This book investigates sets of images consisting of many overlapping viewsofa scene, and how the information contained within them may be combined to produce single images of superior quality. The generic name for such techniques is frame fusion. Using frame fusion, it is possible to extend the fieldof view beyond that ofany single image, to reduce noise, to restore high-frequency content, and even to increase spatial resolution and dynamic range. The aim in this book is to develop efficient, robust and automated frame fusion algorithms which may be applied to real image sequences. An essential step required to enable frame fusion is image registration: computing the point-to-point mapping between images in their overlapping region. This sub problem is considered in detail, and a robust and efficient solution is proposed and its accuracy evaluated. Two forms of frame fusion are then considered: image mosaic ing and super-resolution. Image mosaicing is the alignment of multiple images into a large composition which represents part of a 3D scene. Super-resolution is a more sophisticated technique which aims to restore poor-quality video sequences by mod elling and removing the degradations inherent in the imaging process, such as noise, blur and spatial-sampling. A key element in this book is the assumption of a completely uncalibrated cam era. No prior knowledge of the camera parameters, its motion, optics or photometric characteristics is assumed. The power of the methods is illustrated with many real image sequence examples.

With the exponential increase in computing power and broad proliferation of digital cameras, super-resolution imaging is poised to become the next "killer app." The growing interest in this technology has manifested itself in an explosion of literature on the subject. Super-Resolution Imaging consolidates key recent research contributions from eminent scholars and practitioners in this area and serves as a starting point for exploration into the state of the art in the field. It describes the latest in both theoretical and practical aspects of direct relevance to academia and industry, providing a base of understanding for future progress. Features downloadable tools to supplement material found in the book Recent advances in camera sensor technology have led to an increasingly larger number of pixels being crammed into ever-smaller spaces. This has resulted in an overall decline in the visual quality of recorded content, necessitating improvement of images through the use of post-processing. Providing a snapshot of the cutting edge in super-resolution imaging, this book focuses on methods and techniques to improve images and video beyond the capabilities of the sensors that acquired them. It covers: History and future directions of super-resolution imaging Locally adaptive processing methods versus globally optimal methods Modern techniques for motion estimation How to integrate robustness Bayesian statistical approaches Learning-based methods Applications in remote sensing and medicine Practical implementations and commercial products based on super-resolution The book concludes by concentrating on multidisciplinary applications of super-resolution for a variety of fields. It covers a wide range of super-resolution imaging implementation techniques, including variational, feature-based, multi-channel, learning-based, locally adaptive, and nonparametric methods. This versatile book can be used as the basis for short courses for engineers and scientists, or as part of graduate-level courses in image processing.

The focus of this book is on "ill-posed inverse problems". These problems cannot be solved only on the basis of observed data. The building of solutions involves the recognition of other pieces of a priori information. These solutions are then specific to the pieces of information taken into account. Clarifying and taking these pieces of information into account is necessary for grasping the domain of validity and the field of application for the solutions built. For too long, the interest in these problems has remained very limited in the signal-image community. However, the community has since recognized that these matters are more interesting and they have become the subject of much greater enthusiasm. From the application field’s point of view, a significant part of the book is devoted to conventional subjects in the field of inversion: biological and medical imaging, astronomy, non-destructive evaluation, processing of video sequences, target tracking, sensor networks and digital communications. The variety of chapters is also clear, when we examine the acquisition modalities at stake: conventional modalities, such as tomography and NMR, visible or infrared optical imaging, or more recent modalities such as atomic force imaging and polarized light imaging.

Motion-Free Super-Resolution is a compilation of very recent work on various methods of generating super-resolution (SR) images from a set of low-resolution images. The current literature on this topic deals primarily with the use of motion cues for the purpose of generating SR images. These cues have, it is shown, their advantages and disadvantages. In contrast, this book shows that cues other than motion can also be used for the same purpose, and addresses both the merits and demerits of these new techniques. Motion-Free Super-Resolution supersedes much of the lead author’s previous edited volume, "Super-Resolution Imaging," and includes an up-to-date account of the latest research efforts in this fast-moving field. This sequel also features a style of presentation closer to that of a textbook, with an emphasis on teaching and explanation rather than scholarly presentation.

Computational photography refers broadly to imaging techniques that enhance or extend the capabilities of digital photography. This new and rapidly developing research field has evolved from computer vision, image processing, computer graphics and applied optics—and numerous commercial products capitalizing on its principles have already appeared in diverse market applications, due to the gradual migration of computational algorithms from computers to imaging devices and software. Computational Photography: Methods and Applications provides a strong, fundamental understanding of theory and methods, and a foundation upon which to build solutions for many of today's most interesting and challenging computational imaging problems. Elucidating cutting-edge advances and applications in digital imaging, camera image processing, and computational photography, with a focus on related research challenges, this book: Describes single capture image fusion technology for consumer digital cameras Discusses the steps in a camera image processing pipeline, such as visual data compression, color correction and enhancement, denoising, demosaicking, super-resolution reconstruction, deblurring, and high dynamic range imaging Covers shadow detection for surveillance applications, camera-driven document rectification, bilateral filtering and its applications, and painterly rendering of digital images Presents machine-learning methods for automatic image colorization and digital face beautification Explores light field acquisition and processing, space-time light field rendering, and dynamic view synthesis with an array of cameras Because of the urgent challenges associated with emerging digital camera applications, image processing methods for computational photography are of paramount importance to research and development in the imaging community. Presenting the work of leading experts, and edited by a renowned authority in digital color imaging and camera image processing, this book considers the rapid developments in this area and addresses very particular research and application problems. It is ideal as a stand-alone professional reference for design and implementation of digital image and video processing tasks, and it can also be used to support graduate courses in computer vision, digital imaging, visual data processing, and computer graphics, among others.

It is with great pleasure that we present the proceedings of the 6th Inter- tional, Symposium on Visual Computing (ISVC 2010), which was held in Las Vegas, Nevada. ISVC provides a common umbrella for the four main areas of visual computing including vision, graphics, visualization, and virtual reality. The goal is to provide a forum for researchers, scientists, engineers, and pr- titioners throughout the world to present their latest research ?ndings, ideas, developments, and applications in the broader area of visual computing. This year, the program consisted of 14 oral sessions, one poster session, 7 special tracks, and 6 keynote presentations. The response to the call for papers was very good; we received over 300 submissions for the main symposium from which we accepted 93 papers for oral presentation and 73 papers for poster p- sentation. Special track papers were solicited separately through the Organizing and Program Committees of each track. A total of 44 papers were accepted for oral presentation and 6 papers for poster presentation in the special tracks.

The two volume set LNCS 3686 and LNCS 3687 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Conference on Advances in Pattern Recognition, ICAPR 2005, held in Bath, UK in August 2005. The papers submitted to ICAPR 2005 were thoroughly reviewed by up to three referees per paper and less than 40% of the submitted papers were accepted. The first volume includes 73 contributions related to Pattern Recognition and Data Mining (which included papers from the tracks of pattern recognition methods, knowledge and learning, and data mining); topics addressed are pattern recognition, data mining, signal processing and OCR/ document analysis. The second volume contains 87 contributions related to Pattern Recognition and Image Analysis (which included papers from the applications track) and deals with security and surveillance, biometrics, image processing and medical imaging. It also contains papers from the Workshop on Pattern Recognition for Crime Prevention.