Publications | Perceiving Systems - Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems

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39 results (View BibTeX file of all listed publications)

2016

Creating body shapes from verbal descriptions by linking similarity spaces

Hill, M. Q., Streuber, S., Hahn, C. A., Black, M. J., O’Toole, A. J.

Psychological Science, 27(11):1486-1497, November 2016, (article)

Abstract

Brief verbal descriptions of bodies (e.g. curvy, long-legged) can elicit vivid mental images. The ease with which we create these mental images belies the complexity of three-dimensional body shapes. We explored the relationship between body shapes and body descriptions and show that a small number of words can be used to generate categorically accurate representations of three-dimensional bodies. The dimensions of body shape variation that emerged in a language-based similarity space were related to major dimensions of variation computed directly from three-dimensional laser scans of 2094 bodies. This allowed us to generate three-dimensional models of people in the shape space using only their coordinates on analogous dimensions in the language-based description space. Human descriptions of photographed bodies and their corresponding models matched closely. The natural mapping between the spaces illustrates the role of language as a concise code for body shape, capturing perceptually salient global and local body features.

pdf [BibTex]

2016

Hill, M. Q., Streuber, S., Hahn, C. A., Black, M. J., O’Toole, A. J. Creating body shapes from verbal descriptions by linking similarity spaces Psychological Science, 27(11):1486-1497, November 2016, (article)

pdf [BibTex]

Body Talk: Crowdshaping Realistic 3D Avatars with Words

Streuber, S., Quiros-Ramirez, M. A., Hill, M. Q., Hahn, C. A., Zuffi, S., O’Toole, A., Black, M. J.

ACM Trans. Graph. (Proc. SIGGRAPH), 35(4):54:1-54:14, July 2016 (article)

Abstract

Realistic, metrically accurate, 3D human avatars are useful for games, shopping, virtual reality, and health applications. Such avatars are not in wide use because solutions for creating them from high-end scanners, low-cost range cameras, and tailoring measurements all have limitations. Here we propose a simple solution and show that it is surprisingly accurate. We use crowdsourcing to generate attribute ratings of 3D body shapes corresponding to standard linguistic descriptions of 3D shape. We then learn a linear function relating these ratings to 3D human shape parameters. Given an image of a new body, we again turn to the crowd for ratings of the body shape. The collection of linguistic ratings of a photograph provides remarkably strong constraints on the metric 3D shape. We call the process crowdshaping and show that our Body Talk system produces shapes that are perceptually indistinguishable from bodies created from high-resolution scans and that the metric accuracy is sufficient for many tasks. This makes body “scanning” practical without a scanner, opening up new applications including database search, visualization, and extracting avatars from books.

pdf web tool video talk (ppt) [BibTex]

Streuber, S., Quiros-Ramirez, M. A., Hill, M. Q., Hahn, C. A., Zuffi, S., O’Toole, A., Black, M. J. Body Talk: Crowdshaping Realistic 3D Avatars with Words ACM Trans. Graph. (Proc. SIGGRAPH), 35(4):54:1-54:14, July 2016 (article)

pdf web tool video talk (ppt) [BibTex]

Capturing Hands in Action using Discriminative Salient Points and Physics Simulation

Tzionas, D., Ballan, L., Srikantha, A., Aponte, P., Pollefeys, M., Gall, J.

International Journal of Computer Vision (IJCV), 118(2):172-193, June 2016 (article)

Abstract

Hand motion capture is a popular research field, recently gaining more attention due to the ubiquity of RGB-D sensors. However, even most recent approaches focus on the case of a single isolated hand. In this work, we focus on hands that interact with other hands or objects and present a framework that successfully captures motion in such interaction scenarios for both rigid and articulated objects. Our framework combines a generative model with discriminatively trained salient points to achieve a low tracking error and with collision detection and physics simulation to achieve physically plausible estimates even in case of occlusions and missing visual data. Since all components are unified in a single objective function which is almost everywhere differentiable, it can be optimized with standard optimization techniques. Our approach works for monocular RGB-D sequences as well as setups with multiple synchronized RGB cameras. For a qualitative and quantitative evaluation, we captured 29 sequences with a large variety of interactions and up to 150 degrees of freedom.

Website pdf link (url) DOI Project Page [BibTex]

Tzionas, D., Ballan, L., Srikantha, A., Aponte, P., Pollefeys, M., Gall, J. Capturing Hands in Action using Discriminative Salient Points and Physics Simulation International Journal of Computer Vision (IJCV), 118(2):172-193, June 2016 (article)

Website pdf link (url) DOI Project Page [BibTex]

Human Pose Estimation from Video and IMUs

Marcard, T. V., Pons-Moll, G., Rosenhahn, B.

Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence PAMI, 38(8):1533-1547, January 2016 (article)

data pdf dataset_documentation [BibTex]

Marcard, T. V., Pons-Moll, G., Rosenhahn, B. Human Pose Estimation from Video and IMUs Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence PAMI, 38(8):1533-1547, January 2016 (article)

data pdf dataset_documentation [BibTex]

Moving-horizon Nonlinear Least Squares-based Multirobot Cooperative Perception

Ahmad, A., Bülthoff, H.

Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 83, pages: 275-286, 2016 (article)

Abstract

In this article we present an online estimator for multirobot cooperative localization and target tracking based on nonlinear least squares minimization. Our method not only makes the rigorous optimization-based approach applicable online but also allows the estimator to be stable and convergent. We do so by employing a moving horizon technique to nonlinear least squares minimization and a novel design of the arrival cost function that ensures stability and convergence of the estimator. Through an extensive set of real robot experiments, we demonstrate the robustness of our method as well as the optimality of the arrival cost function. The experiments include comparisons of our method with i) an extended Kalman filter-based online-estimator and ii) an offline-estimator based on full-trajectory nonlinear least squares.

DOI Project Page [BibTex]

Ahmad, A., Bülthoff, H. Moving-horizon Nonlinear Least Squares-based Multirobot Cooperative Perception Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 83, pages: 275-286, 2016 (article)

DOI Project Page [BibTex]

Shape estimation of subcutaneous adipose tissue using an articulated statistical shape model

Yeo, S. Y., Romero, J., Loper, M., Machann, J., Black, M.

Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering: Imaging & Visualization, 0(0):1-8, 2016 (article)

publisher website preprint pdf link (url) DOI Project Page [BibTex]

Yeo, S. Y., Romero, J., Loper, M., Machann, J., Black, M. Shape estimation of subcutaneous adipose tissue using an articulated statistical shape model Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering: Imaging & Visualization, 0(0):1-8, 2016 (article)

publisher website preprint pdf link (url) DOI Project Page [BibTex]

The GRASP Taxonomy of Human Grasp Types

Feix, T., Romero, J., Schmiedmayer, H., Dollar, A., Kragic, D.

Human-Machine Systems, IEEE Transactions on, 46(1):66-77, 2016 (article)

publisher website pdf DOI Project Page [BibTex]

Feix, T., Romero, J., Schmiedmayer, H., Dollar, A., Kragic, D. The GRASP Taxonomy of Human Grasp Types Human-Machine Systems, IEEE Transactions on, 46(1):66-77, 2016 (article)

publisher website pdf DOI Project Page [BibTex]

Map-Based Probabilistic Visual Self-Localization

Brubaker, M. A., Geiger, A., Urtasun, R.

IEEE Trans. on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (PAMI), 2016 (article)

Abstract

Accurate and efficient self-localization is a critical problem for autonomous systems. This paper describes an affordable solution to vehicle self-localization which uses odometry computed from two video cameras and road maps as the sole inputs. The core of the method is a probabilistic model for which an efficient approximate inference algorithm is derived. The inference algorithm is able to utilize distributed computation in order to meet the real-time requirements of autonomous systems in some instances. Because of the probabilistic nature of the model the method is capable of coping with various sources of uncertainty including noise in the visual odometry and inherent ambiguities in the map (e.g., in a Manhattan world). By exploiting freely available, community developed maps and visual odometry measurements, the proposed method is able to localize a vehicle to 4m on average after 52 seconds of driving on maps which contain more than 2,150km of drivable roads.

pdf Project Page [BibTex]

Brubaker, M. A., Geiger, A., Urtasun, R. Map-Based Probabilistic Visual Self-Localization IEEE Trans. on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (PAMI), 2016 (article)

pdf Project Page [BibTex]

2012

An SVD-Based Approach for Ghost Detection and Removal in High Dynamic Range Images

Srikantha, A., Sidibe, D., Meriaudeau, F.

International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR), pages: 380-383, November 2012 (article)

pdf [BibTex]

2012

Srikantha, A., Sidibe, D., Meriaudeau, F. An SVD-Based Approach for Ghost Detection and Removal in High Dynamic Range Images International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR), pages: 380-383, November 2012 (article)

pdf [BibTex]

Coregistration: Supplemental Material

Hirshberg, D., Loper, M., Rachlin, E., Black, M. J.

(No. 4), Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, October 2012 (techreport)

pdf [BibTex]

Hirshberg, D., Loper, M., Rachlin, E., Black, M. J. Coregistration: Supplemental Material (No. 4), Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, October 2012 (techreport)

pdf [BibTex]

Lie Bodies: A Manifold Representation of 3D Human Shape. Supplemental Material

Freifeld, O., Black, M. J.

(No. 5), Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, October 2012 (techreport)

pdf Project Page [BibTex]

Freifeld, O., Black, M. J. Lie Bodies: A Manifold Representation of 3D Human Shape. Supplemental Material (No. 5), Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, October 2012 (techreport)

pdf Project Page [BibTex]

Coupled Action Recognition and Pose Estimation from Multiple Views

Yao, A., Gall, J., van Gool, L.

International Journal of Computer Vision, 100(1):16-37, October 2012 (article)

publisher's site code pdf Project Page Project Page Project Page [BibTex]

Yao, A., Gall, J., van Gool, L. Coupled Action Recognition and Pose Estimation from Multiple Views International Journal of Computer Vision, 100(1):16-37, October 2012 (article)

publisher's site code pdf Project Page Project Page Project Page [BibTex]

MPI-Sintel Optical Flow Benchmark: Supplemental Material

Butler, D. J., Wulff, J., Stanley, G. B., Black, M. J.

(No. 6), Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, October 2012 (techreport)

pdf Project Page [BibTex]

Butler, D. J., Wulff, J., Stanley, G. B., Black, M. J. MPI-Sintel Optical Flow Benchmark: Supplemental Material (No. 6), Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, October 2012 (techreport)

pdf Project Page [BibTex]

DRAPE: DRessing Any PErson

Guan, P., Reiss, L., Hirshberg, D., Weiss, A., Black, M. J.

ACM Trans. on Graphics (Proc. SIGGRAPH), 31(4):35:1-35:10, July 2012 (article)

Abstract

We describe a complete system for animating realistic clothing on synthetic bodies of any shape and pose without manual intervention. The key component of the method is a model of clothing called DRAPE (DRessing Any PErson) that is learned from a physics-based simulation of clothing on bodies of different shapes and poses. The DRAPE model has the desirable property of "factoring" clothing deformations due to body shape from those due to pose variation. This factorization provides an approximation to the physical clothing deformation and greatly simplifies clothing synthesis. Given a parameterized model of the human body with known shape and pose parameters, we describe an algorithm that dresses the body with a garment that is customized to fit and possesses realistic wrinkles. DRAPE can be used to dress static bodies or animated sequences with a learned model of the cloth dynamics. Since the method is fully automated, it is appropriate for dressing large numbers of virtual characters of varying shape. The method is significantly more efficient than physical simulation.

YouTube pdf talk Project Page Project Page [BibTex]

Guan, P., Reiss, L., Hirshberg, D., Weiss, A., Black, M. J. DRAPE: DRessing Any PErson ACM Trans. on Graphics (Proc. SIGGRAPH), 31(4):35:1-35:10, July 2012 (article)

YouTube pdf talk Project Page Project Page [BibTex]

Ghost Detection and Removal for High Dynamic Range Images: Recent Advances

Srikantha, A., Sidib’e, D.

Signal Processing: Image Communication, 27, pages: 650-662, July 2012 (article)

pdf link (url) [BibTex]

Srikantha, A., Sidib’e, D. Ghost Detection and Removal for High Dynamic Range Images: Recent Advances Signal Processing: Image Communication, 27, pages: 650-662, July 2012 (article)

pdf link (url) [BibTex]

Visual Servoing on Unknown Objects

Gratal, X., Romero, J., Bohg, J., Kragic, D.

Mechatronics, 22(4):423-435, Elsevier, June 2012, Visual Servoing \{SI\} (article)

Abstract

We study visual servoing in a framework of detection and grasping of unknown objects. Classically, visual servoing has been used for applications where the object to be servoed on is known to the robot prior to the task execution. In addition, most of the methods concentrate on aligning the robot hand with the object without grasping it. In our work, visual servoing techniques are used as building blocks in a system capable of detecting and grasping unknown objects in natural scenes. We show how different visual servoing techniques facilitate a complete grasping cycle.

Grasping sequence video Offline calibration video Pdf DOI [BibTex]

Gratal, X., Romero, J., Bohg, J., Kragic, D. Visual Servoing on Unknown Objects Mechatronics, 22(4):423-435, Elsevier, June 2012, Visual Servoing \{SI\} (article)

Grasping sequence video Offline calibration video Pdf DOI [BibTex]

Visual Orientation and Directional Selectivity Through Thalamic Synchrony

Stanley, G., Jin, J., Wang, Y., Desbordes, G., Wang, Q., Black, M., Alonso, J.

Journal of Neuroscience, 32(26):9073-9088, June 2012 (article)

Abstract

Thalamic neurons respond to visual scenes by generating synchronous spike trains on the timescale of 10–20 ms that are very effective at driving cortical targets. Here we demonstrate that this synchronous activity contains unexpectedly rich information about fundamental properties of visual stimuli. We report that the occurrence of synchronous firing of cat thalamic cells with highly overlapping receptive fields is strongly sensitive to the orientation and the direction of motion of the visual stimulus. We show that this stimulus selectivity is robust, remaining relatively unchanged under different contrasts and temporal frequencies (stimulus velocities). A computational analysis based on an integrate-and-fire model of the direct thalamic input to a layer 4 cortical cell reveals a strong correlation between the degree of thalamic synchrony and the nonlinear relationship between cortical membrane potential and the resultant firing rate. Together, these findings suggest a novel population code in the synchronous firing of neurons in the early visual pathway that could serve as the substrate for establishing cortical representations of the visual scene.

preprint publisher's site Project Page [BibTex]

Stanley, G., Jin, J., Wang, Y., Desbordes, G., Wang, Q., Black, M., Alonso, J. Visual Orientation and Directional Selectivity Through Thalamic Synchrony Journal of Neuroscience, 32(26):9073-9088, June 2012 (article)

preprint publisher's site Project Page [BibTex]

Bilinear Spatiotemporal Basis Models

Akhter, I., Simon, T., Khan, S., Matthews, I., Sheikh, Y.

ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG), 31(2):17, ACM, April 2012 (article)

Abstract

A variety of dynamic objects, such as faces, bodies, and cloth, are represented in computer graphics as a collection of moving spatial landmarks. Spatiotemporal data is inherent in a number of graphics applications including animation, simulation, and object and camera tracking. The principal modes of variation in the spatial geometry of objects are typically modeled using dimensionality reduction techniques, while concurrently, trajectory representations like splines and autoregressive models are widely used to exploit the temporal regularity of deformation. In this article, we present the bilinear spatiotemporal basis as a model that simultaneously exploits spatial and temporal regularity while maintaining the ability to generalize well to new sequences. This factorization allows the use of analytical, predefined functions to represent temporal variation (e.g., B-Splines or the Discrete Cosine Transform) resulting in efficient model representation and estimation. The model can be interpreted as representing the data as a linear combination of spatiotemporal sequences consisting of shape modes oscillating over time at key frequencies. We apply the bilinear model to natural spatiotemporal phenomena, including face, body, and cloth motion data, and compare it in terms of compaction, generalization ability, predictive precision, and efficiency to existing models. We demonstrate the application of the model to a number of graphics tasks including labeling, gap-filling, denoising, and motion touch-up.

pdf project page link (url) [BibTex]

Akhter, I., Simon, T., Khan, S., Matthews, I., Sheikh, Y. Bilinear Spatiotemporal Basis Models ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG), 31(2):17, ACM, April 2012 (article)

pdf project page link (url) [BibTex]

Exploiting pedestrian interaction via global optimization and social behaviors

Leal-Taixé, L., Pons-Moll, G., Rosenhahn, B.

In Theoretic Foundations of Computer Vision: Outdoor and Large-Scale Real-World Scene Analysis, Springer, April 2012 (incollection)

pdf [BibTex]

Leal-Taixé, L., Pons-Moll, G., Rosenhahn, B. Exploiting pedestrian interaction via global optimization and social behaviors In Theoretic Foundations of Computer Vision: Outdoor and Large-Scale Real-World Scene Analysis, Springer, April 2012 (incollection)

pdf [BibTex]

HUMIM Software for Articulated Tracking

Soren Hauberg, Kim S. Pedersen

(01/2012), Department of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen, January 2012 (techreport)

Code PDF [BibTex]

Soren Hauberg, Kim S. Pedersen HUMIM Software for Articulated Tracking (01/2012), Department of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen, January 2012 (techreport)

Code PDF [BibTex]

A geometric framework for statistics on trees

Aasa Feragen, Mads Nielsen, Soren Hauberg, Pechin Lo, Marleen de Bruijne, Francois Lauze

(11/02), Department of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen, January 2012 (techreport)

PDF [BibTex]

Aasa Feragen, Mads Nielsen, Soren Hauberg, Pechin Lo, Marleen de Bruijne, Francois Lauze A geometric framework for statistics on trees (11/02), Department of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen, January 2012 (techreport)

PDF [BibTex]

Data-driven Manifolds for Outdoor Motion Capture

Pons-Moll, G., Leal-Taix’e, L., Gall, J., Rosenhahn, B.

