Daniel Bardsley

The new scientist is running an article on full body capture techniques. From the article: A 3D animation technique that could take the hard work out of acting has been developed by German researchers. It allows a high-resolution 3D scan of one person to be pasted on to another person’s movements.

Team members from the Max Planck Institute for Computer Science in Saarbrücken, Germany, say their technique is faster than traditional animation methods. Usually animators must design a skeleton to go inside a character and ensure its movements translate into realistic deformations of the outer surface.
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The International Business Times is running a report on the future of surveillance cameras. The latest generation of surveillance cameras are aiming to provide a greater degree of video analysis in order to ease the burden of conventional human based video monitoring. Using algorithms to monitor crowd movement or suspicious behaviour, human operators can be alerted faster to potential problems.
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A new bionic eye could restore vision to the profoundly blind. A prototype was tested on six patients and ‘within a few weeks all could detect light, identify objects and even perceive motion again. For one patient, this was the first time he had seen anything in half a century.’ The user wears a pair of glasses that contain a miniature camera and that wirelessly transmits video to a cellphone-sized computer in the wearer’s pocket. This computer processes the image information and wirelessly transmits it to a tiny electronic receiver implanted in the wearer’s head.

Read the full article here
This story was covered on slashdot here.

Researchers at the MIT McGovern Institute for Brain Research have used a biological model to train a computer model to recognize objects, such as cars or people, in busy street scenes. Their innovative approach, which combines neuroscience and artificial intelligence with computer science, mimics how the brain functions to recognize objects in the real world. This versatile model could one day be used for automobile driver’s assistance, visual search engines, biomedical imaging analysis, or robots with realistic vision.

Here is the original paper (pdf)

Martin’s research interests include: Image Processing, Visual Tracking, Human Computer Interfaces, and Robot Vision. His thesis involved hand tracking and Vision based interactive surfaces.

Visit Martin’s web site or have a look at this hand tracking video where a camera mounted to a HMD tracks Martin’s hand throughout a sample drawing application.

Be sure to check out the other videos in the Vision Based Interactive Surfaces section!
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