179 research outputs found
Evaluation of Handwriting Similarities Using Hermite Transform
http://www.suvisoft.comIn this paper, we present a new method for handwriting documents denoising and indexing. This work is based on the Hermite Transform, which is a polynomial transform and a good model of the human visual system (HVS). We use this transformation to analyze handwritings using their visual aspect of texture. We apply this analysis to document indexing (finding documents coming from the same author) or document classification (grouping document containing handwritings that have similar visual aspect). It is often necessary to clean these documents before the analyze step. For that purpose, we use also the Hermite decomposition. The current results are very promising and show that it is possible to characterize handwritten drawings without any a priori graphemes segmentation
Clifford-Hermite and Two-Dimensional Clifford-Gabor Filters For Early Vision
Image processing has been much inspired by the human vision, in particular with regard to early vision. The latter refers to the earliest stage of visual processing responsible for the measurement of local structures such as points, lines, edges and textures in order to facilitate subsequent interpretation of these structures in higher stages (known as high level vision) of the human visual system. This low level visual computation is carried out by cells of the primary visual cortex. The receptive field profiles of these cells can be interpreted as the impulse responses of the cells, which are then considered as filters. According to the Gaussian derivative theory, the receptive field profiles of the human visual system can be approximated quite well by derivatives of Gaussians. Two mathematical models suggested for these receptive field profiles are on the one hand the Gabor model and on the other hand the Hermite model which is based on analysis filters of the Hermite transform. The Hermite filters are derivatives of Gaussians, while Gabor filters, which are defined as harmonic modulations of Gaussians, provide a good approximation to these derivatives. It is important to note that, even if the Gabor model is more widely used than the Hermite model, the latter offers some advantages like being an orthogonal basis and having better match to experimental physiological data. In our earlier research both filter models, Gabor and Hermite, have been developed in the framework of Clifford analysis. Clifford analysis offers a direct, elegant and powerful generalization to higher dimension of the theory of holomorphic functions in the complex plane. In this paper we expose the construction of the Hermite and Gabor filters, both in the classical and in the Clifford analysis framework. We also generalize the concept of complex Gaussian derivative filters to the Clifford analysis setting. Moreover, we present further properties of the Clifford-Gabor filters, such as their relationship with other types of Gabor filters and their localization in the spatial and in the frequency domain formalized by the uncertainty principle
Predicting blur visual discomfort for natural scenes by the loss of positional information
The perception of blur due to accommodation failures, insufficient optical correction or imperfect image reproduction is a common source of visual discomfort, usually attributed to an anomalous and annoying distribution of the image spectrum in the spatial frequency domain. In the present paper, this discomfort is related to a loss of the localization accuracy of the observed patterns. It is assumed, as a starting perceptual principle, that the visual system is optimally adapted to pattern localization in a natural environment. Thus, since the best possible accuracy of the image patterns localization is indicated by the positional Fisher Information, it is argued that blur discomfort is strictly related to a loss of this information. Following this concept, a receptive field functional model is adopted to predict the visual discomfort. It is a complex-valued operator, orientation-selective both in the space domain and in the spatial frequency domain. Starting from the case of Gaussian blur, the analysis is extended to a generic type of blur by applying a positional Fisher Information equivalence criterion. Out-of-focus blur and astigmatic blur are presented as significant examples. The validity of the proposed model is verified by comparing its predictions with subjective ratings. The model fits linearly with the experiments reported in independent databases, based on different protocols and settings
Hypercomplex Spectral Signal Representations for the Processing and Analysis of Images
In the present work hypercomplex spectral methods of the processing and analysis of images are introduced. The thesis is divided into three main chapters. First the quaternionic Fourier transform (QFT) for 2D signals is presented and its main properties are investigated. The QFT is closely related to the 2D Fourier transform and to the 2D Hartley transform. Similarities and differences of these three transforms are investigated with special emphasis on the symmetry properties. The Clifford Fourier transform is presented as nD generalization of the QFT. Secondly the concept of the phase of a signal is considered. We distinguish the global, the local and the instantaneous phase of a signal. It is shown how these 1D concepts can be extended to 2D using the QFT. In order to extend the concept of global phase we introduce the notion of the quaternionic analytic signal of a real signal. Defining quaternionic Gabor filters leads to the definition of the local quaternionic phase. The relation between signal structure and local signal phase, which is well-known in 1D, is extended to 2D using the quaternionic phase. In the third part two application of the theory are presented. For the image processing tasks of disparity estimation and texture segmentation there exist approaches which are based on the (complex) local phase. These methods are extended to the use of the quaternionic phase. In either case the properties of the complex approaches are preserved while new features are added by using the quaternionic phase
Overcomplete Image Representations for Texture Analysis
Advisor/s: Dr. Boris Escalante-RamÃrez and Dr. Gabriel Cristóbal. Date and location of PhD thesis defense: 23th October 2013, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.In recent years, computer vision has played an important role in many scientific and technological areas mainlybecause modern society highlights vision over other senses. At the same time, application requirements and complexity have also increased so that in many cases the optimal solution depends on the intrinsic charac-teristics of the problem; therefore, it is difficult to propose a universal image model. In parallel, advances in understanding the human visual system have allowed to propose sophisticated models that incorporate simple phenomena which occur in early stages of the visual system. This dissertation aims to investigate characteristicsof vision such as over-representation and orientation of receptive fields in order to propose bio-inspired image models for texture analysis
Invariance of visual operations at the level of receptive fields
Receptive field profiles registered by cell recordings have shown that
mammalian vision has developed receptive fields tuned to different sizes and
orientations in the image domain as well as to different image velocities in
space-time. This article presents a theoretical model by which families of
idealized receptive field profiles can be derived mathematically from a small
set of basic assumptions that correspond to structural properties of the
environment. The article also presents a theory for how basic invariance
properties to variations in scale, viewing direction and relative motion can be
obtained from the output of such receptive fields, using complementary
selection mechanisms that operate over the output of families of receptive
fields tuned to different parameters. Thereby, the theory shows how basic
invariance properties of a visual system can be obtained already at the level
of receptive fields, and we can explain the different shapes of receptive field
profiles found in biological vision from a requirement that the visual system
should be invariant to the natural types of image transformations that occur in
its environment.Comment: 40 pages, 17 figure
Interactive real-time three-dimensional visualisation of virtual textiles
Virtual textile databases provide a cost-efficient alternative to the use of existing hardcover
sample catalogues. By taking advantage of the high performance features offered by the
latest generation of programmable graphics accelerator boards, it is possible to combine
photometric stereo methods with 3D visualisation methods to implement a virtual textile
database. In this thesis, we investigate and combine rotation invariant texture retrieval with
interactive visualisation techniques.
We use a 3D surface representation that is a generic data representation that allows us to
combine real-time interactive 3D visualisation methods with present day texture retrieval
methods. We begin by investigating the most suitable data format for the 3D surface
representation and identify relief-mapping combined with Bézier surfaces as the most
suitable 3D surface representations for our needs, and go on to describe how these
representation can be combined for real-time rendering. We then investigate ten different
methods of implementing rotation invariant texture retrieval using feature vectors. These
results show that first order statistics in the form of histogram data are very effective for
discriminating colour albedo information, while rotation invariant gradient maps are
effective for distinguishing between different types of micro-geometry using either first or
second order statistics.Engineering and physical Sciences Research (EPSRC
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