CSC I6716  Computer Vision- Fall 2009


Instructor: Professor Zhigang Zhu
http://www-cs.engr.ccny.cuny.edu/~zhu

Teaching Assistant: Mr. Wai L. Khoo
WKhoo@gc.cuny.edu

Credits:     3.0
Class Meet Time:     Monday and Wednesday 12:30-01:45PM,  Room: NAC-7225
Office Hours:   Monday and Wednesday 02:00-03:00 PMRoom: NAC  8/210

    City College of New York


Course Update Information

  August 31, 2009. First class meet of our course.
  September 02, 2009. Assignment 1 online, due on Sep 16 before class.  You may submit your homework to Mr. Wai L. Khoo at  WKhoo@gc.cuny.edu
  September 13, 2009. Assignment 2 online, due on Sep 30 before class.  You may submit your homework to Mr. Wai L. Khoo.
  September 22, 2009. Grading for Assignment 1.
  September 25, 2009. Assignment 3 online, due on Oct 26 before class.
  October 06, 2009. Grading for Assignments 1 &2.
  October 20, 2009, Project Topics  .
  October 31, 2009. Grading for Homework 1 and Assignments 1 - 3 .
  October 31, 2009, Project Topics Updated  (I did not include the self-selected topics yet).
  November 25, 2009. Grading for Assignments 1 -3 and Midterm Exam. Have a great Thanksgiving holiday!
  December 07, 2009. Grading for Assignments 1 -4, a Quiz and Midterm Exam.
 
  December 10
, 2009. Final Grading

 

Course Objectives

Computer vision has a rich history of fundamental work on stereo and visual motion, which has dealt with the problems of 3D reconstruction from multiple images, and structure from motion from video sequences. Recently, in addition to these traditional problems, the stereo and motion information presented in multiple images or a video sequence is also being used to solve several other interesting problems, for example, large-scale scene modeling, video mosaicing, video segmentation, video compression, video manipulation and video surveillance. This is sometimes summarized as video computing. Computer vision is playing an important and somewhat different role in solving these problems in video computing than the original image analysis approach in the early days of vision research.The course "Computer Vision" will include advanced topics in video computing as well as fundamentals in stereo and motion.

Note: In addition to attending regular course lectures, students may also be arranged  to attend seminars of the CCNY Lecture Series on Computer Vision, Robotics and Human-Computer Interaction,  hosted  by Prof. Zhigang Zhu of CS and Prof. Jizhong Xiao of EE. Students will have opportunities to talk with leading researchers in the fields of computer vision, robotics and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).

Course Syllabus and Tentative Schedule (mm/dd)

(Academic calendar, Fall 2009)

Part I. Computer Vision Basics 

I-1. Introduction: What, Why and How (slides) - 08/31
I-2. Image Formation: Digital Image Basics (slides) - 09/02 (Assignment 1)
I-3. Image Enhancement (1): Histogram and How to Make a Picture Prettier (slides for I-3 and I-4) - 09/09 (No class meet on 09/07)
I-4. Image Enhancement (2): Noise Removal and How to Make a Picture even Prettier (Assignment 2) - 09/14
I-5. Edge Detection (1): Edge Detectors and Sketch Generation (slides for I-5 & I-6) - 09/16
I-6. Edge Detection (2): Hough Transform for Obtaining Shapes - 09/21

Part II.  3D Computer Vision

II-1.  Camera Models (slides)-
    09/23 (Geometric Projections:  the Rules Governing 2D Imaging),
    09/29 (Camera Parameters: the Secrets Inside Your Camera ) (Assignment 3),
    09/30 (Linear Algebra Models: Make the Math Simpler)
II-2.  Camera Calibration (slides) -
    10/05 (Problem Definition:  the Tools You Must Know),
    10/07,10/14 (Direct Approach: Divide and Conquer), (No class meet on 10/12)
    10/19 (Projective Matrix Approach: All in One ) 
II-2a Project Topics Discussion - 10/21

II-3.  Stereo Vision  (slides)
    10/26 (Problem Definition: Two is Better Than One) ( Assignment 4),
    10/28 (Epipolar Geometry: the Trick for Simplifying Your Task),
    11/02 (Correspondence Problem: The Key to Success) ,
    11/04 (Reconstruction Problem: Getting 3D from 2D Data) 

II-3a. Exam Review  -11/18

II-4.  Visual Motion (slides)-
    11/09 (The Motion Field of Rigid Motion: See the Motion in Images) ,
    11/11 (Optical Flow Approach: Spatio-Temporal Gradients in Work) ,
    11/16 (Feature-based Approach: Tracking Individual Points) ,
    11/18 (Advanced Topics: Video Mosaicing, Target Tracking and Video Coding)


Part III. Exam, Project and  Project Presentations

III-1. Midterm Exam - 11/23 (before Thanksgiving)
III-2. Project Designs - 11/25 (no class meet)
III-3. Exam & Project Discussions - 11/30
III-4. Student Project Presentations - 12/2, 12/7, 12/9


Textbook and References

Textbook:
    “Introductory Techniques for 3-D Computer Vision”,  Emanuele Trucco and Alessandro Verri, Prentice Hall, Inc., 1998  (ISBN: 0132611082, 343 pages ).

References:

  1.     “Computer Vision – A Modern Approach” , David A. Forsyth, Jean Ponce, Prentice Hall, 2003 (ISBN: 0130851981 , 693 pages).
  2.     “Three Dimensional Computer Vision: A Geometric Viewpoint” , Olivier Faugeras, The MIT Press, November 19, 1993 (ISBN: 0262061589 , 695 pages)
Supplements:  Online References and additional readings when necessary.
 

Grading and Prerequisites

The course will accommodate both graduate and senior undergraduate students with background in computer science, electrical and computer engineering, or applied mathematics. Students who take the course for credits will be required to finish 4 assignments (40%), one midterm exam (40%), and  one programming project (20%, including submit a report and give a small presentation to the class at the end of the semester). The topics of the projects will be given in the middle of the semester and will be related to the material presented in the lectures.

This course is under I6700: Topics in Scientific and Statistical Computing, in the area of "Computing Methodologies and Mathematical Computing"  of our Computer Science Master Program.  Students are required to have a good preparation in both mathematics (linear algebra/numerical analysis) and advanced programming.


Copyright @ Zhigang Zhu , Fall 2009