Face pose estimation with automatic 3D model creation for a driver inattention monitoring application

Texto en inglés y resumen en inglés y españolRecent studies have identified inattention (including distraction and drowsiness) as the main cause of accidents, being responsible of at least 25% of them. Driving distraction has been less studied, since it is more diverse and exhibits a higher risk factor than fatigue. In addition, it is present over half of the inattention involved crashes. The increased presence of In Vehicle Information Systems (IVIS) adds to the potential distraction risk and modifies driving behaviour, and thus research on this issue is of vital importance. Many researchers have been working on different approaches to deal with distraction during driving. Among them, Computer Vision is one of the most common, because it allows for a cost effective and non-invasive driver monitoring and sensing. Using Computer Vision techniques it is possible to evaluate some facial movements that characterise the state of attention of a driver. This thesis presents methods to estimate the face pose and gaze direction of a person in real-time, using a stereo camera as a basic for assessing driver distractions. The methods are completely automatic and user-independent. A set of features in the face are identified at initialisation, and used to create a sparse 3D model of the face. These features are tracked from frame to frame, and the model is augmented to cover parts of the face that may have been occluded before. The algorithm is designed to work in a naturalistic driving simulator, which presents challenging low light conditions. We evaluate several techniques to detect features on the face that can be matched between cameras and tracked with success. Well-known methods such as SURF do not return good results, due to the lack of salient points in the face, as well as the low illumination of the images. We introduce a novel multisize technique, based on Harris corner detector and patch correlation. This technique benefits from the better performance of small patches under rotations and illumination changes, and the more robust correlation of the bigger patches under motion blur. The head rotates in a range of ±90º in the yaw angle, and the appearance of the features change noticeably. To deal with these changes, we implement a new re-registering technique that captures new textures of the features as the face rotates. These new textures are incorporated to the model, which mixes the views of both cameras. The captures are taken at regular angle intervals for rotations in yaw, so that each texture is only used in a range of ±7.5º around the capture angle. Rotations in pitch and roll are handled using affine patch warping. The 3D model created at initialisation can only take features in the frontal part of the face, and some of these may occlude during rotations. The accuracy and robustness of the face tracking depends on the number of visible points, so new points are added to the 3D model when new parts of the face are visible from both cameras. Bundle adjustment is used to reduce the accumulated drift of the 3D reconstruction. We estimate the pose from the position of the features in the images and the 3D model using POSIT or Levenberg-Marquardt. A RANSAC process detects incorrectly tracked points, which are not considered for pose estimation. POSIT is faster, while LM obtains more accurate results. Using the model extension and the re-registering technique, we can accurately estimate the pose in the full head rotation range, with error levels that improve the state of the art. A coarse eye direction is composed with the face pose estimation to obtain the gaze and driver's fixation area, parameter which gives much information about the distraction pattern of the driver. The resulting gaze estimation algorithm proposed in this thesis has been tested on a set of driving experiments directed by a team of psychologists in a naturalistic driving simulator. This simulator mimics conditions present in real driving, including weather changes, manoeuvring and distractions due to IVIS. Professional drivers participated in the tests. The driver?s fixation statistics obtained with the proposed system show how the utilisation of IVIS influences the distraction pattern of the drivers, increasing reaction times and affecting the fixation of attention on the road and the surroundings

Face pose estimation with automatic 3D model creation for a driver inattention monitoring application

