Publications | Perceiving Systems - Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems

53 results (View BibTeX file of all listed publications)

2006

Finding directional movement representations in motor cortical neural populations using nonlinear manifold learning

WorKim, S., Simeral, J., Jenkins, O., Donoghue, J., Black, M.

World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering 2006, Seoul, Korea, August 2006 (conference)

2006

WorKim, S., Simeral, J., Jenkins, O., Donoghue, J., Black, M. Finding directional movement representations in motor cortical neural populations using nonlinear manifold learning World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering 2006, Seoul, Korea, August 2006 (conference)

[BibTex]

A non-parametric Bayesian approach to spike sorting

Wood, F., Goldwater, S., Black, M. J.

In International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBS, pages: 1165-1169, New York, NY, August 2006 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Wood, F., Goldwater, S., Black, M. J. A non-parametric Bayesian approach to spike sorting In International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBS, pages: 1165-1169, New York, NY, August 2006 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Predicting 3D people from 2D pictures

(Best Paper)

Sigal, L., Black, M. J.

In Proc. IV Conf. on Articulated Motion and DeformableObjects (AMDO), LNCS 4069, pages: 185-195, July 2006 (inproceedings)

Abstract

We propose a hierarchical process for inferring the 3D pose of a person from monocular images. First we infer a learned view-based 2D body model from a single image using non-parametric belief propagation. This approach integrates information from bottom-up body-part proposal processes and deals with self-occlusion to compute distributions over limb poses. Then, we exploit a learned Mixture of Experts model to infer a distribution of 3D poses conditioned on 2D poses. This approach is more general than recent work on inferring 3D pose directly from silhouettes since the 2D body model provides a richer representation that includes the 2D joint angles and the poses of limbs that may be unobserved in the silhouette. We demonstrate the method in a laboratory setting where we evaluate the accuracy of the 3D poses against ground truth data. We also estimate 3D body pose in a monocular image sequence. The resulting 3D estimates are sufficiently accurate to serve as proposals for the Bayesian inference of 3D human motion over time

pdf pdf from publisher Video [BibTex]

Sigal, L., Black, M. J. Predicting 3D people from 2D pictures In Proc. IV Conf. on Articulated Motion and DeformableObjects (AMDO), LNCS 4069, pages: 185-195, July 2006 (inproceedings)

pdf pdf from publisher Video [BibTex]

Specular flow and the recovery of surface structure

Roth, S., Black, M.

In Proc. IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, CVPR, 2, pages: 1869-1876, New York, NY, June 2006 (inproceedings)

Abstract

In scenes containing specular objects, the image motion observed by a moving camera may be an intermixed combination of optical flow resulting from diffuse reflectance (diffuse flow) and specular reflection (specular flow). Here, with few assumptions, we formalize the notion of specular flow, show how it relates to the 3D structure of the world, and develop an algorithm for estimating scene structure from 2D image motion. Unlike previous work on isolated specular highlights we use two image frames and estimate the semi-dense flow arising from the specular reflections of textured scenes. We parametrically model the image motion of a quadratic surface patch viewed from a moving camera. The flow is modeled as a probabilistic mixture of diffuse and specular components and the 3D shape is recovered using an Expectation-Maximization algorithm. Rather than treating specular reflections as noise to be removed or ignored, we show that the specular flow provides additional constraints on scene geometry that improve estimation of 3D structure when compared with reconstruction from diffuse flow alone. We demonstrate this for a set of synthetic and real sequences of mixed specular-diffuse objects.

pdf [BibTex]

Roth, S., Black, M. Specular flow and the recovery of surface structure In Proc. IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, CVPR, 2, pages: 1869-1876, New York, NY, June 2006 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

An adaptive appearance model approach for model-based articulated object tracking

Balan, A., Black, M. J.

