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Computer Vision

The Computer Vision group is one of the largest in the UK and internationally leading in its work on the extraction of object behaviour models and dynamic face models from image sequences and live video. The work has been widely applied to vehicle and people detection, object tracking, counting and recognition in public space CCTV, human gesture recognition for visually mediated interaction and abnormal behaviour recognition in visual surveillance. A current significant focus is in crime prevention, with work on real-time surveillance and biometrics.

Core expertise includes dynamic scene analysis, mathematical modelling, multi-view geometry, pattern recognition and learning, biologically inspired vision and image compression. An additional new research line concerns the extraction of 3D information from image sequences using geometric information. In particular, research is being carried out into self-calibration of cameras and 3D metric reconstruction of scenes viewed by uncalibrated cameras. Work is also being undertaken to develop novel computer vision algorithms and hardware based on neurobiological principles.

The group's research attracts significant interest from the industry and the government. Over the years, the group has been funded by the EU ESPRIT, HCM Networks, UK EPSRC, BBSRC, DTI, MOD, the Wellcome Trust, the Royal Society, BAA, BT Labs, BBC R&D, Qinetiq and the industry. Some recent projects include ICONS developing incident recognition techniques for surveillance and security; VIGOUR, an Integrated Vision System integrating face detection, head tracking, human body modelling, feature extraction, behaviour interpretation; and INSIGHT working on semantic content analysis of CCTV recordings for automatic semantic video tagging, search and pro-active sampling. The latter project links the group with a number of government and industrial partners and end-users including MOD Dstl, Home Office PSDB, Petards Vision Ltd, Safehouse International Ltd and ABM UK Ltd.

The group organises its own seminar series. The specialised, research-led Masters course in Intelligent Imaging Systems exploits the expertise within the group, while members also contribute to other advanced Masters programmes in the Department.

Visit the Computer Vision group webpages.