CAIP2011

CAIP2011 is the fourteenth in the CAIP series of biennial international conferences devoted to all aspects of Computer Vision, Image Analysis and Processing, Pattern recognition and related fields. CAIP2011 will be held in August 29-31, 2011, in Seville (Spain). The last CAIP conferences were held in Groningen (2003), Paris (2005), Vienna (2007) and Münster (2009). CAIP2011 will be hosted by Seville University. The scientific program of the conference will consist of several keynote addresses, high quality papers selected by the international program committee and presented in a single track. Poster presentations will allow expert discussions of specialized research topics.

he scope of CAIP'11 includes, but not limited to, the following areas:

• 3D Vision
• 3D TV
• Biometrics
• Color and texture
• Document analysis
• Graph-based Methods
• Image and video indexing and database retrieval
• Image and video processing
• Image-based modeling
• Kernel methods
• Medical imaging
• Mobile multimedia
• Model-based vision approaches
• Motion Analysis
• Non-photorealistic animation and modeling
• Object recognition
• Performance evaluation
• Segmentation and grouping
• Shape representation and analysis
• Structural pattern recognition
• Tracking
• Applications

Publication:

The conference proceedings will be published in the Springer LNCS series.
A special issue with selected papers in Pattern Recognition will be published in Pattern Recognition Letters.
A special issue with selected papers in Analysis of Images will be published in Journal of Mathematical Imaging and Vision .

http://congreso.us.es/caip2011/call_papers.php

MediaEval Benchmarking Initiative

MediaEval is a benchmarking initiative dedicated to evaluating new algorithms for multimedia access and retrieval. MediaEval focuses on speech, language and contextual aspects of video (geographical and social context). Typical tasks include, predicting tags for video, both user-assigned tags (Tagging Task) and geo-tags (Placing Task). We are daring enough to tackle "subjective" aspects of video (Affect Task).

How can I get involved?
MediaEval is an open initiative, meaning that any interested research group is free to signup and participate. Signup for MediaEval 2011 will open in early Spring 2011 on this website. Groups sign up for one or more tasks, they then receive task definitions, data sets and supporting resources, which they use to develop their algorithms. At the end of the summer, groups submit their results and in the fall they attend the MediaEval workshop. More information on MediaEval is available on theFAQ page (see also Why Participate?)

Which tasks will be offered in 2011?
The task offering in 2011 will be finalized on the basis of participant interest, assessed, as last year, via a survey. At this time, we anticipate that we will run a Tagging Task and Placing Task (see MediaEval 2010 for descriptions of the form these tasks took in 2010). We also anticipate offering an additional task involving ad hoc video retrieval and one involving violence detection. Please watch this page for additional information to appear at the beginning of 2011 or contact the organizers for information on the current status of plans.

Beyond plain sight?
We are interested in pushing video retrieval research beyond the pictorial content of video. In other words, we want to get past what we see in "plain sight" when watching a video and instead also analyze video content in terms of its overall subject matter (what it is actually about) and the effect that it has on viewers. This goal is consistent with our emphasis on speech, language and context features (geographical and social context).

There's a MediaEval trailer?
Yes. In the MediaEval 2010 Affect Task, we analyzed a travelogue series created by Bill Bowles, filmmaker and traveling video blogger. We were looking for elements that could be used to automatically predict whether, overall, a general audience would find a particular episode engaging or boring. Bill attended the MediaEval 2010 workshop in Pisa, listened to our findings and created a travelogue episode for us. In this video, Bill tells the story of MediaEval in his own words...and makes conscious use of some of the predictors we found to correlate with viewer engagement.

http://www.multimediaeval.org/

Facial recognition security to keep handset data safe

Reported By Stewart Mitchell in PCPro – Article from
http://gsirak.ee.duth.gr/index.php/archives/163

Mobile phone security could come face-to-face with science fiction following a demonstration of biometric technology by scientists at the University of Manchester.

Mobile phones carry an ever-increasing level of personal data, but PIN-code log-ins can prove weak – if even applied – leaving those details vulnerable if a handset is stolen.

Facial recognition software could change that picture drastically.

“The idea is to recognise you as the user, and it does that by first taking a video of you, so it has your voice and lots of images for comparison,” said Phil Tresadern, lead researcher on the project.

Before letting anyone access the handset, the software examines an image of the person holding the handset, cross-referencing 22 geographical landmarks on the face with that of the owner.

“We had to change some of the floating point calculations to fixed points with whole numbers to make it more efficient, but it ported across quite easily“

“Existing mobile face trackers give only an approximate position and scale of the face,” said Tresadern. “Our model runs in real time and accurately tracks a number of landmarks on and around the face such as the eyes, nose, mouth and jaw line.”

The scientists claim their method is unrivalled for speed and accuracy and works on standard smartphones with front-facing cameras.

Facial recognition technology is nothing new, but squeezing something so computationally complicated onto a smartphone is quite an achievement.

“We have a demo that we have shown to potential partners that is running on Linux on a Nokia N900,” said Tresadern, adding that his team had to streamline the software to make it run on a mobile phone.

“We had to change some of the floating point calculations to fixed points with whole numbers to make it more efficient,” he said. “But other than that it ported across quite easily.”

