Date: 11 Jun 93 20:26:33-PST
From: Vision-List moderator Phil Kahn <Vision-List-Request@TELEOS.COM>
Errors-to: Vision-List-Errors@TELEOS.COM
Reply-to: Vision-List@TELEOS.COM
Subject: VISION-LIST digest 12.26
To: Vision-List@TELEOS.COM

VISION-LIST Digest    Fri Jun 11 20:26:33 PDT 93     Volume 12 : Issue 26

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Today's Topics:

 Comercial information about FLIR cameras
 Announcing release of computer vision software
 software package for handwriting recognition
 NN's for face rec.
 Research Associate in Computer Vision
 Computer Vision Guest Scientist Position 
 Vision Interface '94
 CAIA-94 CFP: 10th IEEE Conference on AI for Applications

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu, 3 Jun 93 18:18:33 +0200
From: diaz@santiago.isdefe.es (Jose Antonio Diaz)
Subject: Comercial information about FLIR cameras

Sometime ago I posted Vision List newsgroup and requested commercial
information about FLIR cameras. Thanks to everybody who answered me.

This is a list of companies working on that area with some product
characteristics. 

* ENOSA
  Madrid, Spain
  34-1-846-01-00
  Fax 34-1-846-01-02

* Electrophysics
  New Jersey, USA
  (800)759-9577

  It builds and sells shuttered pyroelectric vidicon cameras

* Insight Vision Systems, Inc.
  Roger F. Wells, General Manager
  2421 Linden Lane
  Silver Spring, MD 20910, USA
  (301)495-0211
  Fax (301)495-2619.

* AGEMA
  Danderyd, Swedem
  46-08-753-3400

  Electro-mechanical scanning radiometer with internal temperature references.
  HgCdTe SPRITE, 3-5 5m (8-13 5m  optional).
  Cooling: liquid nitrogen or thermoelectric Peltier effect.

* Inframetrics
  Brusseles, Belgium
  32-2-252-5712

* SantaBarbara FPA
  USA
  Fax (805)562 8993

* Amber Engineering
  Goleta, CA., USA
 
  InSb focal place array camera (128x128), 1-5.5 5m.
  Liquid nitrogen cooling.

* Cincinati Electronics
  Mason, OH, USA

  64 to 256 linear and focal place photo voltaic InSb array.
  Liquid nitrogen cooling, 2-5.5 5m.

* David Sarnoff Research Center 
  Princeton, NJ, USA

  PtSi FPA cameras.

* EG&G Reticon
  Sunnyvale, CA, USA

  128x128 FPA (PtSi) infrared camera, 1x512, 1x1024 FPA (PtSi) linear arrays.
   Liquid nitrogen cooling, 1-5.5 5m.

* Fairchild Semiconductor
  Milpitas, CA, USA

  PtSi  FPA cameras.

* FLIR SYSTEMS
  Portland, Oregon, USA 

  SPRITE detector, 2-5.6 5m,  
  Thermoelectric Peltier effect cooling, compressed Argon or
  Split-Stirling cooler.

* FORD AEROSPACE
  Newport Beach, CA, USA

  HgCdTe and PtSi  FPAs.

* HAMAMATSU
  Hamamatsu city, Japan

  Night viewers, pyroelectric vidicon units (0.4-2.2 5m).

* HGH INGNRIE
  Massy, France

  Various products are available using:
  PbS (1.7-2.7 5m), PbSe (2.5-5.5 5m), pyroelectric (1-15 5m), 
  thermal line scanning and spectroradiometer (for the measurement of the 
  enregy level emitted by the object as a function of object temperature).

* IMAGE TECHNOLOGY METHODS
  Woltham, MA, USA

  Pyroelectric vidicon (PEV), 8-14 5m  (2-40 5m optional)

* Inframetrics
  North Billerica, MA USA.

  Electro-mechanically scanned radiometers with internal temperature 
  references, HgCdTe detector, 8-12 5m  (3-5 5m  or 3-12 5m  optional).
  Liquid nitrogen, Stirling cycle or thermoelectric Peltier effect cooling.

* INSIGHT VISION SYSTEMS
  Malvern, Worcestershire, UK

  Pyroelectric vidicon (Insight), 8-14 5m, chopped mode of operation.

* ISI GROUP
  Albuquerque, NM, USA

  Pyroelectric vidicon (Videotherm) with built-in monochrome video camera
  8-14 5m  (2-20 5m  optional).

