A survey of comics research in computer science

Graphical novels such as comics and mangas are well known all over the world. The digital transition started to change the way people are reading comics, more and more on smartphones and tablets and less and less on paper. In the recent years, a wide variety of research about comics has been proposed and might change the way comics are created, distributed and read in future years. Early work focuses on low level document image analysis: indeed comic books are complex, they contains text, drawings, balloon, panels, onomatopoeia, etc. Different fields of computer science covered research about user interaction and content generation such as multimedia, artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, etc. with different sets of values. We propose in this paper to review the previous research about comics in computer science, to state what have been done and to give some insights about the main outlooks

A multimodal social semiotic approach to the analysis of manga : a metalanguage for sequential visual narratives

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (p. 139-143).This study contributes towards an understanding of the nature of sequential visual narratives, how different semiotic resources may be employed to construct a visual narrative and how sequence of images may be developed. Over the years, extensive research has been undertaken in the area of still images. However, the particularities of meanings made in sequential images remain relatively unexplored. The significance of the study is that it contributes towards an understanding of sequential narratives by proposing a metalanguage for manga. The term ‘manga’ refers to comics that originate from Japan and it is currently a trend in popular culture worldwide

Online Structured Learning for Real-Time Computer Vision Gaming Applications

In recent years computer vision has played an increasingly important role in the development of computer games, and it now features as one of the core technologies for many gaming platforms. The work in this thesis addresses three problems in real-time computer vision, all of which are motivated by their potential application to computer games. We rst present an approach for real-time 2D tracking of arbitrary objects. In common with recent research in this area we incorporate online learning to provide an appearance model which is able to adapt to the target object and its surrounding background during tracking. However, our approach moves beyond the standard framework of tracking using binary classication and instead integrates tracking and learning in a more principled way through the use of structured learning. As well as providing a more powerful framework for adaptive visual object tracking, our approach also outperforms state-of-the-art tracking algorithms on standard datasets. Next we consider the task of keypoint-based object tracking. We take the traditional pipeline of matching keypoints followed by geometric verication and show how this can be embedded into a structured learning framework in order to provide principled adaptivity to a given environment. We also propose an approximation method allowing us to take advantage of recently developed binary image descriptors, meaning our approach is suitable for real-time application even on low-powered portable devices. Experimentally, we clearly see the benet that online adaptation using structured learning can bring to this problem. Finally, we present an approach for approximately recovering the dense 3D structure of a scene which has been mapped by a simultaneous localisation and mapping system. Our approach is guided by the constraints of the low-powered portable hardware we are targeting, and we develop a system which coarsely models the scene using a small number of planes. To achieve this, we frame the task as a structured prediction problem and introduce online learning into our approach to provide adaptivity to a given scene. This allows us to use relatively simple multi-view information coupled with online learning of appearance to efficiently produce coarse reconstructions of a scene

(In) between word and image : reading comics

In this thesis, I explore what it means to read a comic. Because comics combine words and images, reading a comic involves discovering the various relationships between two forms of language that create meaning. Fundamentally, comics are what Mikhail Bakhtin would call a hybridized construction because they combine two languages. Thus, comics are helping language to evolve. Historically, the relationship between words and images has been misunderstood, which has led to a misunderstanding of comics. Bakhtin, writing in defense of the novel (another medium that was poorly-received at its inception and criticized for many of the same reasons comic books are criticized), says novels require different things of their readers because of the ways they use language. Similarly, comics use language in new ways and present particular challenges to their readers. There are remarkable parallels between how Bakhtin says we read the novel and how comics scholars such as Thierry Groensteen and Charles Hatfield suggest we read comics. Using Bakhtin’s philosophy of language to read two comics, Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home and David Mazzucchelli’s Asterios Polyp, reveals that comics create both visual and verbal representations of Bakhtin’s ideas. In particular, comics find new ways to manifest heteroglossia, through the many ways they can visually represent the voices of many speakers, pure dialogue, language as ideology. Furthermore, hybrid constructions, dialogism, and centripetal/centrifugal forces are an inherent part of comic art. Reading comics is particularly complex because they are a discourse that intentionally embraces hybrid texts with words and images. Bakhtin shows that hybridized constructions are the primary way language evolves. As our culture becomes more and more accustomed to reading images, comics can help us make the shift to what image/word theorist W. J. T. Mitchell predicts is new paradigm that will transcend the word/image dichotomy

Comics reading: An automatic script generation

With the advent of portable devices, reading comic ebooks is a popular activity. However, a simple scan of a comic page is not well adapted for portable device screens and a panel to panel reading without animations and adapted transitions is quite uncomfortable and not suitable. Moreover, applying manually transitions between each panel to script a complete comic book is a tricky task and seems impossible for a complete collection of comics. We present a model able to automatically script comics reading by using panel lines of force. Our results demonstrate that this model proposes a coherent solution for 87.2% of panels in an interactive time

