Ioannis Pitas

Bio: Ioannis Pitas is an academic researcher from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The author has contributed to research in topics: Facial recognition system & Digital watermarking. The author has an hindex of 76, co-authored 795 publications receiving 24787 citations. Previous affiliations of Ioannis Pitas include University of Bristol & University of York.

Automated Facial Pose Extraction From Video Sequences Based on Mutual Information

Abstract: Estimation of the facial pose in video sequences is one of the major issues in many vision systems such as face-based biometrics, scene understanding for humans, and others. The proposed method uses a novel pose estimation algorithm based on mutual information to extract any required facial poses from video sequences. The method extracts the poses automatically and classifies them according to view angle. Experimental results on the XM2VTS video database and on a new database created for the needs of this research indicated a pose classification rate of 99.2% while it was shown that it outperforms a principal component analysis reconstruction method that was used as a benchmark.

Nutrition Assistance Based on Skin Color Segmentation and Support Vector Machines

Abstract: In this paper a new skin color segmentation method that exploits pixels color space information is presented. We evaluate the discrimination strength of features extracted from the RGB and HSV color space and also of a new descriptor generated by combining both spaces. To facilitate our experimental evaluation we have used a linear SVM classifier since it provides certain advantages in terms of computational efficiency compared with its kernel based counterparts. Experiments conducted in video sequences depicting subjects eating and drinking, recorded in complex indoor background and different lightning conditions, where the developed methods achieved satisfactory skin color segmentation.

Subspace Image Representation for Facial Expression Analysis and Face Recognition and its Relation to the Human Visual System

Abstract: Two main theories exist with respect to face encoding and representation in the human visual system (HVS). The first one refers to the dense (holistic) representation of the face, where faces have “holon”-like appearance. The second one claims that a more appropriate face representation is given by a sparse code, where only a small fraction of the neural cells corresponding to face encoding is activated. Theoretical and experimental evidence suggest that the HVS performs face analysis (encoding, storing, face recognition, facial expression recognition) in a structured and hierarchical way, where both representations have their own contribution and goal. According to neuropsychological experiments, it seems that encoding for face recognition, relies on holistic image representation, while a sparse image representation is used for facial expression analysis and classification. From the computer vision perspective, the techniques developed for automatic face and facial expression recognition fall into the same two representation types. Like in Neuroscience, the techniques which perform better for face recognition yield a holistic image representation, while those techniques suitable for facial expression recognition use a sparse or local image representation. The proposed mathematical models of image formation and encoding try to simulate the efficient storing, organization and coding of data in the human cortex. This is equivalent with embedding constraints in the model design regarding dimensionality reduction, redundant information minimization, mutual information minimization, non-negativity constraints, class information, etc. The presented techniques are applied as a feature extraction step followed by a classification method, which also heavily influences the recognition results.

Mosaicing of paintings on curved surfaces

Abstract: The paper presents an approach for reconstructing images painted on curved surfaces. A set of monocular images is taken from different viewpoints in order to mosaic and represent the entire scene. By using a priori knowledge about the support surface of the picture, we derive the surface localization in the camera coordinate system. An automatic mosaicing method is applied on the patterned images in order to obtain the complete scene. The mosaiced scene is visualized on a new synthetic surface by a mapping procedure.

I and i

Abstract: There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality. Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

Face recognition: A literature survey

Abstract: As one of the most successful applications of image analysis and understanding, face recognition has recently received significant attention, especially during the past several years. At least two reasons account for this trend: the first is the wide range of commercial and law enforcement applications, and the second is the availability of feasible technologies after 30 years of research. Even though current machine recognition systems have reached a certain level of maturity, their success is limited by the conditions imposed by many real applications. For example, recognition of face images acquired in an outdoor environment with changes in illumination and/or pose remains a largely unsolved problem. In other words, current systems are still far away from the capability of the human perception system.This paper provides an up-to-date critical survey of still- and video-based face recognition research. There are two underlying motivations for us to write this survey paper: the first is to provide an up-to-date review of the existing literature, and the second is to offer some insights into the studies of machine recognition of faces. To provide a comprehensive survey, we not only categorize existing recognition techniques but also present detailed descriptions of representative methods within each category. In addition, relevant topics such as psychophysical studies, system evaluation, and issues of illumination and pose variation are covered.

Detecting faces in images: a survey

Abstract: Images containing faces are essential to intelligent vision-based human-computer interaction, and research efforts in face processing include face recognition, face tracking, pose estimation and expression recognition. However, many reported methods assume that the faces in an image or an image sequence have been identified and localized. To build fully automated systems that analyze the information contained in face images, robust and efficient face detection algorithms are required. Given a single image, the goal of face detection is to identify all image regions which contain a face, regardless of its 3D position, orientation and lighting conditions. Such a problem is challenging because faces are non-rigid and have a high degree of variability in size, shape, color and texture. Numerous techniques have been developed to detect faces in a single image, and the purpose of this paper is to categorize and evaluate these algorithms. We also discuss relevant issues such as data collection, evaluation metrics and benchmarking. After analyzing these algorithms and identifying their limitations, we conclude with several promising directions for future research.