A hybrid technique for face detection in color images

In this paper, a hybrid technique for face detection in color images is presented. The proposed technique combines three analysis models, namely skin detection, automatic eye localization, and appearance-based face/nonface classification. Using a robust histogram-based skin detection model, skin-like pixels are first identified in the RGB color space. Based on this, face bounding-boxes are extracted from the image. On detecting a face bounding-box, approximate positions of the candidate mouth feature points are identified using the redness property of image pixels. A region-based eye localization step, based on the detected mouth feature points, is then applied to face bounding-boxes to locate possible eye feature points in the image. Based on the distance between the detected eye feature points, face/non-face classification is performed over a normalized search area using the Bayesian discriminating feature (BDF) analysis method. Some subjective evaluation results are presented on images taken using digital cameras and a Webcam, representing both indoor and outdoor scenes

Enhancing person annotation for personal photo management using content and context based technologies

Rapid technological growth and the decreasing cost of photo capture means that we are all taking more digital photographs than ever before. However, lack of technology for automatically organising personal photo archives has resulted in many users left with poorly annotated photos, causing them great frustration when such photo collections are to be browsed or searched at a later time. As a result, there has recently been significant research interest in technologies for supporting effective annotation. This thesis addresses an important sub-problem of the broad annotation problem, namely "person annotation" associated with personal digital photo management. Solutions to this problem are provided using content analysis tools in combination with context data within the experimental photo management framework, called “MediAssist”. Readily available image metadata, such as location and date/time, are captured from digital cameras with in-built GPS functionality, and thus provide knowledge about when and where the photos were taken. Such information is then used to identify the "real-world" events corresponding to certain activities in the photo capture process. The problem of enabling effective person annotation is formulated in such a way that both "within-event" and "cross-event" relationships of persons' appearances are captured. The research reported in the thesis is built upon a firm foundation of content-based analysis technologies, namely face detection, face recognition, and body-patch matching together with data fusion. Two annotation models are investigated in this thesis, namely progressive and non-progressive. The effectiveness of each model is evaluated against varying proportions of initial annotation, and the type of initial annotation based on individual and combined face, body-patch and person-context information sources. The results reported in the thesis strongly validate the use of multiple information sources for person annotation whilst emphasising the advantage of event-based photo analysis in real-life photo management systems

Solar System: Sifting through the debris

A quadrillion previously unnoticed small bodies beyond Neptune have been spotted as they dimmed X-rays from a distant source. Models of the dynamics of debris in the Solar System's suburbs must now be reworked.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure; Nature News and Views on Chang et al. 2006, Nature, 442, 660-66

Semi-automatic video object segmentation for multimedia applications

A semi-automatic video object segmentation tool is presented for segmenting both still pictures and image sequences. The approach comprises both automatic segmentation algorithms and manual user interaction. The still image segmentation component is comprised of a conventional spatial segmentation algorithm (Recursive Shortest Spanning Tree (RSST)), a hierarchical segmentation representation method (Binary Partition Tree (BPT)), and user interaction. An initial segmentation partition of homogeneous regions is created using RSST. The BPT technique is then used to merge these regions and hierarchically represent the segmentation in a binary tree. The semantic objects are then manually built by selectively clicking on image regions. A video object-tracking component enables image sequence segmentation, and this subsystem is based on motion estimation, spatial segmentation, object projection, region classification, and user interaction. The motion between the previous frame and the current frame is estimated, and the previous object is then projected onto the current partition. A region classification technique is used to determine which regions in the current partition belong to the projected object. User interaction is allowed for object re-initialisation when the segmentation results become inaccurate. The combination of all these components enables offline video sequence segmentation. The results presented on standard test sequences illustrate the potential use of this system for object-based coding and representation of multimedia

An interactive and multi-level framework for summarising user generated videos

We present an interactive and multi-level abstraction framework for user-generated video (UGV) summarisation, allowing a user the flexibility to select a summarisation criterion out of a number of methods provided by the system. First, a given raw video is segmented into shots, and each shot is further decomposed into sub-shots in line with the change in dominant camera motion. Secondly, principal component analysis (PCA) is applied to the colour representation of the collection of sub-shots, and a content map is created using the first few components. Each sub-shot is represented with a ``footprint'' on the content map, which reveals its content significance (coverage) and the most dynamic segment. The final stage of abstraction is devised in a user-assisted manner whereby a user is able to specify a desired summary length, with options to interactively perform abstraction at different granularity of visual comprehension. The results obtained show the potential benefit in significantly alleviating the burden of laborious user intervention associated with conventional video editing/browsing

