Image Understanding for Alpine Environmental Monitoring

In an era of anthropogenic global change, there is an increasing need to measure and monitor our natural environment. Time-lapse photography can provide compelling visualisations of how natural systems behave over time, for example, glacial recession due to global warming. However, in addition to visualisation, cameras can also be used as sensors, making measurements that aid the scientific understanding of natural systems.

The aim of this project is to develop novel computer vision techniques to monitor long-term change in outdoor environments, turning an SLR into a useful sensor for environmental monitoring. In particular we will use time-lapse imagery to extract detailed surface information and subtle motion in scenes, something that is not possible using existing satellite-based techniques. Reaching this goal will require improved techniques for robust image understanding that are capable of extracting useful information, such as very small scene motion, over long timescales and with wildly varying appearance and illumination conditions.

We envisage significant non-academic impacts in Computer Vision and Graphics, as well as Geoscience. A central pillar of our impact plan is the deployment of a software system that will interface directly with the existing Permasense Data Browser. This will supply detailed real-time data, such as snow-coverage and surface information, which will be available 24/7 via the internet to Geoscientists around the world.

The software and technology that we develop will have broader impact beyond the raw Geoscientific data it generates. The robust and accurate motion tracking system that forms part of our software system will have general applicability in Computer Vision and Graphics, and particularly to the Digital Creative Industries, such as film and special effects industries. This is an area in which the UK has existing strengths, and to which the PI is directly connected via Bath's Centre for Digital Entertainment.

Collaborative meetings with Plymouth Marine Laboratory, including cooperative supervision of an EngD student, will enhance the potential for impact on UK industry and research, and broaden the reach of the work beyond the alpine environmental setting.

More broadly, we believe that the societal importance of monitoring global change gives this work the potential to inspire and captivate the public. In addition to it's impact upon scientific sensing, our work will also generate compelling visualisations of change in the mountain environment, which we plan to disseminate via our webpage, videos and social media.