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16 results (View BibTeX file of all listed publications)

2016

Thumb xl psychscience
Creating body shapes from verbal descriptions by linking similarity spaces

Hill, M. Q., Streuber, S., Hahn, C. A., Black, M. J., O’Toole, A. J.

Psychological Science, 27(11):1486-1497, November 2016, (article)

Abstract
Brief verbal descriptions of bodies (e.g. curvy, long-legged) can elicit vivid mental images. The ease with which we create these mental images belies the complexity of three-dimensional body shapes. We explored the relationship between body shapes and body descriptions and show that a small number of words can be used to generate categorically accurate representations of three-dimensional bodies. The dimensions of body shape variation that emerged in a language-based similarity space were related to major dimensions of variation computed directly from three-dimensional laser scans of 2094 bodies. This allowed us to generate three-dimensional models of people in the shape space using only their coordinates on analogous dimensions in the language-based description space. Human descriptions of photographed bodies and their corresponding models matched closely. The natural mapping between the spaces illustrates the role of language as a concise code for body shape, capturing perceptually salient global and local body features.

pdf [BibTex]

2016

Hill, M. Q., Streuber, S., Hahn, C. A., Black, M. J., O’Toole, A. J. Creating body shapes from verbal descriptions by linking similarity spaces Psychological Science, 27(11):1486-1497, November 2016, (article)

pdf [BibTex]

Thumb xl screen shot 2016 07 25 at 13.52.05
Non-parametric Models for Structured Data and Applications to Human Bodies and Natural Scenes

Lehrmann, A.

ETH Zurich, July 2016 (phdthesis)

Abstract
The purpose of this thesis is the study of non-parametric models for structured data and their fields of application in computer vision. We aim at the development of context-sensitive architectures which are both expressive and efficient. Our focus is on directed graphical models, in particular Bayesian networks, where we combine the flexibility of non-parametric local distributions with the efficiency of a global topology with bounded treewidth. A bound on the treewidth is obtained by either constraining the maximum indegree of the underlying graph structure or by introducing determinism. The non-parametric distributions in the nodes of the graph are given by decision trees or kernel density estimators. The information flow implied by specific network topologies, especially the resultant (conditional) independencies, allows for a natural integration and control of contextual information. We distinguish between three different types of context: static, dynamic, and semantic. In four different approaches we propose models which exhibit varying combinations of these contextual properties and allow modeling of structured data in space, time, and hierarchies derived thereof. The generative character of the presented models enables a direct synthesis of plausible hypotheses. Extensive experiments validate the developed models in two application scenarios which are of particular interest in computer vision: human bodies and natural scenes. In the practical sections of this work we discuss both areas from different angles and show applications of our models to human pose, motion, and segmentation as well as object categorization and localization. Here, we benefit from the availability of modern datasets of unprecedented size and diversity. Comparisons to traditional approaches and state-of-the-art research on the basis of well-established evaluation criteria allows the objective assessment of our contributions.

pdf [BibTex]

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Body Talk: Crowdshaping Realistic 3D Avatars with Words

Streuber, S., Quiros-Ramirez, M. A., Hill, M. Q., Hahn, C. A., Zuffi, S., O’Toole, A., Black, M. J.

ACM Trans. Graph. (Proc. SIGGRAPH), 35(4):54:1-54:14, July 2016 (article)

Abstract
Realistic, metrically accurate, 3D human avatars are useful for games, shopping, virtual reality, and health applications. Such avatars are not in wide use because solutions for creating them from high-end scanners, low-cost range cameras, and tailoring measurements all have limitations. Here we propose a simple solution and show that it is surprisingly accurate. We use crowdsourcing to generate attribute ratings of 3D body shapes corresponding to standard linguistic descriptions of 3D shape. We then learn a linear function relating these ratings to 3D human shape parameters. Given an image of a new body, we again turn to the crowd for ratings of the body shape. The collection of linguistic ratings of a photograph provides remarkably strong constraints on the metric 3D shape. We call the process crowdshaping and show that our Body Talk system produces shapes that are perceptually indistinguishable from bodies created from high-resolution scans and that the metric accuracy is sufficient for many tasks. This makes body “scanning” practical without a scanner, opening up new applications including database search, visualization, and extracting avatars from books.

pdf web tool video talk (ppt) [BibTex]

Streuber, S., Quiros-Ramirez, M. A., Hill, M. Q., Hahn, C. A., Zuffi, S., O’Toole, A., Black, M. J. Body Talk: Crowdshaping Realistic 3D Avatars with Words ACM Trans. Graph. (Proc. SIGGRAPH), 35(4):54:1-54:14, July 2016 (article)

pdf web tool video talk (ppt) [BibTex]

Thumb xl ijcv tumb
Capturing Hands in Action using Discriminative Salient Points and Physics Simulation

Tzionas, D., Ballan, L., Srikantha, A., Aponte, P., Pollefeys, M., Gall, J.

