Publications | Perceiving Systems - Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems

580 results (View BibTeX file of all listed publications)

2003

Method and apparatus for generating a condensed version of a video sequence including desired affordances

Black, M. J., Ju, S., Minneman, S., Kimber, D.

US Pat. 6,560,281, May 2003 (patent)

2003

Black, M. J., Ju, S., Minneman, S., Kimber, D. Method and apparatus for generating a condensed version of a video sequence including desired affordances US Pat. 6,560,281, May 2003 (patent)

pdf on-line at USPTO [BibTex]

A Gaussian mixture model for the motor cortical coding of hand motion

Wu, W., Mumford, D., Black, M. J., Gao, Y., Bienenstock, E., Donoghue, J. P.

Neural Control of Movement, Santa Barbara, CA, April 2003 (conference)

abstract [BibTex]

Wu, W., Mumford, D., Black, M. J., Gao, Y., Bienenstock, E., Donoghue, J. P. A Gaussian mixture model for the motor cortical coding of hand motion Neural Control of Movement, Santa Barbara, CA, April 2003 (conference)

abstract [BibTex]

Connecting brains with machines: The neural control of 2D cursor movement

Black, M. J., Bienenstock, E., Donoghue, J. P., Serruya, M., Wu, W., Gao, Y.

In 1st International IEEE/EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering, pages: 580-583, Capri, Italy, March 2003 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Black, M. J., Bienenstock, E., Donoghue, J. P., Serruya, M., Wu, W., Gao, Y. Connecting brains with machines: The neural control of 2D cursor movement In 1st International IEEE/EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering, pages: 580-583, Capri, Italy, March 2003 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

A quantitative comparison of linear and non-linear models of motor cortical activity for the encoding and decoding of arm motions

Gao, Y., Black, M. J., Bienenstock, E., Wu, W., Donoghue, J. P.

In 1st International IEEE/EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering, pages: 189-192, Capri, Italy, March 2003 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Gao, Y., Black, M. J., Bienenstock, E., Wu, W., Donoghue, J. P. A quantitative comparison of linear and non-linear models of motor cortical activity for the encoding and decoding of arm motions In 1st International IEEE/EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering, pages: 189-192, Capri, Italy, March 2003 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Apparatus and method for identifying and tracking objects with view-based representations

Black, M. J., Jepson, A.

US Pat. 6,526,156, Febuary 2003 (patent)

pdf on-line at USPTO [BibTex]

Black, M. J., Jepson, A. Apparatus and method for identifying and tracking objects with view-based representations US Pat. 6,526,156, Febuary 2003 (patent)

pdf on-line at USPTO [BibTex]

Accuracy of manual spike sorting: Results for the Utah intracortical array

Wood, F., Fellows, M., Vargas-Irwin, C., Black, M. J., Donoghue, J. P.

Program No. 279.2. 2003, Abstract Viewer and Itinerary Planner, Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC, 2003, Online (conference)

abstract [BibTex]

Wood, F., Fellows, M., Vargas-Irwin, C., Black, M. J., Donoghue, J. P. Accuracy of manual spike sorting: Results for the Utah intracortical array Program No. 279.2. 2003, Abstract Viewer and Itinerary Planner, Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC, 2003, Online (conference)

abstract [BibTex]

Specular flow and the perception of surface reflectance

Roth, S., Domini, F., Black, M. J.

Journal of Vision, 3 (9): 413a, 2003 (conference)

abstract poster [BibTex]

Roth, S., Domini, F., Black, M. J. Specular flow and the perception of surface reflectance Journal of Vision, 3 (9): 413a, 2003 (conference)

abstract poster [BibTex]

Attractive people: Assembling loose-limbed models using non-parametric belief propagation

Sigal, L., Isard, M. I., Sigelman, B. H., Black, M. J.

In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 16, NIPS, pages: 1539-1546, (Editors: S. Thrun and L. K. Saul and B. Schölkopf), MIT Press, 2003 (inproceedings)

Abstract

The detection and pose estimation of people in images and video is made challenging by the variability of human appearance, the complexity of natural scenes, and the high dimensionality of articulated body models. To cope with these problems we represent the 3D human body as a graphical model in which the relationships between the body parts are represented by conditional probability distributions. We formulate the pose estimation problem as one of probabilistic inference over a graphical model where the random variables correspond to the individual limb parameters (position and orientation). Because the limbs are described by 6-dimensional vectors encoding pose in 3-space, discretization is impractical and the random variables in our model must be continuous-valued. To approximate belief propagation in such a graph we exploit a recently introduced generalization of the particle filter. This framework facilitates the automatic initialization of the body-model from low level cues and is robust to occlusion of body parts and scene clutter.

pdf (color) pdf (black and white) [BibTex]

Sigal, L., Isard, M. I., Sigelman, B. H., Black, M. J. Attractive people: Assembling loose-limbed models using non-parametric belief propagation In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 16, NIPS, pages: 1539-1546, (Editors: S. Thrun and L. K. Saul and B. Schölkopf), MIT Press, 2003 (inproceedings)

pdf (color) pdf (black and white) [BibTex]

Neural decoding of cursor motion using a Kalman filter

(Nominated: Best student paper)

Wu, W., Black, M. J., Gao, Y., Bienenstock, E., Serruya, M., Shaikhouni, A., Donoghue, J. P.