* KODAK
  Rochester, NY, USA

  PtSi focal plane array camera (640x480).
  Liquid nitrogen  or stirling cycle cooling, 1.1- 5.7 5m

* MIKRON
  Wyckoff, NJ, USA

  Electro-mechanical scanning radiometer with internal temperature references.
  HdCdTe (8-13 5m) or InSb (3-5 5m) detector, Liquid nitrogen cooling.

* MITSUBISHI
  Japan

  PtSi FPA (512x512) camera. 
  Split-Stirling or liquid nitrogen cooling, 3-5 5m.

* RANK TAYLOR HOBSON
  UK. 
  
  TICM II (Thermal imaging camera modules, Talytherm), mechanically scanned.
  SPRITE detector, internal thermal references.
  Cryogenically cooled HgCdTe (8-12 5m).

* ROCKWELL INTERNATIONAL
  Richardson, TX, USA
  
  HgCdTe FPA.

* SOFRADIR
  Chatenay-Malabry, France

  HgCdTe  FPA.

* XEDAR
  Boulder, Co, USA

  Pyroelectric vidicon units 2-14 5m (0.6-20 5m optional).
 
* PHOTEK (Photo Emissive Technology)
  26 Castleham Road
  St Leonards on Sea
  East Sussex
  TN38 9NS 
  United Kingdom
  44-424-850555
  Fax 44-424-850051
 
* LORAL Corp.
  USA

	Jose A. Diaz                    diaz@santiago.isdefe.es
	Edison,4			tel:	34-1-411 50 11
	28006 Madrid			fax:	34-1-411 47 03
	SPAIN

------------------------------

Date:  3 Jun 93 16:41 -0700
From: Art Pope <pope@cs.ubc.ca>
Subject: Announcing release of computer vision software

               Announcing the Free Availability of the 
                  Vista Computer Vision Environment

                       Art Pope and David Lowe
                   University of British Columbia

The Vista software environment for computer vision research has been
developed at the University of British Columbia's Laboratory for
Computational Intelligence.  Unlike most toolkits for image processing,
Vista allows easy extension to data types other than images.  It is
designed to support computer vision research in which any user can easily
program new modules or add new data types.  Vista comes with extensive
documentation, a collection of image manipulation routines, edge detectors,
edge linking, overlay of edge vectors on images, tools for printing images,
and tools for viewing images and vectors under the X Window System.

One useful component of Vista is a toolkit to allow rapid development of
applications running under X Windows.  Using a few standard library
routines that do not require knowledge of X internals, a user can create
applications that display images, manipulate vectors, create menus, and
provide full mouse interaction with display elements.  Vista contains an
image viewing widget that provides display independence, image scaling, and
interactive zooming.

Vista operations can be used both as stand-alone UNIX programs
or as library routines. The programs can be used from the UNIX shell
to manipulate files containing images and other objects; they can be
piped together to perform a sequence of operations. The library can be
used to construct custom applications, including ones that display
images interactively under X Windows.

Vista uses its own format for representing images, edge sets, and
other objects in data files. The format is highly flexible -- it can
represent a great variety of image types as well as collections of
images and other objects. The format is also extensible -- for
example, new image attributes can be added without the need to modify
existing software or data files. Tools are available for converting
images between Vista's format and other formats.

Vista is written in ANSI C for UNIX platforms. It requires the X
Window System (X11R5); some portions also require the OSF/Motif widget
library.

Vista's source code and documentation are available from ftp.cs.ubc.ca via
anonymous FTP. There are no significant restrictions on its distribution or
use. The remainder of this announcement contains a more detailed
description of Vista and instructions for obtaining it via FTP.

VISTA FILE FORMAT

Vista employs a data file format that allows any collection of images, edge 
vectors, and other structured objects to be stored in a single file. This 
allows, for example, both an edge set and the image from which it was 
derived to be kept in one file. 

Each file is divided into two parts. The first part, which contains 
descriptions of the objects in the file, is represented entirely in ASCII 
so that it can be easily viewed and even edited using a text editor. One 
can, for example, add a comment annotating an image by simply editing that 
part of the file. The second part of the file holds information that must 
be stored compactly, such as image pixel values. There data is represented 
efficiently with a binary encoding that is independent of machine byte order. 

Vista's data file format can be readily extended. You can record custom 
attributes with each of the images stored in your data files yet still 
manipulate those images using the existing Vista software. You can also 
define custom types of objects (e.g., an object describing a set of camera 
parameters). These custom objects can be included in data files alongside
standard ones such as images and edge sets.