In Outdoor and Large-Scale Real-World Scene Analysis, 7474, pages: 305-328, LNCS, (Editors: Dellaert, Frank and Frahm, Jan-Michael and Pollefeys, Marc and Rosenhahn, Bodo and Leal-Taix’e, Laura), Springer, 2012 (incollection)

video publisher's site pdf Project Page [BibTex]

Pons-Moll, G., Leal-Taix’e, L., Gall, J., Rosenhahn, B. Data-driven Manifolds for Outdoor Motion Capture In Outdoor and Large-Scale Real-World Scene Analysis, 7474, pages: 305-328, LNCS, (Editors: Dellaert, Frank and Frahm, Jan-Michael and Pollefeys, Marc and Rosenhahn, Bodo and Leal-Taix’e, Laura), Springer, 2012 (incollection)

video publisher's site pdf Project Page [BibTex]

A metric for comparing the anthropomorphic motion capability of artificial hands

Feix, T., Romero, J., Ek, C. H., Schmiedmayer, H., Kragic, D.

IEEE RAS Transactions on Robotics, TRO, pages: 974-980, 2012 (article)

Publisher site Human Grasping Database Project [BibTex]

Feix, T., Romero, J., Ek, C. H., Schmiedmayer, H., Kragic, D. A metric for comparing the anthropomorphic motion capability of artificial hands IEEE RAS Transactions on Robotics, TRO, pages: 974-980, 2012 (article)

Publisher site Human Grasping Database Project [BibTex]

The Ankyrin 3 (ANK3) Bipolar Disorder Gene Regulates Psychiatric-related Behaviors that are Modulated by Lithium and Stress

Leussis, M., Berry-Scott, E., Saito, M., Jhuang, H., Haan, G., Alkan, O., Luce, C., Madison, J., Sklar, P., Serre, T., Root, D., Petryshen, T.

Biological Psychiatry , 2012 (article)

Prepublication Article Abstract [BibTex]

Leussis, M., Berry-Scott, E., Saito, M., Jhuang, H., Haan, G., Alkan, O., Luce, C., Madison, J., Sklar, P., Serre, T., Root, D., Petryshen, T. The Ankyrin 3 (ANK3) Bipolar Disorder Gene Regulates Psychiatric-related Behaviors that are Modulated by Lithium and Stress Biological Psychiatry , 2012 (article)

Prepublication Article Abstract [BibTex]

Scan-Based Flow Modelling in Human Upper Airways

Perumal Nithiarasu, Igor Sazonov, Si Yong Yeo

In Patient-Specific Modeling in Tomorrow’s Medicine, pages: 241 - 280, 0, (Editors: Amit Gefen), Springer, 2012 (inbook)

[BibTex]

Perumal Nithiarasu, Igor Sazonov, Si Yong Yeo Scan-Based Flow Modelling in Human Upper Airways In Patient-Specific Modeling in Tomorrow’s Medicine, pages: 241 - 280, 0, (Editors: Amit Gefen), Springer, 2012 (inbook)

[BibTex]

An Introduction to Random Forests for Multi-class Object Detection

Gall, J., Razavi, N., van Gool, L.

In Outdoor and Large-Scale Real-World Scene Analysis, 7474, pages: 243-263, LNCS, (Editors: Dellaert, Frank and Frahm, Jan-Michael and Pollefeys, Marc and Rosenhahn, Bodo and Leal-Taix’e, Laura), Springer, 2012 (incollection)

code code for Hough forest publisher's site pdf Project Page [BibTex]

Gall, J., Razavi, N., van Gool, L. An Introduction to Random Forests for Multi-class Object Detection In Outdoor and Large-Scale Real-World Scene Analysis, 7474, pages: 243-263, LNCS, (Editors: Dellaert, Frank and Frahm, Jan-Michael and Pollefeys, Marc and Rosenhahn, Bodo and Leal-Taix’e, Laura), Springer, 2012 (incollection)

code code for Hough forest publisher's site pdf Project Page [BibTex]

Home 3D body scans from noisy image and range data

Weiss, A., Hirshberg, D., Black, M. J.