In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 15, pages: 133-140, MIT Press, 2003 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Wu, W., Black, M. J., Gao, Y., Bienenstock, E., Serruya, M., Shaikhouni, A., Donoghue, J. P. Neural decoding of cursor motion using a Kalman filter In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 15, pages: 133-140, MIT Press, 2003 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

2002

Inferring hand motion from multi-cell recordings in motor cortex using a Kalman filter

Wu, W., Black, M. J., Gao, Y., Bienenstock, E., Serruya, M., Donoghue, J. P.

In SAB’02-Workshop on Motor Control in Humans and Robots: On the Interplay of Real Brains and Artificial Devices, pages: 66-73, Edinburgh, Scotland (UK), August 2002 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

2002

Wu, W., Black, M. J., Gao, Y., Bienenstock, E., Serruya, M., Donoghue, J. P. Inferring hand motion from multi-cell recordings in motor cortex using a Kalman filter In SAB’02-Workshop on Motor Control in Humans and Robots: On the Interplay of Real Brains and Artificial Devices, pages: 66-73, Edinburgh, Scotland (UK), August 2002 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Inferring hand motion from multi-cell recordings in motor cortex using a Kalman filter

Wu, W., Black M., Gao, Y., Bienenstock, E., Serruya, M., Donoghue, J.

Program No. 357.5. 2002 Abstract Viewer/Itinerary Planner, Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC, 2002, Online (conference)

abstract [BibTex]

Wu, W., Black M., Gao, Y., Bienenstock, E., Serruya, M., Donoghue, J. Inferring hand motion from multi-cell recordings in motor cortex using a Kalman filter Program No. 357.5. 2002 Abstract Viewer/Itinerary Planner, Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC, 2002, Online (conference)

abstract [BibTex]

Automatic detection and tracking of human motion with a view-based representation

Fablet, R., Black, M. J.

In European Conf. on Computer Vision, ECCV 2002, 1, pages: 476-491, LNCS 2353, (Editors: A. Heyden and G. Sparr and M. Nielsen and P. Johansen), Springer-Verlag , 2002 (inproceedings)

Abstract

This paper proposes a solution for the automatic detection and tracking of human motion in image sequences. Due to the complexity of the human body and its motion, automatic detection of 3D human motion remains an open, and important, problem. Existing approaches for automatic detection and tracking focus on 2D cues and typically exploit object appearance (color distribution, shape) or knowledge of a static background. In contrast, we exploit 2D optical flow information which provides rich descriptive cues, while being independent of object and background appearance. To represent the optical flow patterns of people from arbitrary viewpoints, we develop a novel representation of human motion using low-dimensional spatio-temporal models that are learned using motion capture data of human subjects. In addition to human motion (the foreground) we probabilistically model the motion of generic scenes (the background); these statistical models are defined as Gibbsian fields specified from the first-order derivatives of motion observations. Detection and tracking are posed in a principled Bayesian framework which involves the computation of a posterior probability distribution over the model parameters (i.e., the location and the type of the human motion) given a sequence of optical flow observations. Particle filtering is used to represent and predict this non-Gaussian posterior distribution over time. The model parameters of samples from this distribution are related to the pose parameters of a 3D articulated model (e.g. the approximate joint angles and movement direction). Thus the approach proves suitable for initializing more complex probabilistic models of human motion. As shown by experiments on real image sequences, our method is able to detect and track people under different viewpoints with complex backgrounds.

pdf [BibTex]

Fablet, R., Black, M. J. Automatic detection and tracking of human motion with a view-based representation In European Conf. on Computer Vision, ECCV 2002, 1, pages: 476-491, LNCS 2353, (Editors: A. Heyden and G. Sparr and M. Nielsen and P. Johansen), Springer-Verlag , 2002 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

A layered motion representation with occlusion and compact spatial support

Fleet, D. J., Jepson, A., Black, M. J.

In European Conf. on Computer Vision, ECCV 2002, 1, pages: 692-706, LNCS 2353, (Editors: A. Heyden and G. Sparr and M. Nielsen and P. Johansen), Springer-Verlag , 2002 (inproceedings)

Abstract

We describe a 2.5D layered representation for visual motion analysis. The representation provides a global interpretation of image motion in terms of several spatially localized foreground regions along with a background region. Each of these regions comprises a parametric shape model and a parametric motion model. The representation also contains depth ordering so visibility and occlusion are rightly included in the estimation of the model parameters. Finally, because the number of objects, their positions, shapes and sizes, and their relative depths are all unknown, initial models are drawn from a proposal distribution, and then compared using a penalized likelihood criterion. This allows us to automatically initialize new models, and to compare different depth orderings.

pdf [BibTex]

Fleet, D. J., Jepson, A., Black, M. J. A layered motion representation with occlusion and compact spatial support In European Conf. on Computer Vision, ECCV 2002, 1, pages: 692-706, LNCS 2353, (Editors: A. Heyden and G. Sparr and M. Nielsen and P. Johansen), Springer-Verlag , 2002 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Implicit probabilistic models of human motion for synthesis and tracking

Sidenbladh, H., Black, M. J., Sigal, L.