In Proc. IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, CVPR, 1, pages: 758-765, New York, NY, June 2006 (inproceedings)

Abstract

The detection and tracking of three-dimensional human body models has progressed rapidly but successful approaches typically rely on accurate foreground silhouettes obtained using background segmentation. There are many practical applications where such information is imprecise. Here we develop a new image likelihood function based on the visual appearance of the subject being tracked. We propose a robust, adaptive, appearance model based on the Wandering-Stable-Lost framework extended to the case of articulated body parts. The method models appearance using a mixture model that includes an adaptive template, frame-to-frame matching and an outlier process. We employ an annealed particle filtering algorithm for inference and take advantage of the 3D body model to predict self occlusion and improve pose estimation accuracy. Quantitative tracking results are presented for a walking sequence with a 180 degree turn, captured with four synchronized and calibrated cameras and containing significant appearance changes and self-occlusion in each view.

pdf [BibTex]

Balan, A., Black, M. J. An adaptive appearance model approach for model-based articulated object tracking In Proc. IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, CVPR, 1, pages: 758-765, New York, NY, June 2006 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Measure locally, reason globally: Occlusion-sensitive articulated pose estimation

Sigal, L., Black, M. J.

In Proc. IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, CVPR, 2, pages: 2041-2048, New York, NY, June 2006 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Sigal, L., Black, M. J. Measure locally, reason globally: Occlusion-sensitive articulated pose estimation In Proc. IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, CVPR, 2, pages: 2041-2048, New York, NY, June 2006 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Statistical analysis of the non-stationarity of neural population codes

Kim, S., Wood, F., Fellows, M., Donoghue, J. P., Black, M. J.

In BioRob 2006, The first IEEE / RAS-EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics, pages: 295-299, Pisa, Italy, Febuary 2006 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Kim, S., Wood, F., Fellows, M., Donoghue, J. P., Black, M. J. Statistical analysis of the non-stationarity of neural population codes In BioRob 2006, The first IEEE / RAS-EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics, pages: 295-299, Pisa, Italy, Febuary 2006 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

How to choose the covariance for Gaussian process regression independently of the basis

Franz, M., Gehler, P.

In Proceedings of the Workshop Gaussian Processes in Practice, 2006 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Franz, M., Gehler, P. How to choose the covariance for Gaussian process regression independently of the basis In Proceedings of the Workshop Gaussian Processes in Practice, 2006 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

The rate adapting poisson model for information retrieval and object recognition

Gehler, P. V., Holub, A. D., Welling, M.

In Proceedings of the 23rd international conference on Machine learning, pages: 337-344, ICML ’06, ACM, New York, NY, USA, 2006 (inproceedings)

project page pdf DOI [BibTex]

Gehler, P. V., Holub, A. D., Welling, M. The rate adapting poisson model for information retrieval and object recognition In Proceedings of the 23rd international conference on Machine learning, pages: 337-344, ICML ’06, ACM, New York, NY, USA, 2006 (inproceedings)

project page pdf DOI [BibTex]

Implicit Wiener Series, Part II: Regularised estimation

Gehler, P., Franz, M.

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

pdf [BibTex]

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

pdf [BibTex]

Tracking complex objects using graphical object models

Sigal, L., Zhu, Y., Comaniciu, D., Black, M. J.

In International Workshop on Complex Motion, LNCS 3417, pages: 223-234, Springer-Verlag, 2006 (inproceedings)

pdf pdf from publisher [BibTex]

Sigal, L., Zhu, Y., Comaniciu, D., Black, M. J. Tracking complex objects using graphical object models In International Workshop on Complex Motion, LNCS 3417, pages: 223-234, Springer-Verlag, 2006 (inproceedings)

pdf pdf from publisher [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]

Hierarchical Approach for Articulated 3D Pose-Estimation and Tracking (extended abstract)

Sigal, L., Black, M. J.

In Learning, Representation and Context for Human Sensing in Video Workshop (in conjunction with CVPR), 2006 (inproceedings)

pdf poster [BibTex]

Sigal, L., Black, M. J. Hierarchical Approach for Articulated 3D Pose-Estimation and Tracking (extended abstract) In Learning, Representation and Context for Human Sensing in Video Workshop (in conjunction with CVPR), 2006 (inproceedings)

pdf poster [BibTex]

Nonlinear physically-based models for decoding motor-cortical population activity

Shakhnarovich, G., Kim, S., Black, M. J.

