Lecture

SceU - A Framework for Perceptual Grouping and Occlusion Reasoning
from Tracked Interest Points

Speaker:	Johann Prankl, Ph.D. Student, Vienna University of Technology
Date:	Thursday, 3 July 2008
Time:	11:00-13:00
Location:	"Stelios Orphanoudakis" Seminar Room, FORTH. Heraklion, Crete
Host:	A. Argyros

Abstract:

Even four-month-old children identify objects due to their appearance and motion. They predict the re-appearance of objects after full occlusion and they can also distinguish between occlusion and disappearance for instance on the horizon. Motivated by these abilities, we built a framework which uses Gestalt principles to group lines to closed convex contours (closures) and track these closures. In subsequent frames new closures are found and interest points are initialised to track the closures. Consistent disappearance of interest points marks an occlusion event. The occlusion front defines the boundary of the occluding objects. Furthermore the depth relation between occluding and occluded objects is deduced from the occlusion event. We want to demonstrate this in a video sequence where a hand empties a shopping basket. Objects in a basket are grasped and placed on a table. The objects interact several times, get occluded and re-appear again. At the end of the experiment, each object should be known, i.e. surrounded by a closure.

Bio:

Johann Prankl was born 1977 in Scheibbs/Austria. He graduated in electrical engineering and received his M.Sc. degree from Vienna University of Technology (VUT), Austria in 2005. He is currently a Ph.D student at the Automation and Control Institute of the Electrical Engineering Faculty at VUT. His main research interests include computer vision and, more specifically, occlusion reasoning from tracked interest points.

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