ColloquiaTalk by Alexei A. Efros on April 2, 2003

[Margery Ishmael]

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DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE - TALK

Wednesday, April 2, 2003 at 2:30 pm in Ryerson 251

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Speaker: Alexei A. Efros, UC Berkeley
http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~efros/

Title: Data-driven Approaches for Texture and Motion

Abstract:
Access to vast amounts of visual information and the increase in
computing power are facilitating the emergence of a new class of
simple data-driven approaches for image analysis and synthesis.
Instead of building an explicit parametric model of a phenomenon, the
data-driven techniques rely on the underlying data to serve as its own
representation.  In this talk, I will present work in two different
domains, visual texture and human motion, where data-driven approaches
have been particularly successful.

First, I will describe a simple algorithm for texture synthesis, the
problem of synthesizing visual texture (e.g. grass, bricks, pebbles)
from an example image.  The goal is to produce novel samples of a
given texture, which, while not identical, will be perceived by humans
as the same texture.  One application of our method is texture
transfer, a novel technique that allows texture from one object to
be "painted" onto a different object.

Second, I will present an algorithm for the analysis and synthesis of
human motion from video.  Instead of reconstructing a 3D model of the
human figure (which is very hard), the idea is to "explain" a novel
motion sequence with bits and pieces from a large collection of stored
video data.  This simple method can be used for both action
recognition as well as motion transfer -- synthesizing a novel person
imitating the actions of another person ("Do as I Do" synthesis) or
performing actions according to the specified action labels ("Do as I
Say" synthesis).

Host: David Beazley

*Refreshments will follow the talk in Ryerson 255*

People in need of assistance should call 773-834-8977 in advance.


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Margery Ishmael
Secretary to the Chairman, Department of Computer Science
The University of Chicago
1100 E. 58th Street, Chicago, IL. 60637-1581
tel. 773.834.8977 fax. 773.702.8487
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