The Manchester team said the technology has already attracted interest from “someone interested in putting it into the operating system for Nokia” and that the software could be licensed by app developers for any mobile device.
Read more: Facial recognition security to keep handset data safe | Security | News | PC Pro http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/security/362287/facial-recognition-security-to-keep-handset-data-safe#ixzz13aZsL2mn

The IASTED International Conference on Signal and Image Processing and Applications ~SIPA 2011~

http://www.iasted.org/conferences/cfp-738.html

CONFERENCE CHAIR

Prof. Ioannis Andreadis
Democritus University of Thrace, Greece

LOCATION

Situated in the warm and sunny Mediterranean, Crete is the largest of the Greek islands. It is renowned in myth and rich in a history that spans thousands of years. The centre of the ancient Minoan civilisation, Crete is the backdrop to the dramatic legend of the Minotaur. Crete's history is intertwined with struggles for regional dominance; over centuries, Crete has been ruled by different peoples, including the Venetians, the Ottoman Turks, the Romans, and the Byzantines, all of whom of have left their mark on the island.
Today, history and myth blend seamlessly with Crete's natural beauty and lively culture. Take in the sharp mountain ranges, interrupted by steep ravines and divided by fields of olive trees, all below a splendid sky. Spend a day exploring the wild cypress forests and keep an eye out for the kri-kri, the Cretan wild goat. A trip to the stunning White Mountains and the Samariá Gorge is a must, as are the many ruins and historic landmarks throughout the island. Unwind with a sunset stroll on the beach followed by a hearty meal at a local tavern, or an evening of vibrant city nightlife.

PURPOSE

The IASTED International Conference on Signal and Image Processing and Applications (SIPA 2011) will be an international forum for researchers and practitioners interested in the advances in and applications of signal and image processing. It is an opportunity to present and observe the latest research, results, and ideas in these areas. SIPA 2011 aims to strengthen relationships between companies, research laboratories, and universities. All papers submitted to this conference will be double blind evaluated by at least two reviewers. Acceptance will be based primarily on originality and contribution.

MMRetrieval Presentation

Visit MMretrieval Experimental multimodal search engine

Orasis (ver. 1.1)

Orasis Image Processing Software (ver. 1.1) is now freely available for download at:

http://sites.google.com/site/vonikakis/software

You can improve you photos, easily, with just a few mouse clicks.

Orasis is an experimental, biologically-inspired, image enhancement software, which employs the characteristics of the center-surround cells of the Human Visual System.

Many times the image captured by a camera and the image in our eyes are dramatically different. Especially when there are shadows or highlights in the same scene. In these cases our eyes can distinguish many details in the shadows or the highlights, while the image captured by the camera suffers from loss of visual information in these regions.
Orasis attempts to bridge the gap between "what you see" and "what the camera outputs". It enhances the shadow or the highlight regions of an image, while keeping intact all the correctly exposed ones. The final result is a lot closer to the human perception of the scene, than the original captured image, revealing visual information that otherwise wouldn't be available to the human observer. Additionally to the above, Orasis can correct low local contract, colors and noise.

The new version includes:

· JPEG compression support

· EXIF data support

· Keyboard shortcuts

· Decorrelation between brightness and local contrast enhancement

· Automatic Color Saturation

· Automatic check for Updates

· Improved memory management

· Improved Noise reduction algorithms

· Improved Automatic selection of parameters

· Improved Color Correction algorithm

· Improved Independent RGB mode

· Improved Interface

(Greek Version)

Η νέα έκδοση του λογισμικού Επεξεργασίας Εικόνας Orasis (εκδ. 1.1) είναι τώρα ελεύθερα διαθέσιμη για κατέβασμα από τη διεύθυνση:

http://sites.google.com/site/vonikakis/software

Μπορείτε τώρα να βελτιώσετε τις φωτογραφίες σας, μόνο με μερικά κλικ.
Το Orasis είναι ένα πειραματικό, βιολογικά εμπνευσμένο, λογισμικό Επεξεργασίας Εικόνας, το οποίο χρησιμοποιεί τα χαρακτηριστικά των κυττάρων ανταγωνισμού κέντρου-περιφέρειας του Ανθρώπινου Οπτικού Συστήματος.
Πολλές φορές η εικόνα που καταγράφει η φωτογραφική μηχανή, και η εικόνα στα μάτια μας, διαφέρουν δραματικά. Ειδικά όταν στη σκηνή που φωτογραφίζουμε υπάρχουν σκιές ή ισχυρές φωτεινές πηγές. Στις περιπτώσεις αυτές, τα μάτια μας διακρίνουν πολύ περισσότερες λεπτομέρειες μέσα στις σκιάσεις και στους έντονους φωτισμούς. Αντίθετα, η εικόνα που μας δίνει η φωτογραφική μηχανή διαθέτει πολύ λιγότερες λεπτομέρειες, έχοντας εκτεταμένες σκοτεινές ή πολύ φωτεινές περιοχές.
Το Orasis προσπαθεί να γεφυρώσει το χάσμα μεταξύ «αυτού που βλέπουμε» και «αυτού που μας δίνει η φωτογραφική μηχανή». Βελτιώνει τις σκιασμένες ή τις πολύ φωτεινές περιοχές, ενώ ταυτόχρονα αφήνει ανέπαφες τις σωστές περιοχές της εικόνας. Το τελικό αποτέλεσμα είναι πολύ πιο κοντά σε αυτό που αντιλαμβάνεται ο άνθρωπος, όταν παρατηρεί τη σκηνή, αποκαλύπτοντας λεπτομέρειες οι οποίες διαφορετικά δε θα ήταν αντιληπτές. Επιπλέον, το Orasis, βελτιώνει την ισορροπία χρωμάτων, τη χαμηλή τοπική αντίθεση και το θόρυβο των φωτογραφιών.