Current page: Research Planning->EU Computer Vision Groups

Computer Vision in Europe Danica Kragic & Henrik I Christensen (eds.) Computational Vision and Active Perception Numerical Analysis and Computer Science Royal Institute of Technology SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden danik@nada.kth.se, hic@nada.kth.se Apr 28, 2003   Contents 1  AUSTRIA     1.1  Graz     1.2  Graz     1.3  Vienna     1.4  Vienna 2  BELGIUM     2.1  Brussels     2.2  Leuven     2.3  Leuven 3  DENMARK     3.1  Aalborg     3.2  Copenhagen     3.3  Lyngby     3.4  Odense 4  CZECH REPUBLIC     4.1  Prague 5  FINLAND     5.1  Helsinki     5.2  Oulu     5.3  Tampere 6  FRANCE     6.1  Grenoble     6.2  Grenoble     6.3  Lyon     6.4  Sophia-Antipolis     6.5  Sophia-Antipolis 7  GERMANY     7.1  Bielefeld     7.2  Bochum     7.3  Bonn     7.4  Bonn     7.5  Bremen     7.6  Darmstadt     7.7  Erlangen     7.8  Hamburg     7.9  Hannover     7.10  Heidelberg     7.11  Karlsruhe     7.12  Kiel     7.13  Koblenz     7.14  Munich     7.15  Munich     7.16  Paderborn     7.17  Tübingen     7.18  Wessling 8  GREECE     8.1  Heraklion     8.2  Thessaloniki 9  IRELAND     9.1  Dublin 10  ITALY     10.1  Brescia     10.2  Firenze     10.3  Genova     10.4  Milano     10.5  Napoli     10.6  Parma     10.7  Pavia     10.8  Udine 11  NORWAY     11.1  Oslo 12  PORTUGAL     12.1  Lisboa     12.2  Coimbra 13  SPAIN     13.1  Barcelona     13.2  Castello 14  SWEDEN     14.1  Linköping     14.2  Linköping     14.3  Lund     14.4  Stockholm     14.5  Stockholm 15  SWITZERLAND     15.1  Basel     15.2  Bern     15.3  Geneva     15.4  Geneva     15.5  Lausanne     15.6  Lausanne     15.7  Zurich     15.8  Zurich 16  THE NETHERLANDS     16.1  Amsterdam     16.2  Delft     16.3  Delft     16.4  Utrecht 17  UNITED KINGDOM     17.1  Brighton     17.2  Bristol     17.3  Cambridge     17.4  Edinburgh     17.5  Edinburgh     17.6  Leeds     17.7  London     17.8  London     17.9  Manchester     17.10  Oxford     17.11  Oxford     17.12  Oxford     17.13  Southampton     17.14  Surrey     17.15  York   Preface This document contains a brief overview over academic groups in Europe that are involved in research on computer vision. The information provided is based on publicly available information such as the WWW. For each institution basic contact information is provided and a light summary of major projects. As some WWW pages appear to be out-of-date the summaries might at a few places be incorrect/out-dated. This is unfortunately unavoidable. It is noteworthy that the European Commision recently has launched a major initiative on cognitive vision. The initiative involves about 10 research projects and a network of excellence that has as a mission to coordinate across the community. General information about the ECVision initiative can be obtained from the coordinator David Vernon vernon@ieee.org or from the network web site http://www.ecvision.org. Stockholm, September 2002 Danica Kragic & Henrik I Christensen   1  AUSTRIA 1.1  Graz Institution: JOANNEUM RESEARCH - Institute of Digital Image Processing Address: JOANNEUM RESEARCH Institute of Digital Image Processing Wastiangasse 6 A-8010 Graz Austria Contact: Dr. Albert Niel Phone: +43 316 876 1735 Fax: +43 316 876 1720 Email: albert.niel@joanneum.ac.at URL: http://dib.joanneum.ac.at Faculty: 1 Professor Post-Docs: 0 persons Students: » 15 Ph.D. students Projects ACV (Advanced Computer Vision): the research topics are pattern recognition, object detection and image matching (Sponsor: Austrian Government). Other projects are based on industrial collaboration and involve 2D-profile measurement (forging, casting), 3D-stereo vision for reconstruction of arbitrary surfaces, surface inspection by line scan cameras and product quality assurance by matrix cameras. 