Lie Algebra and System Identification Techniques for 3D Rigid Motion Estimation and Monocular Tracking

This paper addresses the parameters’ estimation of 2D and 3D transformations. For the estimation we present a method based on system identification theory, we named it the “A-method”. The transformations are considered as elements of the Lie group GL(n) or one of its subgroups. We represent the transformations in terms of their Lie Algebra elements. The Lie algebra approach assures to follow the shortest path or geodesic in the involved Lie group. To prove the potencial of our method, two experiments are presented. The first one is a monocular estimation of 3D rigid motion of an object in the visual space. With this aim, the six parameters of the rigid motion are estimated based on measurements of the six parameters of the affine transformation in the image. Secondly, we present the estimation of the affine or projective transformations involved in monocular region tracking. Jaime Ortegón-Aguilar received his degree in computer sciences at the Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan in Merida, Mexico in 2000. He earned his M.Sc. degree at the Cinvestav in Guadalajara, Mexico in 2002. He received his PhD degree from Cinvestav in 2006. His research interests include image processing, computer vision, robotics and applications of geometric algebra. Eduardo Jose Bayro-Corrochano gained his Ph.D. in Cognitive Computer Science in 1993 from the University of Wales at Cardiff. From 1995 to 1999 he has been Researcher and Lecturer at the Institute for Computer Science, Christian Albrechts University, Kiel, Germany, working on applications of geometric Clifford algebra to cognitive systems. At present is a full professor at CINVESTAV Unidad Guadalajara, México, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. His current research interest focuses on geometric methods for artificial perception and action systems. It includes geometric neural networks, visually guided robotics, humanoids, color image processing, Lie bivector algebras for early vision and robot maneuvering. He developed the quaternion wavelet transform for quaternion multi-resolution analysis using the phase concept. He is associate editor of Robotics and Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems and member of the editorial board of Journal of Pattern Recognition, Journal of Mathematical Imaging and Vision, Iberoamerican Journal of Computer and Systems and Journal of Theoretical and Numerical Approximation. He is editor and author of the following books: Geometric Computing for Perception Action Systems, E. Bayro-Corrochano, Springer Verlag, 2001; Geometric Algebra with Applications in Science and Engineering, E. Bayro-Corrochano and G. Sobczyk (Eds.), Birkhauser 2001; Handbook of Geometric Computing for Pattern Recognition, Computer Vision, Neurocomputing and Robotics, E. Bayro-Corrochano, Springer Verlag, 2005. He has published over 120 refereed journal, book chapters and conference papers. He is fellow of the IAPR society.     

Color image segmentation in HSI space for automotive applications

This article presents a method for classifying color points for automotive applications in the Hue Saturation Intensity (HSI) Space based on the distances between their projections onto the SI plane. Firstly the HSI Space is analyzed in detail. Secondly the projection of image points from a typical automotive scene onto the SI plane is shown. The minimal classes relevant for driver assistance applications are derived. The requirements for the classification of the points into those classes are obtained. Several weighting functions are proposed and a fast form of an euclidean metric is investigated in detail. In order to improve the sensitivity of the weighting function, dynamic coefficients are introduced. It is shown how to compute them automatically in order to get optimal results for the classification. Finally some results of applying the metric to the sample images are shown and the conclusions are drawn.

On minimizing errors in 3D reconstruction for stereo camera systems

Active reconstruction of 3D surfaces deals with the control of camer a viewpoints to minimize error and uncertainty in the reconstructed shape of an object. In this paper we develop a mathematical relationship between the setup and focal lengths of a stereo camera system and the corresponding error in 3D reconstruction of a given surface. We explicitly model the noise in the image plane, which can be interpreted as pixel noise or as uncertainty in the localization of corresponding point features. The results can be used to plan sensor positioning, e.g., using information theoretic concepts for optimal sensor data selection. The text was submitted by the authors in English. Stefan Wenhardt, born in 1978, graduated in mathematics at the University of Applied Sciences, Regensburg, Germany, in 2002, with a degree of Dipl.-Math. (FH). Since June 2002, he has been a research staff member at the Chair for Pattern Recognition at the Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. The topics of his research are 3D reconstruction and active vision systems. He is author or coauthor of four publications. Joachim Denzler, born April 16, 1967, received a degree of Diplom-Informatiker, Dr.-Ing. and Habilitation from the University of Erlangen in 1992, 1997, and 2003, respectively. Currently, he holds a position of a full professor for computer science and is head of the computer vision group, Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, University of Jena. His research interests comprise active computer vision, object recognition and tracking, 3D reconstruction, and plenoptic modeling, as well as computer vision for autonomous systems. He is author and coauthor of over 80 journal papers and technical articles. He is member of the IEEE computer society, DAGM, and GI. For his work on object tracking, plenoptic modeling, and active object recognition and state estimation, he was awarded with the DAGM best paper awards in 1996, 1999, and 2001, respectively. Heinrich Niemann obtained the degree of Dipl.-Ing. in Electrical Engineering and Dr.-Ing. from Technical University Hannover, Germany. He worked at the Fraunhofer Institut fur Informationsverarbeitung in Technik und Biologie, Karlsruhe, and at Fachhochschule Giessen in the department of Electrical Engineering. Since 1975 he has been Professor of Computer Science at the University of Erlangen-Nurnberg, where he was dean of the engineering faculty of the university from 1979–1981. From 1988–2000 he was head of the research group Knowledge Processing at the Bavarian Research Institute for Knowledge-based Systems (FORWISS). Since 1998 he has been the speaker of a special research area entitled Model-based Analysis and Visualization of Complex Scenes and Sensor Data, which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). His fields of research are speech and image understanding and the application of artificial intelligence techniques in these fields. He is on the editorial boards of Signal Processing, Pattern Recognition Letters, Pattern Recognition and Image Analysis, and Journal of Computing and Information Technology. He is the author or coauthor of 7 books and about 400 journal and conference contributions, as well as editor or coeditor of 24 volumes of proceedings and special issues. He is a member of DAGM, ISCA, EURASIP, GI, and IEEE, and a Fellow of IAPR.     