In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 19, NIPS-2006, pages: 1257-1264, MIT Press, 2006 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Shakhnarovich, G., Kim, S., Black, M. J. Nonlinear physically-based models for decoding motor-cortical population activity In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 19, NIPS-2006, pages: 1257-1264, MIT Press, 2006 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

A comparison of decoding models for imagined motion from human motor cortex

Kim, S., Simeral, J., Donoghue, J. P., Hocherberg, L. R., Friehs, G., Mukand, J. A., Chen, D., Black, M. J.

Program No. 256.11. 2006 Abstract Viewer and Itinerary Planner, Society for Neuroscience, Atlanta, GA, 2006, Online (conference)

[BibTex]

Kim, S., Simeral, J., Donoghue, J. P., Hocherberg, L. R., Friehs, G., Mukand, J. A., Chen, D., Black, M. J. A comparison of decoding models for imagined motion from human motor cortex Program No. 256.11. 2006 Abstract Viewer and Itinerary Planner, Society for Neuroscience, Atlanta, GA, 2006, Online (conference)

[BibTex]

Denoising archival films using a learned Bayesian model

Moldovan, T. M., Roth, S., Black, M. J.

In Int. Conf. on Image Processing, ICIP, pages: 2641-2644, Atlanta, 2006 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Moldovan, T. M., Roth, S., Black, M. J. Denoising archival films using a learned Bayesian model In Int. Conf. on Image Processing, ICIP, pages: 2641-2644, Atlanta, 2006 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Efficient belief propagation with learned higher-order Markov random fields

Lan, X., Roth, S., Huttenlocher, D., Black, M. J.

In European Conference on Computer Vision, ECCV, II, pages: 269-282, Graz, Austria, 2006 (inproceedings)

pdf pdf from publisher [BibTex]

Lan, X., Roth, S., Huttenlocher, D., Black, M. J. Efficient belief propagation with learned higher-order Markov random fields In European Conference on Computer Vision, ECCV, II, pages: 269-282, Graz, Austria, 2006 (inproceedings)

pdf pdf from publisher [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]

Modeling neural control of physically realistic movement

Shaknarovich, G., Kim, S., Donoghue, J. P., Hocherberg, L. R., Friehs, G., Mukand, J. A., Chen, D., Black, M. J.

Program No. 256.12. 2006 Abstract Viewer and Itinerary Planner, Society for Neuroscience, Atlanta, GA, 2006, Online (conference)

[BibTex]

Shaknarovich, G., Kim, S., Donoghue, J. P., Hocherberg, L. R., Friehs, G., Mukand, J. A., Chen, D., Black, M. J. Modeling neural control of physically realistic movement Program No. 256.12. 2006 Abstract Viewer and Itinerary Planner, Society for Neuroscience, Atlanta, GA, 2006, Online (conference)

[BibTex]

2003

Image statistics and anisotropic diffusion

Scharr, H., Black, M. J., Haussecker, H.

In Int. Conf. on Computer Vision, pages: 840-847, October 2003 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

2003

Scharr, H., Black, M. J., Haussecker, H. Image statistics and anisotropic diffusion In Int. Conf. on Computer Vision, pages: 840-847, October 2003 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

A switching Kalman filter model for the motor cortical coding of hand motion

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

In Proc. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, pages: 2083-2086, September 2003 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Wu, W., Black, M. J., Mumford, D., Gao, Y., Bienenstock, E., Donoghue, J. P. A switching Kalman filter model for the motor cortical coding of hand motion In Proc. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, pages: 2083-2086, September 2003 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Learning the statistics of people in images and video

Sidenbladh, H., Black, M. J.

