We have witnessed great interest and a wealth of promise in content-based image retrieval as an emerging technology. While the last decade laid foundation to such promise, it also paved the way for a large number of new techniques and systems, got many new people involved, and triggered stronger association of weakly related fields. In this article, we survey almost 300 key theoretical and empirical contributions in the current decade related to image retrieval and automatic image annotation, and in the process discuss the spawning of related subfields. We also discuss significant challenges involved in the adaptation of existing image retrieval techniques to build systems that can be useful in the real world. In retrospect of what has been achieved so far, we also conjecture what the future may hold for image retrieval research.

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Image retrieval: Ideas, influences, and trends of the new age

In the real world, a realistic setting for computer vision or multimedia recognition problems is that we have some classes containing lots of training data and many classes contain a small amount of training data. Therefore, how to use frequent classes to help learning rare classes for which it is harder to collect the training data is an open question. Learning with Shared Information is an emerging topic in machine learning, computer vision and multimedia analysis. There are different level of components that can be shared during concept modeling and machine learning stages, such as sharing generic object parts, sharing attributes, sharing transformations, sharing regularization parameters and sharing training examples, etc. Regarding the specific methods, multi-task learning, transfer learning and deep learning can be seen as using different strategies to share information. These learning with shared information methods are very effective in solving real-world large-scale problems. This special issue aims at gathering the recent advances in learning with shared information methods and their applications in computer vision and multimedia analysis. Both state-of-the-art works, as well as literature reviews, are welcome for submission. Papers addressing interesting real-world computer vision and multimedia applications are especially encouraged. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:  • Multi-task learning or transfer learning for large-scale computer vision and multimedia analysis • Deep learning for large-scale computer vision and multimedia analysis • Multi-modal approach for large-scale computer vision and multimedia analysis • Different sharing strategies, e.g., sharing generic object parts, sharing attributes, sharing transformations, sharing regularization parameters and sharing training examples, • Real-world computer vision and multimedia applications based on learning with shared information, e.g., event detection, object recognition, object detection, action recognition, human head pose estimation, object tracking, location-based services, semantic indexing. • New datasets and metrics to evaluate the benefit of the proposed sharing ability for the specific computer vision or multimedia problem. • Survey papers regarding the topic of learning with shared information.  Authors who are unsure whether their planned submission is in scope may contact the guest editors prior to the submission deadline with an abstract, in order to receive feedback.

IEEE transactions on pattern analysis and machine intelligence

The capacity to estimate the head pose of another person is a common human ability that presents a unique challenge for computer vision systems. Compared to face detection and recognition, which have been the primary foci of face-related vision research, identity-invariant head pose estimation has fewer rigorously evaluated systems or generic solutions. In this paper, we discuss the inherent difficulties in head pose estimation and present an organized survey describing the evolution of the field. Our discussion focuses on the advantages and disadvantages of each approach and spans 90 of the most innovative and characteristic papers that have been published on this topic. We compare these systems by focusing on their ability to estimate coarse and fine head pose, highlighting approaches that are well suited for unconstrained environments.

Head Pose Estimation in Computer Vision: A Survey

Security systems for protecting assets are described, including password-based security systems that can provide different levels of access responsive to entry of a primary or secondary password. In some versions, user-configurable security rules can provide customized responses to entry of primary or secondary passwords, including feigned or limited access, security alerts, etc. Passwords comprising overt and covert components can be used to provide enhanced security and improved user control over system response. Improved security systems involving transactions between multiple parties are also considered, with options for user-customized security rules including primary and secondary passwords, and reverse challenge and response methods. Systems for Limited Use Credentials are also disclosed to reduce the risk of identity theft.

Security Systems for Protecting an Asset

We investigate the problem of automatically labelling appearances of characters in TV or film material. This is tremendously challenging due to the huge variation in imaged appearance of each character and the weakness and ambiguity of available annotation. However, we demonstrate that high precision can be achieved by combining multiple sources of information, both visual and textual. The principal novelties that we introduce are: (i) automatic generation of time stamped character annotation by aligning subtitles and transcripts; (ii) strengthening the supervisory information by identifying when characters are speaking; (iii) using complementary cues of face matching and clothing matching to propose common annotations for face tracks. Results are presented on episodes of the TV series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”.