A self-stabilizing algorithm for coloring planar graphs

Summary This paper describes an algorithm for coloring the nodes of a planar graph with no more than six colors using a self-stabilizing approach. The first part illustrates the coloring algorithm on a directed acyclic version of the given planar graph. The second part describes a selfstabilizing algorithm for generating the directed acyclic version of the planar graph, and combines the two algorithms into one. Sukumar Ghosh received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Calcutta University in 1971. From 1969 to 1984, he taught at Jadavpur University, Calcutta. During 1976–77, he was a Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at the University of Dortmund, Germany. Since 1984, he is with the Department of Computer Science of the University of Iowa. His current research interests are in the areas of Distributed Systems, Petri Nets and Self-Stabilizating Systems. Mehmet Hakan Karaata received the Sc. B. degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Hacettepe University in Turkey in 1987, and the M.S. degree in Computer Science from the University of Iowa in 1990. He is currently studying towards his Ph.D. at the same university. His research interests are in the areas of Distributed Systems, Self-Stabilizing Systems and Database Systems.This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under grant CCR-9109078, and the Old Gold Summer Fellowship of the University of Iowa. An abstract of this paper was presented at the 29th Allerton Conference on Control, Communication & Computing in October 1991.     

Interactive online learning

This paper describes a system for visual object recognition based on mobile augmented reality gear. The user can train the system to the recognition of objects online using advanced methods of interaction with mobile systems: Hand gestures and speech input control “virtual menus,” which are displayed as overlays within the camera image. Here we focus on the underlying neural recognition system, which implements the key requirement of an online trainable system—fast adaptation to novel object data. The neural three-stage architecture can be adapted in two modes: In a fast training mode (FT), only the last stage is adapted, whereas complete training (CT) rebuilds the system from scratch. Using FT, online acquired views can be added at once to the classifier, the system being operational after a delay of less than a second, though still with reduced classification performance. In parallel, a new classifier is trained (CT) and loaded to the system when ready. The text was submitted by the authors in English. Gunther Heidemann was born in 1966. He studied physics at the Universities of Karlsruhe and Münster and received his PhD (Eng.) from Bielefeld University in 1998. He is currently working within the collaborative research project “Hybrid Knowledge Representation” of the SFB 360 at Bielefeld University. His fields of research are mainly computer vision, robotics, neural networks, data mining, bonification, and hybrid systems. Holger Bekel was born in 1970. He received his BS degree from the University of Bielefeld, Germany, in 1997. In 2002 he received a diploma in Computer Science from the University of Bielefeld. He is currently pursuing a PhD program in Computer Science at the University of Bielefeld, working within the Neuroinformatics Group (AG Neuroinformatik) in the project VAMPIRE (Visual Active Memory Processes and Interactive Retrieval). His fields of research are active vision and data mining. Ingo Bax was born in 1976. He received a diploma in Computer Science from the University of Bielefeld in 2002. He is currently pursuing a PhD program in Computer Science at the Neuroinformatics Group of the University of Bielefeld, working within the VAMPIRE project. His fields of interest are cognitive computer vision and pattern recognition. Helge J. Ritter was born 1958. He studied physics and mathematics at the Universities of Bayreuth, Heidelberg and Munich. After a PhD in physics at Technical University of Munich in 1988, he visited the Laboratory of Computer Science at Helsinki University of Technology and the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Since 1990 he has headed the Neuroinformatics Group at the Faculty of Technology, Bielefeld University. His main interests are principles of neural computation and their application to building intelligent systems. In 1999, she was awarded the SEL Alcatel Research Prize, and in 2001, the Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation DFG.     

Evolutionary fusion of a multi-classifier system for efficient face recognition

In this paper an evolutionary classifier fusion method inspired by biological evolution is presented to optimize the performance of a face recognition system. Initially, different illumination environments are modeled as multiple contexts using unsupervised learning and then the optimized classifier ensemble is searched for each context using a Genetic Algorithm (GA). For each context, multiple optimized classifiers are searched; each of which are referred to as a context based classifier. An evolutionary framework comprised of a combination of these classifiers is then applied to optimize face recognition as a whole. Evolutionary classifier fusion is compared with the simple adaptive system. Experiments are carried out using the Inha database and FERET database. Experimental results show that the proposed evolutionary classifier fusion method gives superior performance over other methods without using evolutionary fusion. Recommended by Guest Editor Daniel Howard. This work was supported by INHA UNIVERSITY Research Grant. Zhan Yu received the B.E. degree in Software Engineering from Xiamen University, China, in 2008. He is currently a master student in Intelligent Technology Lab, Computer and Information Department, Inha University, Korea. He has research interests in image processing, pattern recognition, computer vision, machine learning and statistical inference and computating. Mi Young Nam received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Computer Science from the University of Silla Busan, Korea in 1995 and 2001 respectively and the Ph.D. degree in Computer Science & Engineering from the University of Inha, Korea in 2006. Currently, She is Post-Doctor course in Intelligent Technology Laboratory, Inha University, Korea. She’s research interest includes biometrics, pattern recognition, computer vision, image processing. Suman Sedai received the M.S. degree in Software Engineering from Inha University, China, in 2008. He is currently a Doctoral course in Western Australia University, Australia. He has research interests in image processing, pattern recognition, computer vision, machine learning. Phill Kyu Rhee received the B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Seoul University, Seoul, Korea, the M.S. degree in Computer Science from the East Texas State University, Commerce, TX, and the Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from the University of Louisiana, Lafayette, LA, in 1982, 1986, and 1990 respectively. During 1982–1985 he was working in the System Engineering Research Institute, Seoul, Korea as a research scientist. In 1991 he joined the Electronic and Telecommunication Research Institute, Seoul, Korea, as a Senior Research Staff. Since 1992, he has been an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering of the Inha University, Incheon, Korea and since 2001, he is a Professor in the same department and university. His current research interests are pattern recognition, machine intelligence, and parallel computer architecture. dr. rhee is a Member of the IEEE Computer Society and KISS (Korea Information Science Society).     

