The influence of perceptual grouping on motion detection

In this paper, we present a perceptual organization-based method for detecting moving objects from image sequences. To achieve the characteristics of real-time, efficiency, and robustness, a perceptual computation model of edge partitioning and grouping was proposed for the extraction of edge traces on the fly. Each edge trace is made up of generic edge tokens (GETs) which are perceptual features, and defined qualitatively based on the principles of Gestalt laws. Motion detection uses two basic computations: (1) segment motion GETs (MGETs) by computing the gradient differences between GET streams in consecutive frames; and (2) detect motion objects by perceptually grouping MGETs into object clusters. The MGETs in each cluster are constrained by the proximity of the features, and the motion continuation of the cluster measured by motion persistence, etc. Experimental results are provided.     

Perceptual grouping of segmented regions in color images

Image segmentation is often the first yet important step of an image understanding system. However, general-purpose image segmentation algorithms that do not rely on specific object models still cannot produce perceptually coherent segmentation of regions at a level comparable to humans. Over-segmentation and under-segmentation have plagued the research community in spite of many significant advances in the field. Therefore, grouping of segmented region plays a significant role in bridging image segmentation and high-level image understanding. In this paper, we focused on non-purposive grouping (NPG), which is built on general expectations of a perceptually desirable segmentation as opposed to any object specific models, such that the grouping algorithm is applicable to any image understanding application. We propose a probabilistic model for the NPG problem by defining the regions as a Markov random field (MRF). A collection of energy functions is used to characterize desired single-region properties and pair-wise region properties. The single-region properties include region area, region convexity, region compactness, and color variances in one region. The pair-wise properties include color mean differences between two regions; edge strength along the shared boundary; color variance of the cross-boundary area; and contour continuity between two regions. The grouping process is implemented by a greedy method using a highest confidence first (HCF) principle. Experiments have been performed on hundreds of color photographic images to show the effectiveness of the grouping algorithm using a set of fixed parameters.     

Cooperative grouping processes for edge segmentation

An edge segmentation method utilizing cooperative computation and multi-scale analysis is presented. The method is based on directional proximity operators and a two-scale cooperative algorithm. The processes of edge grouping, skeletonization, gap filling and thresholding cooperate by exchanging their input and output data. The segmentation process uses interchangingly two channels differing by a set of three scaling parameters. A coarse-fine strategy is proposed. The method is useful for the extraction of linear edge segments in three-dimensional robot vision systems.     

A novel framework for motion segmentation and tracking by clustering incomplete trajectories

In this paper, we present a framework for visual object tracking based on clustering trajectories of image key points extracted from an image sequence. The main contribution of our method is that the trajectories are automatically extracted from the image sequence and they are provided directly to a model-based clustering approach. In most other methodologies, the latter constitutes a difficult part since the resulting feature trajectories have a short duration, as the key points disappear and reappear due to occlusion, illumination, viewpoint changes and noise. We present here a sparse, translation invariant regression mixture model for clustering trajectories of variable length. The overall scheme is converted into a maximum a posteriori approach, where the Expectation–Maximization (EM) algorithm is used for estimating the model parameters. The proposed method detects the different objects in the input image sequence by assigning each trajectory to a cluster, and simultaneously provides their motion. Numerical results demonstrate the ability of the proposed method to offer more accurate and robust solutions in comparison with other tracking approaches, such as the mean shift tracker, the camshift tracker and the Kalman filter.     

A graph-based framework for sub-pixel image segmentation

Many image segmentation methods utilize graph structures for representing images, where the flexibility and generality of the abstract structure is beneficial. By using a fuzzy object representation, i.e., allowing partial belongingness of elements to image objects, the unavoidable loss of information when representing continuous structures by finite sets is significantly reduced, enabling feature estimates with sub-pixel precision.This work presents a framework for object representation based on fuzzy segmented graphs. Interpreting the edges as one-dimensional paths between the vertices of a graph, we extend the notion of a graph cut to that of a located cut, i.e., a cut with sub-edge precision. We describe a method for computing a located cut from a fuzzy segmentation of graph vertices. Further, the notion of vertex coverage segmentation is proposed as a graph theoretic equivalent to pixel coverage segmentations and a method for computing such a segmentation from a located cut is given. Utilizing the proposed framework, we demonstrate improved precision of area measurements of synthetic two-dimensional objects. We emphasize that although the experiments presented here are performed on two-dimensional images, the proposed framework is defined for general graphs and thus applicable to images of any dimension.     

Semi-supervised statistical region refinement for color image segmentation

Some authors have recently devised adaptations of spectral grouping algorithms to integrate prior knowledge, as constrained eigenvalues problems. In this paper, we improve and adapt a recent statistical region merging approach to this task, as a non-parametric mixture model estimation problem. The approach appears to be attractive both for its theoretical benefits and its experimental results, as slight bias brings dramatic improvements over unbiased approaches on challenging digital pictures.     

A probabilistic construction of model validation

We describe a procedure to assess the predictive accuracy of process models subject to approximation error and uncertainty. The proposed approach is a functional analysis-based probabilistic approach for which we represent random quantities using polynomial chaos expansions (PCEs). The approach permits the formulation of the uncertainty assessment in validation, a significant component of the process, as a problem of approximation theory. It has two essential parts. First, a statistical procedure is implemented to calibrate uncertain parameters of the candidate model from experimental or model-based measurements. Such a calibration technique employs PCEs to represent the inherent uncertainty of the model parameters. Based on the asymptotic behavior of the statistical parameter estimator, the associated PCE coefficients are then characterized as independent random quantities to represent epistemic uncertainty due to lack of information. Second, a simple hypothesis test is implemented to explore the validation of the computational model assumed for the physics of the problem. The above validation path is implemented for the case of dynamical system validation challenge exercise.     

Perceptual grouping of line features in 3-D space: a model-based framework

In this paper, we propose a novel model-based perceptual grouping algorithm for the line features of 3-D polyhedral objects. Given a 3-D polyhedral model, perceptual grouping is performed to extract a set of 3-D line segments which are geometrically consistent with the 3-D model. Unlike the conventional approaches, grouping is done in 3-D space in a model-based framework. In our unique approach, a decision tree classifier is employed for encoding and retrieving the geometric information of the 3-D model. A Gestalt graph is constructed by classifying input instances into proper Gestalt relations using the decision tree. The Gestalt graph is then decomposed into a few subgraphs, yielding appropriate groups of features. As an application, we suggest a 3-D object recognition system which can be accomplished by selecting a best-matched group. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm, experiments are carried out on both synthetic and real scenes.     

A framework for semantic grouping in P2P databases

Sharing of structured data in decentralized environments is a challenging problem, especially in the absence of a global schema. Social network structures map network links to semantic relations between participants in order to assist in efficient resource discovery and information exchange. In this work, we propose a scheme that automates the process of creating schema synopses from semantic clusters of peers which own autonomous relational databases. The resulting mediated schemas can be used as global interfaces for relevant queries. Active nodes are able to initiate the group schema creation process, which produces a mediated schema representative of nodes with similar semantics. Group schemas are then propagated in the overlay and used as a single interface for relevant queries. This increases both the quality and the quantity of the retrieved answers and allows for fast discovery of interest groups by joining peers. As our experimental evaluations show, this method increases both the quality and the quantity of the retrieved answers and allows for faster discovery of semantic groups by joining peers.     

Interactive image segmentation using probabilistic hypergraphs

This paper introduces a novel interactive framework for segmenting images using probabilistic hypergraphs which model the spatial and appearance relations among image pixels. The probabilistic hypergraph provides us a means to pose image segmentation as a machine learning problem. In particular, we assume that a small set of pixels, which are referred to as seed pixels, are labeled as the object and background. The seed pixels are used to estimate the labels of the unlabeled pixels by learning on a hypergraph via minimizing a quadratic smoothness term formed by a hypergraph Laplacian matrix subject to the known label constraints. We derive a natural probabilistic interpretation of this smoothness term, and provide a detailed discussion on the relation of our method to other hypergraph and graph based learning methods. We also present a front-to-end image segmentation system based on the proposed method, which is shown to achieve promising quantitative and qualitative results on the commonly used GrabCut dataset.     

