Human motion retrieval based on freehand sketch

In this paper, we present an integrated framework of human motion retrieval based on freehand sketch. With some simple rules, the user can acquire a desired motion by sketching several key postures. To retrieve efficiently and accurately by sketch, the 3D postures are projected onto several 2D planes. The limb direction feature is proposed to represent the input sketch and the projected-postures. Furthermore, a novel index structure based on k-d tree is constructed to index the motions in the database, which speeds up the retrieval process. With our posture-by-posture retrieval algorithm, a continuous motion can be got directly or generated by using a pre-computed graph structure. What's more, our system provides an intuitive user interface. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our method. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Computational illumination for high-speed in vitro Fourier ptychographic microscopy

We demonstrate a new computational illumination technique that achieves large space-bandwidth-time product, for quantitative phase imaging of unstained live samples in vitro. Microscope lenses can have either large field of view (FOV) or high resolution, not both. Fourier ptychographic microscopy (FPM) is a new computational imaging technique that circumvents this limit by fusing information from multiple images taken with different illumination angles. The result is a gigapixel-scale image having both wide FOV and high resolution, i.e. large space-bandwidth product (SBP). FPM has enormous potential for revolutionizing microscopy and has already found application in digital pathology. However, it suffers from long acquisition times (on the order of minutes), limiting throughput. Faster capture times would not only improve imaging speed, but also allow studies of live samples, where motion artifacts degrade results. In contrast to fixed (e.g. pathology) slides, live samples are continuously evolving at various spatial and temporal scales. Here, we present a new source coding scheme, along with real-time hardware control, to achieve 0.8 NA resolution across a 4x FOV with sub-second capture times. We propose an improved algorithm and new initialization scheme, which allow robust phase reconstruction over long time-lapse experiments. We present the first FPM results for both growing and confluent in vitro cell cultures, capturing videos of subcellular dynamical phenomena in popular cell lines undergoing division and migration. Our method opens up FPM to applications with live samples, for observing rare events in both space and time

Action Recognition in Videos: from Motion Capture Labs to the Web

This paper presents a survey of human action recognition approaches based on visual data recorded from a single video camera. We propose an organizing framework which puts in evidence the evolution of the area, with techniques moving from heavily constrained motion capture scenarios towards more challenging, realistic, "in the wild" videos. The proposed organization is based on the representation used as input for the recognition task, emphasizing the hypothesis assumed and thus, the constraints imposed on the type of video that each technique is able to address. Expliciting the hypothesis and constraints makes the framework particularly useful to select a method, given an application. Another advantage of the proposed organization is that it allows categorizing newest approaches seamlessly with traditional ones, while providing an insightful perspective of the evolution of the action recognition task up to now. That perspective is the basis for the discussion in the end of the paper, where we also present the main open issues in the area.Comment: Preprint submitted to CVIU, survey paper, 46 pages, 2 figures, 4 table

Organising a daily visual diary using multifeature clustering

The SenseCam is a prototype device from Microsoft that facilitates automatic capture of images of a person's life by integrating a colour camera, storage media and multiple sensors into a small wearable device. However, efficient search methods are required to reduce the user's burden of sifting through the thousands of images that are captured per day. In this paper, we describe experiments using colour spatiogram and block-based cross-correlation image features in conjunction with accelerometer sensor readings to cluster a day's worth of data into meaningful events, allowing the user to quickly browse a day's captured images. Two different low-complexity algorithms are detailed and evaluated for SenseCam image clustering

DC-image for real time compressed video matching

This chapter presents a suggested framework for video matching based on local features extracted from the DC-image of MPEG compressed videos, without full decompression. In addition, the relevant arguments and supporting evidences are discussed. Several local feature detectors will be examined to select the best for matching using the DC-image. Two experiments are carried to support the above. The first is comparing between the DC-image and I-frame, in terms of matching performance and computation complexity. The second experiment compares between using local features and global features regarding compressed video matching with respect to the DC-image. The results confirmed that the use of DC-image, despite its highly reduced size, it is promising as it produces higher matching precision, compared to the full I-frame. Also, SIFT, as a local feature, outperforms most of the standard global features. On the other hand, its computation complexity is relatively higher, but it is still within the real-time margin which leaves a space for further optimizations that can be done to improve this computation complexity

A semantic feature for human motion retrieval

With the explosive growth of motion capture data, it becomes very imperative in animation production to have an efficient search engine to retrieve motions from large motion repository. However, because of the high dimension of data space and complexity of matching methods, most of the existing approaches cannot return the result in real time. This paper proposes a high level semantic feature in a low dimensional space to represent the essential characteristic of different motion classes. On the basis of the statistic training of Gauss Mixture Model, this feature can effectively achieve motion matching on both global clip level and local frame level. Experiment results show that our approach can retrieve similar motions with rankings from large motion database in real-time and also can make motion annotation automatically on the fly. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd