Pixel-variant Local Homography for Fisheye Stereo Rectification Minimizing Resampling Distortion

Large field-of-view fisheye lens cameras have attracted more and more researchers' attention in the field of robotics. However, there does not exist a convenient off-the-shelf stereo rectification approach which can be applied directly to fisheye stereo rig. One obvious drawback of existing methods is that the resampling distortion (which is defined as the loss of pixels due to under-sampling and the creation of new pixels due to over-sampling during rectification process) is severe if we want to obtain a rectification with epipolar line (not epipolar circle) constraint. To overcome this weakness, we propose a novel pixel-wise local homography technique for stereo rectification. First, we prove that there indeed exist enough degrees of freedom to apply pixel-wise local homography for stereo rectification. Then we present a method to exploit these freedoms and the solution via an optimization framework. Finally, the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed method have been verified on real fisheye lens images. The rectification results show that the proposed approach can effectively reduce the resampling distortion in comparison with existing methods while satisfying the epipolar line constraint. By employing the proposed method, dense stereo matching and 3D reconstruction for fisheye lens camera become as easy as perspective lens cameras

Synthetic aperture radar/LANDSAT MSS image registration

Algorithms and procedures necessary to merge aircraft synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and LANDSAT multispectral scanner (MSS) imagery were determined. The design of a SAR/LANDSAT data merging system was developed. Aircraft SAR images were registered to the corresponding LANDSAT MSS scenes and were the subject of experimental investigations. Results indicate that the registration of SAR imagery with LANDSAT MSS imagery is feasible from a technical viewpoint, and useful from an information-content viewpoint

Concepts for on-board satellite image registration, volume 1

The NASA-NEEDS program goals present a requirement for on-board signal processing to achieve user-compatible, information-adaptive data acquisition. One very specific area of interest is the preprocessing required to register imaging sensor data which have been distorted by anomalies in subsatellite-point position and/or attitude control. The concepts and considerations involved in using state-of-the-art positioning systems such as the Global Positioning System (GPS) in concert with state-of-the-art attitude stabilization and/or determination systems to provide the required registration accuracy are discussed with emphasis on assessing the accuracy to which a given image picture element can be located and identified, determining those algorithms required to augment the registration procedure and evaluating the technology impact on performing these procedures on-board the satellite

A Unified Framework for Multi-Sensor HDR Video Reconstruction

One of the most successful approaches to modern high quality HDR-video capture is to use camera setups with multiple sensors imaging the scene through a common optical system. However, such systems pose several challenges for HDR reconstruction algorithms. Previous reconstruction techniques have considered debayering, denoising, resampling (align- ment) and exposure fusion as separate problems. In contrast, in this paper we present a unifying approach, performing HDR assembly directly from raw sensor data. Our framework includes a camera noise model adapted to HDR video and an algorithm for spatially adaptive HDR reconstruction based on fitting of local polynomial approximations to observed sensor data. The method is easy to implement and allows reconstruction to an arbitrary resolution and output mapping. We present an implementation in CUDA and show real-time performance for an experimental 4 Mpixel multi-sensor HDR video system. We further show that our algorithm has clear advantages over existing methods, both in terms of flexibility and reconstruction quality

Bayesian Trend Filtering

We develop a fully Bayesian hierarchical model for trend filtering, itself a new development in nonparametric, univariate regression. The framework more broadly applies to the generalized lasso, but focus is on Bayesian trend filtering. We compare two shrinkage priors, double exponential and generalized double Pareto. A simulation study, comparing Bayesian trend filtering to the original formulation and a number of other popular methods shows our method to improve estimation error while maintaining if not improving coverage probability. Two time series data sets demonstrate Bayesian trend filtering's robustness to possible violations of its assumptions

The adaptive patched particle filter and its implementation

There are numerous contexts where one wishes to describe the state of a randomly evolving system. Effective solutions combine models that quantify the underlying uncertainty with available observational data to form relatively optimal estimates for the uncertainty in the system state. Stochastic differential equations are often used to mathematically model the underlying system. The Kusuoka-Lyons-Victoir (KLV) approach is a higher order particle method for approximating the weak solution of a stochastic differential equation that uses a weighted set of scenarios to approximate the evolving probability distribution to a high order of accuracy. The algorithm can be performed by integrating along a number of carefully selected bounded variation paths and the iterated application of the KLV method has a tendency for the number of particles to increase. Together with local dynamic recombination that simplifies the support of discrete measure without harming the accuracy of the approximation, the KLV method becomes eligible to solve the filtering problem for which one has to maintain an accurate description of the ever-evolving conditioned measure. Besides the alternate application of the KLV method and recombination for the entire family of particles, we make use of the smooth nature of likelihood to lead some of the particles immediately to the next observation time and to build an algorithm that is a form of automatic high order adaptive importance sampling

