Human Activity Recognition Using Body Joint‐Angle Features and Hidden Markov Model

This paper presents a novel approach for human activity recognition (HAR) using the joint angles from a 3D model of a human body. Unlike conventional approaches in which the joint angles are computed from inverse kinematic analysis of the optical marker positions captured with multiple cameras, our approach utilizes the body joint angles estimated directly from time‐series activity images acquired with a single stereo camera by co‐registering a 3D body model to the stereo information. The estimated joint‐angle features are then mapped into codewords to generate discrete symbols for a hidden Markov model (HMM) of each activity. With these symbols, each activity is trained through the HMM, and later, all the trained HMMs are used for activity recognition. The performance of our joint‐angle–based HAR has been compared to that of a conventional binary and depth silhouette‐based HAR, producing significantly better results in the recognition rate, especially for the activities that are not discernible with the conventional approaches.     

On an algorithm for Vision-based hand gesture recognition

A vision-based static hand gesture recognition method which consists of preprocessing, feature extraction, feature selection and classification stages is presented in this work. The preprocessing stage involves image enhancement, segmentation, rotation and filtering. This work proposes an image rotation technique that makes segmented image rotation invariant and explores a combined feature set, using localized contour sequences and block-based features for better representation of static hand gesture. Genetic algorithm is used here to select optimized feature subset from the combined feature set. This work also proposes an improved version of radial basis function (RBF) neural network to classify hand gesture images using selected combined features. In the proposed RBF neural network, the centers are automatically selected using k-means algorithm and estimated weight matrix is recursively updated, utilizing least-mean-square algorithm for better recognition of hand gesture images. The comparative performances are tested on two indigenously developed databases of 24 American sign language hand alphabet.     

Direct reconstruction of kinetic parameter images from dynamic PET data

Our goal in this paper is the estimation of kinetic model parameters for each voxel corresponding to a dense three-dimensional (3-D) positron emission tomography (PET) image. Typically, the activity images are first reconstructed from PET sinogram frames at each measurement time, and then the kinetic parameters are estimated by fitting a model to the reconstructed time-activity response of each voxel. However, this "indirect" approach to kinetic parameter estimation tends to reduce signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) because of the requirement that the sinogram data be divided into individual time frames. In 1985, Carson and Lange proposed, but did not implement, a method based on the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm for direct parametric reconstruction. The approach is "direct" because it estimates the optimal kinetic parameters directly from the sinogram data, without an intermediate reconstruction step. However, direct voxel-wise parametric reconstruction remained a challenge due to the unsolved complexities of inversion and spatial regularization. In this paper, we demonstrate and evaluate a new and efficient method for direct voxel-wise reconstruction of kinetic parameter images using all frames of the PET data. The direct parametric image reconstruction is formulated in a Bayesian framework, and uses the parametric iterative coordinate descent (PICD) algorithm to solve the resulting optimization problem. The PICD algorithm is computationally efficient and is implemented with spatial regularization in the domain of the physiologically relevant parameters. Our experimental simulations of a rat head imaged in a working small animal scanner indicate that direct parametric reconstruction can substantially reduce root-mean-squared error (RMSE) in the estimation of kinetic parameters, as compared to indirect methods, without appreciably increasing computation.     

Estimating Kinetic Parameter Maps From Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MRI Using Spatial Prior Knowledge

Dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance (DCE-MR) imaging can be used to study microvascular structure in vivo by monitoring the abundance of an injected diffusible contrast agent over time. The resulting spatially resolved intensity-time curves are usually interpreted in terms of kinetic parameters obtained by fitting a pharmacokinetic model to the observed data. Least squares estimates of the highly nonlinear model parameters, however, can exhibit high variance and can be severely biased. As a remedy, we bring to bear spatial prior knowledge by means of a generalized Gaussian Markov random field (GGMRF). By using information from neighboring voxels and computing the maximum a posteriori solution for entire parameter maps at once, both bias and variance of the parameter estimates can be reduced thus leading to smaller root mean square error (RMSE). Since the number of variables gets very big for common image resolutions, sparse solvers have to be employed. To this end, we propose a generalized iterated conditional modes (ICM) algorithm operating on blocks instead of sites which is shown to converge considerably faster than the conventional ICM algorithm. Results on simulated DCE-MR images show a clear reduction of RMSE and variance as well as, in some cases, reduced estimation bias. The mean residual bias (MRB) is reduced on the simulated data as well as for all 37 patients of a prostate DCE-MRI dataset. Using the proposed algorithm, average computation times only increase by a factor of 1.18 (871 ms per voxel) for a Gaussian prior and 1.51 (1.12 s per voxel) for an edge-preserving prior compared to the single voxel approach (740 ms per voxel).     

