Computer Vision and Video Communications for drone-based imaging

The University of Bristol is a world leader in vision science. Bristol has a long and rich tradition at the forefront of the study of human and animal vision, artificial vision systems and imaging more generally. The Visual Information Laboratory (VI-Lab) (www.bristol.ac.uk/vi-lab) exists to undertake innovative, collaborative and interdisciplinary research resulting in world leading technology in the areas of computer vision, image and video communications, content analysis and distributed sensor systems. VI-Lab was formed in 2010, bringing together world-leading experts in Signal Processing and Computer Vision, creating one of the largest groupings of its type in the UK.

VI-Lab is a key component in Bristol Vision Institute (BVI) (www.bristol.ac.uk/vision-institute) . BVI functions as a virtual research institute and has been highly successful in stimulating research interactions and collaborations across science, engineering, medicine and the creative arts.

VI-Lab undertakes research in several areas including the following:

- Drone-based video cinematography techniques
- Perceptual video compression
- Immersive visual formats
- Automated visual scene analysis
- Activity recognition and tracking
- Perceptual image enhancement
- Biomedical imaging
- Deep networks for computer vision

The specific project is related to the EU H2020 MULTIDRONE project. The project will investigate new computer vision techniques for video acquisition and processing from multiple cooperating airborne platforms, specifically for coverage of sports, news gathering and wide area public events, to deliver new exciting and more immersive visual experiences. The project will involve: image enhancement (e.g. dealing with non-co-planar viewpoints and illumination variations); virtual camera view synthesis and view transitions, visual scene understanding, the analysis of geometric constraints on acquisition, and quality assessment. The project is collaborative with broadcasters BBC, RAI and DW.

For further details or to discuss these (or other relevant) areas please contact Professor David Bull, Head of VI-Lab, email:[Email Address Removed]