5,754 research outputs found
Accurate Optical Flow via Direct Cost Volume Processing
We present an optical flow estimation approach that operates on the full
four-dimensional cost volume. This direct approach shares the structural
benefits of leading stereo matching pipelines, which are known to yield high
accuracy. To this day, such approaches have been considered impractical due to
the size of the cost volume. We show that the full four-dimensional cost volume
can be constructed in a fraction of a second due to its regularity. We then
exploit this regularity further by adapting semi-global matching to the
four-dimensional setting. This yields a pipeline that achieves significantly
higher accuracy than state-of-the-art optical flow methods while being faster
than most. Our approach outperforms all published general-purpose optical flow
methods on both Sintel and KITTI 2015 benchmarks.Comment: Published at the Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern
Recognition (CVPR 2017
Low Complexity Optical Flow Using Neighbor-Guided Semi-Global Matching
abstract: Many real-time vision applications require accurate estimation of optical flow. This problem is quite challenging due to extremely high computation and memory requirements. This thesis focuses on designing low complexity dense optical flow algorithms.
First, a new method for optical flow that is based on Semi-Global Matching (SGM), a popular dynamic programming algorithm for stereo vision, is presented. In SGM, the disparity of each pixel is calculated by aggregating local matching costs over the entire image to resolve local ambiguity in texture-less and occluded regions. The proposed method, Neighbor-Guided Semi-Global Matching (NG-fSGM) achieves significantly less complexity compared to SGM, by 1) operating on a subset of the search space that has been aggressively pruned based on neighboring pixels’ information, 2) using a simple cost aggregation function, 3) approximating aggregated cost array and embedding pixel-wise matching cost computation and flow computation in aggregation. Evaluation on the Middlebury benchmark suite showed that, compared to a prior SGM extension for optical flow, the proposed basic NG-fSGM provides robust optical flow with 0.53% accuracy improvement, 40x reduction in number of operations and 6x reduction in memory size. To further reduce the complexity, sparse-to-dense flow estimation method is proposed. The number of operations and memory size are reduced by 68% and 47%, respectively, with only 0.42% accuracy degradation, compared to the basic NG-fSGM.
A parallel block-based version of NG-fSGM is also proposed. The image is divided into overlapping blocks and the blocks are processed in parallel to improve throughput, latency and power efficiency. To minimize the amount of overlap among blocks with minimal effect on the accuracy, temporal information is used to estimate a flow map that guides flow vector selections for pixels along block boundaries. The proposed block-based NG-fSGM achieves significant reduction in complexity with only 0.51% accuracy degradation compared to the basic NG-fSGM.Dissertation/ThesisMasters Thesis Computer Science 201
Near real-time stereo vision system
The apparatus for a near real-time stereo vision system for use with a robotic vehicle is described. The system is comprised of two cameras mounted on three-axis rotation platforms, image-processing boards, a CPU, and specialized stereo vision algorithms. Bandpass-filtered image pyramids are computed, stereo matching is performed by least-squares correlation, and confidence ranges are estimated by means of Bayes' theorem. In particular, Laplacian image pyramids are built and disparity maps are produced from the 60 x 64 level of the pyramids at rates of up to 2 seconds per image pair. The first autonomous cross-country robotic traverses (of up to 100 meters) have been achieved using the stereo vision system of the present invention with all computing done onboard the vehicle. The overall approach disclosed herein provides a unifying paradigm for practical domain-independent stereo ranging
Viewfinder: final activity report
The VIEW-FINDER project (2006-2009) is an 'Advanced Robotics' project that seeks to apply a semi-autonomous robotic system to inspect ground safety in the event of a fire. Its primary aim is to gather data (visual and chemical) in order to assist rescue personnel. A base station combines the gathered information with information retrieved from off-site sources.
The project addresses key issues related to map building and reconstruction, interfacing local command information with external sources, human-robot interfaces and semi-autonomous robot navigation.
The VIEW-FINDER system is a semi-autonomous; the individual robot-sensors operate autonomously within the limits of the task assigned to them, that is, they will autonomously navigate through and inspect an area. Human operators monitor their operations and send high level task requests as well as low level commands through the interface to any nodes in the entire system. The human interface has to ensure the human supervisor and human interveners are provided a reduced but good and relevant overview of the ground and the robots and human rescue workers therein
Stage-dependent hierarchy of criteria in multiobjective multistage decision processes
This paper will consider a multiobjective, multistage discrete dynamic process with a changeable, state-dependent hierarchy of stage criteria determined by the decision maker. The goal of this paper is to answer the question of how to control a multistage process while taking into account both the tendency to achieve multiobjective optimization of the entire process and the time-varying hierarchy of stage criteria. We consider in detail possible situations, where the hierarchy of stage criteria changes over time in individual stages and is stage dependent. We present an interactive proposal to solving the problem, where the decision maker actively participates in finding the final realization of the process. The algorithm proposed is illustrated using a numerical example
Event-based Vision: A Survey
Event cameras are bio-inspired sensors that differ from conventional frame
cameras: Instead of capturing images at a fixed rate, they asynchronously
measure per-pixel brightness changes, and output a stream of events that encode
the time, location and sign of the brightness changes. Event cameras offer
attractive properties compared to traditional cameras: high temporal resolution
(in the order of microseconds), very high dynamic range (140 dB vs. 60 dB), low
power consumption, and high pixel bandwidth (on the order of kHz) resulting in
reduced motion blur. Hence, event cameras have a large potential for robotics
and computer vision in challenging scenarios for traditional cameras, such as
low-latency, high speed, and high dynamic range. However, novel methods are
required to process the unconventional output of these sensors in order to
unlock their potential. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the
emerging field of event-based vision, with a focus on the applications and the
algorithms developed to unlock the outstanding properties of event cameras. We
present event cameras from their working principle, the actual sensors that are
available and the tasks that they have been used for, from low-level vision
(feature detection and tracking, optic flow, etc.) to high-level vision
(reconstruction, segmentation, recognition). We also discuss the techniques
developed to process events, including learning-based techniques, as well as
specialized processors for these novel sensors, such as spiking neural
networks. Additionally, we highlight the challenges that remain to be tackled
and the opportunities that lie ahead in the search for a more efficient,
bio-inspired way for machines to perceive and interact with the world
Automation Process for Morphometric Analysis of Volumetric CT Data from Pulmonary Vasculature in Rats
With advances in medical imaging scanners, it has become commonplace to generate large multidimensional datasets. These datasets require tools for a rapid, thorough analysis. To address this need, we have developed an automated algorithm for morphometric analysis incorporating A Visualization Workshop computational and image processing libraries for three-dimensional segmentation, vascular tree generation and structural hierarchical ordering with a two-stage numeric optimization procedure for estimating vessel diameters. We combine this new technique with our mathematical models of pulmonary vascular morphology to quantify structural and functional attributes of lung arterial trees. Our physiological studies require repeated measurements of vascular structure to determine differences in vessel biomechanical properties between animal models of pulmonary disease. Automation provides many advantages including significantly improved speed and minimized operator interaction and biasing. The results are validated by comparison with previously published rat pulmonary arterial micro-CT data analysis techniques, in which vessels were manually mapped and measured using intense operator intervention
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