Introduction to Computer Vision

Professor Fei-Fei Li (Stanford Vision Lab) James Hays ([Link]

Image by [Link]

Todays Class
Introductions What is Computer Vision? Why study computer vision? Why computer vision matters How vision is used now Specifics of this course

Computer Vision
Make computers understand images and video.
What kind of scene? Where are the cars? How far is the building?

Computer Vision and Nearby Fields

Computer Graphics: Models to Images Comp. Photography: Images to Images Computer Vision: Images to Models

In the field of artificial intelligence, the most difficult problems are informally known as AI-complete or AI-hard, implying that the difficulty of these computational problems is equivalent to solving the central artificial intelligence problemmaking computers as intelligent as people, or strong AI AI-complete problems are hypothesised to include computer vision, natural language understanding, and dealing with unexpected circumstances while solving any real world problem.

Vision is really hard

Vision is an amazing feat of natural intelligence
Visual cortex occupies about 50% of Macaque brain More human brain devoted to vision than anything else
Is that a queen or a bishop?

Illumination (image), the use of light and shadow in art

If you are developing a system which tracks objects (people, cars, ...) then occlusion occurs if an object you are tracking is hidden (occluded) by another object

Why computer vision matters

Safety

Health

Security

Comfort

Fun

Access

How vision is used now

Examples of state-of-the-art

Some of the following slides by Steve Seitz

Optical character recognition (OCR)

Technology to convert scanned docs to text
If you have a scanner, it probably came with OCR software

Digit recognition, AT&T labs [Link]

License plate readers

[Link]

Face detection

Many new digital cameras now detect faces

Canon, Sony, Fuji,

Smile detection

Sony Cyber-shot T70 Digital Still Camera

Object recognition (in supermarkets)

LaneHawk by EvolutionRobotics A smart camera is flush-mounted in the checkout lane, continuously watching for items. When an item is detected and recognized, the cashier verifies the quantity of items that were found under the basket, and continues to close the transaction. The item can remain under the basket, and with LaneHawk,you are assured to get paid for it

Vision-based biometrics

How the Afghan Girl was Identified by Her Iris Patterns Read the story wikipedia

Login without a password

Fingerprint scanners on many new laptops, other devices

Face recognition systems now beginning to appear more widely

[Link]

Object recognition (in mobile phones)

Point & Find, Nokia Google Goggles

Smart cars

Slide content courtesy of Amnon Shashua

Mobileye
Vision systems currently in high-end BMW, GM, Volvo models By 2010: 70% of car manufacturers.

Google cars

[Link]

Vision in space

NASA'S Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured this westward view from atop a low plateau where Spirit spent the closing months of 2007.

Vision systems (JPL) used for several tasks

Panorama stitching 3D terrain modeling Obstacle detection, position tracking For more, read Computer Vision on Mars by Matthies et al.

Industrial robots

Vision-guided robots position nut runners on wheels

Mobile robots

NASAs Mars Spirit Rover [Link]

[Link]

Saxena et al. 2008 STAIR at Stanford

Medical imaging

3D imaging MRI, CT

Image guided surgery Grimson et al., MIT