James Annesley

Evaluation of MPEG7 color descriptors for visual surveillance retrieval

This paper presents the results to evaluate the effectiveness of MPEG 7 color descriptors in visual surveillance retrieval problems. A set of image sequences of pedestrians entering and leaving a room, viewed by two cameras, is used to create a test set. The problem posed is the correct identification of other sequences showing the same person as contained in an example image. Color descriptors from the MPEG7 standard are used, including dominant color, color layout, color structure and scalable color experiments are presented that compare the performance of these, and also compare automatic and manual techniques to examine the sensitivity of the retrieval rate on segmentation accuracy. In addition, results are presented on innovative methods to combine the output from different descriptors, and also different components of the observed people. The evaluation measure used is the ANMRR, a standard in content-based retrieval experiments.

Re-identification of pedestrians with variable occlusion and scale

This paper presents results from experiments designed to measure the accuracy with which people can be reidentified using multiple visual surveillance observations. Two public data sets are used: VIPeR and a new public data set, V-47. The re-identification method is a Large Margin Nearest Neighbour classifier using feature vectors constructed from overlapping block histograms. The experiments investigate the performance with respect to the level of occlusion, the training regime, specificity of the domain and the resolution of the observations. A method is proposed that reduces the adverse impact of occlusions, when present; and increases the beneficial impact of higher resolution data, when available.

A profile of MPEG-7 for visual surveillance

This paper builds on previous work to propose a meta-data standard for video surveillance. The motivation is to promote interoperability. The starting point is the set of requirements under consideration for a Multimedia Application Format. These requirements cover a description of the surveillance system and of the activity in the scene. In addition to this set, appropriate descriptions for the relation between camera and scene are also considered. To improve interoperability between systems and between components of a system, two types of restrictions are proposed. The first proposal is a restricted subset of the MPEG-7 elements that are applicable to the surveillance domain. The second proposal is to use the MPEG-7 tools to include domain-specific taxonomies to restrict the names of elements used in the semantic descriptions. Both proposals are incorporated into examples which demonstrate the use of the standard.

An extension of the AVC file format for Video Surveillance

This paper introduces and discusses a recent standardization project by the MPEG group that aims at providing an interoperable file format tailored to the needs of the surveillance industry. The new standard is called Video Surveillance Application Format and extends the H.264 — AVC file format specification. Based on a review of the application requirements, the rationale is provided for the technical design choices, and an example system implementation is described in detail. This provides interoperability at the data format and metadata levels. An example reference implementation instantiates and tests the design. The resultant is the specification of a file format suitable for large-scale camera network deployment.

Decadence and disquiet: recent American fiction and the coming Fin de Siecle

Contemporary culture seems to be increasingly preoccupied with the millennium. “Endism,” the cult of the end, casts a familiar shadow. As memories of the cold war fade and the threat of nuclear apocalypse recedes, concerns about the environment and the disturbing activities of millenarian sects provide new sources of anxiety. Academic texts, like Robert Sinais The Decadence of the Modern World (1978) and Francis Fukuyamas The End of History and the Last Man (1992), echo this apocalyptic atmosphere. One of the most striking versions of the endist thesis is offered by Alain Mine who, in Le Nouveau Moyen Âge (1993), suggests that modernitys dream of a “clean, well-lighted place” is being supplanted by a new medievalism, a period characterised by doubt, fear and superstition. This entropic zeigeist is sustained by a series of obvious comparisons between the anxieties of the contemporary period and those of the last fin de siecle . Elaine Showalters Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture at the Fin de Siecle details some of the points of comparison and produces an argument which identifies a strong image of the past in her vision of the present.