Target Tracking via Crowdsourcing: A Mechanism Design Approach

In this paper, we propose a crowdsourcing based framework for myopic target tracking by designing an incentive-compatible mechanism based optimal auction in a wireless sensor network (WSN) containing sensors that are selfish and profit-motivated. For typical WSNs which have limited bandwidth, the fusion center (FC) has to distribute the total number of bits that can be transmitted from the sensors to the FC among the sensors. To accomplish the task, the FC conducts an auction by soliciting bids from the selfish sensors, which reflect how much they value their energy cost. Furthermore, the rationality and truthfulness of the sensors are guaranteed in our model. The final problem is formulated as a multiple-choice knapsack problem (MCKP), which is solved by the dynamic programming method in pseudo-polynomial time. Simulation results show the effectiveness of our proposed approach in terms of both the tracking performance and lifetime of the sensor network.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, IEEE Signal Processing Transactio

Complementarity of PALM and SOFI for super-resolution live cell imaging of focal adhesions

Live cell imaging of focal adhesions requires a sufficiently high temporal resolution, which remains a challenging task for super-resolution microscopy. We have addressed this important issue by combining photo-activated localization microscopy (PALM) with super-resolution optical fluctuation imaging (SOFI). Using simulations and fixed cell focal adhesion images, we investigated the complementarity between PALM and SOFI in terms of spatial and temporal resolution. This PALM-SOFI framework was used to image focal adhesions in living cells, while obtaining a temporal resolution below 10 s. We visualized the dynamics of focal adhesions, and revealed local mean velocities around 190 nm per minute. The complementarity of PALM and SOFI was assessed in detail with a methodology that integrates a quantitative resolution and signal-to-noise metric. This PALM and SOFI concept provides an enlarged quantitative imaging framework, allowing unprecedented functional exploration of focal adhesions through the estimation of molecular parameters such as the fluorophore density and the photo-activation and photo-switching rates

Continious-time Importance Sampling: Monte Carlo Methods which Avoid Time-discretisation Error

In this paper we develop a continuous-time sequential importance sampling (CIS) algorithm which eliminates time-discretisation errors and provides online unbiased estimation for continuous time Markov processes, in particular for diffusions. Our work removes the strong conditions imposed by the EA and thus extends significantly the class of discretisation error-free MC methods for diffusions. The reason that CIS can be applied more generally than EA is that it no longer works on the path space of the SDE. Instead it uses proposal distributions for the transition density of the diffusion, and proposal distributions that are absolutely continuous with respect to the true transition density exist for general SDEs

A Framework for SAR-Optical Stereogrammetry over Urban Areas

Currently, numerous remote sensing satellites provide a huge volume of diverse earth observation data. As these data show different features regarding resolution, accuracy, coverage, and spectral imaging ability, fusion techniques are required to integrate the different properties of each sensor and produce useful information. For example, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data can be fused with optical imagery to produce 3D information using stereogrammetric methods. The main focus of this study is to investigate the possibility of applying a stereogrammetry pipeline to very-high-resolution (VHR) SAR-optical image pairs. For this purpose, the applicability of semi-global matching is investigated in this unconventional multi-sensor setting. To support the image matching by reducing the search space and accelerating the identification of correct, reliable matches, the possibility of establishing an epipolarity constraint for VHR SAR-optical image pairs is investigated as well. In addition, it is shown that the absolute geolocation accuracy of VHR optical imagery with respect to VHR SAR imagery such as provided by TerraSAR-X can be improved by a multi-sensor block adjustment formulation based on rational polynomial coefficients. Finally, the feasibility of generating point clouds with a median accuracy of about 2m is demonstrated and confirms the potential of 3D reconstruction from SAR-optical image pairs over urban areas.Comment: This is the pre-acceptance version, to read the final version, please go to ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing on ScienceDirec