100 research outputs found
Effects of Ground Manifold Modeling on the Accuracy of Stixel Calculations
This paper highlights the role of ground manifold modeling for stixel calculations; stixels are medium-level data representations used for the development of computer vision modules for self-driving cars. By using single-disparity maps and simplifying ground manifold models, calculated stixels may suffer from noise, inconsistency, and false-detection rates for obstacles, especially in challenging datasets. Stixel calculations can be improved with respect to accuracy and robustness by using more adaptive ground manifold approximations. A comparative study of stixel results, obtained for different ground-manifold models (e.g., plane-fitting, line-fitting in v-disparities or polynomial approximation, and graph cut), defines the main part of this paper. This paper also considers the use of trinocular stereo vision and shows that this provides options to enhance stixel results, compared with the binocular recording. Comprehensive experiments are performed on two publicly available challenging datasets. We also use a novel way for comparing calculated stixels with ground truth. We compare depth information, as given by extracted stixels, with ground-truth depth, provided by depth measurements using a highly accurate LiDAR range sensor (as available in one of the public datasets). We evaluate the accuracy of four different ground-manifold methods. The experimental results also include quantitative evaluations of the tradeoff between accuracy and run time. As a result, the proposed trinocular recording together with graph-cut estimation of ground manifolds appears to be a recommended way, also considering challenging weather and lighting conditions
Geometry meets semantics for semi-supervised monocular depth estimation
Depth estimation from a single image represents a very exciting challenge in
computer vision. While other image-based depth sensing techniques leverage on
the geometry between different viewpoints (e.g., stereo or structure from
motion), the lack of these cues within a single image renders ill-posed the
monocular depth estimation task. For inference, state-of-the-art
encoder-decoder architectures for monocular depth estimation rely on effective
feature representations learned at training time. For unsupervised training of
these models, geometry has been effectively exploited by suitable images
warping losses computed from views acquired by a stereo rig or a moving camera.
In this paper, we make a further step forward showing that learning semantic
information from images enables to improve effectively monocular depth
estimation as well. In particular, by leveraging on semantically labeled images
together with unsupervised signals gained by geometry through an image warping
loss, we propose a deep learning approach aimed at joint semantic segmentation
and depth estimation. Our overall learning framework is semi-supervised, as we
deploy groundtruth data only in the semantic domain. At training time, our
network learns a common feature representation for both tasks and a novel
cross-task loss function is proposed. The experimental findings show how,
jointly tackling depth prediction and semantic segmentation, allows to improve
depth estimation accuracy. In particular, on the KITTI dataset our network
outperforms state-of-the-art methods for monocular depth estimation.Comment: 16 pages, Accepted to ACCV 201
Stereo-Based Environment Scanning for Immersive Telepresence
The processing power and network bandwidth required for true immersive telepresence applications are only now beginning to be available. We draw from our experience developing stereo based tele-immersion prototypes to present the main issues arising when building these systems. Tele-immersion is a new medium that enables a user to share a virtual space with remote participants. The user is immersed in a rendered three-dimensional (3-D) world that is transmitted from a remote site. To acquire this 3-D description, we apply binocular and trinocular stereo techniques which provide a view-independent scene description. Slow processing cycles or long network latencies interfere with the users\u27 ability to communicate, so the dense stereo range data must be computed and transmitted at high frame rates. Moreover, reconstructed 3-D views of the remote scene must be as accurate as possible to achieve a sense of presence. We address both issues of speed and accuracy using a variety of techniques including the power of supercomputing clusters and a method for combining motion and stereo in order to increase speed and robustness. We present the latest prototype acquiring a room-size environment in real time using a supercomputing cluster, and we discuss its strengths and current weaknesses
On the Synergies between Machine Learning and Binocular Stereo for Depth Estimation from Images: a Survey
Stereo matching is one of the longest-standing problems in computer vision
with close to 40 years of studies and research. Throughout the years the
paradigm has shifted from local, pixel-level decision to various forms of
discrete and continuous optimization to data-driven, learning-based methods.