Accounting Education in Australia and Japan: A Comparative Examination

In recent years there has been a great concern among governments, professional bodies and educators for changes in accounting education. It seems useful for planners of such changes to consider the methods of training accountants in different countries as one country can learn from the experiences of another. In the existing literature, however, there is a dearth of comparative studies on this area of education in different countries. This paper presents an analysis of accounting education in Australia and Japan highlighting the major differences in the two countries. The analysis reveals that accounting education in Australia places emphasis on financial accounting while the emphasis is on cost and management accounting in Japan. It also shows that being firm-specific through comprehensive in-house training the Japanese system is in a better position to produce accountants capable of adapting accounting systems to the different work situations which result from technological changes and automation

Cross-Correlation Studies between CMB Temperature Anisotropies and 21 cm Fluctuations

During the transition from a neutral to a fully reionized universe, scattering of cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons via free-electrons leads to a new anisotropy contribution to the temperature distribution. If the reionization process is inhomogeneous and patchy, the era of reionization is also visible via brightness temperature fluctuations in the redshifted 21 cm line emission from neutral Hydrogen. Since regions containing electrons and neutral Hydrogen are expected to trace the same underlying density field, the two are (anti) correlated and this is expected to be reflected in the anisotropy maps via a correlation between arcminute-scale CMB temperature and the 21 cm background. In terms of the angular cross-power spectrum, unfortunately, this correlation is insignificant due to a geometric cancellation associated with second order CMB anisotropies. The same cross-correlation between ionized and neutral regions, however, can be studied using a bispectrum involving large scale velocity field of ionized regions from the Doppler effect, arcminute scale CMB anisotropies during reionization, and the 21 cm background. While the geometric cancellation is partly avoided, the signal-to-noise ratio related to this bispectrum is reduced due to the large cosmic variance related to velocity fluctuations traced by the Doppler effect. Unless the velocity field during reionization can be independently established, it is unlikely that the correlation information related to the relative distribution of ionized electrons and regions containing neutral Hydrogen can be obtained with a combined study involving CMB and 21 cm fluctuations.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

An improved limit on the neutrino mass with CMB and redshift-dependent halo bias-mass relations from SDSS, DEEP2, and Lyman-Break Galaxies

We use measurements of luminosity-dependent galaxy bias at several different redshifts, SDSS at $z=0.05$, DEEP2 at $z=1$ and LBGs at $z=3.8$, combined with WMAP five-year cosmic microwave background anisotropy data and SDSS Red Luminous Galaxy survey three-dimensional clustering power spectrum to put constraints on cosmological parameters. Fitting this combined dataset, we show that the luminosity-dependent bias data that probe the relation between halo bias and halo mass and its redshift evolution are very sensitive to sum of the neutrino masses: in particular we obtain the upper limit of $\sum m_{\nu}<0.28$eV at the 95% confidence level for a $\Lambda CDM + m_{\nu}$ model, with a $\sigma_8$ equal to $\sigma_8=0.759\pm0.025$ (1$\sigma$). When we allow the dark energy equation of state parameter $w$ to vary we find $w=-1.30\pm0.19$ for a general $wCDM+m_{\nu}$ model with the 95% confidence level upper limit on the neutrino masses at $\sum m_{\nu}<0.59$eV. The constraint on the dark energy equation of state further improves to $w=-1.125\pm0.092$ when using also ACBAR and supernovae Union data, in addition to above, with a prior on the Hubble constant from the Hubble Space Telescope.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, submitted to PR

Facial features and appearance-based classification for face detection in color images

A technique is presented for frontal face detection in color images based on facial feature extraction and appearance-based classification. Salient facial features are used to define a search space that is then used in a classification step in order to find the best position of the face in the image. Mouth feature points are identified using the redness property of image pixels whilst eye feature points are detected using a search strategy applied to a subset of regions in a fine region-based segmentation of the candidate face. Face class modeling based on a multivariate normal distribution and discriminating feature analysis is used as the face classification method. The utilization of facial features in this system avoids analyzing the image at every pixel location as well as at multiple scales when detecting faces of different sizes

Identifying person re-occurrences for personal photo management applications

Automatic identification of "who" is present in individual digital images within a photo management system using only content-based analysis is an extremely difficult problem. The authors present a system which enables identification of person reoccurrences within a personal photo management application by combining image content-based analysis tools with context data from image capture. This combined system employs automatic face detection and body-patch matching techniques, which collectively facilitate identifying person re-occurrences within images grouped into events based on context data. The authors introduce a face detection approach combining a histogram-based skin detection model and a modified BDF face detection method to detect multiple frontal faces in colour images. Corresponding body patches are then automatically segmented relative to the size, location and orientation of the detected faces in the image. The authors investigate the suitability of using different colour descriptors, including MPEG-7 colour descriptors, color coherent vectors (CCV) and color correlograms for effective body-patch matching. The system has been successfully integrated into the MediAssist platform, a prototype Web-based system for personal photo management, and runs on over 13000 personal photos