91,053 research outputs found
MULTI-FRAME OPTICAL FLOW ESTIMATION USING SPATIO-TEMPORAL TRANSFORMERS
Optical flow estimation is a computer vision problem which aims to estimate apparent 2D motion (flow velocities) of image intensities between two or more consecutive frames in an image sequence. Optical flow information is useful for quantifying dense motion field in numerous applications such as autonomous driving, object tracking in traffic control systems, video frame interpolation, video compression and structural biomarker development for medical diagnosis. Recent state of the art learning methods for optical flow estimation are two-frame based methods where optical flow is estimated sequentially for each image pairs in an image sequence. In this work, we introduce a learning based spatio-temporal transformers for multi-frame optical flow estimation (SSTMs). SSTM is a multi-frame based optical flow estimation algorithm which can learn and estimate non-linear motion dynamics in a scene from multiple sequential images of the scene. When compared to two-frame methods, SSTM can provide improved optical flow estimates in regions with object occlusions and near boundaries where objects may enter or leave the scene (out-of-boundary regions). Our method utilizes 3D Convolutional Gated Recurrent Networks (3D-ConvGRUs) and space-time attention modules to learn the recurrent space-time dynamics of input scenes and provide a generalized optical flow estimation. When trained using the same training datasets, our method outperforms both the existing multi-frame based optical flow estimation algorithms and the recent state of the art two-frame methods on Sintel benchmark dataset (based on a computer-animated movie) and KITTI 2015 driving benchmark datasets
MonoPerfCap: Human Performance Capture from Monocular Video
We present the first marker-less approach for temporally coherent 3D
performance capture of a human with general clothing from monocular video. Our
approach reconstructs articulated human skeleton motion as well as medium-scale
non-rigid surface deformations in general scenes. Human performance capture is
a challenging problem due to the large range of articulation, potentially fast
motion, and considerable non-rigid deformations, even from multi-view data.
Reconstruction from monocular video alone is drastically more challenging,
since strong occlusions and the inherent depth ambiguity lead to a highly
ill-posed reconstruction problem. We tackle these challenges by a novel
approach that employs sparse 2D and 3D human pose detections from a
convolutional neural network using a batch-based pose estimation strategy.
Joint recovery of per-batch motion allows to resolve the ambiguities of the
monocular reconstruction problem based on a low dimensional trajectory
subspace. In addition, we propose refinement of the surface geometry based on
fully automatically extracted silhouettes to enable medium-scale non-rigid
alignment. We demonstrate state-of-the-art performance capture results that
enable exciting applications such as video editing and free viewpoint video,
previously infeasible from monocular video. Our qualitative and quantitative
evaluation demonstrates that our approach significantly outperforms previous
monocular methods in terms of accuracy, robustness and scene complexity that
can be handled.Comment: Accepted to ACM TOG 2018, to be presented on SIGGRAPH 201
Homography-based ground plane detection using a single on-board camera
This study presents a robust method for ground plane detection in vision-based systems with a non-stationary camera. The proposed method is based on the reliable estimation of the homography between ground planes in successive images. This homography is computed using a feature matching approach, which in contrast to classical approaches to on-board motion estimation does not require explicit ego-motion calculation. As opposed to it, a novel homography calculation method based on a linear estimation framework is presented. This framework provides predictions of the ground plane transformation matrix that are dynamically updated with new measurements. The method is specially suited for challenging environments, in particular traffic scenarios, in which the information is scarce and the homography computed from the images is usually inaccurate or erroneous. The proposed estimation framework is able to remove erroneous measurements and to correct those that are inaccurate, hence producing a reliable homography estimate at each instant. It is based on the evaluation of the difference between the predicted and the observed transformations, measured according to the spectral norm of the associated matrix of differences. Moreover, an example is provided on how to use the information extracted from ground plane estimation to achieve object detection and tracking. The method has been successfully demonstrated for the detection of moving vehicles in traffic environments
The World of Fast Moving Objects
The notion of a Fast Moving Object (FMO), i.e. an object that moves over a
distance exceeding its size within the exposure time, is introduced. FMOs may,
and typically do, rotate with high angular speed. FMOs are very common in
sports videos, but are not rare elsewhere. In a single frame, such objects are
often barely visible and appear as semi-transparent streaks.
A method for the detection and tracking of FMOs is proposed. The method
consists of three distinct algorithms, which form an efficient localization
pipeline that operates successfully in a broad range of conditions. We show
that it is possible to recover the appearance of the object and its axis of
rotation, despite its blurred appearance. The proposed method is evaluated on a
new annotated dataset. The results show that existing trackers are inadequate
for the problem of FMO localization and a new approach is required. Two
applications of localization, temporal super-resolution and highlighting, are
presented
Robust automatic target tracking based on a Bayesian ego-motion compensation framework for airborne FLIR imagery
Automatic target tracking in airborne FLIR imagery is currently a challenge due to the camera ego-motion. This phenomenon distorts the spatio-temporal correlation of the video sequence, which dramatically reduces the tracking performance. Several works address this problem using ego-motion compensation strategies. They use a deterministic approach to compensate the camera motion assuming a specific model of geometric transformation. However, in real sequences a specific geometric transformation can not accurately describe the camera ego-motion for the whole sequence, and as consequence of this, the performance of the tracking stage can significantly decrease, even completely fail. The optimum transformation for each pair of consecutive frames depends on the relative depth of the elements that compose the scene, and their degree of texturization. In this work, a novel Particle Filter framework is proposed to efficiently manage several hypothesis of geometric transformations: Euclidean, affine, and projective. Each type of transformation is used to compute candidate locations of the object in the current frame. Then, each candidate is evaluated by the measurement model of the Particle Filter using the appearance information. This approach is able to adapt to different camera ego-motion conditions, and thus to satisfactorily perform the tracking. The proposed strategy has been tested on the AMCOM FLIR dataset, showing a high efficiency in the tracking of different types of targets in real working conditions
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
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