Experiences Using an Open Source Sofware Library to Teach Computer Vision Subjects

Machine vision is an important subject in computer science and engineering degrees. For laboratory experimentation, it is desirable to have a complete and easy-to-use tool. In this work we present a Java library, oriented to teaching computer vision. We have designed and built the library from the scratch with enfasis on readability and understanding rather than on efficiency. However, the library can also be used for research purposes. JavaVis is an open source Java library, oriented to the teaching of Computer Vision. It consists of a framework with several features that meet its demands. It has been designed to be easy to use: the user does not have to deal with internal structures or graphical interface, and should the student need to add a new algorithm it can be done simply enough. Once we sketch the library, we focus on the experience the student gets using this library in several computer vision courses. Our main goal is to find out whether the students understand what they are doing, that is, find out how much the library helps the student in grasping the basic concepts of computer vision. In the last four years we have conducted surveys to assess how much the students have improved their skills by using this library

Construcción de mapas 3D y extracción de primitivas geométricas del entorno

Este trabajo se centra en la construcción de mapas 3D a partir de datos de rango obtenidos mediante una cámara estéreo. El proceso de reconstrucción lo hemos dividido en dos fases. En la primera, a partir de datos tomados a intervalos regulares por un robot dentro de un entorno, hemos solucionado parcialmente el problema del error de odometría, haciendo uso de un método novedoso de emparejamiento 3D. En la segunda y haciendo uso del resultado de la fase anterior, nos planteamos extraer primitivas geométricas (planos, cilindros, etc.) para realizar una reconstrucción del entorno mediante estas primitivas.Secretaría de Estado de Educación y Universidade

Special issue about advances in Physical Agents

Nowadays, there are a lot of Spanish groups which are doing research in areas related with physical agents: they use agent-based technologies concepts, especially industrial applications, robotics and domotics (physical agents) and applications related to the information society, (software agents) highlighting the similarities and synergies among physical and software agents. In this special issue we will show several works from those groups, focusing on the recent advances in Physical Agents

A robust and fast method for 6DoF motion estimation from generalized 3D data

Nowadays, there is an increasing number of robotic applications that need to act in real three-dimensional (3D) scenarios. In this paper we present a new mobile robotics orientated 3D registration method that improves previous Iterative Closest Points based solutions both in speed and accuracy. As an initial step, we perform a low cost computational method to obtain descriptions for 3D scenes planar surfaces. Then, from these descriptions we apply a force system in order to compute accurately and efficiently a six degrees of freedom egomotion. We describe the basis of our approach and demonstrate its validity with several experiments using different kinds of 3D sensors and different 3D real environments.This work has been supported by project DPI2009-07144 from Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (Spain) and GRE10-35 from Universidad de Alicante (Spain)

JavaVis: An Integrated Computer Vision Library for Teaching Computer Vision

In this article, we present a new framework oriented to teach Computer Vision related subjects called JavaVis. It is a computer vision library divided in three main areas: 2D package is featured for classical computer vision processing; 3D package, which includes a complete 3D geometric toolset, is used for 3D vision computing; Desktop package comprises a tool for graphic designing and testing of new algorithms. JavaVis is designed to be easy to use, both for launching and testing existing algorithms and for developing new ones.This work was supported by project GRE10‐35 from Universidad de Alicante (Spain) and grant GITE‐09017‐UA of University of Alicante

Combining visual features and Growing Neural Gas networks for robotic 3D SLAM

The use of 3D data in mobile robotics provides valuable information about the robot’s environment. Traditionally, stereo cameras have been used as a low-cost 3D sensor. However, the lack of precision and texture for some surfaces suggests that the use of other 3D sensors could be more suitable. In this work, we examine the use of two sensors: an infrared SR4000 and a Kinect camera. We use a combination of 3D data obtained by these cameras, along with features obtained from 2D images acquired from these cameras, using a Growing Neural Gas (GNG) network applied to the 3D data. The goal is to obtain a robust egomotion technique. The GNG network is used to reduce the camera error. To calculate the egomotion, we test two methods for 3D registration. One is based on an iterative closest points algorithm, and the other employs random sample consensus. Finally, a simultaneous localization and mapping method is applied to the complete sequence to reduce the global error. The error from each sensor and the mapping results from the proposed method are examined.This work has been supported by Grant DPI2009-07144 and DPI2013-40534-R from Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion of the Spanish Government, University of Alicante Projects GRE09-16 and GRE10-35, and Valencian Government Project GV/2011/034

Las cooperativas y los países en desarrollo.