In Consumer Depth Cameras for Computer Vision: Research Topics and Applications, pages: 99-118, 6, (Editors: Andrea Fossati and Juergen Gall and Helmut Grabner and Xiaofeng Ren and Kurt Konolige), Springer-Verlag, 2012 (incollection)

Project Page [BibTex]

Weiss, A., Hirshberg, D., Black, M. J. Home 3D body scans from noisy image and range data In Consumer Depth Cameras for Computer Vision: Research Topics and Applications, pages: 99-118, 6, (Editors: Andrea Fossati and Juergen Gall and Helmut Grabner and Xiaofeng Ren and Kurt Konolige), Springer-Verlag, 2012 (incollection)

Project Page [BibTex]

Natural Metrics and Least-Committed Priors for Articulated Tracking

Soren Hauberg, Stefan Sommer, Kim S. Pedersen

Image and Vision Computing, 30(6-7):453-461, Elsevier, 2012 (article)

Publishers site Code PDF [BibTex]

Soren Hauberg, Stefan Sommer, Kim S. Pedersen Natural Metrics and Least-Committed Priors for Articulated Tracking Image and Vision Computing, 30(6-7):453-461, Elsevier, 2012 (article)

Publishers site Code PDF [BibTex]

2006

Implicit Wiener Series, Part II: Regularised estimation

Gehler, P., Franz, M.

(148), Max Planck Institute, 2006 (techreport)

pdf [BibTex]

2006

Gehler, P., Franz, M. Implicit Wiener Series, Part II: Regularised estimation (148), Max Planck Institute, 2006 (techreport)

pdf [BibTex]

HumanEva: Synchronized video and motion capture dataset for evaluation of articulated human motion

Sigal, L., Black, M. J.

(CS-06-08), Brown University, Department of Computer Science, 2006 (techreport)

pdf abstract [BibTex]

Sigal, L., Black, M. J. HumanEva: Synchronized video and motion capture dataset for evaluation of articulated human motion (CS-06-08), Brown University, Department of Computer Science, 2006 (techreport)

pdf abstract [BibTex]

Bayesian population decoding of motor cortical activity using a Kalman filter

Wu, W., Gao, Y., Bienenstock, E., Donoghue, J. P., Black, M. J.

Neural Computation, 18(1):80-118, 2006 (article)

Abstract

Effective neural motor prostheses require a method for decoding neural activity representing desired movement. In particular, the accurate reconstruction of a continuous motion signal is necessary for the control of devices such as computer cursors, robots, or a patient's own paralyzed limbs. For such applications, we developed a real-time system that uses Bayesian inference techniques to estimate hand motion from the firing rates of multiple neurons. In this study, we used recordings that were previously made in the arm area of primary motor cortex in awake behaving monkeys using a chronically implanted multielectrode microarray. Bayesian inference involves computing the posterior probability of the hand motion conditioned on a sequence of observed firing rates; this is formulated in terms of the product of a likelihood and a prior. The likelihood term models the probability of firing rates given a particular hand motion. We found that a linear gaussian model could be used to approximate this likelihood and could be readily learned from a small amount of training data. The prior term defines a probabilistic model of hand kinematics and was also taken to be a linear gaussian model. Decoding was performed using a Kalman filter, which gives an efficient recursive method for Bayesian inference when the likelihood and prior are linear and gaussian. In off-line experiments, the Kalman filter reconstructions of hand trajectory were more accurate than previously reported results. The resulting decoding algorithm provides a principled probabilistic model of motor-cortical coding, decodes hand motion in real time, provides an estimate of uncertainty, and is straightforward to implement. Additionally the formulation unifies and extends previous models of neural coding while providing insights into the motor-cortical code.

pdf preprint pdf from publisher abstract [BibTex]

Wu, W., Gao, Y., Bienenstock, E., Donoghue, J. P., Black, M. J. Bayesian population decoding of motor cortical activity using a Kalman filter Neural Computation, 18(1):80-118, 2006 (article)

pdf preprint pdf from publisher abstract [BibTex]

Products of “Edge-perts”

Gehler, P., Welling, M.

