Fumito Yoshikawa

On a grading system for beef marbling

Abstract This paper presents an automatic grading system for beef marbling which is composed of discriminant threshold selection method and run length processing. From the experimental results, it has been confirmed that the proposed system enables high quality grading of beef marbling, and robust region segmentation of the actual beef rib-eye image into lean and fat regions.

On a fluency image coding system for beef marbling evaluation

This paper presents a Fluency Image Coding System of beef rib-eye images for Beef Marbling Evaluation. This is the second in a series of cooperative researches with the Japan Livestock Technology Association under an initiative to construct an Automated Online Beef Marbling Grading Support System by image analysis techniques. Our first cooperative research was on a Beef Marbling Grading Method, and was published in this journal in [Pattern Recognition Lett. 21 (12) (2000) 1037-1050]. This second cooperative research focuses on a binary image coding system that supports remote observation of beef marbling structure from a database of coded beef rib-eye images by users including meat graders, livestock producers, and researchers. Image encoding is by a novel automatic contour compression method based on function approximation via interpolation using the Fluency Compactly Supported Sampling Functions of degree 2. Image decoding, based on interpolation of the encoded data by the similar functions, enables the web-browser based decoder to reconstruct the original fat contours smoothly even on Affine-transformed enlargement. Experimental results showing, respectively, size and image quality comparisons with other formats that support binary images and several enlargement schemes are included for evaluation.

Free viewpoint browsing of live soccer games

We present a new video browsing method for multiple videos that are taken at large-scale space for live 3D events such as soccer games. By our method, multiple viewers over a computer network can browse a live 3D event from any viewpoint and each viewer can move his/her viewpoint freely. Our algorithm consists of five steps. Our system first captures videos from multiple cameras, then extracts texture segments from the videos, selects appropriate segments according to a viewpoint which is given by user dynamically, transmits them to users, and lays out the segments in virtual space so that each viewer can see the segments in a virtual environment as if the viewers were in the event. Our 3D video display system requires 10 Mbps at most to browse a soccer game. We conducted experiments at two real soccer stadiums and succeeded in realizing live realistic visualization with free viewpoint at about 26 fps

Motion image segmentation using global criteria and DP

We propose methods for segmenting a motion sequence into motion primitives, taking into account temporal constraints (continuity along the time axis). In the proposed methods, dynamic programming (DP) is used on a motion feature sequence to allow for the effects of these constraints on the results of the segmentation. The methods do not require such a running window along the time axis, as is typical for the usual methods, and thus they can be applied to the segmentation of transient motions. The results of comparative experiments using several motion features and segmentation methods on weightlifting motion data demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.

Feature extraction algorithm for beef marbling

Proposes a feature extraction algorithm for automatically grading beef marbling. Considering the practical usage of a beef marbling grading support system, the feature extraction algorithm for beef marbling that can precisely identify the distribution of fat particles and the fat contents must be designed to be simple and robust for actual use. From the results of our experiments, the usefulness and appropriateness of using run length histogram quantized data as the feature quantities for the grading of beef marbling has been confirmed.

On an image contour compression method using compactly supported sampling functions

We propose a novel image contour compression method using compactly supported sampling functions. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our method, we carried out experiments on a real life application using beef marbling images for an integrated database and display system to assist beef marbling evaluation. This methods applicability, however, is not limited to beef marbling images but can be extended to other applications having the need for image contour compression.

A note on a high resolutional communication system using fluency theory

When we want to encode a hand-written document and store the encoded data in a computer, and transmit it as binary image data via the Internet or public communication networks, the image data is required to be compressed into a small capacity in the network environment with limited network bandwidth. There are two important aspects concerning the encoding/decoding of binary image data. One is how to keep the fine quality of the original image data, and the other is how to reduce the capacity of data. The paper proposes a new communication system by which the original binary image can keep its fine quality even when it is enlarged or reduced, at the same time, and reconstructed from the compressed data at a high speed.