Uncertainty-aware video visual analytics of tracked moving objects

Vast amounts of video data render manual video analysis useless while recent automatic video analytics techniques suffer from insufficient performance. To alleviate these issues we present a scalable and reliable approach exploiting the visual analytics methodology. This involves the user in the iterative process of exploration hypotheses generation and their verification. Scalability is achieved by interactive filter definitions on trajectory features extracted by the automatic computer vision stage. We establish the interface between user and machine adopting the VideoPerpetuoGram (VPG) for visualization and enable users to provide filter-based relevance feedback. Additionally users are supported in deriving hypotheses by context-sensitive statistical graphics. To allow for reliable decision making we gather uncertainties introduced by the computer vision step communicate these information to users through uncertainty visualization and grant fuzzy hypothesis formulation to interact with the machine. Finally we demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by the video analysis mini challenge which was part of the IEEE Symposium on Visual Analytics Science and Technology 2009

Dynamic Evacuation Planning by Visual Analytics-An Expert Survey

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Interactive Visual Labelling versus Active Learning: An Experimental Comparison

Methods from supervised machine learning allow the classification of new data automatically and are tremendously helpful for data analysis. The quality of supervised maching learning depends not only on the type of algorithm used, but also on the quality of the labelled dataset used to train the classifier. Labelling instances in a training dataset is often done manually relying on selections and annotations by expert analysts, and is often a tedious and time-consuming process. Active learning algorithms can automatically determine a subset of data instances for which labels would provide useful input to the learning process. Interactive visual labelling techniques are a promising alternative, providing effective visual overviews from which an analyst can simultaneously explore data records and select items to a label. By putting the analyst in the loop, higher accuracy can be achieved in the resulting classifier. While initial results of interactive visual labelling techniques are promising in the sense that user labelling can improve supervised learning, many aspects of these techniques are still largely unexplored. This paper presents a study conducted using the mVis tool to compare three interactive visualisations, similarity map, scatterplot matrix (SPLOM), and parallel coordinates, with each other and with active learning for the purpose of labelling a multivariate dataset. The results show that all three interactive visual labelling techniques surpass active learning algorithms in terms of classifier accuracy, and that users subjectively prefer the similarity map over SPLOM and parallel coordinates for labelling. Users also employ different labelling strategies depending on the visualisation used

Viewing Visual Analytics as Model Building

To complement the currently existing definitions and conceptual frameworks of visual analytics, which focus mainly on activities performed by analysts and types of techniques they use, we attempt to define the expected results of these activities. We argue that the main goal of doing visual analytics is to build a mental and/or formal model of a certain piece of reality reflected in data. The purpose of the model may be to understand, to forecast or to control this piece of reality. Based on this model-building perspective, we propose a detailed conceptual framework in which the visual analytics process is considered as a goal-oriented workflow producing a model as a result. We demonstrate how this framework can be used for performing an analytical survey of the visual analytics research field and identifying the directions and areas where further research is needed

Uncertainty-aware video visual analytics of tracked moving objects

Vast amounts of video data render manual video analysis useless while recent automatic video analytics techniques suffer from insufficient performance. To alleviate these issues, we present a scalable and reliable approach exploiting the visual analytics methodology. This involves the user in the iterative process of exploration, hypotheses generation, and their verification. Scalability is achieved by interactive filter definitions on trajectory features extracted by the automatic computer vision stage. We establish the interface between user and machine adopting the VideoPerpetuoGram (VPG) for visualization and enable users to provide filter-based relevance feedback. Additionally, users are supported in deriving hypotheses by context-sensitive statistical graphics. To allow for reliable decision making, we gather uncertainties introduced by the computer vision step, communicate these information to users through uncertainty visualization, and grant fuzzy hypothesis formulation to interact with the machine. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by the video analysis mini challenge which was part of the IEEE Symposium on Visual Analytics Science and Technology 2009

Auditory Support for Situation Awareness in Video Surveillance

Presented at the 18th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD2012) on June 18-21, 2012 in Atlanta, Georgia.Reprinted by permission of the International Community for Auditory Display, http://www.icad.org.We introduce a parameter mapping sonification to support situational awareness of surveillance operators during their task of monitoring video data. The presented auditory display produces a continuous ambient soundscape reflecting the changes in video data. For this purpose, we use low-level computer vision techniques, such as optical-flow extraction and background subtraction, and rely on the capabilities of the human auditory system for high-level recognition. Special focus is put on the mapping between video features and sound parameters. We optimize this mapping to provide a good interpretability of the sound pattern, as well as an aesthetic non-obtrusive sonification: precision of the conveyed information, psychoacoustic capabilities of the auditory system, and aesthetical guidelines of sound design are considered by optimally balancing the mapping parameters using gradient descent. A user study evaluates the capabilities and limitations of the presented sonification, as well as its applicability to supporting situational awareness in surveillance scenarios.This work was funded by German Research Foundation (DFG) as part of the Priority Program “Scalable Visual Analytics” (SPP 1335)