Abstract

We introduce methods for augmenting aerial visualizations of Earth (from tools such as Google Earth or Microsoft Virtual Earth) with dynamic information obtained from videos. Our goal is to make Augmented Earth Maps that visualize the live broadcast of dynamic sceneries within a city. We propose different approaches to analyze videos of pedestrians and cars, under differing conditions and then augment Aerial Earth Maps (AEMs) with live and dynamic information. We also analyze natural phenomenon (clouds) and project information from these to the AEMs to add the visual reality.

Irfan Essa
Georgia Institute of Technology
School of Interactive Computing, GVU and RIM Centers
April 21, 2009.

(see the video of this presentation)

Abstract

Our consumption of images (photography/video) continues to grow with the pervasiveness of computing (networking, mobile and media) technologies into our daily lives. Everyone now has a mobile camera, and digital image capture, processing, and sharing has become ubiquitous in our society. This has led to a significant impact on we want to (a) create novel scenes, (b) share our experiences with images, and (c) interact with  large amounts of images and videos from many sources. In this talk, I will start  with a brief overview of series of ongoing efforts in the analysis of images and videos for rendering novel scenes, interacting with images/videos and collaboratively authoring new content. I will describe some work on video-based rendering and synthesizing novel videos (and scenes) and highlight the technical contributions being made in areas of Computational Photography and Video.

Using these sets of efforts as a foundation I will showcase where things are headed in terms of user generated content, media sharing, annotation, and reuse with large scale networks. In essence, everybody is a content, producer, distributor, and consumer. I will describe some new efforts that move towards understanding mobile imaging and video, and also discuss issues of collaborative imaging, collective authoring, ad-hoc sensor networks, and peer production with images and videos.  Using these concepts I will discuss how all of these issues are impacting the field Journalism and Reporting and how we have started on a new interdisciplinary research and education effort, we call Computational Journalism.  The concept of Computational Journalism includes more than just imaging, and relates to media and information in general and is aimed at the study of how we remain informed in this connected world. I will outline this new field and relate it back to imaging, with examples from some of our recent work in this new area.

Abstract

ABSTRACT

We have developed an audio-based casual puzzle game which produces a time-stamped transcription of spokenaudio as a by-product of play. Our evaluation of the game indicates that it is both fun and challenging. The transcripts generated using the game are more accurate than those produced using a standard automatic transcription system and the time-stamps of words are within several hundred milliseconds of ground truth.

Videolyzer is a tool designed to help journalists and bloggers collect, organize, and present information about the quality (i.e. validity, reliability, etc.) of online videos. It makes it possible to evaluate and make sense of things like comments, claims, and sources as they relate to the video. Users can comment and annotate pieces of the video (called “anchors”) to provide a more fine-grained description of the information in the video. The interface also incorporates a tightly integrated transcript of what’s spoken in the video to make it easier to navigate the dense information there. Finally, Videolyzer allows for collaboration among many people. Users can build off of each other’s annotations and rate each other in a form of distributed vetting and peer-evaluation.

ABSTRACT

Using off-the-shelf Global Positioning System (GPS) units, we reconstruct buildings in 3D by exploiting the reduction in signal to noise ratio (SNR) that occurs when the buildings obstruct the line-of-sight between the moving units and the orbiting satellites. We measure the size and height of skyscrapers as well as automatically constructing a density map representing the location of multiple buildings in an urban landscape.  If deployed on a large scale, via a cellular service provider’s GPS-enabled mobile phones or GPS-tracked delivery vehicles, the system could provide an inexpensive means of continuously creating and updating 3D maps of urban environments.

Investigator(s): Umakishore Ramachandran, (Principal Investigator), Irfan Essa (Co-Principal Investigator)

Dates: September 1, 2008 – August 31, 2009 (Estimated)

Abstract

From the western world to the third world, the use of handheld devices (cellphones, PDAs) has proliferated. The world of users is becoming both wireless and mobile. Web 2.0 has ushered in an age wherein the web is viewed as a provider of services and not just a repository of documents and/or information. Despite this advance, the web remains just that, a single web with an inherent assumption that a powerful computing and communication infrastructure supports it. Couldn’t mobile wireless devices in close proximity form a web of their own? This is the vision behind this project, the Web on Demand (WoD). WoD aims at bridging the gap between social networks and ad hoc networking. In other words, it aims to rethink the system software stack all the way from application to networking that would allow the creation and management of social networks without any assumption of infrastructure support. The core of the research is to develop software technologies for mobile devices that would allow the dynamic creation of thematic ad hoc overlay networks empowering (a) mobile people with similar interests (e.g., weather forecast), (b) friends and family (e.g., in a theme park), and (c) participants in mission critical applications (e.g., search and rescue), stay connected. WoD complements the World Wide Web (WWW) and leverages it when it is available, such as exploiting the ambient computing infrastructure to enhance user experience, and managing the dynamic creation of User Generated Content (UGC) by mobile users. The vision behind this project is to democratize access to services that are currently offered through WWW. In this sense, the results from this research can have far-reaching technological and societal consequences. Most importantly, the research will help breed a new class of computer scientists who are connected with societal causes in addition to advancing technology.