Abstract: Optical Flow (OF) is the input of a wide range of decision support systems such as car driver assistance, UAV guiding or medical diagnose. In these real situations, the absence of ground truth forces to assess OF quality using quantities computed from either sequences or the computed optical flow itself. These quantities are generally known as Confidence Measures, CM. Even if we have a proper confidence measure we still need a way to evaluate its ability to discard pixels with an OF prone to have a large error. Current approaches only provide a descriptive evaluation of the CM performance but such approaches are not capable to fairly compare different confidence measures and optical flow algorithms. Thus, it is of prime importance to define a framework and a general road map for the evaluation of optical flow performance.
This thesis provides a framework able to decide which pairs “ optical flow – confidence measure” (OF-CM) are best suited for optical flow error bounding given a confidence level determined by a decision support system. To design this framework we cover the following points:
Descriptive scores. As a first step, we summarize and analyze the sources of inaccuracies in the output of optical flow algorithms. Second, we present several descriptive plots that visually assess CM capabilities for OF error bounding. In addition to the descriptive plots, given a plot representing OF-CM capabilities to bound the error, we provide a numeric score that categorizes the plot according to its decreasing profile, that is, a score assessing CM performance.
Statistical framework. We provide a comparison framework that assesses the best suited OF-CM pair for error bounding that uses a two stage cascade process. First of all we assess the predictive value of the confidence measures by means of a descriptive plot. Then, for a sample of descriptive plots computed over training frames, we obtain a generic curve that will be used for sequences with no ground truth. As a second step, we evaluate the obtained general curve and its capabilities to really reflect the predictive value of a confidence measure using the variability across train frames by means of ANOVA.
The presented framework has shown its potential in the application on clinical decision support systems. In particular, we have analyzed the impact of the different image artifacts such as noise and decay to the output of optical flow in a cardiac diagnose system and we have improved the navigation inside the bronchial tree on bronchoscopy.

Abstract: En esta comunicación presentamos una experiencia en Aprendizaje Basado en Proyectos (Project
Based Learning – PBL) realizada los últimos cuatro años (cursos del 2004-05 al 2007-08) en Gráficos
por Computador 2, asignatura optativa de tercer curso de Ingeniería Informática, titulación impartida
en la Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería (ETSE) de la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona
(UAB).
Fruto de la constante voluntad de mejora de la organización ABP de nuestra asignatura nos decidimos
a utilizar una herramienta LMS (Learning Management System) basada en Moodle y adaptada por
nosotros llamada Caronte para poder gestionar la documentación generada en ABP, y añadir una
componente semipresencial a la asignatura.
En primer lugar se presenta la organización de nuestra asignatura, basada proponer al alumno dos
itinerarios para cursarla: el itinerario ABP y el itinerario basado en clases magistrales i examen que
llamaremos TPPE (Teoría, Problemas, Prácticas, Examen). La dinámica ABP nos genera una cantidad
importante de documentación entre los grupos y el profesor, aparte de el feedback que el profesor
genera a los alumnos.
En la segunda parte del artículo presentamos los espacios docentes electrónicos de ambos itinerarios,
con los que trabajan los alumnos.
Finalmente, mostramos los resultados obtenidos de alumnos matriculados y de encuestas de valoración
realizados por los alumnos para finalmente exponer las conclusiones de estos cuatro años de
experiencia en ABP y en el uso de recursos virtuales en ABP, así como plantear mejoras y temas de
discusión sobre ABP.

Abstract: The recognition of symbols in graphic documents is an intensive research activity in the community of pattern recognition and document analysis. A key issue in the interpretation of maps, engineering drawings, diagrams, etc. is the recognition of domain dependent symbols according to a symbol database. In this work we first review the most outstanding symbol recognition methods from two different points of view: application domains and pattern recognition methods. In the second part of the paper, open and unaddressed problems involved in symbol recognition are described, analyzing their current state of art and discussing future research challenges. Thus, issues such as symbol representation, matching, segmentation, learning, scalability of recognition methods and performance evaluation are addressed in this work. Finally, we discuss the perspectives of symbol recognition concerning to new paradigms such as user interfaces in handheld computers or document database and WWW indexing by graphical content.

Abstract: Myocardium appears as a uniform tissue that seen in convectional Magnetic Resonance Images (MRI) shows just the contractile part of its movement. MR Tagging is a unique imaging technique that prints a grid over the tissue which moves according to the underlying movement of the myocardium revealing the true deformation of the cardiac muscle. Optical flow techniques based on spectral information estimate tissue displacement by analyzing information encoded in the phase maps which can be obtained using, local (Gabor) and global (HARP) methods. In this paper we compare both in synthetic and real Tagged MR sequences. We conclude that local method is slightly more accurate than the global one. On the other hand, global method is more efficient as it is much faster and less parameters have to be taken into account

Abstract: Smoothing of biomedical images should preserve gray-level transitions between adjacent tissues, while restoring contours consistent with anatomical structures. Anisotropic diffusion operators are based on image appearance discontinuities (either local or contextual) and might fail at weak inter-tissue transitions. Meanwhile, the output of block-wise and morphological operations is prone to present a block structure due to the shape and size of the considered pixel neighborhood. In this contribution, we use differential geometry concepts to define a diffusion operator that restricts to image consistent level-sets. In this manner, the final state is a non-uniform intensity image presenting homogeneous inter-tissue transitions along anatomical structures, while smoothing intra-structure texture. Experiments on different types of medical images (magnetic resonance, computerized tomography) illustrate its benefit on a further process (such as segmentation) of images.