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"Hello! My name is... Buffy" - Automatic Naming of Characters in TV Video

Systems and methods for annotating a face in a digital image are described. In one aspect, a probability model is trained by mapping one or more sets of sample facial features to corresponding names of individuals. A face from an input data set of at least one the digital image is then detected. Facial features are then automatically extracted from the detected face. A similarity measure is them modeled as a posterior probability that the facial features match a particular set of features identified in the probability model. The similarity measure is statistically learned. A name is then inferred as a function of the similarity measure. The face is then annotated with the name.

Face annotation for photo management

Automatic annotation of photographs is one of the most desirable needs in family photograph management systems. In this paper, we present a learning framework to automate the face annotation in family photograph albums. Firstly, methodologies of content-based image retrieval and face recognition are seamlessly integrated to achieve automated annotation. Secondly, face annotation is formulated in a Bayesian framework, in which the face similarity measure is defined as maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation. Thirdly, to deal with the missing features, marginal probability is used so that samples which have missing features are compared with those having the full feature set to ensure a non-biased decision. The experimental evaluation has been conducted within a family album of few thousands of photographs and the results show that the proposed approach is effective and efficient in automated face annotation in family albums.

Automated annotation of human faces in family albums

Traditional stereo matching algorithms are limited in their ability to produce accurate results near depth discontinuities, due to partial occlusions and violation of smoothness constraints. In this paper, we use small baseline multiflash illumination to produce a rich set of feature maps that enable the acquisition of discontinuity preserving point correspondences. First, from a single multiflash camera, we formulate a qualitative depth map using a gradient domain method that encodes object relative distances. Then, in a multiview setup, we exploit shadows created by light sources to compute an occlusion map. Finally, we demonstrate the usefulness of these feature maps by incorporating them into two different dense stereo correspondence algorithms, the first based on local search and the second based on belief propagation. Experimental results show that our enhanced stereo algorithms are able to extract high-quality discontinuity preserving correspondence maps from scenes that are extremely challenging for conventional stereo methods. We also demonstrate that small baseline illumination can be useful to handle specular reflections in stereo imagery. Different from most existing active illumination techniques, our method is simple, inexpensive, and compact and requires no calibration of light sources.

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Multiflash Stereopsis: Depth-Edge-Preserving Stereo with Small Baseline Illumination

A robust pose estimation approach is proposed by combining facial appearance asymmetry and 3D geometry in a coarse-to-fine framework. The rough face pose is first estimated by analyzing the asymmetry of the distribution of the facial component detection confidences on an image, which actually implies an intrinsic relation between the face pose and the facial appearance. Then, this rough face pose, as well as error bandwidth, is utilized into a 3D-to-2D geometrical model matching to refine the pose estimation. The proposed approach is able to track a face with fast motion in front of cluttered background and recover its pose robustly and accurately in real- time. Experiment results are provided to demonstrate its efficiency and accuracy.

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Estimating face pose by facial asymmetry and geometry

Here, we propose a new learning strategy for head pose estimation. Our approach uses nonlinear interpolation to estimate the head pose using the learning result from face images of two head poses. Advantage of our method to regression method is that it only requires training images of two head poses and better generalization ability. It outperforms existed methods, such as regression and multiclass classification method, on both synthesis and real face images. Average head pose estimation error of yaw rotation is about 4/sup 0/, which proves that our method is effective in head pose estimation.

Longbin Chen

Papers

Face annotation for photo management

Automated annotation of human faces in family albums

Multiflash Stereopsis: Depth-Edge-Preserving Stereo with Small Baseline Illumination

Estimating face pose by facial asymmetry and geometry

Head pose estimation using Fisher Manifold learning