27,235 research outputs found
From 3D Point Clouds to Pose-Normalised Depth Maps
We consider the problem of generating either pairwise-aligned or pose-normalised depth maps from noisy 3D point clouds in a relatively unrestricted poses. Our system is deployed in a 3D face alignment application and consists of the following four stages: (i) data filtering, (ii) nose tip identification and sub-vertex localisation, (iii) computation of the (relative) face orientation, (iv) generation of either a pose aligned or a pose normalised depth map. We generate an implicit radial basis function (RBF) model of the facial surface and this is employed within all four stages of the process. For example, in stage (ii), construction of novel invariant features is based on sampling this RBF over a set of concentric spheres to give a spherically-sampled RBF (SSR) shape histogram. In stage (iii), a second novel descriptor, called an isoradius contour curvature signal, is defined, which allows rotational alignment to be determined using a simple process of 1D correlation. We test our system on both the University of York (UoY) 3D face dataset and the Face Recognition Grand Challenge (FRGC) 3D data. For the more challenging UoY data, our SSR descriptors significantly outperform three variants of spin images, successfully identifying nose vertices at a rate of 99.6%. Nose localisation performance on the higher quality FRGC data, which has only small pose variations, is 99.9%. Our best system successfully normalises the pose of 3D faces at rates of 99.1% (UoY data) and 99.6% (FRGC data)
Fully Automatic Expression-Invariant Face Correspondence
We consider the problem of computing accurate point-to-point correspondences
among a set of human face scans with varying expressions. Our fully automatic
approach does not require any manually placed markers on the scan. Instead, the
approach learns the locations of a set of landmarks present in a database and
uses this knowledge to automatically predict the locations of these landmarks
on a newly available scan. The predicted landmarks are then used to compute
point-to-point correspondences between a template model and the newly available
scan. To accurately fit the expression of the template to the expression of the
scan, we use as template a blendshape model. Our algorithm was tested on a
database of human faces of different ethnic groups with strongly varying
expressions. Experimental results show that the obtained point-to-point
correspondence is both highly accurate and consistent for most of the tested 3D
face models
Fast and Accurate Algorithm for Eye Localization for Gaze Tracking in Low Resolution Images
Iris centre localization in low-resolution visible images is a challenging
problem in computer vision community due to noise, shadows, occlusions, pose
variations, eye blinks, etc. This paper proposes an efficient method for
determining iris centre in low-resolution images in the visible spectrum. Even
low-cost consumer-grade webcams can be used for gaze tracking without any
additional hardware. A two-stage algorithm is proposed for iris centre
localization. The proposed method uses geometrical characteristics of the eye.
In the first stage, a fast convolution based approach is used for obtaining the
coarse location of iris centre (IC). The IC location is further refined in the
second stage using boundary tracing and ellipse fitting. The algorithm has been
evaluated in public databases like BioID, Gi4E and is found to outperform the
state of the art methods.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, IET Computer Vision, 201
Class-Based Feature Matching Across Unrestricted Transformations
We develop a novel method for class-based feature matching across large changes in viewing conditions. The method is based on the property that when objects share a similar part, the similarity is preserved across viewing conditions. Given a feature and a training set of object images, we first identify the subset of objects that share this feature. The transformation of the feature's appearance across viewing conditions is determined mainly by properties of the feature, rather than of the object in which it is embedded. Therefore, the transformed feature will be shared by approximately the same set of objects. Based on this consistency requirement, corresponding features can be reliably identified from a set of candidate matches. Unlike previous approaches, the proposed scheme compares feature appearances only in similar viewing conditions, rather than across different viewing conditions. As a result, the scheme is not restricted to locally planar objects or affine transformations. The approach also does not require examples of correct matches. We show that by using the proposed method, a dense set of accurate correspondences can be obtained. Experimental comparisons demonstrate that matching accuracy is significantly improved over previous schemes. Finally, we show that the scheme can be successfully used for invariant object recognition
Learning Human Pose Estimation Features with Convolutional Networks
This paper introduces a new architecture for human pose estimation using a
multi- layer convolutional network architecture and a modified learning
technique that learns low-level features and higher-level weak spatial models.
Unconstrained human pose estimation is one of the hardest problems in computer
vision, and our new architecture and learning schema shows significant
improvement over the current state-of-the-art results. The main contribution of
this paper is showing, for the first time, that a specific variation of deep
learning is able to outperform all existing traditional architectures on this
task. The paper also discusses several lessons learned while researching
alternatives, most notably, that it is possible to learn strong low-level
feature detectors on features that might even just cover a few pixels in the
image. Higher-level spatial models improve somewhat the overall result, but to
a much lesser extent then expected. Many researchers previously argued that the
kinematic structure and top-down information is crucial for this domain, but
with our purely bottom up, and weak spatial model, we could improve other more
complicated architectures that currently produce the best results. This mirrors
what many other researchers, like those in the speech recognition, object
recognition, and other domains have experienced
- …