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37 results (View BibTeX file of all listed publications)

2014

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MoSh: Motion and Shape Capture from Sparse Markers

Loper, M. M., Mahmood, N., Black, M. J.

ACM Transactions on Graphics, (Proc. SIGGRAPH Asia), 33(6):220:1-220:13, ACM, New York, NY, USA, November 2014 (article)

Abstract
Marker-based motion capture (mocap) is widely criticized as producing lifeless animations. We argue that important information about body surface motion is present in standard marker sets but is lost in extracting a skeleton. We demonstrate a new approach called MoSh (Motion and Shape capture), that automatically extracts this detail from mocap data. MoSh estimates body shape and pose together using sparse marker data by exploiting a parametric model of the human body. In contrast to previous work, MoSh solves for the marker locations relative to the body and estimates accurate body shape directly from the markers without the use of 3D scans; this effectively turns a mocap system into an approximate body scanner. MoSh is able to capture soft tissue motions directly from markers by allowing body shape to vary over time. We evaluate the effect of different marker sets on pose and shape accuracy and propose a new sparse marker set for capturing soft-tissue motion. We illustrate MoSh by recovering body shape, pose, and soft-tissue motion from archival mocap data and using this to produce animations with subtlety and realism. We also show soft-tissue motion retargeting to new characters and show how to magnify the 3D deformations of soft tissue to create animations with appealing exaggerations.

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pdf video data pdf from publisher link (url) DOI Project Page Project Page Project Page [BibTex]

2014

ps Loper, M. M., Mahmood, N., Black, M. J. MoSh: Motion and Shape Capture from Sparse Markers ACM Transactions on Graphics, (Proc. SIGGRAPH Asia), 33(6):220:1-220:13, ACM, New York, NY, USA, November 2014 (article)

pdf video data pdf from publisher link (url) DOI Project Page Project Page Project Page [BibTex]

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Can I recognize my body’s weight? The influence of shape and texture on the perception of self

Piryankova, I., Stefanucci, J., Romero, J., de la Rosa, S., Black, M., Mohler, B.

ACM Transactions on Applied Perception for the Symposium on Applied Perception, 11(3):13:1-13:18, September 2014 (article)

Abstract
The goal of this research was to investigate women’s sensitivity to changes in their perceived weight by altering the body mass index (BMI) of the participants’ personalized avatars displayed on a large-screen immersive display. We created the personalized avatars with a full-body 3D scanner that records both the participants’ body geometry and texture. We altered the weight of the personalized avatars to produce changes in BMI while keeping height, arm length and inseam fixed and exploited the correlation between body geometry and anthropometric measurements encapsulated in a statistical body shape model created from thousands of body scans. In a 2x2 psychophysical experiment, we investigated the relative importance of visual cues, namely shape (own shape vs. an average female body shape with equivalent height and BMI to the participant) and texture (own photo-realistic texture or checkerboard pattern texture) on the ability to accurately perceive own current body weight (by asking them ‘Is the avatar the same weight as you?’). Our results indicate that shape (where height and BMI are fixed) had little effect on the perception of body weight. Interestingly, the participants perceived their body weight veridically when they saw their own photo-realistic texture and significantly underestimated their body weight when the avatar had a checkerboard patterned texture. The range that the participants accepted as their own current weight was approximately a 0.83 to −6.05 BMI% change tolerance range around their perceived weight. Both the shape and the texture had an effect on the reported similarity of the body parts and the whole avatar to the participant’s body. This work has implications for new measures for patients with body image disorders, as well as researchers interested in creating personalized avatars for games, training applications or virtual reality.

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pdf DOI Project Page Project Page [BibTex]

ps Piryankova, I., Stefanucci, J., Romero, J., de la Rosa, S., Black, M., Mohler, B. Can I recognize my body’s weight? The influence of shape and texture on the perception of self ACM Transactions on Applied Perception for the Symposium on Applied Perception, 11(3):13:1-13:18, September 2014 (article)

pdf DOI Project Page Project Page [BibTex]

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3D to 2D bijection for spherical objects under equidistant fisheye projection

Ahmad, A., Xavier, J., Santos-Victor, J., Lima, P.

Computer Vision and Image Understanding, 125, pages: 172-183, August 2014 (article)

Abstract
The core problem addressed in this article is the 3D position detection of a spherical object of known-radius in a single image frame, obtained by a dioptric vision system consisting of only one fisheye lens camera that follows equidistant projection model. The central contribution is a bijection principle between a known-radius spherical object’s 3D world position and its 2D projected image curve, that we prove, thus establishing that for every possible 3D world position of the spherical object, there exists a unique curve on the image plane if the object is projected through a fisheye lens that follows equidistant projection model. Additionally, we present a setup for the experimental verification of the principle’s correctness. In previously published works we have applied this principle to detect and subsequently track a known-radius spherical object.

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DOI [BibTex]

ps Ahmad, A., Xavier, J., Santos-Victor, J., Lima, P. 3D to 2D bijection for spherical objects under equidistant fisheye projection Computer Vision and Image Understanding, 125, pages: 172-183, August 2014 (article)

DOI [BibTex]

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Breathing Life into Shape: Capturing, Modeling and Animating 3D Human Breathing

Tsoli, A., Mahmood, N., Black, M. J.