MIMO双基地雷达空间多目标定位方法

该文提出了一种L型阵列配置MIMO双基地雷达空间多目标定位方法。该方法利用L型接收阵列所包含的相对发射阵和接收阵的目标4维角度信息,先对接收信号进行解相干处理,然后根据DOA矩阵法的思想构造估计矩阵,通过特征参数与待估参数之间特定关系,导出了多目标4维角度联合估计算法公式,进而实现双基地雷达的空间多目标定位。该算法不涉及多维非线性谱峰搜索,只需一次特征值分解,计算量较小,且估计出的参数可自动配对。仿真结果表明了该文算法的正确性和可行性。     

基于扩展码滤波法的联合角度-时延估计

针对异步DS-CDMA系统中的多用户环境,本文提出了一种低复杂度的联合角度一时延估计算法。该算法 由时延检测,路径分离及角度估计三部分组成。首先,本文基于扩展码滤波法构造了一个时延估计新测度,并通过搜索该 测度的最大值来检测时延信息;然后,借助时延信息实现路径分离;最后,采用无需特征值分解运算的矩阵点除算法,从 分离的感兴趣信息中快速求取角度信息。算法具有计算量极低,估计精度较高以及自动实现角度与时延匹配等优点。仿真 实验验证了算法的有效必。     

Volume image registration by cross-entropy optimization

Cross-entropy (CE), an information-theoretic measure, quantifies the difference between two probability density functions. This measure is applied to volume image registration. When a good prior estimation of the joint distribution of the voxel values of two images in registration is available, the CE can be minimized to find an optimal registration. If such a prior estimation is not available, one seeks the registration which gives a joint distribution different from unlikely ones as much as possible, i.e., the CE is maximized to find an optimal registration. When the unlikely distribution is a uniform one, CE maximization reduces to joint entropy minimization; when the unlikely distribution is proportional to one of the marginal distributions, it reduces to conditional entropy minimization; when the unlikely distribution is the product of two marginal distributions, it degenerates to mutual-information maximization. These different CEs are added together and are used as criteria for image registration. The accuracy and robustness of this new approach are tested and compared using a likely joint distribution and various unlikely joint distributions and their combinations.     

Reliable fusion of ToF and stereo data based on joint depth filter

To obtain reliable depth images with high resolution, a novel method is proposed in this study that fuses data acquired from time-of-flight (ToF) and stereo cameras, through which the advantages of both active and passive sensing are utilised. Based on the classic error model of the ToF, gradient information is introduced to establish the likelihood distribution for all disparity candidates. The stereo likelihood is estimated in parallel based on a 3D adaptive support-weight approach. The two independent likelihoods are unified using a maximum likelihood estimation, a process also referred to as a joint depth filter herein. Conventional post-processing methods such as a mutual consistency check are also used after applying a joint depth filter. We also propose a novel hole-filling method based on the seed-growing algorithm to retrieve missing disparities. Experiment results show that the proposed fusion method can produce reliable high-resolution depth maps and outperforms other compared methods.     

Eigendecomposition of Images Correlated on $S^{1}$, $S^{2}$, and $SO(3)$ Using Spectral Theory

Eigendecomposition represents one computationally efficient approach for dealing with object detection and pose estimation, as well as other vision-based problems, and has been applied to sets of correlated images for this purpose. The major drawback in using eigendecomposition is the off line computational expense incurred by computing the desired subspace. This off line expense increases drastically as the number of correlated images becomes large (which is the case when doing fully general 3-D pose estimation). Previous work has shown that for data correlated on S ¹ , Fourier analysis can help reduce the computational burden of this off line expense. This paper presents a method for extending this technique to data correlated on S ² as well as SO(3) by sampling the sphere appropriately. An algorithm is then developed for reducing the off line computational burden associated with computing the eigenspace by exploiting the spectral information of this spherical data set using spherical harmonics and Wigner-D functions. Experimental results are presented to compare the proposed algorithm to the true eigendecomposition, as well as assess the computational savings.     