An Integrated Framework for Semantic Annotation and Adaptation

Tools for the interpretation of significant events from video and video clip adaptation can effectively support automatic extraction and distribution of relevant content from video streams. In fact, adaptation can adjust meaningful content, previously detected and extracted, to the user/client capabilities and requirements. The integration of these two functions is increasingly important, due to the growing demand of multimedia data from remote clients with limited resources (PDAs, HCCs, Smart phones). In this paper we propose an unified framework for event-based and object-based semantic extraction from video and semantic on-line adaptation. Two cases of application, highlight detection and recognition from soccer videos and people behavior detection in domotic^* applications, are analyzed and discussed.Domotics is a neologism coming from the Latin word domus (home) and informatics.Marco Bertini has a research grant and carries out his research activity at the Department of Systems and Informatics at the University of Florence, Italy. He received a M.S. in electronic engineering from the University of Florence in 1999, and Ph.D. in 2004. His main research interest is content-based indexing and retrieval of videos. He is author of more than 25 papers in international conference proceedings and journals, and is a reviewer for international journals on multimedia and pattern recognition.Rita Cucchiara (Laurea Ingegneria Elettronica, 1989; Ph.D. in Computer Engineering, University of Bologna, Italy 1993). She is currently Full Professor in Computer Engineering at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy). She was formerly Assistant Professor (‘93–‘98) at the University of Ferrara, Italy and Associate Professor (‘98–‘04) at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy. She is currently in the Faculty staff of Computer Engenering where has in charges the courses of Computer Architectures and Computer Vision.Her current interests include pattern recognition, video analysis and computer vision for video surveillance, domotics, medical imaging, and computer architecture for managing image and multimedia data.Rita Cucchiara is author and co-author of more than 100 papers in international journals, and conference proceedings. She currently serves as reviewer for many international journals in computer vision and computer architecture (e.g. IEEE Trans. on PAMI, IEEE Trans. on Circuit and Systems, Trans. on SMC, Trans. on Vehicular Technology, Trans. on Medical Imaging, Image and Vision Computing, Journal of System architecture, IEEE Concurrency). She participated at scientific committees of the outstanding international conferences in computer vision and multimedia (CVPR, ICME, ICPR, ...) and symposia and organized special tracks in computer architecture for vision and image processing for traffic control. She is in the editorial board of Multimedia Tools and Applications journal. She is member of GIRPR (Italian chapter of Int. Assoc. of Pattern Recognition), AixIA (Ital. Assoc. Of Artificial Intelligence), ACM and IEEE Computer Society.Alberto Del Bimbo is Full Professor of Computer Engineering at the Università di Firenze, Italy. Since 1998 he is the Director of the Master in Multimedia of the Università di Firenze. At the present time, he is Deputy Rector of the Università di Firenze, in charge of Research and Innovation Transfer. His scientific interests are Pattern Recognition, Image Databases, Multimedia and Human Computer Interaction. Prof. Del Bimbo is the author of over 170 publications in the most distinguished international journals and conference proceedings. He is the author of the “Visual Information Retrieval” monography on content-based retrieval from image and video databases edited by Morgan Kaufman. He is Member of IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) and Fellow of IAPR (International Association for Pattern Recognition). He is presently Associate Editor of Pattern Recognition, Journal of Visual Languages and Computing, Multimedia Tools and Applications Journal, Pattern Analysis and Applications, IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, and IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence. He was the Guest Editor of several special issues on Image databases in highly respected journals.Andrea Prati (Laurea in Computer Engineering, 1998; PhD in Computer Engineering, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, 2002). He is currently an assistant professor at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy), Faculty of Engineering, Dipartimento di Scienze e Metodi dell’Ingegneria, Reggio Emilia. During last year of his PhD studies, he has spent six months as visiting scholar at the Computer Vision and Robotics Research (CVRR) lab at University of California, San Diego (UCSD), USA, working on a research project for traffic monitoring and management through computer vision. His research interests are mainly on motion detection and analysis, shadow removal techniques, video transcoding and analysis, computer architecture for multimedia and high performance video servers, video-surveillance and domotics. He is author of more than 60 papers in international and national conference proceedings and leading journals and he serves as reviewer for many international journals in computer vision and computer architecture. He is a member of IEEE, ACM and IAPR.     

