283 research outputs found
Recurrent Scene Parsing with Perspective Understanding in the Loop
Objects may appear at arbitrary scales in perspective images of a scene,
posing a challenge for recognition systems that process images at a fixed
resolution. We propose a depth-aware gating module that adaptively selects the
pooling field size in a convolutional network architecture according to the
object scale (inversely proportional to the depth) so that small details are
preserved for distant objects while larger receptive fields are used for those
nearby. The depth gating signal is provided by stereo disparity or estimated
directly from monocular input. We integrate this depth-aware gating into a
recurrent convolutional neural network to perform semantic segmentation. Our
recurrent module iteratively refines the segmentation results, leveraging the
depth and semantic predictions from the previous iterations.
Through extensive experiments on four popular large-scale RGB-D datasets, we
demonstrate this approach achieves competitive semantic segmentation
performance with a model which is substantially more compact. We carry out
extensive analysis of this architecture including variants that operate on
monocular RGB but use depth as side-information during training, unsupervised
gating as a generic attentional mechanism, and multi-resolution gating. We find
that gated pooling for joint semantic segmentation and depth yields
state-of-the-art results for quantitative monocular depth estimation
A Novel Method for Extrinsic Calibration of Multiple RGB-D Cameras Using Descriptor-Based Patterns
This letter presents a novel method to estimate the relative poses between
RGB-D cameras with minimal overlapping fields of view in a panoramic RGB-D
camera system. This calibration problem is relevant to applications such as
indoor 3D mapping and robot navigation that can benefit from a 360
field of view using RGB-D cameras. The proposed approach relies on
descriptor-based patterns to provide well-matched 2D keypoints in the case of a
minimal overlapping field of view between cameras. Integrating the matched 2D
keypoints with corresponding depth values, a set of 3D matched keypoints are
constructed to calibrate multiple RGB-D cameras. Experiments validated the
accuracy and efficiency of the proposed calibration approach, both superior to
those of existing methods (800 ms vs. 5 seconds; rotation error of 0.56 degrees
vs. 1.6 degrees; and translation error of 1.80 cm vs. 2.5 cm.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, under review by IEEE Robotics and Automation
Letters & ICR
InLoc: Indoor Visual Localization with Dense Matching and View Synthesis
We seek to predict the 6 degree-of-freedom (6DoF) pose of a query photograph
with respect to a large indoor 3D map. The contributions of this work are
three-fold. First, we develop a new large-scale visual localization method
targeted for indoor environments. The method proceeds along three steps: (i)
efficient retrieval of candidate poses that ensures scalability to large-scale
environments, (ii) pose estimation using dense matching rather than local
features to deal with textureless indoor scenes, and (iii) pose verification by
virtual view synthesis to cope with significant changes in viewpoint, scene
layout, and occluders. Second, we collect a new dataset with reference 6DoF
poses for large-scale indoor localization. Query photographs are captured by
mobile phones at a different time than the reference 3D map, thus presenting a
realistic indoor localization scenario. Third, we demonstrate that our method
significantly outperforms current state-of-the-art indoor localization
approaches on this new challenging data
Videos in Context for Telecommunication and Spatial Browsing
The research presented in this thesis explores the use of videos embedded in panoramic imagery to transmit spatial and temporal information describing remote environments and their dynamics. Virtual environments (VEs) through which users can explore remote locations are rapidly emerging as a popular medium of presence and remote collaboration. However, capturing visual representation of locations to be used in VEs is usually a tedious process that requires either manual modelling of environments or the employment of specific hardware. Capturing environment dynamics is not straightforward either, and it is usually performed through specific tracking hardware. Similarly, browsing large unstructured video-collections with available tools is difficult, as the abundance of spatial and temporal information makes them hard to comprehend. At the same time, on a spectrum between 3D VEs and 2D images, panoramas lie in between, as they offer the same 2D images accessibility while preserving 3D virtual environments surrounding representation. For this reason, panoramas are an attractive basis for videoconferencing and browsing tools as they can relate several videos temporally and spatially. This research explores methods to acquire, fuse, render and stream data coming from heterogeneous cameras, with the help of panoramic imagery. Three distinct but interrelated questions are addressed. First, the thesis considers how spatially localised video can be used to increase the spatial information transmitted during video mediated communication, and if this improves quality of communication. Second, the research asks whether videos in panoramic context can be used to convey spatial and temporal information of a remote place and the dynamics within, and if this improves users' performance in tasks that require spatio-temporal thinking. Finally, the thesis considers whether there is an impact of display type on reasoning about events within videos in panoramic context. These research questions were investigated over three experiments, covering scenarios common to computer-supported cooperative work and video browsing. To support the investigation, two distinct video+context systems were developed. The first telecommunication experiment compared our videos in context interface with fully-panoramic video and conventional webcam video conferencing in an object placement scenario. The second experiment investigated the impact of videos in panoramic context on quality of spatio-temporal thinking during localization tasks. To support the experiment, a novel interface to video-collection in panoramic context was developed and compared with common video-browsing tools. The final experimental study investigated the impact of display type on reasoning about events. The study explored three adaptations of our video-collection interface to three display types. The overall conclusion is that videos in panoramic context offer a valid solution to spatio-temporal exploration of remote locations. Our approach presents a richer visual representation in terms of space and time than standard tools, showing that providing panoramic contexts to video collections makes spatio-temporal tasks easier. To this end, videos in context are suitable alternative to more difficult, and often expensive solutions. These findings are beneficial to many applications, including teleconferencing, virtual tourism and remote assistance
Capture, Reconstruction, and Representation of the Visual Real World for Virtual Reality
We provide an overview of the concerns, current practice, and limitations for capturing, reconstructing, and representing the real world visually within virtual reality. Given that our goals are to capture, transmit, and depict complex real-world phenomena to humans, these challenges cover the opto-electro-mechanical, computational, informational, and perceptual fields. Practically producing a system for real-world VR capture requires navigating a complex design space and pushing the state of the art in each of these areas. As such, we outline several promising directions for future work to improve the quality and flexibility of real-world VR capture systems
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