基于瞬时步态能量图的远距离身份识别

提出了一种基于瞬时步态能量图的远距离身份识别算法.首先根据摆动距离计算出步态周期,并指定步态周期中的关键时刻.步态序列中一个关键时刻的所有侧面轮廓图的平均值构成一个平均瞬时图.一个关键时刻的瞬时步态能量图的计算利用了当前关键时刻以及其他关键时刻的平均瞬时图.提高了每个关键时刻侧面轮廓图像的质量,并比单纯使用步态能量图的方式增加了步态的运动信息.随后计算出所有关键时刻侧面轮廓图相对于瞬时步态能量图的偏移的累积图像,与步态能量图共同作为描述一个对象的特征向量.最后,使用最近邻算法进行步态特征分类.在USF步态数据库上对该算法进行实验,并与基线算法以及另外两个新的步态识别算法进行比较,结果显示该算法达到了更高的总体识别率.     

米波雷达仰角和多径衰减系数联合估计算法

 针对多径信号严重影响米波雷达低仰角测高的问题,基于广义MUSIC算法的思想,提出了一种可同时估计目标仰角和多径衰减系数的新算法。该算法利用阵列协方差矩阵和搜索角度计算出虚拟的多径衰减系数,然后将该系数与搜索角度一起构造子空间,当该子空间与噪声子空间正交时,即可获得波达方向角度,对应的系数即为多径反射波相对于直达波的多径衰减系数。该算法在克服多径效应的同时,不损失阵列孔径,不要求阵列具有特殊的结构。理论分析和仿真结果表明了该算法的优越性。     

Local hull-based surface construction of volumetric data from silhouettes

The marching cubes (MC) is a general method which can construct a surface of an object from its volumetric data generated using a shape from silhouette method. Although MC is efficient and straightforward to implement, a MC surface may have discontinuity even though the volumetric data is continuous. This is because surface construction is more sensitive to image noise than the construction of volumetric data. To address this problem, we propose a surface construction algorithm which aggregates local surfaces constructed by the 3-D convex hull algorithm. Thus, the proposed method initially classifies local convexities from imperfect MC vertices based on sliced volumetric data. Experimental results show that continuous surfaces are obtained from imperfect silhouette images of both convex and nonconvex objects.     

Bayesian approach with hidden Markov modeling and mean field approximation for hyperspectral data analysis

The main problems in hyperspectral image analysis are spectral classification, segmentation, and data reduction. In this paper, we propose a Bayesian estimation approach which gives a joint solution for these problems. The problem is modeled as a blind sources separation (BSS). The data are M hyperspectral images and the sources are K < M images which are composed of compact homogeneous regions and have mutually disjoint supports. The set of all these regions cover the total surface of the observed scene. To insure these properties, we propose a hierarchical Markov model for the sources with a common hidden classification field which is modeled via a Potts-Markov field. The joint Bayesian estimation of the hidden variable, sources, and the mixing matrix of the BSS gives a solution for all three problems: spectra classification, segmentation, and data reduction of hyperspectral images. The mean field approximation (MFA) algorithm for the posterior laws is proposed for the effective Bayesian computation. Finally, some results of the application of the proposed methods on simulated and real data are given to illustrate the performance of the proposed method compared to other classical methods, such as PCA and ICA.     

Fall detection for elderly person care in a vision-based home surveillance environment using a monocular camera

Fall detection is one of the most important health care issues for elderly people at home, which can lead to severe injuries. With the advances and conveniences in computer vision in the last few decades, computer vision-based methods provide a promising way for detecting falls. In this paper, we propose a novel vision-based fall detection method for monitoring elderly people in house care environment. The foreground human silhouette is extracted via background modeling and tracked throughout the video sequence. The human body is represented with ellipse fitting, and the silhouette motion is modeled by an integrated normalized motion energy image computed over a short-term video sequence. Then, the shape deformation quantified from the fitted silhouettes is used as the features to distinguish different postures of the human. Finally, different postures are classified via a multi-class support vector machine and a context-free grammar-based method that provides longer range temporal constraints can verify the detected falls. Extensive experiments show that the proposed method has achieved a reliable result compared with other common methods.     