ACM Transactions on Graphics, (Proc. SIGGRAPH), 33(4):52:1-52:11, ACM, New York, NY, July 2014 (article)

Abstract
Modeling how the human body deforms during breathing is important for the realistic animation of lifelike 3D avatars. We learn a model of body shape deformations due to breathing for different breathing types and provide simple animation controls to render lifelike breathing regardless of body shape. We capture and align high-resolution 3D scans of 58 human subjects. We compute deviations from each subject’s mean shape during breathing, and study the statistics of such shape changes for different genders, body shapes, and breathing types. We use the volume of the registered scans as a proxy for lung volume and learn a novel non-linear model relating volume and breathing type to 3D shape deformations and pose changes. We then augment a SCAPE body model so that body shape is determined by identity, pose, and the parameters of the breathing model. These parameters provide an intuitive interface with which animators can synthesize 3D human avatars with realistic breathing motions. We also develop a novel interface for animating breathing using a spirometer, which measures the changes in breathing volume of a “breath actor.”

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pdf video link (url) DOI Project Page Project Page Project Page [BibTex]

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3D Traffic Scene Understanding from Movable Platforms

Geiger, A., Lauer, M., Wojek, C., Stiller, C., Urtasun, R.

IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (PAMI), 36(5):1012-1025, published, IEEE, Los Alamitos, CA, May 2014 (article)

Abstract
In this paper, we present a novel probabilistic generative model for multi-object traffic scene understanding from movable platforms which reasons jointly about the 3D scene layout as well as the location and orientation of objects in the scene. In particular, the scene topology, geometry and traffic activities are inferred from short video sequences. Inspired by the impressive driving capabilities of humans, our model does not rely on GPS, lidar or map knowledge. Instead, it takes advantage of a diverse set of visual cues in the form of vehicle tracklets, vanishing points, semantic scene labels, scene flow and occupancy grids. For each of these cues we propose likelihood functions that are integrated into a probabilistic generative model. We learn all model parameters from training data using contrastive divergence. Experiments conducted on videos of 113 representative intersections show that our approach successfully infers the correct layout in a variety of very challenging scenarios. To evaluate the importance of each feature cue, experiments using different feature combinations are conducted. Furthermore, we show how by employing context derived from the proposed method we are able to improve over the state-of-the-art in terms of object detection and object orientation estimation in challenging and cluttered urban environments.

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pdf link (url) [BibTex]

avg ps Geiger, A., Lauer, M., Wojek, C., Stiller, C., Urtasun, R. 3D Traffic Scene Understanding from Movable Platforms IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (PAMI), 36(5):1012-1025, published, IEEE, Los Alamitos, CA, May 2014 (article)

pdf link (url) [BibTex]

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Modeling the Human Body in 3D: Data Registration and Human Shape Representation

Tsoli, A.

Brown University, Department of Computer Science, May 2014 (phdthesis)

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pdf [BibTex]

ps Tsoli, A. Modeling the Human Body in 3D: Data Registration and Human Shape Representation Brown University, Department of Computer Science, May 2014 (phdthesis)

pdf [BibTex]

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Adaptive Offset Correction for Intracortical Brain Computer Interfaces

Homer, M. L., Perge, J. A., Black, M. J., Harrison, M. T., Cash, S. S., Hochberg, L. R.

IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, 22(2):239-248, March 2014 (article)

Abstract
Intracortical brain computer interfaces (iBCIs) decode intended movement from neural activity for the control of external devices such as a robotic arm. Standard approaches include a calibration phase to estimate decoding parameters. During iBCI operation, the statistical properties of the neural activity can depart from those observed during calibration, sometimes hindering a user’s ability to control the iBCI. To address this problem, we adaptively correct the offset terms within a Kalman filter decoder via penalized maximum likelihood estimation. The approach can handle rapid shifts in neural signal behavior (on the order of seconds) and requires no knowledge of the intended movement. The algorithm, called MOCA, was tested using simulated neural activity and evaluated retrospectively using data collected from two people with tetraplegia operating an iBCI. In 19 clinical research test cases, where a nonadaptive Kalman filter yielded relatively high decoding errors, MOCA significantly reduced these errors (10.6 ± 10.1\%; p < 0.05, pairwise t-test). MOCA did not significantly change the error in the remaining 23 cases where a nonadaptive Kalman filter already performed well. These results suggest that MOCA provides more robust decoding than the standard Kalman filter for iBCIs.

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pdf DOI Project Page [BibTex]

ps Homer, M. L., Perge, J. A., Black, M. J., Harrison, M. T., Cash, S. S., Hochberg, L. R. Adaptive Offset Correction for Intracortical Brain Computer Interfaces IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, 22(2):239-248, March 2014 (article)

pdf DOI Project Page [BibTex]

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A physically-based approach to reflection separation: from physical modeling to constrained optimization

Kong, N., Tai, Y., Shin, J. S.

IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (PAMI), 36(2):209-221, IEEE Computer Society, Febuary 2014 (article)

Abstract
We propose a physically-based approach to separate reflection using multiple polarized images with a background scene captured behind glass. The input consists of three polarized images, each captured from the same view point but with a different polarizer angle separated by 45 degrees. The output is the high-quality separation of the reflection and background layers from each of the input images. A main technical challenge for this problem is that the mixing coefficient for the reflection and background layers depends on the angle of incidence and the orientation of the plane of incidence, which are spatially varying over the pixels of an image. Exploiting physical properties of polarization for a double-surfaced glass medium, we propose a multiscale scheme which automatically finds the optimal separation of the reflection and background layers. Through experiments, we demonstrate that our approach can generate superior results to those of previous methods.

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Publisher site [BibTex]

ps Kong, N., Tai, Y., Shin, J. S. A physically-based approach to reflection separation: from physical modeling to constrained optimization IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (PAMI), 36(2):209-221, IEEE Computer Society, Febuary 2014 (article)

Publisher site [BibTex]

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Simpler, faster, more accurate melanocytic lesion segmentation through MEDS

Peruch, F., Bogo, F., Bonazza, M., Cappelleri, V., Peserico, E.

IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, 61(2):557-565, February 2014 (article)

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DOI [BibTex]

ps Peruch, F., Bogo, F., Bonazza, M., Cappelleri, V., Peserico, E. Simpler, faster, more accurate melanocytic lesion segmentation through MEDS IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, 61(2):557-565, February 2014 (article)

DOI [BibTex]

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A freely-moving monkey treadmill model

Foster, J., Nuyujukian, P., Freifeld, O., Gao, H., Walker, R., Ryu, S., Meng, T., Murmann, B., Black, M., Shenoy, K.

J. of Neural Engineering, 11(4):046020, 2014 (article)

Abstract
Objective: Motor neuroscience and brain-machine interface (BMI) design is based on examining how the brain controls voluntary movement, typically by recording neural activity and behavior from animal models. Recording technologies used with these animal models have traditionally limited the range of behaviors that can be studied, and thus the generality of science and engineering research. We aim to design a freely-moving animal model using neural and behavioral recording technologies that do not constrain movement. Approach: We have established a freely-moving rhesus monkey model employing technology that transmits neural activity from an intracortical array using a head-mounted device and records behavior through computer vision using markerless motion capture. We demonstrate the excitability and utility of this new monkey model, including the fi rst recordings from motor cortex while rhesus monkeys walk quadrupedally on a treadmill. Main results: Using this monkey model, we show that multi-unit threshold-crossing neural activity encodes the phase of walking and that the average ring rate of the threshold crossings covaries with the speed of individual steps. On a population level, we find that neural state-space trajectories of walking at diff erent speeds have similar rotational dynamics in some dimensions that evolve at the step rate of walking, yet robustly separate by speed in other state-space dimensions. Significance: Freely-moving animal models may allow neuroscientists to examine a wider range of behaviors and can provide a flexible experimental paradigm for examining the neural mechanisms that underlie movement generation across behaviors and environments. For BMIs, freely-moving animal models have the potential to aid prosthetic design by examining how neural encoding changes with posture, environment, and other real-world context changes. Understanding this new realm of behavior in more naturalistic settings is essential for overall progress of basic motor neuroscience and for the successful translation of BMIs to people with paralysis.

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pdf Supplementary DOI Project Page [BibTex]

ps Foster, J., Nuyujukian, P., Freifeld, O., Gao, H., Walker, R., Ryu, S., Meng, T., Murmann, B., Black, M., Shenoy, K. A freely-moving monkey treadmill model J. of Neural Engineering, 11(4):046020, 2014 (article)

pdf Supplementary DOI Project Page [BibTex]

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Detection and Tracking of Occluded People

Tang, S., Andriluka, M., Schiele, B.

International Journal of Computer Vision, 110, pages: 58-69, 2014 (article)

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PDF [BibTex]

ps Tang, S., Andriluka, M., Schiele, B. Detection and Tracking of Occluded People International Journal of Computer Vision, 110, pages: 58-69, 2014 (article)

PDF [BibTex]

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Segmentation of Biomedical Images Using Active Contour Model with Robust Image Feature and Shape Prior

S. Y. Yeo, X. Xie, I. Sazonov, P. Nithiarasu

International Journal for Numerical Methods in Biomedical Engineering, 30(2):232- 248, 2014 (article)

Abstract
In this article, a new level set model is proposed for the segmentation of biomedical images. The image energy of the proposed model is derived from a robust image gradient feature which gives the active contour a global representation of the geometric configuration, making it more robust in dealing with image noise, weak edges, and initial configurations. Statistical shape information is incorporated using nonparametric shape density distribution, which allows the shape model to handle relatively large shape variations. The segmentation of various shapes from both synthetic and real images depict the robustness and efficiency of the proposed method.

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[BibTex]

ps S. Y. Yeo, X. Xie, I. Sazonov, P. Nithiarasu Segmentation of Biomedical Images Using Active Contour Model with Robust Image Feature and Shape Prior International Journal for Numerical Methods in Biomedical Engineering, 30(2):232- 248, 2014 (article)

[BibTex]

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Simulated Annealing

Gall, J.

In Encyclopedia of Computer Vision, pages: 737-741, 0, (Editors: Ikeuchi, K. ), Springer Verlag, 2014, to appear (inbook)

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[BibTex]

ps Gall, J. Simulated Annealing In Encyclopedia of Computer Vision, pages: 737-741, 0, (Editors: Ikeuchi, K. ), Springer Verlag, 2014, to appear (inbook)

[BibTex]

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A Quantitative Analysis of Current Practices in Optical Flow Estimation and the Principles behind Them

Sun, D., Roth, S., Black, M. J.

International Journal of Computer Vision (IJCV), 106(2):115-137, 2014 (article)

Abstract
The accuracy of optical flow estimation algorithms has been improving steadily as evidenced by results on the Middlebury optical flow benchmark. The typical formulation, however, has changed little since the work of Horn and Schunck. We attempt to uncover what has made recent advances possible through a thorough analysis of how the objective function, the optimization method, and modern implementation practices influence accuracy. We discover that "classical'' flow formulations perform surprisingly well when combined with modern optimization and implementation techniques. One key implementation detail is the median filtering of intermediate flow fields during optimization. While this improves the robustness of classical methods it actually leads to higher energy solutions, meaning that these methods are not optimizing the original objective function. To understand the principles behind this phenomenon, we derive a new objective function that formalizes the median filtering heuristic. This objective function includes a non-local smoothness term that robustly integrates flow estimates over large spatial neighborhoods. By modifying this new term to include information about flow and image boundaries we develop a method that can better preserve motion details. To take advantage of the trend towards video in wide-screen format, we further introduce an asymmetric pyramid downsampling scheme that enables the estimation of longer range horizontal motions. The methods are evaluated on Middlebury, MPI Sintel, and KITTI datasets using the same parameter settings.