VISTA IMAGE FORMAT

A Vista image is a 3-dimensional array of pixels indexed by row, column, 
and `band' number. The third dimension, band, is used to represent a 
variety of things: the discrete frames of a motion sequence, various camera 
viewpoints, multiple color channels, or the real and imaginary components 
of complex pixel values. It is also used to represent combinations of these 
-- allowing, for example, a single image to represent a motion sequence of 
stereo pairs of RGB color images. Such images can be manipulated as easily 
as a single-band, grey-scale intensity image by most of Vista's subroutines 
and programs. 

Several different pixel representations are supported. They range from a 
single bit to a 32-bit signed integer and a 64-bit floating point number. 
Again, images can be manipulated equally well regardless of pixel 
representation by most of Vista's subroutines and programs.

Vista includes software for translating images in both directions between
`Portable Graymap' (PGM) file format and Vista format. The PBM+ package
can be used to reach a large variety of other formats from PGM format.

VISTA SOFTWARE

Vista includes the following software:

 (a) a collection of UNIX filter programs for manipulating images. There 
     are programs for scaling, cropping and rotating images, adjusting 
     image brightness and contrast, converting images from one pixel 
     representation to another, performing an arithmetic or logical 
     operation on each pixel of an image, convolving two images, computing 
     pixel statistics, estimating the gradient of an image, computing the 
     Fourier transform of an image, computing the magnitude and phase of a 
     complex image, applying the Canny edge detector, and linking edge
     pixels to form sets of extended edges. 
    
 (b) a collection of interactive programs for manipulating images under X 
     Windows. There are menu-driven programs for displaying images and edge 
     sets, cropping images, and adjusting image brightness and contrast. 
     (Some of these programs require the OSF/Motif widget library.) 

 (c) programs for converting Vista images to and from `Portable Graymap'
     (PGM) format, for rendering images and edge sets using Encapsulated 
     PostScript, and for arranging multiple Encapsulated PostScript 
     pictures on a single page. 

 (d) a library of C routines. There are routines for performing each of the 
     operations listed above under item (a), from scaling images to linking 
     edge pixels. There are also routines for reading and writing Vista 
     data files, reporting errors, parsing command line options, and 
     generating PostScript documents. 

 (e) a widget for displaying images under X Windows. The widget has 
     built-in support for color allocation and dithering to accommodate 
     various displays having from 1 to 24 planes. It provides user 
     controls for panning and zooming the displayed image. The widget is 
     compatible with other widget sets based on the X Toolkit, including 
     the MIT Athena and OSF/Motif sets.

 (f) a package that simplifies the task of creating an application that runs
     under X Windows for displaying an image and lines while accepting
     user input through menus and dialog boxes. The package shields the 
     programmer from having to understand a widget set, the X Toolkit, and 
     the Xlib library. The package itself uses the OSF/Motif widget set, 
     but it is designed for easy porting to other widget sets. 

INSTALLATION REQUIREMENTS

Vista is distributed as ANSI C source code. To build it you will need an
ANSI C compiler (we use the GNU project's gcc), X11R5 (at patch level 21 or
better), and about 40 megabytes of disk space.

The OSF/Motif widget library is needed to build some portions of Vista -- 
specifically, some of the programs mentioned under item (b), above, and the 
package described under item (f). Lacking OSF/Motif it is still possible to 
build most Vista software, including one of the programs for displaying 
images under X Windows. We've been using V1.1.2 of the OSF/Motif library.

Like X11R5, Vista uses the imake facility to configure the build and 
installation procedures for a particular site and machine architecture. You 
will need the imake, makedepend, and mkdirhier tools distributed with 
X11R5. Vista includes architecture-specific configuration files for SunOS 
4.1, and Silicon Graphics's IRIX 4.0. 

DOCUMENTATION

Vista is fully documented by about 250 pages of on-line `man' pages. It 
also includes a tutorial on using Vista programs, an introduction to 
programming with the Vista library, a set of example programs, installation 
instructions, and guidelines for those contributing Vista software.

OBTAINING VISTA

Vista is available via anonymous FTP from ftp.cs.ubc.ca (IP number
137.82.8.5) as a compressed tar file. The file is

	/pub/local/vista/vista-2.0.tar.z

and its about 600 kilobytes in size.  Fetch a copy in binary mode,
uncompress it using the GNU utility gunzip, untar it into the directory of
your choice, and follow the installation instructions you find there. If
you decide to keep and use Vista, let us know so that we can continue to
inform you of new releases, bug fixes, etc.

Some sample Vista data files are also available via anonymous FTP from
ftp.cs.ubc.ca. They're in /pub/local/vista/data, accompanied by a README
file.

WHY WE'RE DISTRIBUTING VISTA

Our hope in distributing Vista is that it will foster greater exchange
of software and data in the computer vision research community. We
believe that it can be a foundation on which the community builds and
shares reference implementations of commonly used algorithms.