In European Conf. on Computer Vision, 1, pages: 784-800, 2002 (inproceedings)

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of probabilistically modeling 3D human motion for synthesis and tracking. Given the high dimensional nature of human motion, learning an explicit probabilistic model from available training data is currently impractical. Instead we exploit methods from texture synthesis that treat images as representing an implicit empirical distribution. These methods replace the problem of representing the probability of a texture pattern with that of searching the training data for similar instances of that pattern. We extend this idea to temporal data representing 3D human motion with a large database of example motions. To make the method useful in practice, we must address the problem of efficient search in a large training set; efficiency is particularly important for tracking. Towards that end, we learn a low dimensional linear model of human motion that is used to structure the example motion database into a binary tree. An approximate probabilistic tree search method exploits the coefficients of this low-dimensional representation and runs in sub-linear time. This probabilistic tree search returns a particular sample human motion with probability approximating the true distribution of human motions in the database. This sampling method is suitable for use with particle filtering techniques and is applied to articulated 3D tracking of humans within a Bayesian framework. Successful tracking results are presented, along with examples of synthesizing human motion using the model.

pdf [BibTex]

Sidenbladh, H., Black, M. J., Sigal, L. Implicit probabilistic models of human motion for synthesis and tracking In European Conf. on Computer Vision, 1, pages: 784-800, 2002 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Robust parameterized component analysis: Theory and applications to 2D facial modeling

De la Torre, F., Black, M. J.

In European Conf. on Computer Vision, ECCV 2002, 4, pages: 653-669, LNCS 2353, Springer-Verlag, 2002 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

De la Torre, F., Black, M. J. Robust parameterized component analysis: Theory and applications to 2D facial modeling In European Conf. on Computer Vision, ECCV 2002, 4, pages: 653-669, LNCS 2353, Springer-Verlag, 2002 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Probabilistic inference of hand motion from neural activity in motor cortex

Gao, Y., Black, M. J., Bienenstock, E., Shoham, S., Donoghue, J.

In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 14, pages: 221-228, MIT Press, 2002 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Gao, Y., Black, M. J., Bienenstock, E., Shoham, S., Donoghue, J. Probabilistic inference of hand motion from neural activity in motor cortex In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 14, pages: 221-228, MIT Press, 2002 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

2001

Dynamic coupled component analysis

De la Torre, F., Black, M. J.

In IEEE Proc. Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, CVPR’01, 2, pages: 643-650, IEEE, Kauai, Hawaii, December 2001 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

2001

De la Torre, F., Black, M. J. Dynamic coupled component analysis In IEEE Proc. Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, CVPR’01, 2, pages: 643-650, IEEE, Kauai, Hawaii, December 2001 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Robust principal component analysis for computer vision

De la Torre, F., Black, M. J.

In Int. Conf. on Computer Vision, ICCV-2001, II, pages: 362-369, Vancouver, BC, USA, 2001 (inproceedings)

pdf Project Page [BibTex]

De la Torre, F., Black, M. J. Robust principal component analysis for computer vision In Int. Conf. on Computer Vision, ICCV-2001, II, pages: 362-369, Vancouver, BC, USA, 2001 (inproceedings)

pdf Project Page [BibTex]

Learning image statistics for Bayesian tracking

Sidenbladh, H., Black, M. J.

In Int. Conf. on Computer Vision, ICCV-2001, II, pages: 709-716, Vancouver, BC, USA, 2001 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Sidenbladh, H., Black, M. J. Learning image statistics for Bayesian tracking In Int. Conf. on Computer Vision, ICCV-2001, II, pages: 709-716, Vancouver, BC, USA, 2001 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Encoding/decoding of arm kinematics from simultaneously recorded MI neurons

Gao, Y., Bienenstock, E., Black, M., Shoham, S., Serruya, M., Donoghue, J.

Society for Neuroscience Abst. Vol. 27, Program No. 572.14, 2001 (conference)

abstract [BibTex]

Gao, Y., Bienenstock, E., Black, M., Shoham, S., Serruya, M., Donoghue, J. Encoding/decoding of arm kinematics from simultaneously recorded MI neurons Society for Neuroscience Abst. Vol. 27, Program No. 572.14, 2001 (conference)

abstract [BibTex]

Learning and tracking cyclic human motion

Ormoneit, D., Sidenbladh, H., Black, M. J., Hastie, T.

In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 13, NIPS, pages: 894-900, (Editors: Leen, Todd K. and Dietterich, Thomas G. and Tresp, Volker), The MIT Press, 2001 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Ormoneit, D., Sidenbladh, H., Black, M. J., Hastie, T. Learning and tracking cyclic human motion In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 13, NIPS, pages: 894-900, (Editors: Leen, Todd K. and Dietterich, Thomas G. and Tresp, Volker), The MIT Press, 2001 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

2000

Probabilistic detection and tracking of motion boundaries

Black, M. J., Fleet, D. J.