A low-complexity joint 2D-DOD and 2D-DOA estimation algorithm for MIMO radar with arbitrary arrays

In this article, we study the problem of four-dimensional angles estimation for bistatic multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar with arbitrary arrays, and propose a joint two-dimensional direction of departure (2D-DOD) and two-dimensional direction of arrival (2D-DOA) estimation algorithm. Our algorithm is to extend the propagator method (PM) for angle estimation in MIMO radar. The proposed algorithm does not require peak searching and eigenvalue decomposition of received signal covariance matrix, because of this, it has low computational complexity. And it can achieve automatic pairing of four-dimensional angles. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm has much better angle estimation performance than interpolated estimation method of signal parameters via rotational invariance techniques (ESPRIT), and has very close angle estimation performance to ESPRIT-like algorithm which has higher computational cost than the proposed algorithm. We also analyze the complexity and angle estimation error of the algorithm, and derive the Cramer‐Rao bound (CRB). The simulation results verify the effectiveness and improvement of the proposed algorithm.     

Ambulatory estimation of knee-joint kinematics in anatomical coordinate system using accelerometers and magnetometers

Knee-joint kinematics analysis using an optimal sensor set and a reliable algorithm would be useful in the gait analysis. An original approach for ambulatory estimation of knee-joint angles in anatomical coordinate system is presented, which is composed of a physical-sensor-difference-based algorithm and virtual-sensor-difference-based algorithm. To test the approach, a wearable monitoring system composed of accelerometers and magnetometers was developed and evaluated on lower limb. The flexion/extension (f/e), abduction/adduction (a/a), and inversion/extension (i/e) rotation angles of the knee joint in the anatomical joint coordinate system were estimated. In this method, since there is no integration of angular acceleration or angular velocity, the result is not distorted by offset and drift. The three knee-joint angles within the anatomical coordinate system are independent of the orders, which must be considered when Euler angles are used. Besides, since there are no physical sensors implanted in the knee joint based on the virtual-sensor-difference-based algorithm, it is feasible to analyze knee-joint kinematics with less numbers and types of sensors than those mentioned in some others methods. Compared with results from the reference system, the developed wearable sensor system is available to do gait analysis with fewer sensors and high degree of accuracy.     

Segmentation of skin lesions in 2-D and 3-D ultrasound images using a spatially coherent generalized Rayleigh mixture model

This paper addresses the problem of jointly estimating the statistical distribution and segmenting lesions in multiple-tissue high-frequency skin ultrasound images. The distribution of multiple-tissue images is modeled as a spatially coherent finite mixture of heavy-tailed Rayleigh distributions. Spatial coherence inherent to biological tissues is modeled by enforcing local dependence between the mixture components. An original Bayesian algorithm combined with a Markov chain Monte Carlo method is then proposed to jointly estimate the mixture parameters and a label-vector associating each voxel to a tissue. More precisely, a hybrid Metropolis-within-Gibbs sampler is used to draw samples that are asymptotically distributed according to the posterior distribution of the Bayesian model. The Bayesian estimators of the model parameters are then computed from the generated samples. Simulation results are conducted on synthetic data to illustrate the performance of the proposed estimation strategy. The method is then successfully applied to the segmentation of in vivo skin tumors in high-frequency 2-D and 3-D ultrasound images.     

Deformable boundary detection of stents in angiographic images

In this paper, a procedure is described for deformable boundary detection of medical tools, called stents, in angiographic images. A stent is a surgical stainless steel coil that is placed in the artery in order to improve blood circulation in regions where a stenosis has appeared. Assuming initially a set of three-dimensional (3-D) models of stents and using perspective projection of various deformations of the 3-D model of the stent, a large set of synthetic two-dimensional (2-D) images of stents is constructed. These synthetic images are then used as a training set for deriving a multivariate Gaussian density estimate based on eigenspace decomposition and formulating a maximum-likelihood estimation framework in order to reach an initial rough estimate for automatic object recognition. The silhouette of the detected stent is then refined by using a 2-D active contour (snake) algorithm integrated with a novel iterative initialization technique, which takes into consideration the geometry of the stent. The algorithm is experimentally evaluated using real angiographic images containing stents.     

Motion estimation of skeletonized angiographic images using elastic registration

An approach for estimating the motion of arteries in digital angiographic image sequences is proposed. Binary skeleton images are registered using an elastic registration algorithm in order to estimate the motion of the corresponding arteries. This algorithm operates recursively on the skeleton images by considering an autoregressive (AR) model of the deformation in conjunction with a dynamic programming (DP) algorithm. The AR model is used at the pixel level and provides a suitable cost function to DP through the innovation process. In addition, a moving average (MA) model for the motion of the entire skeleton is used in combination with the local AR model for improved registration results. The performance of this motion estimation method is demonstrated on simulated and real digital angiographic image sequences. It is shown that motion estimation using elastic registration of skeletons is very successful especially with low contrast and noisy angiographic images.