Vista has all of the traits needed to fulfill this role. It provides a
framework for storing and manipulating not only images, but also other data
objects that often arise in conjunction with images -- for example, edge
sets, camera geometry specifications, and model parameters. It is designed
as an extensible system to which anyone can contribute. It is comprehensive
although not so large as to be unwieldly. And, importantly, it can be
freely distributed.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

In case of comments, problems, queries, bug reports, etc., contact:

  Art Pope, pope@cs.ubc.ca, (604) 822-3061

  David Lowe, lowe@cs.ubc.ca, (604) 822-3170

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1993 12:30:40 GMT
From: haminh@graceiam.unibe.ch (Thien Ha-Minh)
Organization: Dept. of CS, University of Berne, Switzerland
Subject: software package for handwriting recognition
Keywords: handwritten numeral recogntion, software package, commercial products,

Dear colleagues,

I am looking for some software package(s) for handwritten numeral recognition.
It can be either a commercial product or public domain.

If you have any idea where I can find such things, please let me know.

My email address is: haminh@iam.unibe.ch

Thank you.

Thien HA MINH.

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 4 Jun 1993 22:10:33 GMT
From: uwechueo@cse.fau.edu (Okechukwu A. Uwechue)
Organization: Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA
Subject: NN's for face rec.

Does anyone know the e-mail addresses of the following people ?

J.A. Freeman & D.M. Skapura

They wrote a book on neural net applications called " NEURAL NETWORKS:
ALGORITHMS, APPLICATIONS AND PROGRAMMING TECHNIQUES " (Addison Wesley
'91). I'd like to get in touch with either of them to get some
information on face recognition via NN's.

thanks in advance,
e-mail:  uwechueo@sol.cse.fau.edu

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 8 Jun 93 12:08:13
From: erh@minster.york.ac.uk
Subject: Research Associate in Computer Vision

                            UNIVERSITY OF YORK

                      Department of Computer Science

                    Research Associate in Computer Vision

          A vacancy exists for   research associate on a   3  year  SERC
          funded  project aimed at developing novel methods for 3D scene
          reconstruction from slice images. The approach to  be  adopted
          involves  the development of Bayesian relaxation processes for
          reconstructing and interpretting differential structure in the
          scenes  under  study.  Candidates  for  this  post should have
          experience in the areas of  computer vision  or pattern recog-
          nition  and posses a good first degree or preferably a  PhD in
          a mathematical or physical science.  The  initial  appointment
          will  be  made  at  point  6 of the University Academic salary
          scale (15,186  pounds per anum).  Informal  enquiries  can  be
          made  to  Dr  Edwin  Hancock,  Department of Computer Science,
          University of York, York Y01 5DD  (telephone:  0904  43  3374,
          email:  erh@minster.york.ac.uk).  Three copies of applications
          with full curriculum vitae and the names  of  three  referees,
          should  be  sent to the Personnel Officer, University of York,
          Heslington, York Y01 5DD, by 17 July 1993. Further particulars
          relating  to this post may also be obtained from the Personnel
          Officer at the above address.

                                   June 8, 1993

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 8 Jun 93 13:01:09 +0200
From: chm@bsun11.zfe.siemens.de (Christoph Maggioni)
Subject: Computer Vision Guest Scientist Position 

Computer Vision Guest Scientist Position 

available in

Munich Germany at SIEMENS Central Research Labs


SIEMENS Central Research is situated in Munich in the southern part of
Germany. More than a thousand researchers do basic and applied
research in many fields of computers science and electrical
engineering.

Our project is concerned with developing a computer vision system for
recognizing human hand gestures in real time.  We already have two
prototypes for recognizing three-dimensional hand position,
orientation and simple gestures in real time. The prototypes have been
interfaced to a virtual environment system.  Current research focuses
on extending the system to recognize additional features like
fingertips and define a set of more complex three dimensional hand
gestures. We are currently using neural network and model-based vision
techniques but this could change.

The successful candidate will contribute to this research topics.  This
includes both scientific research and building working prototypes.
Applicants should possess a PhD in Computer Science, Engineering or a
related field by the time the position starts.  Background should be
in Computer Vision with strong programming skills. Experience in
real-time vision is highly desirable. Knowledge in Human Computer
Interface, Gesture Recognition, Computer Graphics, or Virtual Reality
Techniques would be helpful.

The position is available starting in October 1. 1993 for a year
extendable to two years.

