Essa, I.A (2000), “Ubiquitous sensing for smart and aware environments” In Personal Communications, IEEE [see also IEEE Wireless Communications] Publication Date: Oct. 2000, Volume: 7 , Issue: 5
On page(s): 47 – 49, ISSN: 1070-9916, CODEN: IPCME7, INSPEC Accession Number:6756447, Digital Object Identifier: 10.1109/98.878538

Abstract

As computing technology continues to become increasingly pervasive and ubiquitous, we envision the development of environments that can sense what we are doing and support our daily activities. In this article, we outline our efforts toward building such environments and discuss the importance of a sensing and signal-understanding infrastructure that leads to awareness of what is happening in an environment and how it can best be supported. Such an infrastructure supports both high- and low-end data transmission and processing, while allowing for detailed interpretation, modeling and recognition from sensed information. We are currently prototyping several aware environments to aid in the development and study of such sensing and computation in real-world settings

Abstract

This paper introduces a new type of medium, called a video texture, which has qualities somewhere between those of a photograph and a video. A video texture provides a continuous infinitely varying stream of images. While the individual frames of a video texture may be repeated from time to time, the video sequence as a whole is never repeated exactly. Video textures can be used in place of digital photos to infuse a static image with dynamic qualities and explicit actions. We present techniques for analyzing a video clip to extract its structure, and for synthesizing a new, similar looking video of arbitrary length. We combine video textures with view morphing techniques to obtain 3D video textures. We also introduce video-based animation, in which the synthesis of video textures can be guided by a user through high-level interactive controls. Applications of video textures and their extensions include the display of dynamic scenes on web pages, the creation of dynamic backdrops for special effects and games, and the interactive control of video-based animation.

• Schödl, A., Szeliski, R., Salesin, D. H., and Essa, I. 2000. Video textures. In Proceedings of the 27th Annual Conference on Computer Graphics and interactive Techniques International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques. ACM Press/Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., New York, NY, 489-498. [DOI][PDF]
• Project WebPage
• Presentation Slides
• SIGGRAPH 2000 Video

Abstract

AI researchers are interested in building intelligent machines that can interact with them as they interact with each other. Science fiction writers have given us these goals in the form of HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey and Commander Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation. However, at present, our computers are deaf, dumb, and blind, almost unaware of the environment they are in and of the user who interacts with them. In this article, I present the current state of the art in machines that can see people, recognize them, determine their gaze, understand their facial expressions and hand gestures, and interpret their activities. I believe that by building machines with such abilities for perceiving, people will take us one step closer to building HAL and Commander Data.