Image Parsing: Unifying Segmentation, Detection, and Recognition

In this paper we present a Bayesian framework for parsing images into their constituent visual patterns. The parsing algorithm optimizes the posterior probability and outputs a scene representation in a "parsing graph", in a spirit similar to parsing sentences in speech and natural language. The algorithm constructs the parsing graph and re-configures it dynamically using a set of reversible Markov chain jumps. This computational framework integrates two popular inference approaches -- generative (top-down) methods and discriminative (bottom-up) methods. The former formulates the posterior probability in terms of generative models for images defined by likelihood functions and priors. The latter computes discriminative probabilities based on a sequence (cascade) of bottom-up tests/filters

SoftPOSIT: Simultaneous Pose and Correspondence Determination

The problem of pose estimation arises in many areas of computer vision, including object recognition, object tracking, site inspection and updating, and autonomous navigation when scene models are available. We present a new algorithm, called SoftPOSIT, for determining the pose of a 3D object from a single 2D image when correspondences between model points and image points are not known. The algorithm combines Gold's iterative softassign algorithm [Gold 1996, Gold 1998] for computing correspondences and DeMenthon's iterative POSIT algorithm [DeMenthon 1995] for computing object pose under a full-perspective camera model. Our algorithm, unlike most previous algorithms for pose determination, does not have to hypothesize small sets of matches and then verify the remaining image points. Instead, all possible matches are treated identically throughout the search for an optimal pose. The performance of the algorithm is extensively evaluated in Monte Carlo simulations on synthetic data The support of NSF grants EAR-99-05844 and IIS-00-86116 is gratefully acknowledged. under a variety of levels of clutter, occlusion, and image noise. These tests show that the algorithm performs well in a variety of difficult scenarios, and empirical evidence suggests that the algorithm has an asymptotic run-time complexity that is better than previous methods by a factor of the number of image points. The algorithm is being applied to a number of practical autonomous vehicle navigation problems including the registration of 3D architectural models of a city to images, and the docking of small robots onto larger robots.