Improving WCET by applying worst-case path optimizations

It is advantageous to perform compiler optimizations that attempt to lower the worst-case execution time (WCET) of an embedded application since tasks with lower WCETs are easier to schedule and more likely to meet their deadlines. Compiler writers in recent years have used profile information to detect the frequently executed paths in a program and there has been considerable effort to develop compiler optimizations to improve these paths in order to reduce the average-case execution time (ACET). In this paper, we describe an approach to reduce the WCET by adapting and applying optimizations designed for frequent paths to the worst-case (WC) paths in an application. Instead of profiling to find the frequent paths, our WCET path optimization uses feedback from a timing analyzer to detect the WC paths in a function. Since these path-based optimizations may increase code size, the subsequent effects on the WCET due to these optimizations are measured to ensure that the worst-case path optimizations actually improve the WCET before committing to a code size increase. We evaluate these WC path optimizations and present results showing the decrease in WCET versus the increase in code size. A preliminary version of this paper entitled “Improving WCET by optimizing worst-case paths” appeared in the 2005 Real-Time and Embedded Technology and Applications Symposium. Wankang Zhao received his PhD in Computer Science from Florida State University in 2005. He was an associate professor in Nanjin University of Post and Telecommunications. He is currently working for Datamaxx Corporation. William Kreahling received his PhD in Computer Science from Florida State University in 2005. He is currently an assistant professor in the Math and Computer Science department at Western Carolina University. His research interests include compilers, computer architecture and parallel computing. David Whalley received his PhD in CS from the University of Virginia in 1990. He is currently the E.P. Miles professor and chair of the Computer Science department at Florida State University. His research interests include low-level compiler optimizations, tools for supporting the development and maintenance of compilers, program performance evaluation tools, predicting execution time, computer architecture, and embedded systems. Some of the techniques that he developed for new compiler optimizations and diagnostic tools are currently being applied in industrial and academic compilers. His research is currently supported by the National Science Foundation. More information about his background and research can be found on his home page, http://www.cs.fsu.edu/∼whalley. Dr. Whalley is a member of the IEEE Computer Society and the Association for Computing Machinery. Chris Healy earned a PhD in computer science from Florida State University in 1999, and is currently an associate professor of computer science at Furman University. His research interests include static and parametric timing analysis, real-time and embedded systems, compilers and computer architecture. He is committed to research experiences for undergraduate students, and his work has been supported by funding from the National Science Foundation. He is a member of ACM and the IEEE Computer Society. Frank Mueller is an Associate Professor in Computer Science and a member of the Centers for Embedded Systems Research (CESR) and High Performance Simulations (CHiPS) at North Carolina State University. Previously, he held positions at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Humboldt University Berlin, Germany. He received his Ph.D. from Florida State University in 1994. He has published papers in the areas of embedded and real-time systems, compilers and parallel and distributed systems. He is a founding member of the ACM SIGBED board and the steering committee chair of the ACM SIGPLAN LCTES conference. He is a member of the ACM, ACM SIGPLAN, ACM SIGBED and the IEEE Computer Society. He is a recipient of an NSF Career Award.     

Real-time arithmetic unit

In this paper we discuss the paradigm of real-time processing on the lower level of computing systems. An arithmetical unit based on this principle containing addition, multiplication, division and square root operations is described. The development of the computation operators model is based on the imprecise computation paradigm and defines the concept of the adjustable calculation of a function that manages delay and the precision of the results as an inherent and parameterized characteristic. The arithmetic function design is based on well-known algorithms and offers progressive improvement in the results. Advantages in the predictability of calculations are obtained by means of processing groups of k-bits atomically and by using look-up tables. We report an evaluation of the operations in path time, delay and computation error. Finally, we present an example of our real-time architecture working in a realistic context. Higinio Mora-Mora received the BS degree in computer science engineering and the BS degree in business studies in University of Alicante, Spain, in 1996 and 1997, respectively. He received the PhD degree in computer science from the University of Alicante in 2003. Since 2002, he is a member of the faculty of the Computer Technology and Computation Department at the same university where he is currently an associate professor and researcher of Specialized Processors Architecture Laboratory. His areas of research interest include computer arithmetic and the design of floating points units and approximation algorithms related to VLSI design. Jerónimo Mora-Pascual received the BS degree in computer science engineering from University of Valencia (Spain), in 1994. Since 1994, he has been a member of the faculty of the Computer Technology and Computation department at the University of Alicante, where he is currently an associate professor. He completed his PhD in computer science at University of Alicante in 2001. He has worked on neural networks and its VLSI implementation. His current areas of research interest include the design of floating points units and its application for real-time systems and processors for geometric calculus. Juan Manuel García-Chamizo received his BS in physics at the University of Granada (Spain) in 1980, and the PhD degree in Computer Science at the University of Alicante (Spain) in 1994. He is currently a full professor and director of the Computer Technology and Computation department at the University of Alicante. His current research interests are computer vision, reconfigurable hardware, biomedical applications, computer networks and architectures and artificial neural networks. He has directed several research projects related to the above-mentioned interest areas. He is a member of a Spanish Consulting Commission on Electronics, Computer Science and Communications. He is also member and editor of some program committee conferences. Antonio Jimeno-Morenilla is associate professor in the Computer Technology and Computation department at the University of Alicante (Spain). He received his PhD from the University of Alicante in 2003. He concluded his bachelor studies at the EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fe’de’rale de Lausanne, Switzerland) and received his BS degree in computer science from the Polytechnical University of Valencia (Spain) in 1994. His research interests include sculptured surface manufacturing, CAD/CAM, computational geometry for design and manufacturing, rapid and virtual prototyping, 3D surface flattening, and high performance computer architectures. He has considerable experience in the development of 3D CAD systems for shoes. In particular, he has been involved in many government and industrial funded projects, most of them in collaboration with the Spanish Footwear Research Institute (INESCOP).     

