Icon Labeler

Icon Labeler is a system that was developed for the purposes of the diploma thesis entitled “Development of a semantic search system for Byzantine icons” authored by the undergraduate student N. Theofylaktos of DUTH under the supervision of the associate professor I. Boutalis.

This system aims at high-level feature extraction from Byzantine Icons. These features can be used to allow for ordering, searching and enhancing the existing ontology [1].

This system makes use of the existing methodology of Byzantine Iconography of Dionusios Fournas as well as widely used image processing techniques such as face recognition algorithms, noise reduction filters, edge enhancement and connected component extraction.

In order to extract the icon label, the Edge Histogram Descriptor of MPEG-7 is applied on each extracted character and its results are compared with a pre-constructed character database. Finally, optimization of the resulting labels is achieved through a spell-checking algorithm which compares each label with an extensive dictionary of saints names.

[1] @article{tzouveli2009semantic,
title={{Semantic Classification of Byzantine Icons}},
author={Tzouveli, P. and Simou, N. and Stamou, G. and Kollias, S.},
journal={IEEE Intelligent Systems},
pages={35--43},  year={2009},  publisher={IEEE Computer Society}}

Interactive Multimedia Applications (WIMA)

held in conjunction with USAB 2010: HCI in Work & Learning, Life & Leisure, Nov. 4.-5., 2010
Klagenfurt, Austria
Multimedia applications have become ubiquitous lately. People record and watch videos on mobile and stationary devices, they use non linear video editors, and they share and organize their personal multimedia archives. Lots of research has been done on the technical aspects of multimedia, like streaming, presentation, transcoding, adaptation and content based retrieval and analysis. But handling multimedia is an interactive process and users have to be taken into account. Even consumption is often accompanied with communication, non linear browsing and search. This interactivity in multimedia applications is a challenging yet very promising topic as especially in multimedia applications people more often accept innovative ideas and fundamental changes more easily.
This workshop should bring together researchers and practitioners from the fields of Multimedia and Human-Computer Interaction research (HCI). In this workshop we aim to discuss recent scientific advances and also first results of greenhouse work in the field of interactive multimedia applications. We also encourage the submission of papers presenting studies on interactivity in multimedia systems or discussing the development of applications in this field.

Topics of interest

Topics include the aspects of interactivity in the following fields:
•    Multimedia Retrieval, Browsing & Navigation
•    User Intentions in Multimedia Search, Annotation & Production
•    Multimedia Production and Post-Production
•    Multimedia in Specialized Domains (e.g. Medical Scenarios, Sports, Security, …)
•    Image, Audio and Video Analysis
•    Mobile Multimedia Applications
•    Multimedia on the Web
•    Social Multimedia
•    Multimedia Management and Databases
•    Distributed Multimedia Systems

Important Dates

June 30, 2010                Deadline for Paper Submission

July 23, 2010                    Notification of Acceptance/Rejection

August 15, 2010               Camera-Ready Deadline

November 4 & 5, 2010      USAB 2010: HCI in Work & Learning, Life & Leisure

Submission

Authors are invited to submit papers in the following categories:
•    Full papers (14-20 pages)
•    Short papers (6-14 pages)
•    Posters (4 pages)
All papers have to be formatted according to the Springer LNCS Style (LaTeX, MS-Word).

Submission is handled by easychair.

Program Committee

•    Dalibor Mitrovic, TU Wien, AT
•    Frank Hopfgartner, Glasgow University, UK
•    Harald Kosch, University of Passau, DE
•    Mario Döller, University of Passau, DE
•    Markus Strohmaier, Graz University of Technology, AT
•    Oge Marques, Florida Atlantic University, US
•    Ralf Klamma, RWTH Aachen, DE
•    Vincent Charvillait, ENSEEIHT Toulouse, FR
•    Yiwei Cao, RWTH Aachen, DE
•    Yu Cao, California State University of Fresno, US
•    Tao Mei, Microsoft Research Asia, P.R. China

Workshop Chairs

•    Klaus Schöffmann, Klagenfurt University, AT
•    Laszlo Böszörmenyi, Klagenfurt University, AT
•    Mathias Lux, Klagenfurt University, AT

http://usab-symposium.uni-klu.ac.at/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=60&Itemid=68

AIAR Workshop 2010

AIAR is a three day workshop that will get together researchers and students with common interest on image annotation and retrieval with the goal of exchanging ideas and promoting collaboration. The format of the workshop includes keynote tutorials in the morning and oral presentations and posters in the afternoon. The workshop focuses on image annotation and on the combination of both textual and visual information into the multimedia image retrieval task. We invite researchers and students to submit extended abstracts of their work. Accepted abstracts will be presented in the workshop and published on-line.