Asistimos a una crisis global que cuestiona la eficacia de los modelos de cooperación al desarrollo que, en general, están marcados por una separación entre los gestores de la cooperación y los beneficiarios de ayudas. Se da una cierta «profesionalización» de donante y de receptor que contribuye a enquistar los problemas estructurales que constituyen la raíz de los mismos. Valorando los éxitos alcanzados a escala mundial en las décadas pasadas, que han logrado sacar de la pobreza extrema a grandes masas de la población mundial, se hace necesario un nuevo enfoque para la gestión del desarrollo, que ponga el acento en las personas y que favorezca la colaboración estrecha entre donantes y beneficiarios, rompiendo con la dualidad de funciones de los modelos clásicos de cooperación al desarrollo. En este artículo se pone de manifiesto que el modelo cooperativo cumple perfectamente con los principios de lo que podemos llamar nuevos planteamientos de cooperación al desarrollo, que ponen el énfasis en el enfoque territorial de las iniciativas. El modelo cooperativo requiere, por principio, de la participación de todas las personas involucradas en la iniciativa empresarial y añade además unos valores de respeto y cuidado que son necesarios y parte esencial de los modelos de desarrollo basados en el territorio y que se muestran a través de algunos ejemplos

Novedades corológicas para Almería:: el género "Acer L." en la sierra de Los Filabres

New chorological records for Almería: the genus Acer L. in Los Filabres mountain rangePalabras clave. Acer monspessulanum, Acer opalus subsp. granatense, flora, conservación, Almería.Key words. Acer monspessulanum, Acer opalus subsp. granatense, flora, conservation, Almeri

Geometric 3D point cloud compression

The use of 3D data in mobile robotics applications provides valuable information about the robot’s environment but usually the huge amount of 3D information is unmanageable by the robot storage and computing capabilities. A data compression is necessary to store and manage this information but preserving as much information as possible. In this paper, we propose a 3D lossy compression system based on plane extraction which represent the points of each scene plane as a Delaunay triangulation and a set of points/area information. The compression system can be customized to achieve different data compression or accuracy ratios. It also supports a color segmentation stage to preserve original scene color information and provides a realistic scene reconstruction. The design of the method provides a fast scene reconstruction useful for further visualization or processing tasks.This work has been supported by the Spanish Government DPI2013-40534-R grant

ViDRILO: The Visual and Depth Robot Indoor Localization with Objects information dataset

In this article we describe a semantic localization dataset for indoor environments named ViDRILO. The dataset provides five sequences of frames acquired with a mobile robot in two similar office buildings under different lighting conditions. Each frame consists of a point cloud representation of the scene and a perspective image. The frames in the dataset are annotated with the semantic category of the scene, but also with the presence or absence of a list of predefined objects appearing in the scene. In addition to the frames and annotations, the dataset is distributed with a set of tools for its use in both place classification and object recognition tasks. The large number of labeled frames in conjunction with the annotation scheme make this dataset different from existing ones. The ViDRILO dataset is released for use as a benchmark for different problems such as multimodal place classification and object recognition, 3D reconstruction or point cloud data compression.This work was supported by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad of the Spanish Government, and by Consejería de Educación, Cultura y Deportes of the JCCM regional government through project PPII-2014-015-P (grant number DPI2013-40534-R). Jesus Martínez-Gómez is also funded by the JCCM (grant number POST2014/8171)