1.2  Graz Institution: Institute of Electrical Measurement and Measurement Signal Processing Address: Institute of Electrical Measurement and Measurement Signal Processing Schießstattgasse 14B A-8010 Graz Austria Contact: Axel Pinz Phone: +43 (0)316 873 5021 Fax: +43 (0)316 873 4279 Email: pinz@emt.tu-graz.ac.at URL: http://www.emt.tu-graz.ac.at Faculty: 1 Professor, 1 Assistant Prof Post-Docs: 10 persons Students: » 9 Ph.D. students Projects The research on image processing involves: classical segmentation, pattern matching, classification in medical applications, and industrial image analysis, stereo vision scene reconstruction and fusion of visual information for robot navigation. The group is a member of the EU consortium VAMPIRE (see Bielefeld). The group is a member of the LAVA consortium (Coordinated by Xerox, See INRIA - Grenoble) 1.3  Vienna Institution: Institute of Flexible Automation Address: Institute of Flexible Automation Vienna University of Technology Gußhausstr. 27-29 / E 361 A-1040 Vienna Austria Contact: Markus Vincze Phone: +43 (01) 50414 46 / 11 Fax: +43 (01) 58801 / 37698 Email: Vincze@acin.tuwien.ac.at URL: http://www.infa.tuwien.ac.at Faculty: 1 Associate Professor, 2 Assistant Prof Post-Docs: 3 persons Students: » 8 Ph.D. students Projects RobVision: this projects concerns maneuvering a walking robot into ship sections using visual feedback. The main research topic is using of CAD models for real-time tracking. ActIPret - Interpreting and Understanding Activities of Expert Operators for Teaching and Education: the objective is a development of a cognitive vision methodology that interprets and records the activities of people handling tools. Focus is on active observation and interpretation of activities, parsing the sequences into constituent behaviour elements, and on extracting the essential activities and their functional dependence (Sponsor: EU). 1.4  Vienna Institution: Pattern Recognition and Image Processing Group Address: Pattern Recognition and Image Processing Group Favoritenstr. 9/1832, 4. Stock Computer Science Department Vienna University of Technology A-1040, Vienna Austria Contact: Prof. Walter G. Kropatsch Phone: +43 1 58801 18350 Fax: +43 1 58801 18392 Email: krw@prip.tuwien.ac.at URL: http://www.prip.tuwien.ac.at/ Faculty: 1 Professor Post-Docs: 20 persons Students: » 3 Ph.D. students Projects The main area of research involve: video surveillance and monitoring, 3D-modelling and reconstruction, 2D pattern recognition and object classification. 2  BELGIUM 2.1  Brussels Institution: Signal and Image Centre at Royal Military Academy Address: RMA - Royal Military Academy Av de la Renaissance 30 B-1000 Brussels Belgium Contact: Prof. Marc Acheroy Phone: +32 2 737 64 72 Fax: +32 2 737 64 70 Email: acheroy@elec.rma.ac.be URL: http://www.sic.rma.ac.be Faculty: 1 Professor Post-Docs: 0 persons Students: » 10 Ph.D. students Projects The main research topics are image compression, data fusion, humanitarian demining (several projects), restoration and remote sensing (Sponsor: Belgian). 2.2  Leuven Institution: VISICS (VISion for Industry Communications and Services) at Centre for Processing of Speech and Images Address: KU Leuven Afd. ESAT - PSI Kasteelpark Arenberg 10 B-3001 Heverlee Belgium Contact: Prof. Luc Van Gool Phone: +32 16 32 1705 Fax: +32 16 32 1713 Email: Luc.VanGool@esat.kuleuven.ac.be URL: http://www.esat.kuleuven.ac.be/psi/visics/ Faculty: 2 Professors Post-Docs: 6 persons Students: » 20 Ph.D. students Projects STAR - The main objective is the development of a Augmented Reality (AR) system where virtual objects are mixed with real images taken from existing environments on the same display. The typical applications are commercial products for training, on-line documentation and planning purposes (Sponsor: EU). INVIEW (Interactive and Immersive Video from Multiple Images) deals with tele-reality no explicit 3D models are built but rather real images are processed in such a way that it is be possible to navigate through them with arbitrary movements giving the impression of navigation in a real environment. Research areas are mainly synthesizing/interpolation of images and the applications areas are virtual tourism, tele-medicine, tele-collaboration and teleoperation (Sponsor: EU). 