About TIA

TIA is the INAOE's research group on texto + imagenes + aprendizaje (text + images + machine learning). It was established on July 2006 with the goal of doing research that can help to bridge the semantic gap between low-level features (extracted from images) and high-level concepts (in which users are interested on) for multimedia image retrieval.

Our research interests are on automatic segmentation, automatic image annotation, content-based, text-based and annotation-based image retrieval and benchmarking multimedia image retrieval. Please check the TIA website for further details on past and ongoing projects.

• extended abstract submission: August 15, 2010
• Acceptance notification: September 15, 2010
• Deadline for scholarship application: September 16, 2010
• Camera ready: September 30, 2010
• Electronic publication: October 4, 2010
• Workshop: October 6-8, 2010
• Journal Special Issue Publication: Mid, 2011

http://ccc.inaoep.mx/~tia/AIAR2010/index.php

MMSP 2012-The Workshop on Multimedia Signal Processing

The Multimedia Signal Processing Technical Committee (MMSP-TC) of the IEEE Signal Processing Society, which is the organizer of the MMSP workshop, invites proposals to host the 2012 workshop edition. The primary aim of the MMSP workshop is to promote the advancement of multimedia signal processing research and technology with special emphasis on the interaction, coordination, synchronization, and joint processing of multimodal signals.

Proposals are open to all regions, but to keep with the practice of regional rotation, preference will be given to proposals from Regions 1~7 and 9 (America and Canada). Proposals should be submitted electronically to the MMSP-TC Chair, Dr. Philip A. Chou at pachou@microsoft.com by September 15, 2010.

Proponents are strongly encouraged to present their proposals at the next TC meeting to be held during MMSP 2010 in Saint-Malo, France. Further details on the submission requirements and schedule are available here: http://www.signalprocessingsociety.org/uploads/TCs/mmsp-tc/MMSP-2012-InviteProposals.pdf

Proponents are also encouraged to visit the MMSP TC web site for an overview of TC activities and history of prior workshops:
http://www.signalprocessingsociety.org/technical-committees/list/mmsp-tc/

6th International Summer School on Pattern Recognition ISSPR 2010

5-10 September 2010, Plymouth, UK
http://www.patternrecognitionschool.com

Early registration deadline: 30th June, 2010

ISSPR2010 Organising Committee

It is a pleasure to announce the Call for Participation to the 6th International Summer School on Pattern Recognition. I write to invite you, your colleagues, and students within your department to attend this event. In 2007, the 5th ISSPR School held at Plymouth was a major success with over 100 participants. The major focus of 2010 summer school includes:

- A broad coverage of pattern recognition areas which will be taught in a tutorial style over five days by leading experts. The areas covered include statistical pattern recognition, Bayesian techniques, non-parametric and neural network approaches including kernel methods, string matching, evolutionary computation, classifiers, decision trees, feature selection and dimensionality reduction, clustering, reinforcement learning, and Markov models.

- A number of prizes sponsored by Microsoft and Springer for best research demonstrated by participants and judged by a panel of experts. The prizes will be presented to the winners by Prof. Chris Bishop from Microsoft Research.

- Providing participants with knowledge and recommendations on how to develop and use pattern recognition tools for a broad range of applications.

The registration fee for the 2010 event has been frozen as the same in 2007, so this is an excellent opportunity for participants to register at an affordable cost. The fee includes registration and accommodation plus meals at the event. The registration process is online through the school website www.patternrecognitionschool.com which has further details on registration fees. Please note that the number of participants registering each year at the summer school is high with a limited number of seats available, and therefore early registration is highly recommended.

imageCLEF 2010

Minutes before our submission!!! Good luck to us!!!!