Int. J. of Computer Vision, 38(3):231-245, July 2000 (article)

Abstract

We propose a Bayesian framework for representing and recognizing local image motion in terms of two basic models: translational motion and motion boundaries. Motion boundaries are represented using a non-linear generative model that explicitly encodes the orientation of the boundary, the velocities on either side, the motion of the occluding edge over time, and the appearance/disappearance of pixels at the boundary. We represent the posterior probability distribution over the model parameters given the image data using discrete samples. This distribution is propagated over time using a particle filtering algorithm. To efficiently represent such a high-dimensional space we initialize samples using the responses of a low-level motion discontinuity detector. The formulation and computational model provide a general probabilistic framework for motion estimation with multiple, non-linear, models.

pdf pdf from publisher Video [BibTex]

2000

Black, M. J., Fleet, D. J. Probabilistic detection and tracking of motion boundaries Int. J. of Computer Vision, 38(3):231-245, July 2000 (article)

pdf pdf from publisher Video [BibTex]

Stochastic tracking of 3D human figures using 2D image motion

(Winner of the 2010 Koenderink Prize for Fundamental Contributions in Computer Vision)

Sidenbladh, H., Black, M. J., Fleet, D.

In European Conference on Computer Vision, ECCV, pages: 702-718, LNCS 1843, Springer Verlag, Dublin, Ireland, June 2000 (inproceedings)

Abstract

A probabilistic method for tracking 3D articulated human figures in monocular image sequences is presented. Within a Bayesian framework, we define a generative model of image appearance, a robust likelihood function based on image gray level differences, and a prior probability distribution over pose and joint angles that models how humans move. The posterior probability distribution over model parameters is represented using a discrete set of samples and is propagated over time using particle filtering. The approach extends previous work on parameterized optical flow estimation to exploit a complex 3D articulated motion model. It also extends previous work on human motion tracking by including a perspective camera model, by modeling limb self occlusion, and by recovering 3D motion from a monocular sequence. The explicit posterior probability distribution represents ambiguities due to image matching, model singularities, and perspective projection. The method relies only on a frame-to-frame assumption of brightness constancy and hence is able to track people under changing viewpoints, in grayscale image sequences, and with complex unknown backgrounds.

pdf code [BibTex]

Sidenbladh, H., Black, M. J., Fleet, D. Stochastic tracking of 3D human figures using 2D image motion In European Conference on Computer Vision, ECCV, pages: 702-718, LNCS 1843, Springer Verlag, Dublin, Ireland, June 2000 (inproceedings)

pdf code [BibTex]

Functional analysis of human motion data

Ormoneit, D., Hastie, T., Black, M. J.

In In Proc. 5th World Congress of the Bernoulli Society for Probability and Mathematical Statistics and 63rd Annual Meeting of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, Guanajuato, Mexico, May 2000 (inproceedings)

[BibTex]

Ormoneit, D., Hastie, T., Black, M. J. Functional analysis of human motion data In In Proc. 5th World Congress of the Bernoulli Society for Probability and Mathematical Statistics and 63rd Annual Meeting of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, Guanajuato, Mexico, May 2000 (inproceedings)

[BibTex]

Stochastic modeling and tracking of human motion

Ormoneit, D., Sidenbladh, H., Black, M. J., Hastie, T.

Learning 2000, Snowbird, UT, April 2000 (conference)

abstract [BibTex]

Ormoneit, D., Sidenbladh, H., Black, M. J., Hastie, T. Stochastic modeling and tracking of human motion Learning 2000, Snowbird, UT, April 2000 (conference)

abstract [BibTex]

A framework for modeling the appearance of 3D articulated figures

Sidenbladh, H., De la Torre, F., Black, M. J.

In Int. Conf. on Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition, pages: 368-375, Grenoble, France, March 2000 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Sidenbladh, H., De la Torre, F., Black, M. J. A framework for modeling the appearance of 3D articulated figures In Int. Conf. on Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition, pages: 368-375, Grenoble, France, March 2000 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Design and use of linear models for image motion analysis

Fleet, D. J., Black, M. J., Yacoob, Y., Jepson, A. D.

Int. J. of Computer Vision, 36(3):171-193, 2000 (article)

Abstract

Linear parameterized models of optical flow, particularly affine models, have become widespread in image motion analysis. The linear model coefficients are straightforward to estimate, and they provide reliable estimates of the optical flow of smooth surfaces. Here we explore the use of parameterized motion models that represent much more varied and complex motions. Our goals are threefold: to construct linear bases for complex motion phenomena; to estimate the coefficients of these linear models; and to recognize or classify image motions from the estimated coefficients. We consider two broad classes of motions: i) generic “motion features” such as motion discontinuities and moving bars; and ii) non-rigid, object-specific, motions such as the motion of human mouths. For motion features we construct a basis of steerable flow fields that approximate the motion features. For object-specific motions we construct basis flow fields from example motions using principal component analysis. In both cases, the model coefficients can be estimated directly from spatiotemporal image derivatives with a robust, multi-resolution scheme. Finally, we show how these model coefficients can be use to detect and recognize specific motions such as occlusion boundaries and facial expressions.

pdf [BibTex]

Fleet, D. J., Black, M. J., Yacoob, Y., Jepson, A. D. Design and use of linear models for image motion analysis Int. J. of Computer Vision, 36(3):171-193, 2000 (article)

pdf [BibTex]

Robustly estimating changes in image appearance

Black, M. J., Fleet, D. J., Yacoob, Y.