Recently, the rise of machine learning and the rapid proliferation of deep
learning enhanced stereo matching with new exciting trends and applications
unthinkable until a few years ago. Interestingly, the relationship between
these two worlds is two-way. While machine, and especially deep, learning
advanced the state-of-the-art in stereo matching, stereo itself enabled new
ground-breaking methodologies such as self-supervised monocular depth
estimation based on deep networks. In this paper, we review recent research in
the field of learning-based depth estimation from single and binocular images
highlighting the synergies, the successes achieved so far and the open
challenges the community is going to face in the immediate future.Comment: Accepted to TPAMI. Paper version of our CVPR 2019 tutorial:
"Learning-based depth estimation from stereo and monocular images: successes,
limitations and future challenges"
(https://sites.google.com/view/cvpr-2019-depth-from-image/home
Real-Time High-Resolution Multiple-Camera Depth Map Estimation Hardware and Its Applications
Depth information is used in a variety of 3D based signal processing applications such as autonomous navigation of robots and driving systems, object detection and tracking, computer games, 3D television, and free view-point synthesis. These applications require high accuracy and speed performances for depth estimation. Depth maps can be generated using disparity estimation methods, which are obtained from stereo matching between multiple images. The computational complexity of disparity estimation algorithms and the need of large size and bandwidth for the external and internal memory make the real-time processing of disparity estimation challenging, especially for high resolution images. This thesis proposes a high-resolution high-quality multiple-camera depth map estimation hardware. The proposed hardware is verified in real-time with a complete system from the initial image capture to the display and applications. The details of the complete system are presented. The proposed binocular and trinocular adaptive window size disparity estimation algorithms are carefully designed to be suitable to real-time hardware implementation by allowing efficient parallel and local processing while providing high-quality results. The proposed binocular and trinocular disparity estimation hardware implementations can process 55 frames per second on a Virtex-7 FPGA at a 1024 x 768 XGA video resolution for a 128 pixel disparity range. The proposed binocular disparity estimation hardware provides best quality compared to existing real-time high-resolution disparity estimation hardware implementations. A novel compressed-look up table based rectification algorithm and its real-time hardware implementation are presented. The low-complexity decompression process of the rectification hardware utilizes a negligible amount of LUT and DFF resources of the FPGA while it does not require the existence of external memory. The first real-time high-resolution free viewpoint synthesis hardware utilizing three-camera disparity estimation is presented. The proposed hardware generates high-quality free viewpoint video in real-time for any horizontally aligned arbitrary camera positioned between the leftmost and rightmost physical cameras. The full embedded system of the depth estimation is explained. The presented embedded system transfers disparity results together with synchronized RGB pixels to the PC for application development. Several real-time applications are developed on a PC using the obtained RGB+D results. The implemented depth estimation based real-time software applications are: depth based image thresholding, speed and distance measurement, head-hands-shoulders tracking, virtual mouse using hand tracking and face tracking integrated with free viewpoint synthesis. The proposed binocular disparity estimation hardware is implemented in an ASIC. The ASIC implementation of disparity estimation imposes additional constraints with respect to the FPGA implementation. These restrictions, their implemented efficient solutions and the ASIC implementation results are presented. In addition, a very high-resolution (82.3 MP) 360°x90° omnidirectional multiple camera system is proposed. The hemispherical camera system is able to view the target locations close to horizontal plane with more than two cameras. Therefore, it can be used in high-resolution 360° depth map estimation and its applications in the future
Sensor fusion in driving assistance systems
Mención Internacional en el título de doctorLa vida diaria en los países desarrollados y en vías de desarrollo depende en
gran medida del transporte urbano y en carretera. Esta actividad supone un
coste importante para sus usuarios activos y pasivos en términos de polución
y accidentes, muy habitualmente debidos al factor humano. Los nuevos desarrollos
en seguridad y asistencia a la conducción, llamados Advanced Driving
Assistance Systems (ADAS), buscan mejorar la seguridad en el transporte, y
a medio plazo, llegar a la conducción autónoma.
Los ADAS, al igual que la conducción humana, están basados en sensores
que proporcionan información acerca del entorno, y la fiabilidad de los sensores
es crucial para las aplicaciones ADAS al igual que las capacidades
sensoriales lo son para la conducción humana. Una de las formas de aumentar
la fiabilidad de los sensores es el uso de la Fusión Sensorial, desarrollando
nuevas estrategias para el modelado del entorno de conducción gracias al uso
de diversos sensores, y obteniendo una información mejorada a partid de los
datos disponibles.
La presente tesis pretende ofrecer una solución novedosa para la detección
y clasificación de obstáculos en aplicaciones de automoción, usando fusión
vii
sensorial con dos sensores ampliamente disponibles en el mercado: la cámara
de espectro visible y el escáner láser. Cámaras y láseres son sensores
comúnmente usados en la literatura científica, cada vez más accesibles y listos
para ser empleados en aplicaciones reales. La solución propuesta permite la
detección y clasificación de algunos de los obstáculos comúnmente presentes
en la vía, como son ciclistas y peatones.
En esta tesis se han explorado novedosos enfoques para la detección y clasificación,
desde la clasificación empleando clusters de nubes de puntos obtenidas
desde el escáner láser, hasta las técnicas de domain adaptation para la creación
de bases de datos de imágenes sintéticas, pasando por la extracción inteligente
de clusters y la detección y eliminación del suelo en nubes de puntos.Life in developed and developing countries is highly dependent on road and
urban motor transport. This activity involves a high cost for its active and passive
users in terms of pollution and accidents, which are largely attributable to
the human factor. New developments in safety and driving assistance, called
Advanced Driving Assistance Systems (ADAS), are intended to improve
security in transportation, and, in the mid-term, lead to autonomous driving.
ADAS, like the human driving, are based on sensors, which provide information
about the environment, and sensors’ reliability is crucial for ADAS
applications in the same way the sensing abilities are crucial for human driving.
One of the ways to improve reliability for sensors is the use of Sensor
Fusion, developing novel strategies for environment modeling with the help of
several sensors and obtaining an enhanced information from the combination
of the available data.
The present thesis is intended to offer a novel solution for obstacle detection
and classification in automotive applications using sensor fusion with two
highly available sensors in the market: visible spectrum camera and laser
scanner. Cameras and lasers are commonly used sensors in the scientific
literature, increasingly affordable and ready to be deployed in real world
applications. The solution proposed provides obstacle detection and classification
for some obstacles commonly present in the road, such as pedestrians and bicycles.
Novel approaches for detection and classification have been explored in this
thesis, from point cloud clustering classification for laser scanner, to domain
adaptation techniques for synthetic dataset creation, and including intelligent
clustering extraction and ground detection and removal from point clouds.Programa Oficial de Doctorado en Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y AutomáticaPresidente: Cristina Olaverri Monreal.- Secretario: Arturo de la Escalera Hueso.- Vocal: José Eugenio Naranjo Hernánde
- …