International Journal of Computer Vision (IJCV), 118(2):172-193, June 2016 (article)

Abstract
Hand motion capture is a popular research field, recently gaining more attention due to the ubiquity of RGB-D sensors. However, even most recent approaches focus on the case of a single isolated hand. In this work, we focus on hands that interact with other hands or objects and present a framework that successfully captures motion in such interaction scenarios for both rigid and articulated objects. Our framework combines a generative model with discriminatively trained salient points to achieve a low tracking error and with collision detection and physics simulation to achieve physically plausible estimates even in case of occlusions and missing visual data. Since all components are unified in a single objective function which is almost everywhere differentiable, it can be optimized with standard optimization techniques. Our approach works for monocular RGB-D sequences as well as setups with multiple synchronized RGB cameras. For a qualitative and quantitative evaluation, we captured 29 sequences with a large variety of interactions and up to 150 degrees of freedom.

Website pdf link (url) DOI Project Page [BibTex]

Tzionas, D., Ballan, L., Srikantha, A., Aponte, P., Pollefeys, M., Gall, J. Capturing Hands in Action using Discriminative Salient Points and Physics Simulation International Journal of Computer Vision (IJCV), 118(2):172-193, June 2016 (article)

Website pdf link (url) DOI Project Page [BibTex]

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Human Pose Estimation from Video and IMUs

Marcard, T. V., Pons-Moll, G., Rosenhahn, B.

Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence PAMI, 38(8):1533-1547, January 2016 (article)

data pdf dataset_documentation [BibTex]

Marcard, T. V., Pons-Moll, G., Rosenhahn, B. Human Pose Estimation from Video and IMUs Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence PAMI, 38(8):1533-1547, January 2016 (article)

data pdf dataset_documentation [BibTex]

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Moving-horizon Nonlinear Least Squares-based Multirobot Cooperative Perception

Ahmad, A., Bülthoff, H.

Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 83, pages: 275-286, 2016 (article)

Abstract
In this article we present an online estimator for multirobot cooperative localization and target tracking based on nonlinear least squares minimization. Our method not only makes the rigorous optimization-based approach applicable online but also allows the estimator to be stable and convergent. We do so by employing a moving horizon technique to nonlinear least squares minimization and a novel design of the arrival cost function that ensures stability and convergence of the estimator. Through an extensive set of real robot experiments, we demonstrate the robustness of our method as well as the optimality of the arrival cost function. The experiments include comparisons of our method with i) an extended Kalman filter-based online-estimator and ii) an offline-estimator based on full-trajectory nonlinear least squares.

DOI Project Page [BibTex]

Ahmad, A., Bülthoff, H. Moving-horizon Nonlinear Least Squares-based Multirobot Cooperative Perception Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 83, pages: 275-286, 2016 (article)

DOI Project Page [BibTex]

Thumb xl siyong
Shape estimation of subcutaneous adipose tissue using an articulated statistical shape model

Yeo, S. Y., Romero, J., Loper, M., Machann, J., Black, M.

Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering: Imaging & Visualization, 0(0):1-8, 2016 (article)

publisher website preprint pdf link (url) DOI Project Page [BibTex]

Yeo, S. Y., Romero, J., Loper, M., Machann, J., Black, M. Shape estimation of subcutaneous adipose tissue using an articulated statistical shape model Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering: Imaging & Visualization, 0(0):1-8, 2016 (article)

publisher website preprint pdf link (url) DOI Project Page [BibTex]

Thumb xl screen shot 2016 02 22 at 11.46.41
The GRASP Taxonomy of Human Grasp Types

Feix, T., Romero, J., Schmiedmayer, H., Dollar, A., Kragic, D.

Human-Machine Systems, IEEE Transactions on, 46(1):66-77, 2016 (article)

publisher website pdf DOI Project Page [BibTex]

Feix, T., Romero, J., Schmiedmayer, H., Dollar, A., Kragic, D. The GRASP Taxonomy of Human Grasp Types Human-Machine Systems, IEEE Transactions on, 46(1):66-77, 2016 (article)

publisher website pdf DOI Project Page [BibTex]

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Map-Based Probabilistic Visual Self-Localization

Brubaker, M. A., Geiger, A., Urtasun, R.

