Object Detection in Fisheye Images - computer-vision

I have a camera that uses a fish-eye lens and need to run an object detection network like YOLO or SSD with it.
Should I rectify/un-distort the incoming image first? Is that computationally expensive?
Or, should I try to train the network using fish-eye images?
Many thanks for the help.

If you are trying to use a model that was pretrained on perspective rectilinear images, you will probably get poor results either way. On one hand, objects in raw fisheye images have a different appearance from the same objects in perspective images and many will be misdetected. On the other hand, you can't really "undistort" a fisheye image with a large field of view, and when you try - it looks very different from real perspective pictures. Some researchers are doing neither and investigating other alternatives instead.
If you have a training set of fisheye images, you can train a model on the raw fisheye images. It is a more difficult task for the network to learn, because the same object changes appearance when it moves, while convolutional neural networks are shift invariant, but nevertheless it is possible and has been demonstrated in the literature.

Related

Undistorting without calibration images

I'm currently trying to "undistort" fisheye imagery using OpenCV in C++. I know the exact lens and camera model, so I figured that I would be able to use this information to calculate some parameters and ultimately convert fisheye images to rectilinear images. However, all the tutorials I've found online encourage using auto-calibration with checkerboards. Is there a way to calibrate the fisheye camera by just using camera + lens parameters and some math? Or do I have to use the checkerboard calibration technique?
I am trying to avoid having to use the checkerboard calibration technique because I am just receiving some images to undistort, and it would be undesirable to have to ask for images of checkerboards if possible. The lens is assumed to retain a constant zoom/focal length for all images.
Thank you so much!
To un-distord an image, you need to know the intrinsic parameters of the camera which describe the distorsion.
You can't compute them from datasheet values, because they depend on how the lens is manufactured and two lenses of the same vendor & model might have different distorsion coefficients, especially if they are cheap one.
Some raster graphics editor embed a lens database from which you can query distorsion coefficients. But there is no magic, they built it by measuring the lens distorsion and eventually interpolate them after.
But you can still use an empiric method to correct at least barrel effect.
They are plenty of shaders to do so and you can always do your own maths to build a distorsion map.

Real-time object tracking in OpenCV

I have written an object classification program using BoW clustering and SVM classification algorithms. The program runs successfully. Now that I can classify the objects, I want to track them in real time by drawing a bounding rectangle/circle around them. I have researched and came with the following ideas.
1) Use homography by using the train set images from the train data directory. But the problem with this approach is, the train image should be exactly same as the test image. Since I'm not detecting specific objects, the test images are closely related to the train images but not essentially an exact match. In homography we find a known object in a test scene. Please correct me if I am wrong about homography.
2) Use feature tracking. Im planning to extract the features computed by SIFT in the test images which are similar to the train images and then track them by drawing a bounding rectangle/circle. But the issue here is how do I know which features are from the object and which features are from the environment? Is there any member function in SVM class which can return the key points or region of interest used to classify the object?
Thank you

Face recognition using neural networks

I am doing a project on face recognition, for that I have already used different methods like eigenface, fisherface, LBP histograms and surf. But these methods are not giving me an accurate result. Surf gives good matches for exact same images, but I need to match one image with it's own different poses(wearing glasses,side pose,if somebody is covering his face) etc. LBP compares histogram of images, i.e., only color informations. So when there is high variation on lighting condition it is not showing good results. So I heard about neural networks, but I don't know much about that. Is it possible to train the system very accurately by using neural networks. If possible how can we do that?
According to this OpenCV page, there does seem to be some support for machine learning. That being said, the support does seem to be a bit limited.
What you could do, would be to:
User OpenCV to extract the face of the person.
Change the image to grey scale.
Try to manipulate so that the face is always the same size.
All the above should be doable with OpenCV itself (could be wrong, haven't messed with OpenCV in a while) so that should save you some time.
Next, you take the image, as a bitmap maybe, and feed the bitmap as a vector to the neural network. Alternatively, as #MatthiasB recommended, you could feed the features instead of individual pixels. This would simplify the data being passed, thus making the network easier to train.
As for training, you manipulate these images as above, and then feed them to the network. If a person uses glasses occasionally, you could have cases of the same person with and without glasses, etc.

Is Eigenface best for moving object face recognition

I am doing a project on face recognition from CCTV cameras, I want to recognize each individual faces. I think eigenface method is best for face recognition. But when we use eigenface method for moving object face recognition, is there any problem? Can we recognize individuals perfectly? Since it is not still image, I am really confused to select a method.
Please help me to know whether this method is ok, otherwise suggest a better alternative.
Short answer: Typically those computer vision techniques used in image analysis can be used in video analysis, too. Videos just give you more information (esp. the temporal information.) For example, you could do face recognition using multiple frames, and between each frame you do object tracking. Associating multiple frames typically give you higher accuracy.
IMO, the most difficult problems are: you're more likely to face viewing angle, calibration problems, and lighting condition problems, in which you will need accurate face detection technique, or more training data in order to recognize faces under viewing angles and lighting conditions. Eigen face based approach relies on an accurate position of faces, eyes, and so on. Otherwise, you are likely to mix different features in the same vector. But again, this problem also exists in face recognition under still image.
To sum up, video content only gives you more information. If you don't really want to associated frames and consider temporal information, video is just a collection of still images :)

Traffic Motion Recognition

I'm trying to build a simple traffic motion monitor to estimate average speed of moving vehicles, and I'm looking for guidance on how to do so using an open source package like OpenCV or others that you might recommend for this purpose. Any good resources that are particularly good for this problem?
The setup I'm hoping for is to install a webcam on a high-rise building next to the road in question, and point the camera down onto moving traffic. Camera altitude would be anywhere between 20 ft and 100ft, and the building would be anywhere between 20ft and 500ft away from the road.
Thanks for your input!
Generally speaking, you need a way to detect cars so you can get their 2D coordinates in the video frame. You might want to use a tracker to speed up the process and take advantage of the predictable motion of the vehicles. You, also, need a way to calibrate the camera so you can translate the 2D coordinates in the image to depth information so you can approximate speed.
So as a first step, look at detectors such as deformable parts model DPM, and tracking by detection methods. You'll probably need to port some code from Matlab (and if you do, please make it available :-) ). If that's too slow, maybe do some segmentation of foreground blobs, and track the colour histogram or HOG descriptors using a Particle Filter or a Kalman Filter to predict motion.