Computer Vision and Image Understanding, 78(1):8-31, 2000 (article)

Abstract

We propose a generalized model of image “appearance change” in which brightness variation over time is represented as a probabilistic mixture of different causes. We define four generative models of appearance change due to (1) object or camera motion; (2) illumination phenomena; (3) specular reflections; and (4) “iconic changes” which are specific to the objects being viewed. These iconic changes include complex occlusion events and changes in the material properties of the objects. We develop a robust statistical framework for recovering these appearance changes in image sequences. This approach generalizes previous work on optical flow to provide a richer description of image events and more reliable estimates of image motion in the presence of shadows and specular reflections.

pdf pdf from publisher DOI [BibTex]

Black, M. J., Fleet, D. J., Yacoob, Y. Robustly estimating changes in image appearance Computer Vision and Image Understanding, 78(1):8-31, 2000 (article)

pdf pdf from publisher DOI [BibTex]

1999

Edges as outliers: Anisotropic smoothing using local image statistics

Black, M. J., Sapiro, G.

In Scale-Space Theories in Computer Vision, Second Int. Conf., Scale-Space ’99, pages: 259-270, LNCS 1682, Springer, Corfu, Greece, September 1999 (inproceedings)

Abstract

Edges are viewed as statistical outliers with respect to local image gradient magnitudes. Within local image regions we compute a robust statistical measure of the gradient variation and use this in an anisotropic diffusion framework to determine a spatially varying "edge-stopping" parameter σ. We show how to determine this parameter for two edge-stopping functions described in the literature (Perona-Malik and the Tukey biweight). Smoothing of the image is related the local texture and in regions of low texture, small gradient values may be treated as edges whereas in regions of high texture, large gradient magnitudes are necessary before an edge is preserved. Intuitively these results have similarities with human perceptual phenomena such as masking and "popout". Results are shown on a variety of standard images.

pdf [BibTex]

1999

Black, M. J., Sapiro, G. Edges as outliers: Anisotropic smoothing using local image statistics In Scale-Space Theories in Computer Vision, Second Int. Conf., Scale-Space ’99, pages: 259-270, LNCS 1682, Springer, Corfu, Greece, September 1999 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Probabilistic detection and tracking of motion discontinuities

(Marr Prize, Honorable Mention)

Black, M. J., Fleet, D. J.

In Int. Conf. on Computer Vision, ICCV-99, pages: 551-558, ICCV, Corfu, Greece, September 1999 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Black, M. J., Fleet, D. J. Probabilistic detection and tracking of motion discontinuities In Int. Conf. on Computer Vision, ICCV-99, pages: 551-558, ICCV, Corfu, Greece, September 1999 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Parameterized modeling and recognition of activities

Yacoob, Y., Black, M. J.

Computer Vision and Image Understanding, 73(2):232-247, 1999 (article)

Abstract

In this paper we consider a class of human activities—atomic activities—which can be represented as a set of measurements over a finite temporal window (e.g., the motion of human body parts during a walking cycle) and which has a relatively small space of variations in performance. A new approach for modeling and recognition of atomic activities that employs principal component analysis and analytical global transformations is proposed. The modeling of sets of exemplar instances of activities that are similar in duration and involve similar body part motions is achieved by parameterizing their representation using principal component analysis. The recognition of variants of modeled activities is achieved by searching the space of admissible parameterized transformations that these activities can undergo. This formulation iteratively refines the recognition of the class to which the observed activity belongs and the transformation parameters that relate it to the model in its class. We provide several experiments on recognition of articulated and deformable human motions from image motion parameters.

pdf pdf from publisher DOI [BibTex]

Yacoob, Y., Black, M. J. Parameterized modeling and recognition of activities Computer Vision and Image Understanding, 73(2):232-247, 1999 (article)

pdf pdf from publisher DOI [BibTex]

Explaining optical flow events with parameterized spatio-temporal models

Black, M. J.

In IEEE Proc. Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, CVPR’99, pages: 326-332, IEEE, Fort Collins, CO, 1999 (inproceedings)

pdf video [BibTex]

Black, M. J. Explaining optical flow events with parameterized spatio-temporal models In IEEE Proc. Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, CVPR’99, pages: 326-332, IEEE, Fort Collins, CO, 1999 (inproceedings)

pdf video [BibTex]

1998

Summarization of video-taped presentations: Automatic analysis of motion and gesture

Ju, S. X., Black, M. J., Minneman, S., Kimber, D.

IEEE Trans. on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, 8(5):686-696, September 1998 (article)

Abstract

This paper presents an automatic system for analyzing and annotating video sequences of technical talks. Our method uses a robust motion estimation technique to detect key frames and segment the video sequence into subsequences containing a single overhead slide. The subsequences are stabilized to remove motion that occurs when the speaker adjusts their slides. Any changes remaining between frames in the stabilized sequences may be due to speaker gestures such as pointing or writing, and we use active contours to automatically track these potential gestures. Given the constrained domain, we define a simple set of actions that can be recognized based on the active contour shape and motion. The recognized actions provide an annotation of the sequence that can be used to access a condensed version of the talk from a Web page.

pdf pdf from publisher DOI [BibTex]

1998

Ju, S. X., Black, M. J., Minneman, S., Kimber, D. Summarization of video-taped presentations: Automatic analysis of motion and gesture IEEE Trans. on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, 8(5):686-696, September 1998 (article)

pdf pdf from publisher DOI [BibTex]

Robust anisotropic diffusion

Black, M. J., Sapiro, G., Marimont, D., Heeger, D.

IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, 7(3):421-432, March 1998 (article)

Abstract

Relations between anisotropic diffusion and robust statistics are described in this paper. Specifically, we show that anisotropic diffusion can be seen as a robust estimation procedure that estimates a piecewise smooth image from a noisy input image. The edge-stopping; function in the anisotropic diffusion equation is closely related to the error norm and influence function in the robust estimation framework. This connection leads to a new edge-stopping; function based on Tukey's biweight robust estimator that preserves sharper boundaries than previous formulations and improves the automatic stopping of the diffusion. The robust statistical interpretation also provides a means for detecting the boundaries (edges) between the piecewise smooth regions in an image that has been smoothed with anisotropic diffusion. Additionally, we derive a relationship between anisotropic diffusion and regularization with line processes. Adding constraints on the spatial organization of the line processes allows us to develop new anisotropic diffusion equations that result in a qualitative improvement in the continuity of edges

pdf pdf from publisher [BibTex]

Black, M. J., Sapiro, G., Marimont, D., Heeger, D. Robust anisotropic diffusion IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, 7(3):421-432, March 1998 (article)

pdf pdf from publisher [BibTex]

The Digital Office: Overview

Black, M., Berard, F., Jepson, A., Newman, W., Saund, E., Socher, G., Taylor, M.

In AAAI Spring Symposium on Intelligent Environments, pages: 1-6, Stanford, March 1998 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Black, M., Berard, F., Jepson, A., Newman, W., Saund, E., Socher, G., Taylor, M. The Digital Office: Overview In AAAI Spring Symposium on Intelligent Environments, pages: 1-6, Stanford, March 1998 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

A framework for modeling appearance change in image sequences

Black, M. J., Fleet, D. J., Yacoob, Y.

In Sixth International Conf. on Computer Vision, ICCV’98, pages: 660-667, Mumbai, India, January 1998 (inproceedings)

Abstract

Image "appearance" may change over time due to a variety of causes such as 1) object or camera motion; 2) generic photometric events including variations in illumination (e.g. shadows) and specular reflections; and 3) "iconic changes" which are specific to the objects being viewed and include complex occlusion events and changes in the material properties of the objects. We propose a general framework for representing and recovering these "appearance changes" in an image sequence as a "mixture" of different causes. The approach generalizes previous work on optical flow to provide a richer description of image events and more reliable estimates of image motion.

pdf video [BibTex]

Black, M. J., Fleet, D. J., Yacoob, Y. A framework for modeling appearance change in image sequences In Sixth International Conf. on Computer Vision, ICCV’98, pages: 660-667, Mumbai, India, January 1998 (inproceedings)

pdf video [BibTex]

Parameterized modeling and recognition of activities

Yacoob, Y., Black, M. J.

In Sixth International Conf. on Computer Vision, ICCV’98, pages: 120-127, Mumbai, India, January 1998 (inproceedings)

Abstract

A framework for modeling and recognition of temporal activities is proposed. The modeling of sets of exemplar activities is achieved by parameterizing their representation in the form of principal components. Recognition of spatio-temporal variants of modeled activities is achieved by parameterizing the search in the space of admissible transformations that the activities can undergo. Experiments on recognition of articulated and deformable object motion from image motion parameters are presented.

pdf [BibTex]

Yacoob, Y., Black, M. J. Parameterized modeling and recognition of activities In Sixth International Conf. on Computer Vision, ICCV’98, pages: 120-127, Mumbai, India, January 1998 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Motion feature detection using steerable flow fields

Fleet, D. J., Black, M. J., Jepson, A. D.

In IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, CVPR-98, pages: 274-281, IEEE, Santa Barbara, CA, 1998 (inproceedings)

Abstract

The estimation and detection of occlusion boundaries and moving bars are important and challenging problems in image sequence analysis. Here, we model such motion features as linear combinations of steerable basis flow fields. These models constrain the interpretation of image motion, and are used in the same way as translational or affine motion models. We estimate the subspace coefficients of the motion feature models directly from spatiotemporal image derivatives using a robust regression method. From the subspace coefficients we detect the presence of a motion feature and solve for the orientation of the feature and the relative velocities of the surfaces. Our method does not require the prior computation of optical flow and recovers accurate estimates of orientation and velocity.

pdf [BibTex]

Fleet, D. J., Black, M. J., Jepson, A. D. Motion feature detection using steerable flow fields In IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, CVPR-98, pages: 274-281, IEEE, Santa Barbara, CA, 1998 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

PLAYBOT: A visually-guided robot for physically disabled children

Tsotsos, J. K., Verghese, G., Dickinson, S., Jenkin, M., Jepson, A., Milios, E., Nuflo, F., Stevenson, S., Black, M., Metaxas, D., Culhane, S., Ye, Y., Mann, R.