Life sciences grid in EUROGRID and GRIP projects

In this paper we describe deployment of most important life sciences applications on the grid. The build grid is heterogenous and consist of systems of different architecture as well as operating systems and various middleware. We have used UNICORE infrastructure as framework for development dedicated user interface to the number of existing computational chemistry codes and molecular biology databases. Developed solution allows for access to the resources provided with UNICORE as well as Globus with exactly the same interface which gives access to the general grid functionality such as single login, job submission and control mechanism. Jarosław Wypychowski: He is a student at the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, Warsaw University, Poland. He is involved in the development of grid tools. He has been working as programmer in the private company. Jarosław Pytliński, M.Sc.: He received his M.Sc. in 2002 from Department of Mathematic and Computer Science of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun. His thesis on “Quantum Chemistry Computations in Grid Environment” was distincted in XIX Polish Contest for the best M.Sc. Thesis of Computer Science. He also worked in Laboratory of High Performance Systems at UCI, Torun. His interests are Artificial Intelligence and GRID technology. Łukasz Skorwider, M.Sc.: He is programmer in the private pharmaceutical company. He obtained M.Sc. degree from the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science N. Copernicus University. As graduate student he was involved in the development of grid tools for drug design. His private and professional interest is Internet technology. Mirosław Nazaruk, M.Sc.: He is a senior computer and network administrator at ICM Warsaw University. He provides professional support for the users of the high performance facilities located at the ICM. He obtained M.Sc. in Computer Science from Warsaw University in 1991. Before joining ICM, he was a member of technical staff at Institute of Applied Mathematics, Warsaw University. Krzysztof Benedyczak: He is a student at the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, N. Copernicus University, Torun, Poland. He is involved in the development of grid tools. Michał Wroński: He is a student at the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, N. Copernicus University, Torun, Poland. He is involved in the development of grid tools. Piotr Bała, Ph.D.: He is an adiunkt at Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science N. Copernicus University, Torun, Poland, and tightly cooperates with ICM, Warsaw University. He obtained Ph.D. in Physics in 1993 in Institute of Physics, N. Copernicus University and in 2000 habilitation in physics. From 2001 he was appointed director of Laboratory of Parallel and Distributed Processing at Faculty of Mathematics, N. Copernicus University. His main research interest is development and application of Quantum-Classical Molecular Dynamics and Approximated Valence Bond method to study of enzymatic reactions in biological systems. In the last few years, he has been involved in development of parallel and grid tools for large scale scientific applications.     

On the message complexity of binary byzantine agreement under crash failures

Summary The binary Byzantine Agreement problem requiresn–1 receivers to agree on the binary value broadcast by a sender even when some of thesen processes may be faulty. We investigate the message complexity of protocols that solve this problem in the case of crash failures. In particular, we derive matching upper and lower bounds on the total, worst and average case number of meassages needed in the failure-free executions of such protocols.More specifically, we prove that any protocol that tolerates up tot faulty processes requires a total of at leastn+t–1 messages in its failure-free executions —and, therefore, at least [(n+t–1)/2] messages in the worst case and min (P ₀,P ₁)·(n+t–1) meassages in the average case, whereP _v is the probability that the value of the bit that the sender wants to broadcast isv. We also give protocols that solve the problem using only the minimum number of meassages for these three complexity measures. These protocols can be implemented by using 1-bit messages. Since a lower bound on the number of messages is also a lower bound on the number of meassage bits, this means that the above tight bounds on the number of messages are also tight bounds on the number of meassage bits. Vassos Hadzilacos received a BSE from Princeton University in 1980 and a PhD from Harvard University in 1984, both in Computer Science. In 1984 he joined the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto where he is currently an Associate Professor. In 1990–1991 he was visiting Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Cornell University. His research interests are in the theory of distributed systems. Eugene Amdur obtained a B. Math from the University of Waterloo in 1986 and a M.Sc. from the University of Toronto in 1988. He is currently employed by the Vision and Robotics group at the University of Toronto in both technical and research capacities. His current areas of interest are vision, robotics, and networking. Samuel Weber received his B.Sc. in Mathematics and Computer Science and his M.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Toronto. Currently, he is at Cornell University as a Ph.D. student in Computer Science with a minor in Psychology. His research interests include distributed systems, and the semantics of programming languages.     

Robust detection and ordering of ellipses on a calibration pattern

The aim of this work is to accurately estimate from an image the parameters of some ellipses and their relative positions with respect to a given pattern. The process is characterized because it is fully automated and is robust against image noise and occlusions. We have built a calibrator pattern with two planes each containing several ordered circles in known 3D positions. Our method is able to estimate the position of every ellipse and to put them into correspondence with the original calibrator circles. The text was submitted by the authors in English. Luis álvarez received an MS in applied mathematics in 1985 and a PhD in mathematics in 1988, both from CompIntense University (Madrid, Spain). Between 1991 and 1992, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at CEREMADE, Université Paris IX—Dauphine (France). Currently, he is with the Computer Science Department of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. His research interests are computer vision and partial differential equations. He is the scientific leader of computer vision group of the University of Las Palmas named AMI. Agustín Salgado received an MS in computer science in from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Las Palmas, Spain). Currently, he holds a grant from the Computer Science Department of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, where he is working on his doctoral thesis under the direction of Javier Sánchez. Javier Sánchez received an MS in computer science in 1997 and a PhD in computer science in 2001, both from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Las Palmas, Spain). Between 1997 and 1998, he attended some courses of the DBA 127 “Informatique: Systemes Intelligentes” at the Université Paris IX—Dauphine (France). Currently, he is a lecturer at the Computer Science Department of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. His research interests are computer vision and partial differential equations, specially applied to stereoscopic vision and optical flow estimation.     

