Intelligent Processing of Visual Media

The proposed research covers a very wide range of topics in processing of digital geometry, images and video sequences, being funded to a total of 24,000,000 Chinese Yuan (about 1,600,000) by the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology.The topics to be investigated will includeShape, image and video understanding, using neural networks and other ideas based on the structure of the human visual system, with an emphasis on high-performance systemsThe development of mathematical tools which are necessary for processing geometry and image and video understanding, allowing computers to learn about things they see, and to then classify new examples shown to them later. The key issue here is the huge amount of information present in the large numbers of pixels present in images, and even more so in video.How analogies to the human visual system can be used to help develop systems which can understand images and video. This includes such ideas as how to separate the big picture from the small details, using understanding at different geometric scales, and how to make methods which can automatically cluster related information. Further key issues are how geometric and visual information should be acquired and represented so that it can be processed effectively and efficiently to answer queries about content.How key features of geometric shapes, images and video can be represented, stored, compressed and encrypted. Particularly important are issues of digital rights management, including embedding invisible watermarks into visual data to enable proof of ownership, and the ability to provide content-aware security for geometric models, images and video.Other goals include new approaches to capturing and editing geometric models, images and video, including for example video blending.