An Overview of Video Shot Clustering and Summarization Techniques for Mobile Applications

The problem of content characterization of video programmes is of great interest because video appeals to large audiences and its efficient distribution over various networks should contribute to widespread usage of multimedia services. In this paper we analyze several techniques proposed in literature for content characterization of video programmes, including movies and sports, that could be helpful for mobile media consumption. In particular we focus our analysis on shot clustering methods and effective video summarization techniques since, in the current video analysis scenario, they facilitate the access to the content and help in quick understanding of the associated semantics. First we consider the shot clustering techniques based on low-level features, using visual, audio and motion information, even combined in a multi-modal fashion. Then we concentrate on summarization techniques, such as static storyboards, dynamic video skimming and the extraction of sport highlights. Discussed summarization methods can be employed in the development of tools that would be greatly useful to most mobile users: in fact these algorithms automatically shorten the original video while preserving most events by highlighting only the important content. The effectiveness of each approach has been analyzed, showing that it mainly depends on the kind of video programme it relates to, and the type of summary or highlights we are focusing on

Practical application of McCloud's horizontal 'Infinite canvas' through the design, composition and creation of an online comic

This research examines the application of Scott McCloud's theory of the Infinite canvas, specifically the horizontal example outlined in Reinventing Comics (McCloud, 2000). It focuses on the useability and effectiveness of the Infinite canvas theory when applied as a practical example of a comic outcome for the Internet. This practical application of McCloud's horizontal Infinite canvas model has been achieved by creating a digital comic entitled Sad Reflections; a continuous horizontal narrative that is 20cm in height and 828cm in length and was designed to be viewed in a digital environment. This comic incorporates traditional comic techniques of gutters, time frames, line, with combining words and pictures, as outlined by McCloud (1993) in his first theoretical text Understanding Comics. These techniques are used to ensure that the project fulfilled the technical criteria used by the comic book industry to create comics. The project also incorporates McCloud's personally devised Infinite canvas techniques of trails, distance pacing, narrative subdivision, sustained rhythm and gradualism as outlined on his website. These new techniques are applied to assess their effectiveness in the creation of the horizontal Infinite canvas and ability to be integrated with traditional comic techniques. The focus of this project is to examine the strengths and weaknesses of McCloud's Infinite canvas theory when applied to the practical comic outcome of the Sad Reflections. Three key questions are used to guide this research. These questions are: 1. Does the application of traditional comic techniques affect the effectiveness of the Infinite canvas when implemented to a horizontal format? 2. Are the new Infinite canvas techniques as outlined by McCloud able to be applied to a horizontal format and what impact do these techniques have on the process? 3. Is the application of a horizontal Infinite canvas of benefit to future developers of web comics? Based on the outcomes of the above questions, this paper nominates strategies, considerations and suitable production processes for future developers of web comics

Smijati se ili plakati? Dvosmislenost i humor u Jasonovim stripovima

The paper offers a reading of Jason’s use of sparsity, seriousness, and reduction as a concealment of a technique that is based on multifaceted ambiguity involving the blending of genres, a playfully intertextual attitude, and surprising emotional depth of character and story. It discusses the connection between humour and visual, textual, and structural ambiguity in Jason’s works, as well as ambivalence in the reader’s response, illustrates Jason’s combination of incongruous genres and simultaneous employment of motifs from children’s literature and various genre movies (such as science fiction, crime thrillers, heist movies, and horrors), and explores Jason’s technique of subverting expectations of comic relief by withholding certain structural parts of a joke (typically a punchline) or inserting an unexpected element (such as psychological depth).U radu se proučava kako se Jasonovom uporabom manjka, ozbiljnosti i redukcije prikriva postupak temeljen na višestrukoj dvosmislenosti koja uključuje miješanje žanrova, razigranu intertekstualnost te iznenađujuću emocionalnu dubinu likova i priče. Razmatra se veza humora i vizualne, tekstualne i strukturalne dvosmislenosti u Jasonovim djelima, kao i ambivalentnost čitateljeve reakcije, ilustrira se spajanje oprječnih žanrova te istovremeno korištenje motiva iz dječje književnosti i raznolikih žanrovskih filmova (poput znanstvene fantastike, kriminalističkih trilera, filmova o pljački i horora) te istražuje Jasonov postupak podrivanja očekivanja komičnoga olakšanja uskraćivanjem strukturalnih dijelova vica (najčešće zaključne poante vica) ili umetanjem neočekivanih elemenata (poput psihološke dubine)