Fast training for object recognition with structure-from-motion

In this paper we present a system for statistical object classification and localization that applies a simplified image acquisition process for the learning phase. Instead of using complex setups to take training images in known poses, which is very time-consuming and not possible for some objects, we use a handheld camera. The pose parameters of objects in all training frames that are necessary for creating the object models are determined using a structure-from-motion algorithm. The local feature vectors we use are derived from wavelet multiresolution analysis. We model the object area as a function of 3D transformations and introduce a background model. Experiments made on a real data set taken with a handheld camera with more than 2500 images show that it is possible to obtain good classification and localization rates using this fast image acquisition method. The text was submitted by the authors in English. Marcin Grzegorzek, born in 1977, obtained his Master’s Degree in Engineering from the Silesian University of Technology Gliwice (Poland) in 2002. Since December 2002 he has been a PhD candidate and member of the research staff of the Chair for Pattern Recognition at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. His fields are 3D object recognition, statistical modeling, and computer vision. He is an author or coauthor of seven publications. Michael Reinhold, born in 1969, obtained his degree in Electrical Engineering from RWTH Aachen University, Germany, in 1998. Later, he received a Doctor of Engineering from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, in 2003. His research interests are statistical modeling, object recognition, and computer vision. He is currently a development engineer at Rohde & Schwarz in Munich, Germany, where he works in the Center of Competence for Digital Signal Processing. He is an author or coauthor of 11 publications. Ingo Scholz, born in 1975, graduated in computer science at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, in 2000 with a degree in Engineering. Since 2001 he has been working as a research staff member at the Institute for Pattern Recognition of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. His main research focuses on the reconstruction of light field models, camera calibration techniques, and structure from motion. He is an author or coauthor of ten publications and member of the German Gesellschaft für Informatik (GI). Heinrich Niemann obtained his Electrical Engineering degree and Doctor of Engineering degree from Hannover Technical University, Germany. He worked with the Fraunhofer Institut für Informationsverarbeitung in Technik und Biologie, Karlsruhe, and with the Fachhochschule Giessen in the Department of Electrical Engineering. Since 1975 he has been a professor of computer science at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, where he was dean of the engineering faculty of the university from 1979 to 1981. From 1988 to 2000, he was head of the Knowledge Processing research group at the Bavarian Research Institute for Knowledge-Based Systems (FORWISS). Since 1998, he has been a spokesman for a “special research area” with the name of “Model-Based Analysis and Visualization of Complex Scenes and Sensor Data” funded by the German Research Foundation. His fields of research are speech and image understanding and the application of artificial intelligence techniques in these areas. He is on the editorial board of Signal Processing, Pattern Recognition Letters, Pattern Recognition and Image Analysis, and the Journal of Computing and Information Technology. He is an author or coauthor of seven books and about 400 journal and conference contributions, as well as editor or coeditor of 24 proceedings volumes and special issues. He is a member of DAGM, ISCA, EURASIP, GI, IEEE, and VDE and an IAPR fellow.     

FNS,CFNS and HEIV: A Unifying Approach

Estimation of parameters from image tokens is a central problem in computer vision. FNS, CFNS and HEIV are three recently developed methods for solving special but important cases of this problem. The schemes are means for finding unconstrained (FNS, HEIV) and constrained (CFNS) minimisers of cost functions. In earlier work of the authors, FNS, CFNS and a core version of HEIV were applied to a specific cost function. Here we extend the approach to more general cost functions. This allows the FNS, CFNS and HEIV methods to be placed within a common framework. Wojciech Chojnacki is a professor of mathematics in the Department of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at Cardinal Stefan Wyszyski University in Warsaw. He is concurrently a senior research fellow in the School of Computer Science at the University of Adelaide working on a range of problems in computer vision. His research interests include differential equations, mathematical foundations of computer vision, functional analysis, and harmonic analysis. He is author of over 70 articles on pure mathematics and machine vision, and a member of the Polish Mathematical Society. Michael J. Brooks holds the Chair in Artificial Intelligence within the University of Adelaides School of Computer Science, which he heads. He is also leader of the Image Analysis Program within the Cooperative Research Centre for Sensor Signal and Information Processing, based in South Australia. His research interests include structure from motion, self-calibration, metrology, statistical vision-parameter estimation, and video surveillance and analysis. He is author of over 100 articles on vision, actively involved in a variety of commercial applications, an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Computer Vision, and a Fellow of the Australian Computer Society. Anton van den Hengel is a senior lecturer in the School of Computer Science within the University of Adelaide. He is also leader of the Video Surveillance and Analysis Project within the Cooperative Research Centre for Sensor Signal and Information Processing. His research interests include structure from motion, parameter estimation theory, and commercial applications of computer vision. Darren Gawley graduated with first class honours from the School of Computer Science at the University of Adelaide. He holds a temporary lectureship at the same University, and is currently finalising his PhD in the field of computer vision.This revised version was published online in June 2005 with correction to CoverDate     