IEEE Trans. on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (PAMI), 2016 (article)

Abstract
Accurate and efficient self-localization is a critical problem for autonomous systems. This paper describes an affordable solution to vehicle self-localization which uses odometry computed from two video cameras and road maps as the sole inputs. The core of the method is a probabilistic model for which an efficient approximate inference algorithm is derived. The inference algorithm is able to utilize distributed computation in order to meet the real-time requirements of autonomous systems in some instances. Because of the probabilistic nature of the model the method is capable of coping with various sources of uncertainty including noise in the visual odometry and inherent ambiguities in the map (e.g., in a Manhattan world). By exploiting freely available, community developed maps and visual odometry measurements, the proposed method is able to localize a vehicle to 4m on average after 52 seconds of driving on maps which contain more than 2,150km of drivable roads.

pdf Project Page [BibTex]

Brubaker, M. A., Geiger, A., Urtasun, R. Map-Based Probabilistic Visual Self-Localization IEEE Trans. on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (PAMI), 2016 (article)

pdf Project Page [BibTex]

1998

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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]

Thumb xl bildschirmfoto 2012 12 06 um 12.22.18
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]

Thumb xl paybotteaser
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]

Thumb xl bildschirmfoto 2012 12 06 um 12.33.38
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]

1996

Thumb xl bildschirmfoto 2012 12 07 um 11.52.07
Estimating optical flow in segmented images using variable-order parametric models with local deformations

Black, M. J., Jepson, A.

IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 18(10):972-986, October 1996 (article)

Abstract
This paper presents a new model for estimating optical flow based on the motion of planar regions plus local deformations. The approach exploits brightness information to organize and constrain the interpretation of the motion by using segmented regions of piecewise smooth brightness to hypothesize planar regions in the scene. Parametric flow models are estimated in these regions in a two step process which first computes a coarse fit and estimates the appropriate parameterization of the motion of the region (two, six, or eight parameters). The initial fit is refined using a generalization of the standard area-based regression approaches. Since the assumption of planarity is likely to be violated, we allow local deformations from the planar assumption in the same spirit as physically-based approaches which model shape using coarse parametric models plus local deformations. This parametric+deformation model exploits the strong constraints of parametric approaches while retaining the adaptive nature of regularization approaches. Experimental results on a variety of images indicate that the parametric+deformation model produces accurate flow estimates while the incorporation of brightness segmentation provides precise localization of motion boundaries.

pdf pdf from publisher [BibTex]

1996

Black, M. J., Jepson, A. Estimating optical flow in segmented images using variable-order parametric models with local deformations IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 18(10):972-986, October 1996 (article)

pdf pdf from publisher [BibTex]

Thumb xl bildschirmfoto 2012 12 07 um 11.59.00
On the unification of line processes, outlier rejection, and robust statistics with applications in early vision

Black, M., Rangarajan, A.

International Journal of Computer Vision , 19(1):57-92, July 1996 (article)

Abstract
The modeling of spatial discontinuities for problems such as surface recovery, segmentation, image reconstruction, and optical flow has been intensely studied in computer vision. While “line-process” models of discontinuities have received a great deal of attention, there has been recent interest in the use of robust statistical techniques to account for discontinuities. This paper unifies the two approaches. To achieve this we generalize the notion of a “line process” to that of an analog “outlier process” and show how a problem formulated in terms of outlier processes can be viewed in terms of robust statistics. We also characterize a class of robust statistical problems for which an equivalent outlier-process formulation exists and give a straightforward method for converting a robust estimation problem into an outlier-process formulation. We show how prior assumptions about the spatial structure of outliers can be expressed as constraints on the recovered analog outlier processes and how traditional continuation methods can be extended to the explicit outlier-process formulation. These results indicate that the outlier-process approach provides a general framework which subsumes the traditional line-process approaches as well as a wide class of robust estimation problems. Examples in surface reconstruction, image segmentation, and optical flow are presented to illustrate the use of outlier processes and to show how the relationship between outlier processes and robust statistics can be exploited. An appendix provides a catalog of common robust error norms and their equivalent outlier-process formulations.

pdf pdf from publisher DOI [BibTex]

Thumb xl bildschirmfoto 2012 12 07 um 12.09.01
The robust estimation of multiple motions: Parametric and piecewise-smooth flow fields

Black, M. J., Anandan, P.

Computer Vision and Image Understanding, 63(1):75-104, January 1996 (article)

Abstract
Most approaches for estimating optical flow assume that, within a finite image region, only a single motion is present. This single motion assumption is violated in common situations involving transparency, depth discontinuities, independently moving objects, shadows, and specular reflections. To robustly estimate optical flow, the single motion assumption must be relaxed. This paper presents a framework based on robust estimation that addresses violations of the brightness constancy and spatial smoothness assumptions caused by multiple motions. We show how the robust estimation framework can be applied to standard formulations of the optical flow problem thus reducing their sensitivity to violations of their underlying assumptions. The approach has been applied to three standard techniques for recovering optical flow: area-based regression, correlation, and regularization with motion discontinuities. This paper focuses on the recovery of multiple parametric motion models within a region, as well as the recovery of piecewise-smooth flow fields, and provides examples with natural and synthetic image sequences.

pdf pdf from publisher [BibTex]

Black, M. J., Anandan, P. The robust estimation of multiple motions: Parametric and piecewise-smooth flow fields Computer Vision and Image Understanding, 63(1):75-104, January 1996 (article)

pdf pdf from publisher [BibTex]