Gold-standard and improved framework for sperm head segmentation

Semen analysis is the first step in the evaluation of an infertile couple. Within this process, an accurate and objective morphological analysis becomes more critical as it is based on the correct detection and segmentation of human sperm components. In this paper, we present an improved two-stage framework for detection and segmentation of human sperm head characteristics (including acrosome and nucleus) that uses three different color spaces. The first stage detects regions of interest that define sperm heads, using k-means, then candidate heads are refined using mathematical morphology. In the second stage, we work on each region of interest to segment accurately the sperm head as well as nucleus and acrosome, using clustering and histogram statistical analysis techniques. Our proposal is also characterized by being fully automatic, where a user intervention is not required. Our experimental evaluation shows that our proposed method outperforms the state-of-the-art. This is supported by the results of different evaluation metrics. In addition, we propose a gold-standard built with the cooperation of a referent expert in the field, aiming to compare methods for detecting and segmenting sperm cells. Our results achieve notable improvement getting above 98% in the sperm head detection process at the expense of having significantly fewer false positives obtained by the state-of-the-art method. Our results also show an accurate head, acrosome and nucleus segmentation achieving over 80% overlapping against hand-segmented gold-standard. Our method achieves higher Dice coefficient, lower Hausdorff distance and less dispersion with respect to the results achieved by the state-of-the-art method.     

A probabilistic approach for foreground and shadow segmentation in monocular image sequences

This paper presents a novel method of foreground and shadow segmentation in monocular indoor image sequences. The models of background, edge information, and shadow are set up and adaptively updated. A Bayesian network is proposed to describe the relationships among the segmentation label, background, intensity, and edge information. A maximum a posteriori—Markov random field estimation is used to boost the spatial connectivity of segmented regions.     

Colour,texture, and motion in level set based segmentation and tracking

This paper introduces an approach for the extraction and combination of different cues in a level set based image segmentation framework. Apart from the image grey value or colour, we suggest to add its spatial and temporal variations, which may provide important further characteristics. It often turns out that the combination of colour, texture, and motion permits to distinguish object regions that cannot be separated by one cue alone. We propose a two-step approach. In the first stage, the input features are extracted and enhanced by applying coupled nonlinear diffusion. This ensures coherence between the channels and deals with outliers. We use a nonlinear diffusion technique, closely related to total variation flow, but being strictly edge enhancing. The resulting features are then employed for a vector-valued front propagation based on level sets and statistical region models that approximate the distributions of each feature. The application of this approach to two-phase segmentation is followed by an extension to the tracking of multiple objects in image sequences.     

A multiresolution spatiotemporal motion segmentation technique for video sequences based on pyramidal structures

This paper presents a new spatiotemporal segmentation technique for video sequences. It relies on building adaptively interlinked pyramids over consecutive frames. Pyramids are interlinked to keep a relationship between the regions in the frames. Its performance is good in real-world conditions because it does not depend on image constraints.     

Identification methods in a unified framework

The paper derives a framework suitable to discuss the classical Koopmans-Levin (KL) and maximum likelihood (ML) algorithms to estimate parameters of errors-in-variables linear models in a unified way. Using the capability of the unified approach a new parameter estimation algorithm is presented offering flexibility to ensure acceptable variance in the estimated parameters. The developed algorithm is based on the application of Hankel matrices of variable size and can equally be considered as a generalized version of the KL method (GKL) or as a reduced version of the ML estimation. The methodology applied to derive the GKL algorithm is used to present a straightforward derivation of the subspace identification algorithm.     

A probabilistic integrated object recognition and tracking framework

This paper describes a probabilistic integrated object recognition and tracking framework called PIORT, together with two specific methods derived from it, which are evaluated experimentally in several test video sequences. The first step in the proposed framework is a static recognition module that provides class probabilities for each pixel of the image from a set of local features. These probabilities are updated dynamically and supplied to a tracking decision module capable of handling full and partial occlusions. The two specific methods presented use RGB color features and differ in the classifier implemented: one is a Bayesian method based on maximum likelihood and the other one is based on a neural network. The experimental results obtained have shown that, on one hand, the neural net based approach performs similarly and sometimes better than the Bayesian approach when they are integrated within the tracking framework. And on the other hand, our PIORT methods have achieved better results when compared to other published tracking methods in video sequences taken with a moving camera and including full and partial occlusions of the tracked object.