Interested applicants should send a resume and representative
publications to: (Only those who have the required background should
apply)

  Christoph Maggioni
  SIEMENS AG, ZFE ST SN 61 	                Phone: (+49)89-636-42573  
  Otto Hahn Ring 6             			Fax: (+49)89-636-2393
  8000 Munich 83, Germany      			E-mail: chm@zfe.siemens.de 


------------------------------

Date: Tue, 8 Jun 93 23:15:05 GMT
From: colin@autpi (Colin Archibald)
Organization: National Research Council, Ottawa, Canada
Subject: Vision Interface '94

V i s i o n   I n t e r f a c e   ' 9 4

	Banff, Alberta, Canada
	16-20 May 1994

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

Vision Interface '94 is the eighth Canadian conference devoted to
computer vision, signal and image processing, and pattern recognition.  
This conference, held in various Canadian cities, is sponsored by the 
Canadian Image Processing and Pattern Recognition Society.  The 1994
conference will be held in Banff, Alberta, May 16-20, 1994 in conjunction
with Graphics Interface '94, and Artificial Intelligence '94. 

Invited Speakers:

Judson P. Jones		   Oak Ridge National Laboratory
R. Kasturi		   Pennsylvania State University
William A. MacKay	   University of Toronto

Program Committee:

Anup Basu, University of Alberta
Paul Besl, General Motors Research Labs., U.S.A.
Kim L. Boyer, Ohio State University, U.S.A.
Roger Browse, Queens University
Greg Dudek, McGill University	
Maria Garza-Jinich, UNAM, Mexico
Frans C. A. Groen, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Netherlands
Piotr Jasiobedski, University of Toronto
Adam Krzyzak, Concordia University
Alan Mackworth, University of British Columbia
Worthy N. Martin, University of Virginia, U.S.A.
Emil Petriu, University of Ottawa
Denis Poussart, Universite Laval
Gerhard Roth, National Research Council
Linda Shapiro, University of Washington, U.S.A.	
Andrew K. C. Wong, University of Waterloo


IMPORTANT DATES:

Four copies of a Full Paper due:    31 Oct. 1993
Workshop/Tutorial Proposals due:    15 Nov. 1993
Authors Notified:		     1 Feb. 1994
Final Paper due:		    31 Mar. 1994

TOPICS:

Contributions are are solicited (English or French) describing unpublished
research results and applications in any area of computer vision, signal and
image processing, and pattern recognition.  This year VI '94 will have a 
theme: "Perception in Robotics, and Process Automation."  As in previous years,
a book will be published based on the papers which appear in the proceedings.
Submissions on this theme and on other areas of Image Processing and Pattern 
Recognition are welcome.  Topics will include, but are not limited to:


Robot Perception		      Biomedical Applications
Intelligent Autonomous Systems	      Modeling of Human Perception and Movement
Multi-sensor Perception	              Document Processing
Active Perception		      Industrial Applications
S/W and H/W Architecture              3-D Vision
Methods for Image and Scene Analysis  Remote Sensing
Neural Networks		              Motion Representation
Knowledge Representation              Robust Methods for Signal 
				         and Image processing
		
					
Four copies of full papers should be submitted to the Program Co-chairmen
before Oct.31 1993. Include with the paper full name, address, phone
number, fax number and electronic mail address of the contact author.


Submit papers to:

Colin Archibald                        Paul Kwok
Autonomous Systems Laboratory          Dept. of Computer Science
National Research Council              University of Calgary
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0R6        Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4

Tel: (613) 993-6580                    Tel: (403) 220-3531
Fax: (613) 952-0215                    Fax: (403) 284-4707
email: archibald@iit.nrc.ca            email: kwok@cpsc.ucalgary.ca

------------------------------

Date: 9 Jun 1993 21:59:17 -0400
From: Tim.Finin@cs.umbc.edu (Timothy Finin)
Organization: Computer Science, University of Maryland Baltimore County
Subject: CAIA-94 CFP: 10th IEEE Conference on AI for Applications

The 10th IEEE Conference on Artificial Intelligence for Applications
(CAIA-94) will be held at Marriott Riverwalk in San Antonio, Texas on March
1-4, 1994.  CAIA is devoted to advancing the application of AI techniques to
real world problems. This year's conference will emphasize both the
development of enabling AI technology and the issues involved in its
integration into products and processes. We are also seeking innovative ideas
for new application areas and new research and technology transfer paradigms.

For general information on CAIA-94, including the full Call for Papers, send
email to CAIA@CS.UMBC.EDU or try the Gopher server on GOPHER.CS.UMBC.EDU.


------------------------------

End of VISION-LIST digest 12.26
************************