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pdf full text code [BibTex]

ps Sun, D., Roth, S., Black, M. J. A Quantitative Analysis of Current Practices in Optical Flow Estimation and the Principles behind Them International Journal of Computer Vision (IJCV), 106(2):115-137, 2014 (article)

pdf full text code [BibTex]

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Automatic 4D Reconstruction of Patient-Specific Cardiac Mesh with 1- to-1 Vertex Correspondence from Segmented Contours Lines

C. W. Lim, Y. Su, S. Y. Yeo, G. M. Ng, V. T. Nguyen, L. Zhong, R. S. Tan, K. K. Poh, P. Chai,

PLOS ONE, 9(4), 2014 (article)

Abstract
We propose an automatic algorithm for the reconstruction of patient-specific cardiac mesh models with 1-to-1 vertex correspondence. In this framework, a series of 3D meshes depicting the endocardial surface of the heart at each time step is constructed, based on a set of border delineated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data of the whole cardiac cycle. The key contribution in this work involves a novel reconstruction technique to generate a 4D (i.e., spatial–temporal) model of the heart with 1-to-1 vertex mapping throughout the time frames. The reconstructed 3D model from the first time step is used as a base template model and then deformed to fit the segmented contours from the subsequent time steps. A method to determine a tree-based connectivity relationship is proposed to ensure robust mapping during mesh deformation. The novel feature is the ability to handle intra- and inter-frame 2D topology changes of the contours, which manifests as a series of merging and splitting of contours when the images are viewed either in a spatial or temporal sequence. Our algorithm has been tested on five acquisitions of cardiac MRI and can successfully reconstruct the full 4D heart model in around 30 minutes per subject. The generated 4D heart model conforms very well with the input segmented contours and the mesh element shape is of reasonably good quality. The work is important in the support of downstream computational simulation activities.

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[BibTex]

ps C. W. Lim, Y. Su, S. Y. Yeo, G. M. Ng, V. T. Nguyen, L. Zhong, R. S. Tan, K. K. Poh, P. Chai, Automatic 4D Reconstruction of Patient-Specific Cardiac Mesh with 1- to-1 Vertex Correspondence from Segmented Contours Lines PLOS ONE, 9(4), 2014 (article)

[BibTex]

2010

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Decoding complete reach and grasp actions from local primary motor cortex populations

(Featured in Nature’s Research Highlights (Nature, Vol 466, 29 July 2010))

Vargas-Irwin, C. E., Shakhnarovich, G., Yadollahpour, P., Mislow, J., Black, M. J., Donoghue, J. P.

J. of Neuroscience, 39(29):9659-9669, July 2010 (article)

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pdf pdf from publisher Movie 1 Movie 2 Project Page [BibTex]

2010

ps Vargas-Irwin, C. E., Shakhnarovich, G., Yadollahpour, P., Mislow, J., Black, M. J., Donoghue, J. P. Decoding complete reach and grasp actions from local primary motor cortex populations J. of Neuroscience, 39(29):9659-9669, July 2010 (article)

pdf pdf from publisher Movie 1 Movie 2 Project Page [BibTex]

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Guest editorial: State of the art in image- and video-based human pose and motion estimation

Sigal, L., Black, M. J.

International Journal of Computer Vision, 87(1):1-3, March 2010 (article)

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pdf from publisher [BibTex]

ps Sigal, L., Black, M. J. Guest editorial: State of the art in image- and video-based human pose and motion estimation International Journal of Computer Vision, 87(1):1-3, March 2010 (article)

pdf from publisher [BibTex]

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HumanEva: Synchronized video and motion capture dataset and baseline algorithm for evaluation of articulated human motion

Sigal, L., Balan, A., Black, M. J.

International Journal of Computer Vision, 87(1):4-27, Springer Netherlands, March 2010 (article)

Abstract
While research on articulated human motion and pose estimation has progressed rapidly in the last few years, there has been no systematic quantitative evaluation of competing methods to establish the current state of the art. We present data obtained using a hardware system that is able to capture synchronized video and ground-truth 3D motion. The resulting HumanEva datasets contain multiple subjects performing a set of predefined actions with a number of repetitions. On the order of 40,000 frames of synchronized motion capture and multi-view video (resulting in over one quarter million image frames in total) were collected at 60 Hz with an additional 37,000 time instants of pure motion capture data. A standard set of error measures is defined for evaluating both 2D and 3D pose estimation and tracking algorithms. We also describe a baseline algorithm for 3D articulated tracking that uses a relatively standard Bayesian framework with optimization in the form of Sequential Importance Resampling and Annealed Particle Filtering. In the context of this baseline algorithm we explore a variety of likelihood functions, prior models of human motion and the effects of algorithm parameters. Our experiments suggest that image observation models and motion priors play important roles in performance, and that in a multi-view laboratory environment, where initialization is available, Bayesian filtering tends to perform well. The datasets and the software are made available to the research community. This infrastructure will support the development of new articulated motion and pose estimation algorithms, will provide a baseline for the evaluation and comparison of new methods, and will help establish the current state of the art in human pose estimation and tracking.

