Recent Announcements:
(see old announcements)

(Mar. 25) IMPORTANT: Assignment #5 has just been posted on the projects page. It's a description of what we want in your final report, which is due April 12 at noon. Also, we have sent to you today, by email, our feedback on your second progress reports, as well as your evaluation. If you haven't received the email, please let Sven know immediately. Finally, there will be an important tutorial (your last) tomorrow on oral presentation skills, in preparation for your final presentations. Please plan on attending.

(Mar. 6) IMPORTANT: Assignment #4 has just been posted on the projects page. While it's due on March 18, note that you must submit by email on Monday, March 15, to the instructors a statement of your final goals.

(Feb. 19) IMPORTANT: Assignment #3 has just been posted on the projects page, with a new due date of March 1 (noon), rather than next Thurs. You will still be giving your progress report #1 oral presentation this Thursday, but won't have to hand the report in until the following Monday. Also, during Allan's office hours next week, i.e., Tuesday, Feb 23, 3:00pm, Allan and I would like to meet each group separately for 20 minutes to give you feedback on your Project Proposals and give you your grade standing in the course thus far (20% of your final grade, including the Problem Statement, Project Proposal, and class participation). We would like to meet the Chair Detection Group at 3:10pm, the Balance Assessment Group at 3:30pm, and the Handrail Usage Group at 3:50pm. We would like all group members to be there for their group's meeting.

(Feb. 13) Just a reminder that the tutorial on Friday, Feb 26, will be a lab visit to IASTL, Room 438, 500 University Avenue (University Avenue and Dundas Avenue). Please meet there directly at 10:00am, and come prepared with questions for Alex and his team.

(Feb. 12) See the Slides link for some slides on IT search, contour partitioning, and contour grouping that Pablo covered in the tutorial. Some new code posted on the Projects link as well.

(Feb. 1) See projects page for a link to a page providing feedback on your Project Proposals. Please try and address these comments in your final submission this Thursday. Don't forget you rpresentations in the class this Thursday.

(Jan. 28) See projects page for new code, data, and documentation postings. This is the last time we'll update additions to the Projects page in these announcements. From now on, please go straight to the Projects link on a regular basis to see what's new.

(Jan. 28) See projects page for notes on image gradient estimation and Histograms of Gradients (HoG) demo code.

(Jan. 28) See projects page for background demo that Allan presented in class on Jan. 21, updated with an M-file to run on frames of the stairs dataset.

(Jan. 27) Please see the projects link for a new posting on accessing the datasets on CDF as well as a new Matlab command for reading the video files. Pablo and the staff at CDF have put in an incredible amount of work overcoming a number of obstacles to make this data available and readable. Thanks, Pablo and the CDF staff (Ange, Arcady, and Iordan) for all your help!

(Jan. 27) Note: the first link to background subtraction code on the projects page (i.e., the code that Pablo demo'd to you during the second tutorial) is missing the M-file that computes the covariance and inverse covariance matrices. The missing code has been posted on the projects page just below where the original link was. Note that this version requires a whole sequence of background images to train the covariance matrix (see the M-file for details on how the covariance matrix is trained).

(Jan. 26) IT Search code bundle (including documentation) has been posted at the bottom of the projects page.

(Jan. 21) If you go to the bottom of the projects link, Allan has posted the background subtraction demo that he showed you in class today, this time applied to the sit-to-stand avi videos.

(Jan. 21) For next week, we'd like to see each group give a brief update on their progress over the last week. In particular, we'd like to see the results of the provided tools, as well as any other tools you've found, on the image sequences you're targeting in your project. Show us the output, tell us about the challenges you think you face, and how you plan to meet these challenges. These kinds of things should also appear in your preliminary project proposals due that same day.

(Jan. 18) Remember that Allan's office hours have moved to Tuesdays, from 3-5pm. There will be no office hours on Thursdays from 3-5pm. Recall that Sven's office hours are from 3-5pm on Wed.

(Jan. 18) Under "projects", you'll find a peer review form for your proposals. The day after you hand them in (i.e., the tutorial on Jan 29th), you will use this form to help evaluate your colleagues' proposals. Please have a careful look at the checklist, as these are the same sorts of criteria by which the instructors will evaluate your proposals.

(Jan. 15) The code that Pablo demonstrated at the tutorial is now posted. Please go to the projects link and scroll to the bottom and you'll see the link.

(Jan. 13) Don't forget that your Problem Statements are due at the start of class tomorrow. We'll immediately move to the group presentations, followed by discussion. Note also that your next assignment (Project Proposal) has been posted.

(Jan. 7) Please have a look at the projects link. There's you'll find a link to a detailed description of the three projects and their subprojects, sample datasets that give you a look and feel of each problem domain, as well as a link to your first assignment (due the beginning of the second class), which will be handed out in class, along with the course information sheet.

(Jan. 5) Happy New Year! Note that office hours will begin next week. Dickinson's office hours are Wed, 3-5pm, while Jepson's are Thurs, 3-5pm. Note that for next Wednesday only, Dickinson's office hours will be an hour early, thus 2-4pm. There will be a tutorial this Friday, where the TA (Pablo Sala) will answer questions about the first assignment, which will be handed out during the first class. It's important that you attend this tutorial.

(Dec. 18) The course bulletin board is now working!

(Dec. 15) The course bulletin board is not working yet. We'll let you know when it's working. For now, please have a look at the course information sheet below, as well as the projects link, for information about the course, as well as what your first assignment will be.

(Dec. 15) The first lecture is Thursday, Jan. 7, 1-3pm, BA2135. Please be on time, and bring your coats, as we will immediately walk down to Intelligent Assistive Technology and Systems Laboratory (IATSL), Room 438, 500 University Avenue (University Avenue and Dundas Avenue) for a meeting with our service learning client (Alex Mihailidis), a tour of his laboratory, and an introduction to three possible course projects, one of which you will be asked to decide on by January 14 (the next class). It's critical that you be on time to this class.

(Dec. 15) The CSC420 Introduction to Image Understanding course this winter will be taught in the context of assistive living technology, in cooperation with researchers at the University of Toronto's Intelligent Assitive Technology and Systems Laboratory. Under the guidance of the two course instructors, Sven Dickinson and Allan Jepson, students will work in small groups to design and build computer vision systems aimed at enabling users to participate fully in their daily lives.

For further information about the course or to report problems with the web page, contact the instructors:

Sven Dickinson:

• email sven@cs.toronto.edu
• home page

• email jepson@cs.toronto.edu
• home page