Image & Vision Computing, Special Issue on Vision for the Disabled, 16(4):275-292, 1998 (article)

Abstract

This paper overviews the PLAYBOT project, a long-term, large-scale research program whose goal is to provide a directable robot which may enable physically disabled children to access and manipulate toys. This domain is the first test domain, but there is nothing inherent in the design of PLAYBOT that prohibits its extension to other tasks. The research is guided by several important goals: vision is the primary sensor; vision is task directed; the robot must be able to visually search its environment; object and event recognition are basic capabilities; environments must be natural and dynamic; users and environments are assumed to be unpredictable; task direction and reactivity must be smoothly integrated; and safety is of high importance. The emphasis of the research has been on vision for the robot this is the most challenging research aspect and the major bottleneck to the development of intelligent robots. Since the control framework is behavior-based, the visual capabilities of PLAYBOT are described in terms of visual behaviors. Many of the components of PLAYBOT are briefly described and several examples of implemented sub-systems are shown. The paper concludes with a description of the current overall system implementation, and a complete example of PLAYBOT performing a simple task.

pdf pdf from publisher DOI [BibTex]

Tsotsos, J. K., Verghese, G., Dickinson, S., Jenkin, M., Jepson, A., Milios, E., Nuflo, F., Stevenson, S., Black, M., Metaxas, D., Culhane, S., Ye, Y., Mann, R. PLAYBOT: A visually-guided robot for physically disabled children Image & Vision Computing, Special Issue on Vision for the Disabled, 16(4):275-292, 1998 (article)

pdf pdf from publisher DOI [BibTex]

Visual surveillance of human activity

L. Davis, S. F., Harwood, D., Yacoob, Y., Hariatoglu, I., Black, M.

In Asian Conference on Computer Vision, ACCV, 1998 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

L. Davis, S. F., Harwood, D., Yacoob, Y., Hariatoglu, I., Black, M. Visual surveillance of human activity In Asian Conference on Computer Vision, ACCV, 1998 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

A Probabilistic framework for matching temporal trajectories: Condensation-based recognition of gestures and expressions

Black, M. J., Jepson, A. D.

In European Conf. on Computer Vision, ECCV-98, pages: 909-924, Freiburg, Germany, 1998 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Black, M. J., Jepson, A. D. A Probabilistic framework for matching temporal trajectories: Condensation-based recognition of gestures and expressions In European Conf. on Computer Vision, ECCV-98, pages: 909-924, Freiburg, Germany, 1998 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

EigenTracking: Robust matching and tracking of articulated objects using a view-based representation

Black, M. J., Jepson, A.

International Journal of Computer Vision, 26(1):63-84, 1998 (article)

Abstract

This paper describes an approach for tracking rigid and articulated objects using a view-based representation. The approach builds on and extends work on eigenspace representations, robust estimation techniques, and parameterized optical flow estimation. First, we note that the least-squares image reconstruction of standard eigenspace techniques has a number of problems and we reformulate the reconstruction problem as one of robust estimation. Second we define a “subspace constancy assumption” that allows us to exploit techniques for parameterized optical flow estimation to simultaneously solve for the view of an object and the affine transformation between the eigenspace and the image. To account for large affine transformations between the eigenspace and the image we define a multi-scale eigenspace representation and a coarse-to-fine matching strategy. Finally, we use these techniques to track objects over long image sequences in which the objects simultaneously undergo both affine image motions and changes of view. In particular we use this “EigenTracking” technique to track and recognize the gestures of a moving hand.

pdf pdf from publisher video [BibTex]

Black, M. J., Jepson, A. EigenTracking: Robust matching and tracking of articulated objects using a view-based representation International Journal of Computer Vision, 26(1):63-84, 1998 (article)

pdf pdf from publisher video [BibTex]

Recognizing temporal trajectories using the Condensation algorithm

Black, M. J., Jepson, A. D.

In Int. Conf. on Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition, pages: 16-21, Nara, Japan, 1998 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Black, M. J., Jepson, A. D. Recognizing temporal trajectories using the Condensation algorithm In Int. Conf. on Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition, pages: 16-21, Nara, Japan, 1998 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

1997

Robust anisotropic diffusion and sharpening of scalar and vector images

Black, M. J., Sapiro, G., Marimont, D., Heeger, D.

In Int. Conf. on Image Processing, ICIP, 1, pages: 263-266, Vol. 1, Santa Barbara, CA, October 1997 (inproceedings)

Abstract

Relations between anisotropic diffusion and robust statistics are described. We show that anisotropic diffusion can be seen as a robust estimation procedure that estimates a piecewise smooth image from a noisy input image. The "edge-stopping" function in the anisotropic diffusion equation is closely related to the error norm and influence function in the robust estimation framework. This connection leads to a new "edge-stopping" function based on Tukey's biweight robust estimator, that preserves sharper boundaries than previous formulations and improves the automatic stopping of the diffusion. The robust statistical interpretation also provides a means for detecting the boundaries (edges) between the piecewise smooth regions in the image. We extend the framework to vector-valued images and show applications to robust image sharpening.

pdf publisher site [BibTex]

1997

Black, M. J., Sapiro, G., Marimont, D., Heeger, D. Robust anisotropic diffusion and sharpening of scalar and vector images In Int. Conf. on Image Processing, ICIP, 1, pages: 263-266, Vol. 1, Santa Barbara, CA, October 1997 (inproceedings)

pdf publisher site [BibTex]

Robust anisotropic diffusion: Connections between robust statistics, line processing, and anisotropic diffusion

Black, M. J., Sapiro, G., Marimont, D., Heeger, D.