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pdf pdf from publisher [BibTex]

ps Sigal, L., Balan, A., Black, M. J. HumanEva: Synchronized video and motion capture dataset and baseline algorithm for evaluation of articulated human motion International Journal of Computer Vision, 87(1):4-27, Springer Netherlands, March 2010 (article)

pdf pdf from publisher [BibTex]

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Automated Home-Cage Behavioral Phenotyping of Mice

Jhuang, H., Garrote, E., Mutch, J., Poggio, T., Steele, A., Serre, T.

Nature Communications, Nature Communications, 2010 (article)

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software, demo pdf [BibTex]

ps Jhuang, H., Garrote, E., Mutch, J., Poggio, T., Steele, A., Serre, T. Automated Home-Cage Behavioral Phenotyping of Mice Nature Communications, Nature Communications, 2010 (article)

software, demo pdf [BibTex]

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Visual Object-Action Recognition: Inferring Object Affordances from Human Demonstration

Kjellström, H., Romero, J., Kragic, D.

Computer Vision and Image Understanding, pages: 81-90, 2010 (article)

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Pdf [BibTex]

ps Kjellström, H., Romero, J., Kragic, D. Visual Object-Action Recognition: Inferring Object Affordances from Human Demonstration Computer Vision and Image Understanding, pages: 81-90, 2010 (article)

Pdf [BibTex]

2009

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Fields of Experts

Roth, S., Black, M. J.

International Journal of Computer Vision (IJCV), 82(2):205-29, April 2009 (article)

Abstract
We develop a framework for learning generic, expressive image priors that capture the statistics of natural scenes and can be used for a variety of machine vision tasks. The approach provides a practical method for learning high-order Markov random field (MRF) models with potential functions that extend over large pixel neighborhoods. These clique potentials are modeled using the Product-of-Experts framework that uses non-linear functions of many linear filter responses. In contrast to previous MRF approaches all parameters, including the linear filters themselves, are learned from training data. We demonstrate the capabilities of this Field-of-Experts model with two example applications, image denoising and image inpainting, which are implemented using a simple, approximate inference scheme. While the model is trained on a generic image database and is not tuned toward a specific application, we obtain results that compete with specialized techniques.

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pdf pdf from publisher [BibTex]

2009

ps Roth, S., Black, M. J. Fields of Experts International Journal of Computer Vision (IJCV), 82(2):205-29, April 2009 (article)

pdf pdf from publisher [BibTex]

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An introduction to Kernel Learning Algorithms

Gehler, P., Schölkopf, B.

In Kernel Methods for Remote Sensing Data Analysis, pages: 25-48, 2, (Editors: Gustavo Camps-Valls and Lorenzo Bruzzone), Wiley, New York, NY, USA, 2009 (inbook)

Abstract
Kernel learning algorithms are currently becoming a standard tool in the area of machine learning and pattern recognition. In this chapter we review the fundamental theory of kernel learning. As the basic building block we introduce the kernel function, which provides an elegant and general way to compare possibly very complex objects. We then review the concept of a reproducing kernel Hilbert space and state the representer theorem. Finally we give an overview of the most prominent algorithms, which are support vector classification and regression, Gaussian Processes and kernel principal analysis. With multiple kernel learning and structured output prediction we also introduce some more recent advancements in the field.

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link (url) DOI [BibTex]

ei ps Gehler, P., Schölkopf, B. An introduction to Kernel Learning Algorithms In Kernel Methods for Remote Sensing Data Analysis, pages: 25-48, 2, (Editors: Gustavo Camps-Valls and Lorenzo Bruzzone), Wiley, New York, NY, USA, 2009 (inbook)

link (url) DOI [BibTex]

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Visual Object Discovery

Sinha, P., Balas, B., Ostrovsky, Y., Wulff, J.

In Object Categorization: Computer and Human Vision Perspectives, pages: 301-323, (Editors: S. J. Dickinson, A. Leonardis, B. Schiele, M.J. Tarr), Cambridge University Press, 2009 (inbook)

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link (url) [BibTex]

ps Sinha, P., Balas, B., Ostrovsky, Y., Wulff, J. Visual Object Discovery In Object Categorization: Computer and Human Vision Perspectives, pages: 301-323, (Editors: S. J. Dickinson, A. Leonardis, B. Schiele, M.J. Tarr), Cambridge University Press, 2009 (inbook)

link (url) [BibTex]

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Left Ventricular Regional Wall Curvedness and Wall Stress in Patients with Ischemic Dilated Cardiomyopathy

Liang Zhong, Yi Su, Si Yong Yeo, Ru San Tan Dhanjoo Ghista, Ghassan Kassab

American Journal of Physiology – Heart and Circulatory Physiology, 296(3):H573-84, 2009 (article)

Abstract
Geometric remodeling of the left ventricle (LV) after myocardial infarction is associated with changes in myocardial wall stress. The objective of this study was to determine the regional curvatures and wall stress based on three-dimensional (3-D) reconstructions of the LV using MRI. Ten patients with ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDCM) and 10 normal subjects underwent MRI scan. The IDCM patients also underwent delayed gadolinium-enhancement imaging to delineate the extent of myocardial infarct. Regional curvedness, local radii of curvature, and wall thickness were calculated. The percent curvedness change between end diastole and end systole was also calculated. In normal heart, a short- and long-axis two-dimensional analysis showed a 41 +/- 11% and 45 +/- 12% increase of the mean of peak systolic wall stress between basal and apical sections, respectively. However, 3-D analysis showed no significant difference in peak systolic wall stress from basal and apical sections (P = 0.298, ANOVA). LV shape differed between IDCM patients and normal subjects in several ways: LV shape was more spherical (sphericity index = 0.62 +/- 0.08 vs. 0.52 +/- 0.06, P < 0.05), curvedness at end diastole (mean for 16 segments = 0.034 +/- 0.0056 vs. 0.040 +/- 0.0071 mm(-1), P < 0.001) and end systole (mean for 16 segments = 0.037 +/- 0.0068 vs. 0.067 +/- 0.020 mm(-1), P < 0.001) was affected by infarction, and peak systolic wall stress was significantly increased at each segment in IDCM patients. The 3-D quantification of regional wall stress by cardiac MRI provides more precise evaluation of cardiac mechanics. Identification of regional curvedness and wall stresses helps delineate the mechanisms of LV remodeling in IDCM and may help guide therapeutic LV restoration.

