You are here: Home » Saliency Detection

Abstract

This paper discusses an algorithm for segmenting the salient regions of a scene using both 3-D laser scan and imagery information. Our problem statement is shown in Fig.1. Given an image and its extrinsically calibrated 3-D scan data, our algorithm delineates top k-most salient regions in
a bottom-up manner without any high-level priors, models, or learning.

Our definition of saliency in a 3-D point cloud is based on a well-known perceptual organization theory - Gestalt laws of grouping. The detection of salient clusters is formulated into finding the set of clusters that best fit some pre-defined families of probability density functions. (Here we use two pdfs, which are Gaussian and Uniform.) As a fundamental tool for this approach, we use the Robust Information-theoretic Clustering (RIC) method. After clustering, we calculate saliency value of each cluster by simply summing four different saliency features, which capture local, regional, and global properties of 3-D data and RGB color information.

Our matching method consists of two steps. First, we find correspondence candidates between linear fragments. Second, a spectral matching algorithm is used to find the subset of correspondences which is the most consistent. Both matching methods are learnt by using logistic classifiers.

Fig.2 shows some experimental results using the dataset taken in parking lots around CMU. The second column represents the results of RIC clustering. The top four most salient regions in the 3-D data and the imagery data are shown in the third and fourth columns, respectively.

(a) Input: an image and its corresponding 3-D scan data (b) Information-theoretic optimal clustering (c) Output: segmentation of top-k most salient regions
Figure 1. Problem Statement.
Figure 2. More examples of the detection of salient regions.

 

Publication

1. Gunhee Kim, Daniel Huber, and Martial Hebert, "Segmentation of Salient Regions in Outdoor Scenes using Imagery and 3-D Data", IEEE Workshop on Application of Computer Vision (WACV 2008), Colorado, USA, January 7-9, 2008. (oral presentation) [pdf][ppt]

Funding

- This work was prepared through participation in the Robotics Consortium sponsored by the U.S Army Research Laboratory under the Collaborative Technology Alliance Program, Cooperative Agreement DAAD19-01-2-0012.

Copyright notice
The documents contained in these directories are included by the contributing authors as a means to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work on a non-commercial basis. Copyright and all rights therein are maintained by the authors or by other copyright holders, notwithstanding that they have offered their works here electronically. It is understood that all persons copying this information will adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright.