Abstract: A method, non-transitory computer readable medium and apparatus for generating graphical chromophore maps are disclosed. For example, the method includes receiving an image of a customer from a mobile endpoint device of the customer, wherein the image is taken via the mobile endpoint device of the customer, converting RGB values of the image into a spectral representation, performing a constrained independent component analysis (ICA) on the spectral representation to obtain three or more independent components that are ordered, generating a first graphical chromophore map of a first independent component of the three or more independent components that are ordered and a second graphical chromophore map of a second independent component of the three or more independent components that are ordered and transmitting the first graphical chromophore map and the second graphical chromophore map to the mobile endpoint device of the customer for display.

Abstract: A method, non-transitory computer readable medium and apparatus for determining spectral characteristics of an image captured by a camera on a mobile endpoint device are disclosed. For example, the method includes receiving the image of a color calibration card comprising a plurality of color patches and a quick response (QR) code, wherein each one of the plurality of color patches has a known spectral reflectance, determining spectral characteristics from the image of the color calibration card, wherein the spectral characteristics are used to analyze additional images that are received from the camera on the mobile endpoint device and transmitting an activation signal to activate an incentive associated with the QR code to the mobile endpoint device in response to receiving the image of the color calibration card.

Abstract: Interacting with the driver based on the driver's context can keep help keep the driver alert. The context can be determined determining driver characteristics including the interests and by monitoring the circumstances surrounding the driver, such as the state of the driver using sensors included in the vehicle, the state of the vehicle, and the information about the driver's current locale. The characteristics and the monitored circumstances define the context of driver. Information of interest to the driver is obtained and is used to generate actions that are recommendable to the driver based on the driver's context. The actions are used to keep the driver alert.

Abstract: A method, non-transitory computer readable medium and apparatus for transmitting an assessment of facial skin health of a customer are disclosed. For example, the method includes receiving an image of a customer from a mobile endpoint device of the customer, analyzing one or more parameters of a facial skin of the customer in the image of the customer, determining the assessment of facial skin health of the customer based on the one or more parameters of the facial skin that are analyzed and transmitting the assessment of facial skin health to the mobile endpoint device of the customer to cause the mobile endpoint device to automatically display the assessment of facial skin health.

Abstract: A method, non-transitory computer readable medium and apparatus for generating an interactive image of facial skin of a user that is displayed via a mobile endpoint device of the user are disclosed. For example, the method includes displaying a guide to position a face of the user, capturing an image of the face of the user, transmitting the image to a facial skin analysis server for analyzing one or more parameters of the facial skin of the user, receiving the interactive image of the face of the user that includes metadata associated with the one or more parameters of the facial skin that were analyzed by the facial skin analysis server, and displaying the interactive image of the face of the user.

Abstract: A method for determining an emotional state of a subject taking an assessment. The method includes eliciting predicted facial expressions from a subject administered questions each intended to elicit a certain facial expression that conveys a baseline characteristic of the subject; receiving a video sequence capturing the subject answering the questions; determining an observable physical behavior experienced by the subject across a series of frames corresponding to the sample question; associating the observed behavior with the emotional state that corresponds with the facial expression; and training a classifier using the associations. The method includes receiving a second video sequence capturing the subject during an assessment and applying features extracted from the second image data to the classifier for determining the emotional state of the subject in response to an assessment item administered during the assessment.

Abstract: A method, system, and computer-usable tangible storage device for robustly cropping and accurately recognizing license plates to account for noise sources and interfering artifacts are disclosed. License plate images and sub-images can be tightly cropped utilizing an image-based classifier and gradient-based cropping. An image-based classifier can identify the location of valid characters within the image. Because of a number of noise sources, such as, for example, residual plate rotation and shear in the characters within the image, the image-based classifier performs a “rough” identification of the image boundaries. An additional processing step utilizing gradient-based cropping is performed to fine-tune the license plate image boundaries. Gradient-based cropping eliminates unwanted border artifacts that could substantially impact the segmentation and license plate character recognition results.

Abstract: A method and system for identifying content relevance comprises acquiring video data, mapping the acquired video data to a feature space to obtain a feature representation of the video data, assigning the acquired video data to at least one action class based on the feature representation of the video data, and determining a relevance of the acquired video data.

Abstract: As set forth herein, systems and methods are described that facilitate to analyze a video stream from a camera mounted on the side of a school bus, wherein a sub-set of video sequences showing cars illegally passing the stopped school bus are automatically identified through image and/or video processing. The described systems and methods provide a significant savings in terms of the amount of manual review that is required to identify such violations. The video sequences also can be analyzed further to additionally produce images of the license plate (for identification of the violator), thereby providing further reduction in required human processing and review time. In one embodiment, automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) is employed to identify text on the violator's license plate, as well as the state by which the license plate was issued, without requiring human review of the license plate image.

Abstract: A multimodal sensing system includes various devices that work together to automatically classify an action. A video camera captures a sequence of digital images. At least one other sensor device captures other sensed data (e.g., motion data). The system will extract video features from the digital images so that each extracted image feature is associated with a time period. It will extract other features from the other sensed data so that each extracted other feature is associated with a time period. The system will fuse a group of the extracted video features and a group of the extracted other features to create a fused feature representation for a time period. It will then analyze the fused feature representation to identify a class, access a data store of classes and actions to identify an action that is associated with the class, and save the identified action to a memory device.

Abstract: A method and system for detecting anomalies in video footage. A training dictionary can be configured to include a number of event classes, wherein events among the event classes can be defined with respect to n-dimensional feature vectors. One or more nonlinear kernel function can be defined, which transform the n-dimensional feature vectors into a higher dimensional feature space. One or more test events can then be received within an input video sequence of the video footage. Thereafter, a determination can be made if the test event(s) is anomalous by applying a sparse reconstruction with respect to the training dictionary in the higher dimensional feature space induced by the nonlinear kernel function.

Abstract: A device and method for providing a visual cue for improved text imaging on a mobile device. The method includes determining a minimum text size for accurate optical character recognition (OCR) of an image captured by the mobile device, receiving an image stream of a printed substrate, and displaying the image stream and a visual cue superimposed onto the image stream, wherein the visual cue is indicative of the minimum text size. The method further includes capturing a digital image of the image stream, wherein the digital image does not include the visual cue. Additionally, the method further includes notifying a user of the mobile device when text displayed within the image stream is at least as large as the minimum text size.

Abstract: The quality of surgeries in captured videos is modeled in a learning network. For this task, a dataset of surgical video is given with a corresponding set of scores that are labeled by reviewers, to learn a model for quality assessment of surgical procedures. A learned model is then used to automatically assess quality of a surgical procedure, which omits the need for professional experts to manually inspect such videos. The quality assessment of surgical procedures can be performed off-line or in real-time as the surgical procedure is being performed. Surgical actions in surgical procedures are also localized in space and time to provide a feedback to the surgeon as to which action can be improved.

Abstract: A method of automatically identifying a border in a captured image may include capturing an image of a target by an image sensor of an electronic device, and, by one or more processors, processing the image to automatically detect a border of the target in the image by applying an automatic border detection method to the image. The method may include presenting the image of the target to a user via a display of the electronic device so that the presented image comprises a visual depiction of the detected border, receiving an adjustment of the border from the user, determining whether to update the default parameters based on the received adjustment, in response to determining to update the default parameters, determining one or more updated parameters for the automatic border detection method that are based on, at least in part, the received adjustment, and saving the updated parameters.

Abstract: Eliminate or reduce the impact of glare in printed information tag recognition applications using single- and multi-pose external illumination coupled with intelligent processing. A shelf imager can acquire shelf images for printed information tag localization and recognition. An external illuminator can provide at least one illumination condition/pose for shelf image acquisition in addition to lighting associated with the enclosed environment. A glare region of interest (ROI) detector can analyze all or a portion of the acquired shelf images for glare to determine whether additional images need to be acquired using different illumination conditions provided by the single- or multi-pose external illuminator or whether full or portion of acquired images need to be analyzed by a printed information tag locator and recognizer. A printed information tag locator and recognizer can analyze all or a portion of the acquired images to localize and recognize data printed on the printed information tags.

Abstract: A method and system for reconstructing an image of a scene comprises configuring a digital light modulator according to a spatially varying pattern. Light energy associated with the scene and incident on the spatially varying pattern is collected and optically focused on the photodetectors. Data indicative of the intensity of the focused light energy from each of said at least two photodetectors is collected. Data from the photodetectors is then combined to reconstruct an image of the scene.

Abstract: A method, computer readable medium and apparatus for verifying an identity of an individual based upon facial expressions as exhibited in a query video of the individual are disclosed. The method includes receiving a reference video for each one of a plurality of different individuals, wherein a plurality of facial gesture encoders is extracted from at least one frame of the reference video describing one or more facial expressions of each one of the plurality of different individuals, receiving the query video, calculating a similarity score for the reference video for the each one of the plurality of different individuals based on an analysis that compares the plurality of facial gesture encoders of the at least one frame of the reference video for the each one of the plurality of different individuals to a plurality of facial gesture encoders extracted from at least one frame of the query video.

Abstract: A system generates a secure barcode by: identifying a primary pattern for a two-dimensional barcode to be printed on a substrate, wherein the primary pattern comprises of a set of dark cells and a set of light cells; identifying a two-dimensional micro-shape, wherein the micro-shape has a size that is no larger than a size of each cell of the two-dimensional barcode; generating a secondary pattern comprising a plurality of the micro-shapes; and superimposing the secondary pattern with the primary pattern for the two-dimensional barcode to yield a secure barcode. The resulting two-dimensional barcode includes a primary pattern comprising a set of dark cells and a set of light cells, where the sets represent encoded data, along with a secondary pattern of micro-shapes that are superimposed with the primary pattern.

Abstract: A method, computer readable medium and apparatus for verifying an identity of an individual based upon facial expressions as exhibited in a query video of the individual are disclosed. The method includes receiving a reference video for each one of a plurality of different individuals, wherein a plurality of facial gesture encoders is extracted from at least one frame of the reference video describing one or more facial expressions of each one of the plurality of different individuals, receiving the query video, calculating a similarity score for the reference video for the each one of the plurality of different individuals based on an analysis that compares the plurality of facial gesture encoders of the at least one frame of the reference video for the each one of the plurality of different individuals to a plurality of facial gesture encoders extracted from at least one frame of the query video.

Abstract: A system and method for cropping a license plate image to facilitate license plate recognition by obtaining an image that includes the license plate image, dividing the image into multiple sub-blocks, computing an activity measure for each sub-block; determining an activity threshold, determining that a sub-block is an active sub-block by comparing the activity measure for the sub-block with the activity threshold, generating a second image of the license plate information, where the second image includes the active sub-block, and obtaining the license plate information based on the second image.