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[BibTex]

ps Liang Zhong, Yi Su, Si Yong Yeo, Ru San Tan Dhanjoo Ghista, Ghassan Kassab Left Ventricular Regional Wall Curvedness and Wall Stress in Patients with Ischemic Dilated Cardiomyopathy American Journal of Physiology – Heart and Circulatory Physiology, 296(3):H573-84, 2009 (article)

[BibTex]

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A Curvature-Based Approach for Left Ventricular Shape Analysis from Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Si Yong Yeo, Liang Zhong, Yi Su, Ru San Tan, Dhanjoo Ghista

Medical & Biological Engineering & Computing, 47(3):313-322, 2009 (article)

Abstract
It is believed that left ventricular (LV) regional shape is indicative of LV regional function, and cardiac pathologies are often associated with regional alterations in ventricular shape. In this article, we present a set of procedures for evaluating regional LV surface shape from anatomically accurate models reconstructed from cardiac magnetic resonance (MR) images. LV surface curvatures are computed using local surface fitting method, which enables us to assess regional LV shape and its variation. Comparisons are made between normal and diseased hearts. It is illustrated that LV surface curvatures at different regions of the normal heart are higher than those of the diseased heart. Also, the normal heart experiences a larger change in regional curvedness during contraction than the diseased heart. It is believed that with a wide range of dataset being evaluated, this approach will provide a new and efficient way of quantifying LV regional function.

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link (url) [BibTex]

ps Si Yong Yeo, Liang Zhong, Yi Su, Ru San Tan, Dhanjoo Ghista A Curvature-Based Approach for Left Ventricular Shape Analysis from Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging Medical & Biological Engineering & Computing, 47(3):313-322, 2009 (article)

link (url) [BibTex]

2007

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Learning static Gestalt laws through dynamic experience

Ostrovsky, Y., Wulff, J., Sinha, P.

Journal of Vision, 7(9):315-315, ARVO, June 2007 (article)

Abstract
The Gestalt laws (Wertheimer 1923) are widely regarded as the rules that help us parse the world into objects. However, it is unclear as to how these laws are acquired by an infant's visual system. Classically, these “laws” have been presumed to be innate (Kellman and Spelke 1983). But, more recent work in infant development, showing the protracted time-course over which these grouping principles emerge (e.g., Johnson and Aslin 1995; Craton 1996), suggests that visual experience might play a role in their genesis. Specifically, our studies of patients with late-onset vision (Project Prakash; VSS 2006) and evidence from infant development both point to an early role of common motion cues for object grouping. Here we explore the possibility that the privileged status of motion in the developmental timeline is not happenstance, but rather serves to bootstrap the learning of static Gestalt cues. Our approach involves computational analyses of real-world motion sequences to investigate whether primitive optic flow information is correlated with static figural cues that could eventually come to serve as proxies for grouping in the form of Gestalt principles. We calculated local optic flow maps and then examined how similarity of motion across image patches co-varied with similarity of certain figural properties in static frames. Results indicate that patches with similar motion are much more likely to have similar luminance, color, and orientation as compared to patches with dissimilar motion vectors. This regularity suggests that, in principle, common motion extracted from dynamic visual experience can provide enough information to bootstrap region grouping based on luminance and color and contour continuation mechanisms in static scenes. These observations, coupled with the cited experimental studies, lend credence to the hypothesis that static Gestalt laws might be learned through a bootstrapping process based on early dynamic experience.

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link (url) DOI [BibTex]

2007

ps Ostrovsky, Y., Wulff, J., Sinha, P. Learning static Gestalt laws through dynamic experience Journal of Vision, 7(9):315-315, ARVO, June 2007 (article)

link (url) DOI [BibTex]

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Neuromotor prosthesis development

Donoghue, J., Hochberg, L., Nurmikko, A., Black, M., Simeral, J., Friehs, G.

Medicine & Health Rhode Island, 90(1):12-15, January 2007 (article)

Abstract
Article describes a neuromotor prosthesis (NMP), in development at Brown University, that records human brain signals, decodes them, and transforms them into movement commands. An NMP is described as a system consisting of a neural interface, a decoding system, and a user interface, also called an effector; a closed-loop system would be completed by a feedback signal from the effector to the brain. The interface is based on neural spiking, a source of information-rich, rapid, complex control signals from the nervous system. The NMP described, named BrainGate, consists of a match-head sized platform with 100 thread-thin electrodes implanted just into the surface of the motor cortex where commands to move the hand emanate. Neural signals are decoded by a rack of computers that displays the resultant output as the motion of a cursor on a computer monitor. While computer cursor motion represents a form of virtual device control, this same command signal could be routed to a device to command motion of paralyzed muscles or the actions of prosthetic limbs. The researchers’ overall goal is the development of a fully implantable, wireless multi-neuron sensor for broad research, neural prosthetic, and human neurodiagnostic applications.

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pdf [BibTex]

ps Donoghue, J., Hochberg, L., Nurmikko, A., Black, M., Simeral, J., Friehs, G. Neuromotor prosthesis development Medicine & Health Rhode Island, 90(1):12-15, January 2007 (article)

pdf [BibTex]

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On the spatial statistics of optical flow

Roth, S., Black, M. J.

International Journal of Computer Vision, 74(1):33-50, 2007 (article)

Abstract
We present an analysis of the spatial and temporal statistics of "natural" optical flow fields and a novel flow algorithm that exploits their spatial statistics. Training flow fields are constructed using range images of natural scenes and 3D camera motions recovered from hand-held and car-mounted video sequences. A detailed analysis of optical flow statistics in natural scenes is presented and machine learning methods are developed to learn a Markov random field model of optical flow. The prior probability of a flow field is formulated as a Field-of-Experts model that captures the spatial statistics in overlapping patches and is trained using contrastive divergence. This new optical flow prior is compared with previous robust priors and is incorporated into a recent, accurate algorithm for dense optical flow computation. Experiments with natural and synthetic sequences illustrate how the learned optical flow prior quantitatively improves flow accuracy and how it captures the rich spatial structure found in natural scene motion.

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pdf preprint pdf from publisher [BibTex]

ps Roth, S., Black, M. J. On the spatial statistics of optical flow International Journal of Computer Vision, 74(1):33-50, 2007 (article)

pdf preprint pdf from publisher [BibTex]

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Assistive technology and robotic control using MI ensemble-based neural interface systems in humans with tetraplegia

Donoghue, J. P., Nurmikko, A., Black, M. J., Hochberg, L.

Journal of Physiology, Special Issue on Brain Computer Interfaces, 579, pages: 603-611, 2007 (article)

Abstract
This review describes the rationale, early stage development, and initial human application of neural interface systems (NISs) for humans with paralysis. NISs are emerging medical devices designed to allowpersonswith paralysis to operate assistive technologies or to reanimatemuscles based upon a command signal that is obtained directly fromthe brain. Such systems require the development of sensors to detect brain signals, decoders to transformneural activity signals into a useful command, and an interface for the user.We review initial pilot trial results of an NIS that is based on an intracortical microelectrode sensor that derives control signals from the motor cortex.We review recent findings showing, first, that neurons engaged by movement intentions persist in motor cortex years after injury or disease to the motor system, and second, that signals derived from motor cortex can be used by persons with paralysis to operate a range of devices. We suggest that, with further development, this form of NIS holds promise as a useful new neurotechnology for those with limited motor function or communication.We also discuss the additional potential for neural sensors to be used in the diagnosis and management of various neurological conditions and as a new way to learn about human brain function.

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pdf preprint pdf from publisher DOI [BibTex]

ps Donoghue, J. P., Nurmikko, A., Black, M. J., Hochberg, L. Assistive technology and robotic control using MI ensemble-based neural interface systems in humans with tetraplegia Journal of Physiology, Special Issue on Brain Computer Interfaces, 579, pages: 603-611, 2007 (article)

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Probabilistically modeling and decoding neural population activity in motor cortex

Black, M. J., Donoghue, J. P.

In Toward Brain-Computer Interfacing, pages: 147-159, (Editors: Dornhege, G. and del R. Millan, J. and Hinterberger, T. and McFarland, D. and Muller, K.-R.), MIT Press, London, 2007 (incollection)

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pdf [BibTex]

ps Black, M. J., Donoghue, J. P. Probabilistically modeling and decoding neural population activity in motor cortex In Toward Brain-Computer Interfacing, pages: 147-159, (Editors: Dornhege, G. and del R. Millan, J. and Hinterberger, T. and McFarland, D. and Muller, K.-R.), MIT Press, London, 2007 (incollection)

pdf [BibTex]

1998

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Summarization of video-taped presentations: Automatic analysis of motion and gesture

Ju, S. X., Black, M. J., Minneman, S., Kimber, D.

IEEE Trans. on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, 8(5):686-696, September 1998 (article)

Abstract
This paper presents an automatic system for analyzing and annotating video sequences of technical talks. Our method uses a robust motion estimation technique to detect key frames and segment the video sequence into subsequences containing a single overhead slide. The subsequences are stabilized to remove motion that occurs when the speaker adjusts their slides. Any changes remaining between frames in the stabilized sequences may be due to speaker gestures such as pointing or writing, and we use active contours to automatically track these potential gestures. Given the constrained domain, we define a simple set of actions that can be recognized based on the active contour shape and motion. The recognized actions provide an annotation of the sequence that can be used to access a condensed version of the talk from a Web page.

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pdf pdf from publisher DOI [BibTex]

1998

ps Ju, S. X., Black, M. J., Minneman, S., Kimber, D. Summarization of video-taped presentations: Automatic analysis of motion and gesture IEEE Trans. on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, 8(5):686-696, September 1998 (article)

pdf pdf from publisher DOI [BibTex]

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Robust anisotropic diffusion

Black, M. J., Sapiro, G., Marimont, D., Heeger, D.

IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, 7(3):421-432, March 1998 (article)

Abstract
Relations between anisotropic diffusion and robust statistics are described in this paper. Specifically, we show that anisotropic diffusion can be seen as a robust estimation procedure that estimates a piecewise smooth image from a noisy input image. The edge-stopping; function in the anisotropic diffusion equation is closely related to the error norm and influence function in the robust estimation framework. This connection leads to a new edge-stopping; function based on Tukey's biweight robust estimator that preserves sharper boundaries than previous formulations and improves the automatic stopping of the diffusion. The robust statistical interpretation also provides a means for detecting the boundaries (edges) between the piecewise smooth regions in an image that has been smoothed with anisotropic diffusion. Additionally, we derive a relationship between anisotropic diffusion and regularization with line processes. Adding constraints on the spatial organization of the line processes allows us to develop new anisotropic diffusion equations that result in a qualitative improvement in the continuity of edges

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pdf pdf from publisher [BibTex]

ps Black, M. J., Sapiro, G., Marimont, D., Heeger, D. Robust anisotropic diffusion IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, 7(3):421-432, March 1998 (article)

pdf pdf from publisher [BibTex]

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PLAYBOT: A visually-guided robot for physically disabled children

Tsotsos, J. K., Verghese, G., Dickinson, S., Jenkin, M., Jepson, A., Milios, E., Nuflo, F., Stevenson, S., Black, M., Metaxas, D., Culhane, S., Ye, Y., Mann, R.

Image & Vision Computing, Special Issue on Vision for the Disabled, 16(4):275-292, 1998 (article)

Abstract
This paper overviews the PLAYBOT project, a long-term, large-scale research program whose goal is to provide a directable robot which may enable physically disabled children to access and manipulate toys. This domain is the first test domain, but there is nothing inherent in the design of PLAYBOT that prohibits its extension to other tasks. The research is guided by several important goals: vision is the primary sensor; vision is task directed; the robot must be able to visually search its environment; object and event recognition are basic capabilities; environments must be natural and dynamic; users and environments are assumed to be unpredictable; task direction and reactivity must be smoothly integrated; and safety is of high importance. The emphasis of the research has been on vision for the robot this is the most challenging research aspect and the major bottleneck to the development of intelligent robots. Since the control framework is behavior-based, the visual capabilities of PLAYBOT are described in terms of visual behaviors. Many of the components of PLAYBOT are briefly described and several examples of implemented sub-systems are shown. The paper concludes with a description of the current overall system implementation, and a complete example of PLAYBOT performing a simple task.

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pdf pdf from publisher DOI [BibTex]

ps Tsotsos, J. K., Verghese, G., Dickinson, S., Jenkin, M., Jepson, A., Milios, E., Nuflo, F., Stevenson, S., Black, M., Metaxas, D., Culhane, S., Ye, Y., Mann, R. PLAYBOT: A visually-guided robot for physically disabled children Image & Vision Computing, Special Issue on Vision for the Disabled, 16(4):275-292, 1998 (article)

pdf pdf from publisher DOI [BibTex]

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EigenTracking: Robust matching and tracking of articulated objects using a view-based representation

Black, M. J., Jepson, A.

International Journal of Computer Vision, 26(1):63-84, 1998 (article)

Abstract
This paper describes an approach for tracking rigid and articulated objects using a view-based representation. The approach builds on and extends work on eigenspace representations, robust estimation techniques, and parameterized optical flow estimation. First, we note that the least-squares image reconstruction of standard eigenspace techniques has a number of problems and we reformulate the reconstruction problem as one of robust estimation. Second we define a “subspace constancy assumption” that allows us to exploit techniques for parameterized optical flow estimation to simultaneously solve for the view of an object and the affine transformation between the eigenspace and the image. To account for large affine transformations between the eigenspace and the image we define a multi-scale eigenspace representation and a coarse-to-fine matching strategy. Finally, we use these techniques to track objects over long image sequences in which the objects simultaneously undergo both affine image motions and changes of view. In particular we use this “EigenTracking” technique to track and recognize the gestures of a moving hand.

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Looking at people in action - An overview

Yacoob, Y., Davis, L. S., Black, M., Gavrila, D., Horprasert, T., Morimoto, C.

In Computer Vision for Human–Machine Interaction, (Editors: R. Cipolla and A. Pentland), Cambridge University Press, 1998 (incollection)

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publisher site google books [BibTex]

ps Yacoob, Y., Davis, L. S., Black, M., Gavrila, D., Horprasert, T., Morimoto, C. Looking at people in action - An overview In Computer Vision for Human–Machine Interaction, (Editors: R. Cipolla and A. Pentland), Cambridge University Press, 1998 (incollection)

publisher site google books [BibTex]

1997

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Recognizing facial expressions in image sequences using local parameterized models of image motion

Black, M. J., Yacoob, Y.

Int. Journal of Computer Vision, 25(1):23-48, 1997 (article)

Abstract
This paper explores the use of local parametrized models of image motion for recovering and recognizing the non-rigid and articulated motion of human faces. Parametric flow models (for example affine) are popular for estimating motion in rigid scenes. We observe that within local regions in space and time, such models not only accurately model non-rigid facial motions but also provide a concise description of the motion in terms of a small number of parameters. These parameters are intuitively related to the motion of facial features during facial expressions and we show how expressions such as anger, happiness, surprise, fear, disgust, and sadness can be recognized from the local parametric motions in the presence of significant head motion. The motion tracking and expression recognition approach performed with high accuracy in extensive laboratory experiments involving 40 subjects as well as in television and movie sequences.

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pdf pdf from publisher abstract video [BibTex]

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Recognizing human motion using parameterized models of optical flow

Black, M. J., Yacoob, Y., Ju, X. S.

In Motion-Based Recognition, pages: 245-269, (Editors: Mubarak Shah and Ramesh Jain,), Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, MA, 1997 (incollection)

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pdf [BibTex]

ps Black, M. J., Yacoob, Y., Ju, X. S. Recognizing human motion using parameterized models of optical flow In Motion-Based Recognition, pages: 245-269, (Editors: Mubarak Shah and Ramesh Jain,), Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, MA, 1997 (incollection)

pdf [BibTex]