11,628 research outputs found
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
Playing with Duality: An Overview of Recent Primal-Dual Approaches for Solving Large-Scale Optimization Problems
Optimization methods are at the core of many problems in signal/image
processing, computer vision, and machine learning. For a long time, it has been
recognized that looking at the dual of an optimization problem may drastically
simplify its solution. Deriving efficient strategies which jointly brings into
play the primal and the dual problems is however a more recent idea which has
generated many important new contributions in the last years. These novel
developments are grounded on recent advances in convex analysis, discrete
optimization, parallel processing, and non-smooth optimization with emphasis on
sparsity issues. In this paper, we aim at presenting the principles of
primal-dual approaches, while giving an overview of numerical methods which
have been proposed in different contexts. We show the benefits which can be
drawn from primal-dual algorithms both for solving large-scale convex
optimization problems and discrete ones, and we provide various application
examples to illustrate their usefulness
Vision-Based Road Detection in Automotive Systems: A Real-Time Expectation-Driven Approach
The main aim of this work is the development of a vision-based road detection
system fast enough to cope with the difficult real-time constraints imposed by
moving vehicle applications. The hardware platform, a special-purpose massively
parallel system, has been chosen to minimize system production and operational
costs. This paper presents a novel approach to expectation-driven low-level
image segmentation, which can be mapped naturally onto mesh-connected massively
parallel SIMD architectures capable of handling hierarchical data structures.
The input image is assumed to contain a distorted version of a given template;
a multiresolution stretching process is used to reshape the original template
in accordance with the acquired image content, minimizing a potential function.
The distorted template is the process output.Comment: See http://www.jair.org/ for any accompanying file
Confidence driven TGV fusion
We introduce a novel model for spatially varying variational data fusion,
driven by point-wise confidence values. The proposed model allows for the joint
estimation of the data and the confidence values based on the spatial coherence
of the data. We discuss the main properties of the introduced model as well as
suitable algorithms for estimating the solution of the corresponding biconvex
minimization problem and their convergence. The performance of the proposed
model is evaluated considering the problem of depth image fusion by using both
synthetic and real data from publicly available datasets
Generating 3D faces using Convolutional Mesh Autoencoders
Learned 3D representations of human faces are useful for computer vision
problems such as 3D face tracking and reconstruction from images, as well as
graphics applications such as character generation and animation. Traditional
models learn a latent representation of a face using linear subspaces or
higher-order tensor generalizations. Due to this linearity, they can not
capture extreme deformations and non-linear expressions. To address this, we
introduce a versatile model that learns a non-linear representation of a face
using spectral convolutions on a mesh surface. We introduce mesh sampling
operations that enable a hierarchical mesh representation that captures
non-linear variations in shape and expression at multiple scales within the
model. In a variational setting, our model samples diverse realistic 3D faces
from a multivariate Gaussian distribution. Our training data consists of 20,466
meshes of extreme expressions captured over 12 different subjects. Despite
limited training data, our trained model outperforms state-of-the-art face
models with 50% lower reconstruction error, while using 75% fewer parameters.
We also show that, replacing the expression space of an existing
state-of-the-art face model with our autoencoder, achieves a lower
reconstruction error. Our data, model and code are available at
http://github.com/anuragranj/com
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
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