International Journal of Computer Vision, 54(1-3):183-209, August 2003 (article)

Abstract

This paper address the problems of modeling the appearance of humans and distinguishing human appearance from the appearance of general scenes. We seek a model of appearance and motion that is generic in that it accounts for the ways in which people's appearance varies and, at the same time, is specific enough to be useful for tracking people in natural scenes. Given a 3D model of the person projected into an image we model the likelihood of observing various image cues conditioned on the predicted locations and orientations of the limbs. These cues are taken to be steered filter responses corresponding to edges, ridges, and motion-compensated temporal differences. Motivated by work on the statistics of natural scenes, the statistics of these filter responses for human limbs are learned from training images containing hand-labeled limb regions. Similarly, the statistics of the filter responses in general scenes are learned to define a “background” distribution. The likelihood of observing a scene given a predicted pose of a person is computed, for each limb, using the likelihood ratio between the learned foreground (person) and background distributions. Adopting a Bayesian formulation allows cues to be combined in a principled way. Furthermore, the use of learned distributions obviates the need for hand-tuned image noise models and thresholds. The paper provides a detailed analysis of the statistics of how people appear in scenes and provides a connection between work on natural image statistics and the Bayesian tracking of people.

pdf pdf from publisher code DOI [BibTex]

Sidenbladh, H., Black, M. J. Learning the statistics of people in images and video International Journal of Computer Vision, 54(1-3):183-209, August 2003 (article)

pdf pdf from publisher code DOI [BibTex]

A framework for robust subspace learning

De la Torre, F., Black, M. J.

International Journal of Computer Vision, 54(1-3):117-142, August 2003 (article)

Abstract

Many computer vision, signal processing and statistical problems can be posed as problems of learning low dimensional linear or multi-linear models. These models have been widely used for the representation of shape, appearance, motion, etc., in computer vision applications. Methods for learning linear models can be seen as a special case of subspace fitting. One draw-back of previous learning methods is that they are based on least squares estimation techniques and hence fail to account for “outliers” which are common in realistic training sets. We review previous approaches for making linear learning methods robust to outliers and present a new method that uses an intra-sample outlier process to account for pixel outliers. We develop the theory of Robust Subspace Learning (RSL) for linear models within a continuous optimization framework based on robust M-estimation. The framework applies to a variety of linear learning problems in computer vision including eigen-analysis and structure from motion. Several synthetic and natural examples are used to develop and illustrate the theory and applications of robust subspace learning in computer vision.

pdf code pdf from publisher Project Page [BibTex]

De la Torre, F., Black, M. J. A framework for robust subspace learning International Journal of Computer Vision, 54(1-3):117-142, August 2003 (article)

pdf code pdf from publisher Project Page [BibTex]

Guest editorial: Computational vision at Brown

Black, M. J., Kimia, B.

International Journal of Computer Vision, 54(1-3):5-11, August 2003 (article)

pdf pdf from publisher [BibTex]

Black, M. J., Kimia, B. Guest editorial: Computational vision at Brown International Journal of Computer Vision, 54(1-3):5-11, August 2003 (article)

pdf pdf from publisher [BibTex]

Robust parameterized component analysis: Theory and applications to 2D facial appearance models

De la Torre, F., Black, M. J.

Computer Vision and Image Understanding, 91(1-2):53-71, July 2003 (article)

Abstract

Principal component analysis (PCA) has been successfully applied to construct linear models of shape, graylevel, and motion in images. In particular, PCA has been widely used to model the variation in the appearance of people's faces. We extend previous work on facial modeling for tracking faces in video sequences as they undergo significant changes due to facial expressions. Here we consider person-specific facial appearance models (PSFAM), which use modular PCA to model complex intra-person appearance changes. Such models require aligned visual training data; in previous work, this has involved a time consuming and error-prone hand alignment and cropping process. Instead, the main contribution of this paper is to introduce parameterized component analysis to learn a subspace that is invariant to affine (or higher order) geometric transformations. The automatic learning of a PSFAM given a training image sequence is posed as a continuous optimization problem and is solved with a mixture of stochastic and deterministic techniques achieving sub-pixel accuracy. We illustrate the use of the 2D PSFAM model with preliminary experiments relevant to applications including video-conferencing and avatar animation.

pdf [BibTex]

De la Torre, F., Black, M. J. Robust parameterized component analysis: Theory and applications to 2D facial appearance models Computer Vision and Image Understanding, 91(1-2):53-71, July 2003 (article)

pdf [BibTex]

Method and apparatus for generating a condensed version of a video sequence including desired affordances

Black, M. J., Ju, S., Minneman, S., Kimber, D.