A logic-based integration of active and deductive databases

A logic-based approach to the specification of active database functionality is presented which not only endows active databases with a well-defined and well-understood formal semantics, but also tightly integrates them with deductive databases. The problem of endowing deductive databases with rule-based active behaviour has been addressed in different ways. Typical approaches include accounting for active behaviour by extending the operational semantics of deductive databases, or, conversely, accounting for deductive capabilities by constraining the operational semantics of active databases. The main contribution of the paper is an alternative approach in which a class of active databases is defined whose operational semantics is naturally integrated with the operational semantics of deductive databases without either of them strictly subsuming the other. The approach is demonstrated via the formalization of the syntax and semantics of an active-rule language that can be smoothly incorporated into existing deductive databases, due to the fact that the standard formalization of deductive databases is reused, rather than altered or extended. One distinctive feature of the paper is its use of ahistory, as defined in the Kowalski-Sergot event-calculus, to define event occurrences, database states and actions on these. This has proved to be a suitable foundation for a comprehensive logical account of the concept set underpinning active databases. The paper thus contributes a logical perspective to the ongoing task of developing a formal theory of active databases. Alvaro Adolfo Antunes Fernandes, Ph.D.: He received a B.Sc. in Economics (Rio de Janeiro, 1984), an M.Sc. in Knowledge-Based Systems (Edinburgh, 1990) and a Ph.D. in Computer Science (Heriot-Watt, 1995). He worked as a Research Associate at Heriot-Watt University from December 1990 until December 1995. In January 1996 he joined the Department of Mathematical and Computing Sciences at Goldsmiths College, University of London, as a Lecturer. His current research interests include advanced data- and knowledge-base technology, logic programming, and software engineering. M. Howard Williams, Ph.D., D.Sc.: He obtained his Ph.D. in ionospheric physics and recently a D.Sc. in Computer Science. He was appointed as the first lecturer in Computer Science at Rhodes University in 1970. During the following decade he rose to Professor of Computer Science and in 1980 was appointed as Professor of Computer Science at Heriot-Watt University. From 1980 to 1988 he served as Head of Department and then as director of research until 1992. He is now head of the Database Research Group at Heriot-Watt University. His current research interests include active databases, deductive objectoriented databases, spatial databases, parallel databases and telemedicine. Norman W. Paton, Ph.D.: He received a B.Sc. in Computing Science from the University of Aberdeen in 1986. From 1986 to 1989 he worked as a Research Assistant at the University of Aberdeen, receiving a Ph. D. in 1989. From 1989 to 1995 he was a Lecturer in Computer Science at Heriot-Watt University. Since July 1995, he has been a Senior Lecturer in Department of Computer Science at the University of Manchester. His current research interests include active databases, deductive object-oriented databases, spatial databases and database interfaces.     

A generalized temporal context model for classifying image collections

Semantic scene classification is an open problem in computer vision, especially when information from only a single image is employed. In applications involving image collections, however, images are clustered sequentially, allowing surrounding images to be used as temporal context. We present a general probabilistic temporal context model in which the first-order Markov property is used to integrate content-based and temporal context cues. The model uses elapsed time-dependent transition probabilities between images to enforce the fact that images captured within a shorter period of time are more likely to be related. This model is generalized in that it allows arbitrary elapsed time between images, making it suitable for classifying image collections. In addition, we derived a variant of this model to use in ordered image collections for which no timestamp information is available, such as film scans. We applied the proposed context models to two problems, achieving significant gains in accuracy in both cases. The two algorithms used to implement inference within the context model, Viterbi and belief propagation, yielded similar results with a slight edge to belief propagation. Matthew Boutell received the BS degree in Mathematical Science from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Massachusetts, in 1993, the MEd degree from University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1994, and the PhD degree in Computer Science from the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, in 2005. He served for several years as a mathematics and computer science instructor at Norton High School and Stonehill College and as a research intern/consultant at Eastman Kodak Company. Currently, he is Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Software Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana. His research interests include image understanding, machine learning, and probabilistic modeling. Jiebo Luo received his PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY in 1995. He is a Senior Principal Scientist with the Kodak Research Laboratories. He was a member of the Organizing Committee of the 2002 IEEE International Conference on Image Processing and 2006 IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo, a guest editor for the Journal of Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Special Issue on Multimedia Over Mobile IP and the Pattern Recognition journal Special Issue on Image Understanding for Digital Photos, and a Member of the Kodak Research Scientific Council. He is on the editorial boards of the IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, Pattern Recognition, and Journal of Electronic Imaging. His research interests include image processing, pattern recognition, computer vision, medical imaging, and multimedia communication. He has authored over 100 technical papers and holds over 30 granted US patents. He is a Kodak Distinguished Inventor and a Senior Member of the IEEE. Chris Brown (BA Oberlin 1967, PhD University of Chicago 1972) is Professor of Computer Science at the University of Rochester. He has published in many areas of computer vision and robotics. He wrote COMPUTER VISION with his colleague Dana Ballard, and influential work on the “active vision” paradigm was reported in two special issues of the International Journal of Computer Vision. He edited the first two volumes of ADVANCES IN COMPUTER VISION for Erlbaum and (with D. Terzopoulos) REAL-TIME COMPUTER VISION, from Cambridge University Press. He is the co-editor of VIDERE, the first entirely on-line refereed computer vision journal (MIT Press). His most recent PhD students have done research in infrared tracking and face recognition, features and strategies for image understanding, augmented reality, and three-dimensional reconstruction algorithms. He supervised the undergraduate team that twice won the AAAI Host Robot competition (and came third in the Robot Rescue competition in 2003).     

Preference update for e-commerce applications: Model,language, and processing

It is likely that customers issue requests based on out-of-date information in e-commerce application systems. Hence, the transaction failure rates would increase greatly. In this paper, we present a preference update model to address this problem. A preference update is an extended SQL update statement where a user can request the desired number of target data items by specifying multiple preferences. Moreover, the preference update allows easy extraction of criteria from a set of concurrent requests and, hence, optimal decisions for the data assignments can be made. We propose a group evaluation strategy for preference update processing in a multidatabase environment. The experimental results show that the group evaluation can effectively increase the customer satisfaction level with acceptable cost. Peng Li is the Chief Software Architect of didiom LLC. Before that, he was a visiting assistant professor of computer science department in Western Kentucky University. He received his Ph.D. degree of computer science from the University of Texas at Dallas. He also holds a B.Sc. and M.S. in Computer Science from the Renmin University of China. His research interests include database systems, database security, transaction processing, distributed and Internet computer and E-commerce. Manghui Tu received a Bachelor degree of Science from Wuhan University, P.R. China in 1996, and a Master Degree in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Dallas 2001. He is currently working toward the PhD degree in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Texas at Dallas. Mr. Tu’s research interests include distributed systems, grid computing, information security, mobile computing, and scientific computing. His PhD research work focus on the data management in secure and high performance data grid. He is a student member of the IEEE. I-Ling Yen received her BS degree from Tsing-Hua University, Taiwan, and her MS and PhD degrees in Computer Science from the University of Houston. She is currently an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Texas at Dallas. Dr. Yen’s research interests include fault-tolerant computing, security systems and algorithms, distributed systems, Internet technologies, E-commerce, and self-stabilizing systems. She had published over 100 technical papers in these research areas and received many research awards from NSF, DOD, NASA, and several industry companies. She has served as Program Committee member for many conferences and Program Chair/Co-Chair for the IEEE Symposium on Application-Specific Software and System Engineering & Technology, IEEE High Assurance Systems Engineering Symposium, IEEE International Computer Software and Applications Conference, and IEEE International Symposium on Autonomous Decentralized Systems. She is a member of the IEEE. Zhonghang Xia received the B.S. degree in applied mathematics from Dalian University of Technology in 1990, the M.S. degree in Operations Research from Qufu Normal University in 1993, and the Ph.D. degree in computer science from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2004. He is now an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY. His research interests are in the area of multimedia computing and networking, distributed systems, and data mining.     

