Greg Laden is a blogger, writer and independent scholar who occassionally teaches. He has a PhD from Harvard in Archaeology and Biological Anthropology, as well as a Masters Degree in the same subjects. He is a biological anthropologist, but for many years before going to graduate school to study human evolution, he did archaeology in North America. He thinks of himself as a biologist who focuses on humans (past and present) and who uses archaeology as one of the tools of the trade. Greg blogs regularly on ScienceBlogs at http://www.scienceblogs.com/gregladen/.
Dr. Joseph J. Salvo attended Phillips Andover Academy, received his A.B. degree from Harvard University and his Master and Ph.D. degrees in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University. Dr. Salvo joined the GE Global Research Center in 1988. His early work focused on the development of genetically modified bacteria and fungus, for the production of novel high performance polymers. In the mid 1990's he turned his group's efforts towards developing large-scale internet-based sensing arrays to manage and oversee
business systems. Most recently, he and his team have developed a number of complex decision engines that deliver customer value through system transparency and knowledge-based computational algorithms. Commercial business implementations of his work are currently active in Europe, and Asia as well as North and South America.
Dr. Peter Tu received his undergraduate degree in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo, Canada, and his doctorate from Oxford University England.
In 1997, he joined the Visualization and Computer Vision Group at the GE Global Research Center in Niskayuna, NY. He has developed algorithms for the FBI Automatic Fingerprint Identification System. He is the principle investigator for the ReFace program, which has the goal of automatically computing the appearance of a person’s face from skeletal remains. Dr. Tu has also developed a number of algorithms for the precise measurement of specular and high curvature objects. His current focus is the development of intelligent video algorithms for surveillance applications.
To date most of my postings have revolved around the application of computer vision to issues associated with security. However, we are seeing more and more uses of this technology in other domains such as entertainment and medical imaging.
One of the leading indicators for behavior and intent is gaze direction. Many under cover detectives use this cue to figure out who may be predators in a crowd. In work for NBC Sports, Nils Krahnstoever has shown that we can track the gaze direction of football players providing a whole new level of sports analysis.
On a similar vein we see how crowd segmentation methods can be used to keep track of cells instead of people. Dirk Padfield and Jens Rittscher prepared the following video:
It is clear that this technology is applicable to many domains, however I would also posit the hypothesis that the eclectic nature of the average computer visionist may often lead to out in left field pursuits. Here are a few examples that illustrate my point. Gianfranco Doretto has developed a number of algorithms for aerial tracking and person reacquisition, however one of his great passions in life is the refurbishing of vintage video games. Mark Grabb, who manages our group, is also a web site developer devoted to photos taken of various forms of fruit. Fred Wheeler, one of our biometrics experts, has disassembled his home computer and hung each component from chains attached to the ceiling of his basement. The thing is still alive. Adding insult to injury, he now forces it to act as a web server continuously documenting its own plight. See This is a link for details.
Comments
I really like the cell tracking video, but, then again, I am biased. As far as disassembling a home computer and hanging it from the ceiling, my only question is "why"? It is good to hear that computer vision researchers have diverse interests and a sense of humor
Posted by: Dirk Padfield | November 16, 2009 11:34 AM