US Pat. 6,560,281, May 2003 (patent)

pdf on-line at USPTO [BibTex]

Black, M. J., Ju, S., Minneman, S., Kimber, D. Method and apparatus for generating a condensed version of a video sequence including desired affordances US Pat. 6,560,281, May 2003 (patent)

pdf on-line at USPTO [BibTex]

A Gaussian mixture model for the motor cortical coding of hand motion

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

Neural Control of Movement, Santa Barbara, CA, April 2003 (conference)

abstract [BibTex]

Wu, W., Mumford, D., Black, M. J., Gao, Y., Bienenstock, E., Donoghue, J. P. A Gaussian mixture model for the motor cortical coding of hand motion Neural Control of Movement, Santa Barbara, CA, April 2003 (conference)

abstract [BibTex]

Connecting brains with machines: The neural control of 2D cursor movement

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

In 1st International IEEE/EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering, pages: 580-583, Capri, Italy, March 2003 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Black, M. J., Bienenstock, E., Donoghue, J. P., Serruya, M., Wu, W., Gao, Y. Connecting brains with machines: The neural control of 2D cursor movement In 1st International IEEE/EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering, pages: 580-583, Capri, Italy, March 2003 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

A quantitative comparison of linear and non-linear models of motor cortical activity for the encoding and decoding of arm motions

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

In 1st International IEEE/EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering, pages: 189-192, Capri, Italy, March 2003 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Gao, Y., Black, M. J., Bienenstock, E., Wu, W., Donoghue, J. P. A quantitative comparison of linear and non-linear models of motor cortical activity for the encoding and decoding of arm motions In 1st International IEEE/EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering, pages: 189-192, Capri, Italy, March 2003 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Apparatus and method for identifying and tracking objects with view-based representations

Black, M. J., Jepson, A.

US Pat. 6,526,156, Febuary 2003 (patent)

pdf on-line at USPTO [BibTex]

Black, M. J., Jepson, A. Apparatus and method for identifying and tracking objects with view-based representations US Pat. 6,526,156, Febuary 2003 (patent)

pdf on-line at USPTO [BibTex]

Accuracy of manual spike sorting: Results for the Utah intracortical array

Wood, F., Fellows, M., Vargas-Irwin, C., Black, M. J., Donoghue, J. P.

Program No. 279.2. 2003, Abstract Viewer and Itinerary Planner, Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC, 2003, Online (conference)

abstract [BibTex]

Wood, F., Fellows, M., Vargas-Irwin, C., Black, M. J., Donoghue, J. P. Accuracy of manual spike sorting: Results for the Utah intracortical array Program No. 279.2. 2003, Abstract Viewer and Itinerary Planner, Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC, 2003, Online (conference)

abstract [BibTex]

Specular flow and the perception of surface reflectance

Roth, S., Domini, F., Black, M. J.

Journal of Vision, 3 (9): 413a, 2003 (conference)

abstract poster [BibTex]

Roth, S., Domini, F., Black, M. J. Specular flow and the perception of surface reflectance Journal of Vision, 3 (9): 413a, 2003 (conference)

abstract poster [BibTex]

Attractive people: Assembling loose-limbed models using non-parametric belief propagation

Sigal, L., Isard, M. I., Sigelman, B. H., Black, M. J.