In Scale-Space Theory in Computer Vision, Scale-Space’97, pages: 323-326, LNCS 1252, Springer Verlag, Utrecht, the Netherlands, July 1997 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Black, M. J., Sapiro, G., Marimont, D., Heeger, D. Robust anisotropic diffusion: Connections between robust statistics, line processing, and anisotropic diffusion In Scale-Space Theory in Computer Vision, Scale-Space’97, pages: 323-326, LNCS 1252, Springer Verlag, Utrecht, the Netherlands, July 1997 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Learning parameterized models of image motion

Black, M. J., Yacoob, Y., Jepson, A. D., Fleet, D. J.

In IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, CVPR-97, pages: 561-567, Puerto Rico, June 1997 (inproceedings)

Abstract

A framework for learning parameterized models of optical flow from image sequences is presented. A class of motions is represented by a set of orthogonal basis flow fields that are computed from a training set using principal component analysis. Many complex image motions can be represented by a linear combination of a small number of these basis flows. The learned motion models may be used for optical flow estimation and for model-based recognition. For optical flow estimation we describe a robust, multi-resolution scheme for directly computing the parameters of the learned flow models from image derivatives. As examples we consider learning motion discontinuities, non-rigid motion of human mouths, and articulated human motion.

pdf [BibTex]

Black, M. J., Yacoob, Y., Jepson, A. D., Fleet, D. J. Learning parameterized models of image motion In IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, CVPR-97, pages: 561-567, Puerto Rico, June 1997 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Analysis of gesture and action in technical talks for video indexing

Ju, S. X., Black, M. J., Minneman, S., Kimber, D.

In IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, pages: 595-601, CVPR-97, Puerto Rico, June 1997 (inproceedings)

Abstract

In this paper, we present an automatic system for analyzing and annotating video sequences of technical talks. Our method uses a robust motion estimation technique to detect key frames and segment the video sequence into subsequences containing a single overhead slide. The subsequences are stabilized to remove motion that occurs when the speaker adjusts their slides. Any changes remaining between frames in the stabilized sequences may be due to speaker gestures such as pointing or writing and we use active contours to automatically track these potential gestures. Given the constrained domain we define a simple ``vocabulary'' of actions which can easily be recognized based on the active contour shape and motion. The recognized actions provide a rich annotation of the sequence that can be used to access a condensed version of the talk from a web page.

pdf [BibTex]

Ju, S. X., Black, M. J., Minneman, S., Kimber, D. Analysis of gesture and action in technical talks for video indexing In IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, pages: 595-601, CVPR-97, Puerto Rico, June 1997 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Modeling appearance change in image sequences

Black, M. J., Yacoob, Y., Fleet, D. J.

In Advances in Visual Form Analysis, pages: 11-20, Proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Visual Form, Capri, Italy, May 1997 (inproceedings)

abstract [BibTex]

Black, M. J., Yacoob, Y., Fleet, D. J. Modeling appearance change in image sequences In Advances in Visual Form Analysis, pages: 11-20, Proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Visual Form, Capri, Italy, May 1997 (inproceedings)

abstract [BibTex]

Recognizing facial expressions in image sequences using local parameterized models of image motion

Black, M. J., Yacoob, Y.

Int. Journal of Computer Vision, 25(1):23-48, 1997 (article)

Abstract

This paper explores the use of local parametrized models of image motion for recovering and recognizing the non-rigid and articulated motion of human faces. Parametric flow models (for example affine) are popular for estimating motion in rigid scenes. We observe that within local regions in space and time, such models not only accurately model non-rigid facial motions but also provide a concise description of the motion in terms of a small number of parameters. These parameters are intuitively related to the motion of facial features during facial expressions and we show how expressions such as anger, happiness, surprise, fear, disgust, and sadness can be recognized from the local parametric motions in the presence of significant head motion. The motion tracking and expression recognition approach performed with high accuracy in extensive laboratory experiments involving 40 subjects as well as in television and movie sequences.

pdf pdf from publisher abstract video [BibTex]

Black, M. J., Yacoob, Y. Recognizing facial expressions in image sequences using local parameterized models of image motion Int. Journal of Computer Vision, 25(1):23-48, 1997 (article)

pdf pdf from publisher abstract video [BibTex]

1996

Cardboard people: A parameterized model of articulated motion

Ju, S. X., Black, M. J., Yacoob, Y.

In 2nd Int. Conf. on Automatic Face- and Gesture-Recognition, pages: 38-44, Killington, Vermont, October 1996 (inproceedings)

Abstract

We extend the work of Black and Yacoob on the tracking and recognition of human facial expressions using parameterized models of optical flow to deal with the articulated motion of human limbs. We define a "cardboard person model" in which a person's limbs are represented by a set of connected planar patches. The parameterized image motion of these patches is constrained to enforce articulated motion and is solved for directly using a robust estimation technique. The recovered motion parameters provide a rich and concise description of the activity that can be used for recognition. We propose a method for performing view-based recognition of human activities from the optical flow parameters that extends previous methods to cope with the cyclical nature of human motion. We illustrate the method with examples of tracking human legs over long image sequences.

pdf [BibTex]

1996

Ju, S. X., Black, M. J., Yacoob, Y. Cardboard people: A parameterized model of articulated motion In 2nd Int. Conf. on Automatic Face- and Gesture-Recognition, pages: 38-44, Killington, Vermont, October 1996 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

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