Computer vision

Widespread crime and the rise of global terrorism have meant that security systems need to incorporate sophisticated and rapid computer recognition of human faces, as delegates will hear next week at the British Machine Vision Conference being held at the University of East Anglia (UEA).

Another side of the same coin is in making human faces that appear on computers as convincing as possible, and in particular making speech appear realistic, as a team of UEA researchers will tell the conference.

“The UEA team have been working on the movement of the lips and the inner contours of the mouth, both of which have a significant impact on how well understood computer generated speech is,” said conference organiser, Dr Richard Harvey of UEA’s School of Computing Sciences.

The conference will also hear from one of the world’s leading experts on computer recognition, David Forsyth of the University of California will give a keynote talk on how image databases can be made more user-friendly and natural in the way they ‘search’ and retrieve pictures and video clips.

For the first time running alongside the scientific presentations will be an art exhibition, featuring compu-art – from computer generated cartoons to Monet-like works of art produced from digital photographs.

Other highlights during the conference include applications of computer vision to medical situations, such as ultrasound and a visual tool to improve your golf swing.

The conference takes place at UEA between 8-11 September 2003.