In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 16, NIPS, pages: 1539-1546, (Editors: S. Thrun and L. K. Saul and B. Schölkopf), MIT Press, 2003 (inproceedings)

Abstract

The detection and pose estimation of people in images and video is made challenging by the variability of human appearance, the complexity of natural scenes, and the high dimensionality of articulated body models. To cope with these problems we represent the 3D human body as a graphical model in which the relationships between the body parts are represented by conditional probability distributions. We formulate the pose estimation problem as one of probabilistic inference over a graphical model where the random variables correspond to the individual limb parameters (position and orientation). Because the limbs are described by 6-dimensional vectors encoding pose in 3-space, discretization is impractical and the random variables in our model must be continuous-valued. To approximate belief propagation in such a graph we exploit a recently introduced generalization of the particle filter. This framework facilitates the automatic initialization of the body-model from low level cues and is robust to occlusion of body parts and scene clutter.

pdf (color) pdf (black and white) [BibTex]

Sigal, L., Isard, M. I., Sigelman, B. H., Black, M. J. Attractive people: Assembling loose-limbed models using non-parametric belief propagation In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 16, NIPS, pages: 1539-1546, (Editors: S. Thrun and L. K. Saul and B. Schölkopf), MIT Press, 2003 (inproceedings)

pdf (color) pdf (black and white) [BibTex]

Neural decoding of cursor motion using a Kalman filter

(Nominated: Best student paper)

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

In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 15, pages: 133-140, MIT Press, 2003 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Wu, W., Black, M. J., Gao, Y., Bienenstock, E., Serruya, M., Shaikhouni, A., Donoghue, J. P. Neural decoding of cursor motion using a Kalman filter In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 15, pages: 133-140, MIT Press, 2003 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

2002

Inferring hand motion from multi-cell recordings in motor cortex using a Kalman filter

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

In SAB’02-Workshop on Motor Control in Humans and Robots: On the Interplay of Real Brains and Artificial Devices, pages: 66-73, Edinburgh, Scotland (UK), August 2002 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

2002

Wu, W., Black, M. J., Gao, Y., Bienenstock, E., Serruya, M., Donoghue, J. P. Inferring hand motion from multi-cell recordings in motor cortex using a Kalman filter In SAB’02-Workshop on Motor Control in Humans and Robots: On the Interplay of Real Brains and Artificial Devices, pages: 66-73, Edinburgh, Scotland (UK), August 2002 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Bayesian Inference of Visual Motion Boundaries

Fleet, D. J., Black, M. J., Nestares, O.

In Exploring Artificial Intelligence in the New Millennium, pages: 139-174, (Editors: Lakemeyer, G. and Nebel, B.), Morgan Kaufmann Pub., July 2002 (incollection)

Abstract

This chapter addresses an open problem in visual motion analysis, the estimation of image motion in the vicinity of occlusion boundaries. With a Bayesian formulation, local image motion is explained in terms of multiple, competing, nonlinear models, including models for smooth (translational) motion and for motion boundaries. The generative model for motion boundaries explicitly encodes the orientation of the boundary, the velocities on either side, the motion of the occluding edge over time, and the appearance/disappearance of pixels at the boundary. We formulate the posterior probability distribution over the models and model parameters, conditioned on the image sequence. Approximate inference is achieved with a combination of tools: A Bayesian filter provides for online computation; factored sampling allows us to represent multimodal non-Gaussian distributions and to propagate beliefs with nonlinear dynamics from one time to the next; and mixture models are used to simplify the computation of joint prediction distributions in the Bayesian filter. To efficiently represent such a high-dimensional space, we also initialize samples using the responses of a low-level motion-discontinuity detector. The basic formulation and computational model provide a general probabilistic framework for motion estimation with multiple, nonlinear models.

pdf [BibTex]

Fleet, D. J., Black, M. J., Nestares, O. Bayesian Inference of Visual Motion Boundaries In Exploring Artificial Intelligence in the New Millennium, pages: 139-174, (Editors: Lakemeyer, G. and Nebel, B.), Morgan Kaufmann Pub., July 2002 (incollection)

pdf [BibTex]

Inferring hand motion from multi-cell recordings in motor cortex using a Kalman filter

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

Program No. 357.5. 2002 Abstract Viewer/Itinerary Planner, Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC, 2002, Online (conference)

abstract [BibTex]

Wu, W., Black M., Gao, Y., Bienenstock, E., Serruya, M., Donoghue, J. Inferring hand motion from multi-cell recordings in motor cortex using a Kalman filter Program No. 357.5. 2002 Abstract Viewer/Itinerary Planner, Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC, 2002, Online (conference)

abstract [BibTex]

Automatic detection and tracking of human motion with a view-based representation

Fablet, R., Black, M. J.