In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 18, pages: 419-426, (Editors: Weiss, Y. and Sch"olkopf, B. and Platt, J.), MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2006 (incollection)

pdf [BibTex]

Gehler, P., Welling, M. Products of “Edge-perts” In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 18, pages: 419-426, (Editors: Weiss, Y. and Sch"olkopf, B. and Platt, J.), MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2006 (incollection)

pdf [BibTex]

1999

Artscience Sciencart

Black, M. J., Levy, D., PamelaZ,

In Art and Innovation: The Xerox PARC Artist-in-Residence Program, pages: 244-300, (Editors: Harris, C.), MIT-Press, 1999 (incollection)

Abstract

One of the effects of the PARC Artist In Residence (PAIR) program has been to expose the strong connections between scientists and artists. Both do what they do because they need to do it. They are often called upon to justify their work in order to be allowed to continue to do it. They need to justify it to funders, to sponsoring institutions, corporations, the government, the public. They publish papers, teach workshops, and write grants touting the educational or health benefits of what they do. All of these things are to some extent valid, but the fact of the matter is: artists and scientists do their work because they are driven to do it. They need to explore and create.

This chapter attempts to give a flavor of one multi-way "PAIRing" between performance artist PamelaZ and two PARC researchers, Michael Black and David Levy. The three of us paired up because we found each other interesting. We chose each other. While most artists in the program are paired with a single researcher Pamela jokingly calls herself a bigamist for choosing two PAIR "husbands" with different backgrounds and interests.

There are no "rules" to the PAIR program; no one told us what to do with our time. Despite this we all had a sense that we needed to produce something tangible during Pamela's year-long residency. In fact, Pamela kept extending her residency because she did not feel as though we had actually made anything concrete. The interesting thing was that all along we were having great conversations, some of which Pamela recorded. What we did not see at the time was that it was these conversations between artists and scientists that are at the heart of the PAIR program and that these conversations were changing the way we thought about our own work and the relationships between science and art.

To give these conversations their due, and to allow the reader into our PAIR interactions, we include two of our many conversations in this chapter.

[BibTex]

1999

Black, M. J., Levy, D., PamelaZ, Artscience Sciencart In Art and Innovation: The Xerox PARC Artist-in-Residence Program, pages: 244-300, (Editors: Harris, C.), MIT-Press, 1999 (incollection)

[BibTex]

Parameterized modeling and recognition of activities

Yacoob, Y., Black, M. J.

Computer Vision and Image Understanding, 73(2):232-247, 1999 (article)

Abstract

In this paper we consider a class of human activities—atomic activities—which can be represented as a set of measurements over a finite temporal window (e.g., the motion of human body parts during a walking cycle) and which has a relatively small space of variations in performance. A new approach for modeling and recognition of atomic activities that employs principal component analysis and analytical global transformations is proposed. The modeling of sets of exemplar instances of activities that are similar in duration and involve similar body part motions is achieved by parameterizing their representation using principal component analysis. The recognition of variants of modeled activities is achieved by searching the space of admissible parameterized transformations that these activities can undergo. This formulation iteratively refines the recognition of the class to which the observed activity belongs and the transformation parameters that relate it to the model in its class. We provide several experiments on recognition of articulated and deformable human motions from image motion parameters.

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Yacoob, Y., Black, M. J. Parameterized modeling and recognition of activities Computer Vision and Image Understanding, 73(2):232-247, 1999 (article)

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1996

Estimating optical flow in segmented images using variable-order parametric models with local deformations

Black, M. J., Jepson, A.

IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 18(10):972-986, October 1996 (article)

Abstract

This paper presents a new model for estimating optical flow based on the motion of planar regions plus local deformations. The approach exploits brightness information to organize and constrain the interpretation of the motion by using segmented regions of piecewise smooth brightness to hypothesize planar regions in the scene. Parametric flow models are estimated in these regions in a two step process which first computes a coarse fit and estimates the appropriate parameterization of the motion of the region (two, six, or eight parameters). The initial fit is refined using a generalization of the standard area-based regression approaches. Since the assumption of planarity is likely to be violated, we allow local deformations from the planar assumption in the same spirit as physically-based approaches which model shape using coarse parametric models plus local deformations. This parametric+deformation model exploits the strong constraints of parametric approaches while retaining the adaptive nature of regularization approaches. Experimental results on a variety of images indicate that the parametric+deformation model produces accurate flow estimates while the incorporation of brightness segmentation provides precise localization of motion boundaries.