Texto en inglés y resumen en inglés y españolRecent studies have identified inattention (including distraction and drowsiness) as the main cause of accidents, being responsible of at least 25% of them. Driving distraction has been less studied, since it is more diverse and exhibits a higher risk factor than fatigue. In addition, it is present over half of the inattention involved crashes. The increased presence of In Vehicle Information Systems (IVIS) adds to the potential distraction risk and modifies driving behaviour, and thus research on this issue is of vital importance. Many researchers have been working on different approaches to deal with distraction during driving. Among them, Computer Vision is one of the most common, because it allows for a cost effective and non-invasive driver monitoring and sensing. Using Computer Vision techniques it is possible to evaluate some facial movements that characterise the state of attention of a driver. This thesis presents methods to estimate the face pose and gaze direction of a person in real-time, using a stereo camera as a basic for assessing driver distractions. The methods are completely automatic and user-independent. A set of features in the face are identified at initialisation, and used to create a sparse 3D model of the face. These features are tracked from frame to frame, and the model is augmented to cover parts of the face that may have been occluded before. The algorithm is designed to work in a naturalistic driving simulator, which presents challenging low light conditions. We evaluate several techniques to detect features on the face that can be matched between cameras and tracked with success. Well-known methods such as SURF do not return good results, due to the lack of salient points in the face, as well as the low illumination of the images. We introduce a novel multisize technique, based on Harris corner detector and patch correlation. This technique benefits from the better performance of small patches under rotations and illumination changes, and the more robust correlation of the bigger patches under motion blur. The head rotates in a range of ±90º in the yaw angle, and the appearance of the features change noticeably. To deal with these changes, we implement a new re-registering technique that captures new textures of the features as the face rotates. These new textures are incorporated to the model, which mixes the views of both cameras. The captures are taken at regular angle intervals for rotations in yaw, so that each texture is only used in a range of ±7.5º around the capture angle. Rotations in pitch and roll are handled using affine patch warping. The 3D model created at initialisation can only take features in the frontal part of the face, and some of these may occlude during rotations. The accuracy and robustness of the face tracking depends on the number of visible points, so new points are added to the 3D model when new parts of the face are visible from both cameras. Bundle adjustment is used to reduce the accumulated drift of the 3D reconstruction. We estimate the pose from the position of the features in the images and the 3D model using POSIT or Levenberg-Marquardt. A RANSAC process detects incorrectly tracked points, which are not considered for pose estimation. POSIT is faster, while LM obtains more accurate results. Using the model extension and the re-registering technique, we can accurately estimate the pose in the full head rotation range, with error levels that improve the state of the art. A coarse eye direction is composed with the face pose estimation to obtain the gaze and driver's fixation area, parameter which gives much information about the distraction pattern of the driver. The resulting gaze estimation algorithm proposed in this thesis has been tested on a set of driving experiments directed by a team of psychologists in a naturalistic driving simulator. This simulator mimics conditions present in real driving, including weather changes, manoeuvring and distractions due to IVIS. Professional drivers participated in the tests. The driver?s fixation statistics obtained with the proposed system show how the utilisation of IVIS influences the distraction pattern of the drivers, increasing reaction times and affecting the fixation of attention on the road and the surroundings

Computing the Component-Labeling and the Adjacency Tree of a Binary Digital Image in Near Logarithmic-Time

Connected component labeling (CCL) of binary images is one of the fundamental operations in real time applications. The adjacency tree (AdjT) of the connected components offers a region-based representation where each node represents a region which is surrounded by another region of the opposite color. In this paper, a fully parallel algorithm for computing the CCL and AdjT of a binary digital image is described and implemented, without the need of using any geometric information. The time complexity order for an image of m × n pixels under the assumption that a processing element exists for each pixel is near O(log(m+ n)). Results for a multicore processor show a very good scalability until the so-called memory bandwidth bottleneck is reached. The inherent parallelism of our approach points to the direction that even better results will be obtained in other less classical computing architectures.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad MTM2016-81030-PMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2012-37868-C04-0

Schoolbooks Publishers. Agents of Public Opinion Process (1996 to 2008)

La liberalización de precios para los libros de la enseñanza obligatoria regulada por ley en 2007 provocó la reflexión de los editores de manuales de texto, tradicionales defensores del precio fijo como garantía de supervivencia del sector, que terminaron concluyendo que el precio libre resulta menos dañino que la política de precios fijos con descuentos ilimitadosDeregulation of the prices for primary and secondary school textbooks, as required by law in 2007, caused textbook publishers to reconsider the matter of fixed prices as a guarantee to their sector’s survival. Finally, they concluded that free pricing was less harmful to them than the fixed price policy, which allowed for endless discounts.Publicad