In European Conf. on Computer Vision, ECCV 2002, 1, pages: 476-491, LNCS 2353, (Editors: A. Heyden and G. Sparr and M. Nielsen and P. Johansen), Springer-Verlag , 2002 (inproceedings)

Abstract

This paper proposes a solution for the automatic detection and tracking of human motion in image sequences. Due to the complexity of the human body and its motion, automatic detection of 3D human motion remains an open, and important, problem. Existing approaches for automatic detection and tracking focus on 2D cues and typically exploit object appearance (color distribution, shape) or knowledge of a static background. In contrast, we exploit 2D optical flow information which provides rich descriptive cues, while being independent of object and background appearance. To represent the optical flow patterns of people from arbitrary viewpoints, we develop a novel representation of human motion using low-dimensional spatio-temporal models that are learned using motion capture data of human subjects. In addition to human motion (the foreground) we probabilistically model the motion of generic scenes (the background); these statistical models are defined as Gibbsian fields specified from the first-order derivatives of motion observations. Detection and tracking are posed in a principled Bayesian framework which involves the computation of a posterior probability distribution over the model parameters (i.e., the location and the type of the human motion) given a sequence of optical flow observations. Particle filtering is used to represent and predict this non-Gaussian posterior distribution over time. The model parameters of samples from this distribution are related to the pose parameters of a 3D articulated model (e.g. the approximate joint angles and movement direction). Thus the approach proves suitable for initializing more complex probabilistic models of human motion. As shown by experiments on real image sequences, our method is able to detect and track people under different viewpoints with complex backgrounds.

pdf [BibTex]

Fablet, R., Black, M. J. Automatic detection and tracking of human motion with a view-based representation In European Conf. on Computer Vision, ECCV 2002, 1, pages: 476-491, LNCS 2353, (Editors: A. Heyden and G. Sparr and M. Nielsen and P. Johansen), Springer-Verlag , 2002 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

A layered motion representation with occlusion and compact spatial support

Fleet, D. J., Jepson, A., Black, M. J.

In European Conf. on Computer Vision, ECCV 2002, 1, pages: 692-706, LNCS 2353, (Editors: A. Heyden and G. Sparr and M. Nielsen and P. Johansen), Springer-Verlag , 2002 (inproceedings)

Abstract

We describe a 2.5D layered representation for visual motion analysis. The representation provides a global interpretation of image motion in terms of several spatially localized foreground regions along with a background region. Each of these regions comprises a parametric shape model and a parametric motion model. The representation also contains depth ordering so visibility and occlusion are rightly included in the estimation of the model parameters. Finally, because the number of objects, their positions, shapes and sizes, and their relative depths are all unknown, initial models are drawn from a proposal distribution, and then compared using a penalized likelihood criterion. This allows us to automatically initialize new models, and to compare different depth orderings.

pdf [BibTex]

Fleet, D. J., Jepson, A., Black, M. J. A layered motion representation with occlusion and compact spatial support In European Conf. on Computer Vision, ECCV 2002, 1, pages: 692-706, LNCS 2353, (Editors: A. Heyden and G. Sparr and M. Nielsen and P. Johansen), Springer-Verlag , 2002 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Implicit probabilistic models of human motion for synthesis and tracking

Sidenbladh, H., Black, M. J., Sigal, L.

In European Conf. on Computer Vision, 1, pages: 784-800, 2002 (inproceedings)

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of probabilistically modeling 3D human motion for synthesis and tracking. Given the high dimensional nature of human motion, learning an explicit probabilistic model from available training data is currently impractical. Instead we exploit methods from texture synthesis that treat images as representing an implicit empirical distribution. These methods replace the problem of representing the probability of a texture pattern with that of searching the training data for similar instances of that pattern. We extend this idea to temporal data representing 3D human motion with a large database of example motions. To make the method useful in practice, we must address the problem of efficient search in a large training set; efficiency is particularly important for tracking. Towards that end, we learn a low dimensional linear model of human motion that is used to structure the example motion database into a binary tree. An approximate probabilistic tree search method exploits the coefficients of this low-dimensional representation and runs in sub-linear time. This probabilistic tree search returns a particular sample human motion with probability approximating the true distribution of human motions in the database. This sampling method is suitable for use with particle filtering techniques and is applied to articulated 3D tracking of humans within a Bayesian framework. Successful tracking results are presented, along with examples of synthesizing human motion using the model.

