VASC Seminar
James Hays
Associate Professor
Georgia Institute of Technology

Analyzing Grasp Contact via Thermal Imaging

GHC 6501

Abstract:  Grasping and manipulating objects is an important human skill. Because contact between hand and object is fundamental to grasping, measuring it can lead to important insights. However, observing contact through external sensors is challenging because of occlusion and the complexity of the human hand. I will discuss the use of thermal cameras to capture [...]

VASC Seminar
Sanjeev J. Koppal
Assistant Professor
University of Florida

Fast Foveation for LIDARs, Projectors and Cameras

GHC 6501

Abstract:  Most cameras today capture images without considering scene content. In contrast, animal eyes have fast mechanical movements that control how the scene is imaged in detail by the fovea, where visual acuity is highest. This concentrates computational (i.e. neuronal) resources in places where they are most needed. The prevalence of foveation, and the wide [...]

VASC Seminar
Jia-Bin Huang
Assistant Professor
Virginia Tech

Learning to See Through Occlusions and Obstructions

Virtual VASC:  https://cmu.zoom.us/j/249106600   Abstract:  Photography allows us to capture and share memorable moments of our lives. However, 2D images appear flat due to the lack of depth perception and may suffer from poor imaging conditions such as taking photos through reflecting or occluding elements. In this talk, I will present our recent efforts to [...]

VASC Seminar
Yuxin Wu
Research Engineer
Facebook AI Research

Detectron2 in Object Detection Research

Virtual VASC:  https://cmu.zoom.us/j/249106600   Abstract:  Detectron2 is Facebook's library for object detection and segmentation. It has been used widely in FAIR's research and Facebook's products. This talk will introduce detectron2 with a focus on its use in object detection research, including the lessons we learned from building it, as well as the new research enabled [...]

VASC Seminar
Olga Russakovsky
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science, Princeton University

Fairness in visual recognition

Virtual VASC Seminar:  https://cmu.zoom.us/j/249106600   Abstract: Computer vision models trained on unparalleled amounts of data hold promise for making impartial, well-informed decisions in a variety of applications. However, more and more historical societal biases are making their way into these seemingly innocuous systems. Visual recognition models have exhibited bias by inappropriately correlating age, gender, sexual [...]

VASC Seminar
Qi Guo
PhD Student
Harvard University

Bio-inspired depth sensing using computational optics

Virtual Seminar:  https://cmu.zoom.us/j/249106600   Abstract:  Jumping spiders rely on accurate depth perception for predation and navigation. They accomplish depth perception, despite their tiny brains, by using specialized optics. Each principal eye includes a multitiered retina that simultaneously receives multiple images with different amounts of defocus, and distance is decoded from these images with seemingly little [...]

VASC Seminar
Gemma Roig
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science, Goethe University Frankfurt

Task-specific Vision DNN Models and Their Relation for Explaining Different Areas of the Visual Cortex

Virtual VASC Seminar:  https://cmu.zoom.us/j/249106600   Abstract:  Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) are state-of-the-art models for many vision tasks. We propose an approach to assess the relationship between visual tasks and their task-specific models. Our method uses Representation Similarity Analysis (RSA), which is commonly used to find a correlation between neuronal responses from brain data and models. [...]

VASC Seminar
Cristian Sminchisescu
Research Scientist / Professor
Google / Lund University

End-to-end Generative 3D Human Shape and Pose Models and Active Human Sensing

Virtual VASC Seminar:  https://cmu.zoom.us/j/249106600 Title:  End-to-end Generative 3D Human Shape and Pose Models and Active Human Sensing Abstract:  I will review some of our recent work in 3d human modeling, synthesis, and active vision. I will present our new, end-to-end trainable nonlinear statistical 3d human shape and pose models of different resolutions (GHUM and GHUMLite) as [...]

VASC Seminar
Bryan Russell
Senior Research Scientist
Adobe Research

Telling Left from Right: Learning Spatial Correspondence Between Sight and Sound

Virtual VASC Seminar:  https://cmu.zoom.us/j/92741882813?pwd=R1R0eGRaeXFHTEF2VWNwY2VIZmU5Zz09 Abstract:  Self-supervised audio-visual learning aims to capture useful representations of video by leveraging correspondences between visual and audio inputs. Existing approaches have focused primarily on matching semantic information between the sensory streams. In my talk, I’ll describe a novel self-supervised task to leverage an orthogonal principle: matching spatial information in the [...]

VASC Seminar
Ciprian Corneanu
Research Assistant
Tawny GmbH, University of Barcelona

The Topology of Learning

Zoom Virtual Meeting:  https://cmu.zoom.us/j/92178295543?pwd=L2dwZU5SbDY5NzZZNzZ4ZmFUclRqQT09   Abstract: Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) have revolutionized computer vision. We now have DNNs that achieve top results in many computer vision problems, including object recognition, facial expression analysis, and semantic segmentation, to name but a few. Unfortunately, the rise in performance has come with a cost.  DNNs have become so [...]