Tracking the activity of participants in a meeting

A vision system suitable for a smart meeting room able to analyse the activities of its occupants is described. Multiple people were tracked using a particle filter in which samples were iteratively re-weighted using an approximate likelihood in each frame. Trackers were automatically initialised and constrained using simple contextual knowledge of the room layout. Person–person occlusion was handled using multiple cameras. The method was evaluated on video sequences of a six person meeting. The tracker was demonstrated to outperform standard sampling importance re-sampling. All meeting participants were successfully tracked and their actions were recognised throughout the meeting scenarios tested.H. Nait Charif was funded by UK EPSRC Grant GR/R27419/01. Hammadi Nait Charif was born in Tinghir, Ouarzazat, Morocco on 25 December 1965. He received his Master of Engineering (Ingenieur d'Etat Diploma) in electrical engineering in 1990 and after a short-term job with the Ministry of Telecommunication, was appointed lecturer at Mohamed I University in 1991. He was a Monbusho visiting research fellow at Chiba University, Japan (1994–1995) where he received his PhD in 1998. He was an Assistant Professor and then an Associate Professor in electrical engineering at Mohamed I University (1998–2001). In 1999, he was a Fulbright Visiting Assistant Professor at Michigan State University. At the University of Dundee he has worked on the EPSRC project “Advanced Sensors for Supportive Environments for Elderly”. His research interests include image processing, computer vision and neural networks. Stephen McKenna is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Dundee. He graduated BSc (Hons) in Computer Science from the University of Edinburgh and PhD from the University of Dundee (1994). He has held post-doctoral research positions at Queen Mary, University of London and Tecnopolis Csata, Italy and has been a visiting researcher at BT Labs and George Mason University. Funders of his research include EPSRC, BBSRC and MRC. He has served on international program committees and is an Associate Editor of the journal Machine Vision and Applications. He co-authored the book “Dynamic Vision” and has published 75 articles on computer vision and pattern recognition. His research interests include the application of computer vision, imaging and machine learning to intelligent human–computer interaction, monitoring, surveillance, medicine and biology.     

A Sampling-Based Motion Planning Approach to Maintain Visibility of Unpredictable Targets

This paper deals with the surveillance problem of computing the motions of one or more robot observers in order to maintain visibility of one or several moving targets. The targets are assumed to move unpredictably, and the distribution of obstacles in the workspace is assumed to be known in advance. Our algorithm computes a motion strategy by maximizing the shortest distance to escape—the shortest distance the target must move to escape an observer's visibility region. Since this optimization problem is intractable, we use randomized methods to generate candidate surveillance paths for the observers. We have implemented our algorithms, and we provide experimental results using real mobile robots for the single target case, and simulation results for the case of two targets-two observers. Rafael Murrieta-Cid received the B.S degree in Physics Engineering (1990), and the M.Sc. degree in Automatic Manufacturing Systems (1993), both from “Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey” (ITESM) Campus Monterrey. He received his Ph.D. from the “Institut National Polytechnique” (INP) of Toulouse, France (1998). His Ph.D research was done in the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence group of the LAAS/CNRS. In 1998–1999, he was a postdoctoral researcher in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University. From January 2000 to July 2002 he was an assistant professor in the Electrical Engineering Department at ITESM Campus México City, México. In 2002–2004, he was working as a postdoctoral research associate in the Beckman Institute and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Since August 2004, he is director of the Mechatronics Research Center in the ITESM Campus Estado de México, México. He is mainly interested in sensor-based robotics motion planning and computer vision. Benjamin Tovar received the B.S degree in electrical engineering from ITESM at Mexico City, Mexico, in 2000, and the M.S. in electrical engineering from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA, in 2004. Currently (2005) he is pursuing the Ph.D degree in Computer Science at the University of Illinois. Prior to M.S. studies he worked as a research assistant at Mobile Robotics Laboratory at ITESM Mexico City. He is mainly interested in motion planning, visibility-based tasks, and minimal sensing for robotics. Seth Hutchinson received his Ph. D. from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana in 1988. He spent 1989 as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at Purdue University. In 1990 Dr. Hutchinson joined the faculty at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, where he is currently a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Coordinated Science Laboratory, and the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. Dr. Hutchinson is currently a senior editor of the IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation. In 1996 he was a guest editor for a special section of the Transactions devoted to the topic of visual servo control, and in 1994 he was co-chair of an IEEE Workshop on Visual Servoing. In 1996 and 1998 he co-authored papers that were finalists for the King-Sun Fu Memorial Best Transactions Paper Award. He was co-chair of IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Technical Committee on Computer and Robot Vision from 1992 to 1996, and has served on the program committees for more than thirty conferences related to robotics and computer vision. He has published more than 100 papers on the topics of robotics and computer vision.