pdf [BibTex]

Sidenbladh, H., Black, M. J., Sigal, L. Implicit probabilistic models of human motion for synthesis and tracking In European Conf. on Computer Vision, 1, pages: 784-800, 2002 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Robust parameterized component analysis: Theory and applications to 2D facial modeling

De la Torre, F., Black, M. J.

In European Conf. on Computer Vision, ECCV 2002, 4, pages: 653-669, LNCS 2353, Springer-Verlag, 2002 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

De la Torre, F., Black, M. J. Robust parameterized component analysis: Theory and applications to 2D facial modeling In European Conf. on Computer Vision, ECCV 2002, 4, pages: 653-669, LNCS 2353, Springer-Verlag, 2002 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Probabilistic inference of hand motion from neural activity in motor cortex

Gao, Y., Black, M. J., Bienenstock, E., Shoham, S., Donoghue, J.

In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 14, pages: 221-228, MIT Press, 2002 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Gao, Y., Black, M. J., Bienenstock, E., Shoham, S., Donoghue, J. Probabilistic inference of hand motion from neural activity in motor cortex In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 14, pages: 221-228, MIT Press, 2002 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

1996

Cardboard people: A parameterized model of articulated motion

Ju, S. X., Black, M. J., Yacoob, Y.

In 2nd Int. Conf. on Automatic Face- and Gesture-Recognition, pages: 38-44, Killington, Vermont, October 1996 (inproceedings)

Abstract

We extend the work of Black and Yacoob on the tracking and recognition of human facial expressions using parameterized models of optical flow to deal with the articulated motion of human limbs. We define a "cardboard person model" in which a person's limbs are represented by a set of connected planar patches. The parameterized image motion of these patches is constrained to enforce articulated motion and is solved for directly using a robust estimation technique. The recovered motion parameters provide a rich and concise description of the activity that can be used for recognition. We propose a method for performing view-based recognition of human activities from the optical flow parameters that extends previous methods to cope with the cyclical nature of human motion. We illustrate the method with examples of tracking human legs over long image sequences.

pdf [BibTex]

1996

Ju, S. X., Black, M. J., Yacoob, Y. Cardboard people: A parameterized model of articulated motion In 2nd Int. Conf. on Automatic Face- and Gesture-Recognition, pages: 38-44, Killington, Vermont, October 1996 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

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.

pdf pdf from publisher [BibTex]

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)

pdf pdf from publisher [BibTex]

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]

Skin and Bones: Multi-layer, locally affine, optical flow and regularization with transparency

(Nominated: Best paper)

Ju, S., Black, M. J., Jepson, A. D.

In IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, CVPR’96, pages: 307-314, San Francisco, CA, June 1996 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

Ju, S., Black, M. J., Jepson, A. D. Skin and Bones: Multi-layer, locally affine, optical flow and regularization with transparency In IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, CVPR’96, pages: 307-314, San Francisco, CA, June 1996 (inproceedings)

pdf [BibTex]

EigenTracking: Robust matching and tracking of articulated objects using a view-based representation

Black, M. J., Jepson, A.

In Proc. Fourth European Conf. on Computer Vision, ECCV’96, pages: 329-342, LNCS 1064, Springer Verlag, Cambridge, England, April 1996 (inproceedings)

pdf video [BibTex]

Black, M. J., Jepson, A. EigenTracking: Robust matching and tracking of articulated objects using a view-based representation In Proc. Fourth European Conf. on Computer Vision, ECCV’96, pages: 329-342, LNCS 1064, Springer Verlag, Cambridge, England, April 1996 (inproceedings)

pdf video [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.

pdf pdf from publisher [BibTex]

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]

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