View planning for efficient contour-based 3D object recognition

This paper presents a method for capture planning in view based 3D recognition. Views are represented by their contours, encoded into curvature functions, which are reduced into compact feature vectors by Principal Component Analysis. These vectors are very resistant against transformations, so they can be assumed to be distributed over the surface of a sphere with the object in its center. After clustering these vectors, 3D objects are represented via Hidden Markov Models where classes are states. To recognize an object in a minimum number of steps, we propose to align candidate cluster representations and then subtracting their cluster maps to decide in which locations they differ the most. Then, a TSP is used to decide in which order these distinctive locations are visited. The proposed approach has been successfully tested with several artificial 3D object databases, even though it still presents some errors in objects with strong symmetries.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN) project TEC-2008-06734 Junta de Andalucia (JA) project TIC-0310

Analysis of eigendecomposition for sets of correlated images at different resolutions

Includes bibliographical references.Eigendecomposition is a common technique that is performed on sets of correlated images in a number of computer vision and robotics applications. Unfortunately, the computation of an eigendecomposition can become prohibitively expensive when dealing with very high resolution images. While reducing the resolution of the images will reduce the computational expense, it is not known how this will affect the quality of the resulting eigendecomposition. The work presented here gives the theoretical background for quantifying the effects of varying the resolution of images on the eigendecomposition that is computed from those images. A computationally efficient algorithm for this eigendecomposition is proposed using derived analytical expressions. Examples show that this algorithm performs very well on arbitrary video sequences.This work was supported by the National Imagery and Mapping Agency under contract no. NMA201-00-1-1003 and through collaborative participation in the Robotics Consortium sponsored by the U. S. Army Research Laboratory under the Collaborative Technology Alliance Program, Cooperative Agreement DAAD19-01-2-0012

Analysis of eigendecomposition for sets of correlated images at different resolutions

Includes bibliographical references.Eigendecomposition is a common technique that is performed on sets of correlated images in a number of computer vision and robotics applications. Unfortunately, the computation of an eigendecomposition can become prohibitively expensive when dealing with very high resolution images. While reducing the resolution of the images will reduce the computational expense, it is not known how this will affect the quality of the resulting eigendecomposition. The work presented here proposes a framework for quantifying the effects of varying the resolution of images on the eigendecomposition that is computed from those images. Preliminary results show that an eigendecomposition from low-resolution images may be nearly as effective in some applications as those from high-resolution images.This work was supported by the National Imagery and Mapping Agency under contract no. NMA201-00-1-1003 and through collaborative participation in the Robotics Consortium sponsored by the U. S. Army Research Laboratory under the Collaborative Technology Alliance Program, Cooperative Agreement DAAD19-01-2-0012

Quadtree-based eigendecomposition for pose estimation in the presence of occlusion and background clutter

Includes bibliographical references (pages 29-30).Eigendecomposition-based techniques are popular for a number of computer vision problems, e.g., object and pose estimation, because they are purely appearance based and they require few on-line computations. Unfortunately, they also typically require an unobstructed view of the object whose pose is being detected. The presence of occlusion and background clutter precludes the use of the normalizations that are typically applied and significantly alters the appearance of the object under detection. This work presents an algorithm that is based on applying eigendecomposition to a quadtree representation of the image dataset used to describe the appearance of an object. This allows decisions concerning the pose of an object to be based on only those portions of the image in which the algorithm has determined that the object is not occluded. The accuracy and computational efficiency of the proposed approach is evaluated on 16 different objects with up to 50% of the object being occluded and on images of ships in a dockyard

Feature based three-dimensional object recognition using disparity maps

The human vision system is able to recognize objects it has seen before even if the particular orientation of the object being viewed was not specifically seen before. This is due to the adaptability of the cognitive abilities of the human brain to categorize objects by different features. The features and experience used in the human recognition system are also applicable to a computer recognition system. The recognition of three-dimensional objects has been a popular area in computer vision research in recent years, as computer and machine vision is becoming more abundant in areas such as surveillance and product inspection. The purpose of this study is to explore and develop an adaptive computer vision based recognition system which can recognize 3D information of an object from a limited amount of training data in the form of disparity maps. Using this system, it should be possible to recognize an object in many different orientations, even if the specific orientation had not been seen before, as well as distinguish between different objects