El consultor de comunicación independiente, alternativa a las grandes agencias de comunicación y relaciones públicas

Las comunicaciones del Foro están incluidas en el CD que acompaña al libro.Publicad

Alfabetización en medios, democracia y participación social

Utilizar la alfabetización mediática para alentar los valores democráticos y la participación social implica recurrir a la lectura crítica y dialógica de los productos de los medios y estimular la producción de otros nuevos, colectivamente elaborados

Six blogs for the study of corporative communication 2.0 in the Spanish written blogosphere

El presente texto analiza seis bitácoras que, de una forma u otra, son útiles para el estudio de la Comunicación Corporativa 2.0 en español. Aunque los blogs comparten temática, muestran perfiles y contenidos distintos. Esta circunstancia, en vez de acentuar divergencias, hace que los blogs sean complementarios entre sí, proporcionando una visión sistémica de la Comunicación Corporativa 2.0.This paper analyzes six blogs wich, one way or another, are useful to study of Corporate Communication 2.0 in Spanish. These blogs are showing information about the same thematic, but they have different profiles and contents. the blogs are complementary, providing a global view of Corporate Communication 2.0.Publicad

Local media in the transition to democracy: transparency and participation in the conference on local information and communication in 1980

Para estudiar el papel que tuvieron los medios de comunicación locales en España durante la transición a la democracia y las consecuencias de los modelos entonces establecidos, hay que conocer cuáles eran las cuestiones que consideraban relevantes los profesionales, políticos electos y académicos implicados en el área. Para ello, se estudian las ponencias presentadas en las Primeras Jornadas de Información y Comunicación Municipal, celebradas en Barcelona en 1980. En el anális is, se consideran tres campos de interés: la definición del contexto, la valoración de las cuestiones clave y la relevancia de los diferentes medios. La transparencia, la participación de la ciudadanía y la independencia de los profesionales, fueron consid erados aspectos esenciales para conseguir una comunicación en beneficio de la comunidad local. A pesar de las radicales transformaciones que se han dado desde entonces, estos grandes problemas subsisten en los medios locales actuales.To study the role of local media in Spain during the transition to democracy and the consequences of the models implemented since then, we must know what issues professionals, elected politicians and academics involved in the area considered relevant. For this reason, the papers presented at the First Conference on Local Information and Communication, held in Barcelona in 1980, have been studied. Three fields of interest are considered for the analysis: the definition of the context, the assessment of the key issues and the relevance of the different media. Transparency, citizen’s participation and the independence of professionals were considered essential aspects to achieve communication for the benefit of the local community. In spite of the radical transformations that have taken place since then, these great problems persist in the current local media

Local media in the transition to democracy: transparency and participation in the conference on local information and communication in 1980

Para estudiar el papel que tuvieron los medios de comunicación locales en España durante la transición a la democracia y las consecuencias de los modelos entonces establecidos, hay que conocer cuáles eran las cuestiones que consideraban relevantes los profesionales, políticos electos y académicos implicados en el área. Para ello, se estudian las ponencias presentadas en las Primeras Jornadas de Información y Comunicación Municipal, celebradas en Barcelona en 1980. En el anális is, se consideran tres campos de interés: la definición del contexto, la valoración de las cuestiones clave y la relevancia de los diferentes medios. La transparencia, la participación de la ciudadanía y la independencia de los profesionales, fueron consid erados aspectos esenciales para conseguir una comunicación en beneficio de la comunidad local. A pesar de las radicales transformaciones que se han dado desde entonces, estos grandes problemas subsisten en los medios locales actuales.To study the role of local media in Spain during the transition to democracy and the consequences of the models implemented since then, we must know what issues professionals, elected politicians and academics involved in the area considered relevant. For this reason, the papers presented at the First Conference on Local Information and Communication, held in Barcelona in 1980, have been studied. Three fields of interest are considered for the analysis: the definition of the context, the assessment of the key issues and the relevance of the different media. Transparency, citizen’s participation and the independence of professionals were considered essential aspects to achieve communication for the benefit of the local community. In spite of the radical transformations that have taken place since then, these great problems persist in the current local media