principalmente a la presentación de proyectos fin de carrera. Dentro de un proyecto de innovación docente, se ha desarrollado una herramienta informática para la extracción de información objetiva para el análisis de la expresión oral y gestual de los alumnos. El objetivo es dar un “feedback” a los estudiantes que les permita mejorar la calidad de sus presentaciones. El prototipo inicial que se presenta en este trabajo permite extraer de forma automática información audiovisual y analizarla mediante técnicas de aprendizaje. El sistema ha sido aplicado a 15 proyectos fin de carrera y 15 exposiciones dentro de una asignatura de cuarto curso. Los resultados obtenidos muestran la viabilidad del sistema para sugerir factores que ayuden tanto en el éxito de la comunicación así como en los criterios de evaluación.
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