Surface Modeling and Analysis Using Range Images: Smoothing, Registration, Integration, and Segmentation

This dissertation presents a framework for 3D reconstruction and scene analysis, using a set of range images. The motivation for developing this framework came from the needs to reconstruct the surfaces of small mechanical parts in reverse engineering tasks, build a virtual environment of indoor and outdoor scenes, and understand 3D images. The input of the framework is a set of range images of an object or a scene captured by range scanners. The output is a triangulated surface that can be segmented into meaningful parts. A textured surface can be reconstructed if color images are provided. The framework consists of surface smoothing, registration, integration, and segmentation. Surface smoothing eliminates the noise present in raw measurements from range scanners. This research proposes area-decreasing flow that is theoretically identical to the mean curvature flow. Using area-decreasing flow, there is no need to estimate the curvature value and an optimal step size of the flow can be obtained. Crease edges and sharp corners are preserved by an adaptive scheme. Surface registration aligns measurements from different viewpoints in a common coordinate system. This research proposes a new surface representation scheme named point fingerprint. Surfaces are registered by finding corresponding point pairs in an overlapping region based on fingerprint comparison. Surface integration merges registered surface patches into a whole surface. This research employs an implicit surface-based integration technique. The proposed algorithm can generate watertight models by space carving or filling the holes based on volumetric interpolation. Textures from different views are integrated inside a volumetric grid. Surface segmentation is useful to decompose CAD models in reverse engineering tasks and help object recognition in a 3D scene. This research proposes a watershed-based surface mesh segmentation approach. The new algorithm accurately segments the plateaus by geodesic erosion using fast marching method. The performance of the framework is presented using both synthetic and real world data from different range scanners. The dissertation concludes by summarizing the development of the framework and then suggests future research topics

Geometric Expression Invariant 3D Face Recognition using Statistical Discriminant Models

Currently there is no complete face recognition system that is invariant to all facial expressions. Although humans find it easy to identify and recognise faces regardless of changes in illumination, pose and expression, producing a computer system with a similar capability has proved to be particularly di cult. Three dimensional face models are geometric in nature and therefore have the advantage of being invariant to head pose and lighting. However they are still susceptible to facial expressions. This can be seen in the decrease in the recognition results using principal component analysis when expressions are added to a data set. In order to achieve expression-invariant face recognition systems, we have employed a tensor algebra framework to represent 3D face data with facial expressions in a parsimonious space. Face variation factors are organised in particular subject and facial expression modes. We manipulate this using single value decomposition on sub-tensors representing one variation mode. This framework possesses the ability to deal with the shortcomings of PCA in less constrained environments and still preserves the integrity of the 3D data. The results show improved recognition rates for faces and facial expressions, even recognising high intensity expressions that are not in the training datasets. We have determined, experimentally, a set of anatomical landmarks that best describe facial expression e ectively. We found that the best placement of landmarks to distinguish di erent facial expressions are in areas around the prominent features, such as the cheeks and eyebrows. Recognition results using landmark-based face recognition could be improved with better placement. We looked into the possibility of achieving expression-invariant face recognition by reconstructing and manipulating realistic facial expressions. We proposed a tensor-based statistical discriminant analysis method to reconstruct facial expressions and in particular to neutralise facial expressions. The results of the synthesised facial expressions are visually more realistic than facial expressions generated using conventional active shape modelling (ASM). We then used reconstructed neutral faces in the sub-tensor framework for recognition purposes. The recognition results showed slight improvement. Besides biometric recognition, this novel tensor-based synthesis approach could be used in computer games and real-time animation applications