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1996

Black, M. J., Jepson, A. Estimating optical flow in segmented images using variable-order parametric models with local deformations IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 18(10):972-986, October 1996 (article)

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On the unification of line processes, outlier rejection, and robust statistics with applications in early vision

Black, M., Rangarajan, A.

International Journal of Computer Vision , 19(1):57-92, July 1996 (article)

Abstract

The modeling of spatial discontinuities for problems such as surface recovery, segmentation, image reconstruction, and optical flow has been intensely studied in computer vision. While “line-process” models of discontinuities have received a great deal of attention, there has been recent interest in the use of robust statistical techniques to account for discontinuities. This paper unifies the two approaches. To achieve this we generalize the notion of a “line process” to that of an analog “outlier process” and show how a problem formulated in terms of outlier processes can be viewed in terms of robust statistics. We also characterize a class of robust statistical problems for which an equivalent outlier-process formulation exists and give a straightforward method for converting a robust estimation problem into an outlier-process formulation. We show how prior assumptions about the spatial structure of outliers can be expressed as constraints on the recovered analog outlier processes and how traditional continuation methods can be extended to the explicit outlier-process formulation. These results indicate that the outlier-process approach provides a general framework which subsumes the traditional line-process approaches as well as a wide class of robust estimation problems. Examples in surface reconstruction, image segmentation, and optical flow are presented to illustrate the use of outlier processes and to show how the relationship between outlier processes and robust statistics can be exploited. An appendix provides a catalog of common robust error norms and their equivalent outlier-process formulations.

pdf pdf from publisher DOI [BibTex]

Black, M., Rangarajan, A. On the unification of line processes, outlier rejection, and robust statistics with applications in early vision International Journal of Computer Vision , 19(1):57-92, July 1996 (article)

pdf pdf from publisher DOI [BibTex]

Mixture Models for Image Representation

Jepson, A., Black, M.

PRECARN ARK Project Technical Report ARK96-PUB-54, March 1996 (techreport)

Abstract

We consider the estimation of local greylevel image structure in terms of a layered representation. This type of representation has recently been successfully used to segment various objects from clutter using either optical ow or stereo disparity information. We argue that the same type of representation is useful for greylevel data in that it allows for the estimation of properties for each of several different components without prior segmentation. Our emphasis in this paper is on the process used to extract such a layered representation from a given image In particular we consider a variant of the EM algorithm for the estimation of the layered model and consider a novel technique for choosing the number of layers to use. We briefly consider the use of a simple version of this approach for image segmentation and suggest two potential applications to the ARK project

pdf [BibTex]

Jepson, A., Black, M. Mixture Models for Image Representation PRECARN ARK Project Technical Report ARK96-PUB-54, March 1996 (techreport)

pdf [BibTex]

The robust estimation of multiple motions: Parametric and piecewise-smooth flow fields

Black, M. J., Anandan, P.

Computer Vision and Image Understanding, 63(1):75-104, January 1996 (article)

Abstract

Most approaches for estimating optical flow assume that, within a finite image region, only a single motion is present. This single motion assumption is violated in common situations involving transparency, depth discontinuities, independently moving objects, shadows, and specular reflections. To robustly estimate optical flow, the single motion assumption must be relaxed. This paper presents a framework based on robust estimation that addresses violations of the brightness constancy and spatial smoothness assumptions caused by multiple motions. We show how the robust estimation framework can be applied to standard formulations of the optical flow problem thus reducing their sensitivity to violations of their underlying assumptions. The approach has been applied to three standard techniques for recovering optical flow: area-based regression, correlation, and regularization with motion discontinuities. This paper focuses on the recovery of multiple parametric motion models within a region, as well as the recovery of piecewise-smooth flow fields, and provides examples with natural and synthetic image sequences.

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Black, M. J., Anandan, P. The robust estimation of multiple motions: Parametric and piecewise-smooth flow fields Computer Vision and Image Understanding, 63(1):75-104, January 1996 (article)

pdf pdf from publisher [BibTex]

1993

Mixture models for optical flow computation

Jepson, A., Black, M.

In Partitioning Data Sets, DIMACS Workshop, pages: 271-286, (Editors: Ingemar Cox, Pierre Hansen, and Bela Julesz), AMS Pub, Providence, RI., April 1993 (incollection)

pdf [BibTex]

1993

Jepson, A., Black, M. Mixture models for optical flow computation In Partitioning Data Sets, DIMACS Workshop, pages: 271-286, (Editors: Ingemar Cox, Pierre Hansen, and Bela Julesz), AMS Pub, Providence, RI., April 1993 (incollection)

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