3D MURALE - The main objective here is the development of 3D acquisition systems that will provide archaeologists with the tools to support the analysis and restoration of their finds. The main research area is database searching on the basis of 3D shape (Sponsor: EU). member of the CogViSys consortium (see Univ of Karlsruhe) 2.3  Leuven Institution: Computational Neuroscience Research Group Address: K.U.Leuven Laboratorium voor Neurofysiologie Campus Gasthuisberg Herestraat 49 B-3000 Leuven Belgium Contact: Marc Van Hulle Phone: + 32 16 34 5961 Fax: + 32 16 34 5993 Email: marc@neuro.kuleuven.ac.be URL: http://simone.neuro.kuleuven.ac.be Faculty: 1 Professor, 1 Assoc Prof Post-Docs: 0 persons Students: » 2 Ph.D. students Projects The main research topics are: the formation of topographic maps and their application to data modeling, regression and clustering; data mining; structure-from-motion; the modeling of cell responses of monkey cortical area; the development of tools for analyzing fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) data and for modeling functional cortical networks. 3  DENMARK 3.1  Aalborg Institution: Laboratory of Computer Vision and Media Technology Address: Computer Vision and Media Technology Laboratory (CVMT) Aalborg University Niels Jernes Vej 14 DK-9220 Aalborg Denmark Contact: Prof. Erik Granum Phone: +45 9635 8789 Fax: +45 9815 2444 Email: eg@cvmt.dk URL: http://www.cvmt.dk/ Faculty: 1 Professors, 6 Assoc Prof Post-Docs: 4 persons Students: » 5 Ph.D. students Projects ARTHUR (Augmented Round Table for Architecture and Urban Planning): The main idea of the project is to bridge the gap between real and virtual worlds by enhancing the users' current working environment with virtual 3D objects. Main research topics are user-friendly interfaces and non-intrusive object tracking mechanisms (Sponsor: EU). FG-NET (Face and Gesture Recognition Working Group): The research issues related to the project are: to develop protocol for data acquisition, modelling of pointing and command/attention gestures and developing of gestures to support verbal communication (Sponsor: EU). BENOGO (Being There - Without Going): The project investigates and develops novel camera technologies into an innovative mediation system that allows close to photo realistic 3D real-time visualization of real (and possibly known) places for a moving observer which is hard with conventional VR systems (Sponsor: EU). 3.2  Copenhagen Institution: Computer Science - The Image Group Address: The Image Group Datalogisk Institut Universitetsparken 1 DK-2100 Copenhagen Denmark Contact: Prof. Peter Johansen Phone: +45 35 32 14 00 Fax: +45 35 32 14 01 Email: pjo@diku.dk URL: http://www.diku.dk/ Faculty: 1 Professors, 4 Associate Prof Post-Docs: 0 persons Students: » 4 Ph.D. students Projects Computing Natural Shape: the purpose of the project is to investigate and model the shape of natural objects. Three main research issues are mathematical investigation of shape, human interaction with shape models and development of computational models of visual perception. Vision-Based Robot Navigation Research Network (VIRGO): the goal of the VIRGO network is to coordinate European research and postgraduate training activities that address the development of intelligent robotic systems able to navigate in (partially) unknown and possibly dynamic environments. The focus is mainly on the use of visual information in robot navigation. The core of the research is on geometry and learning, with a strong long term effort on recovery of geometric models. 3.3  Lyngby Institution: Image Analysis and Computer Graphics Group Address: Danish Technical University Image Analysis and Computer Graphics Group Richard Petersens Plads, Building 321 DK-2800 Kongens Lyngby Denmark Contact: Prof. Knut Conradsen Phone: +45 4525 3416 Fax: +45 4588 1397 Email: kc@imm.dtu.dk URL: http://www.imm.dtu.dk Faculty: 1 Professor, 6 Assoc Prof, 1 Assistant Prof Post-Docs: 0 persons Students: » 10 Ph.D. students Projects The goal of the group is to develop and use methods and theory in practical applications. A core expertise of the group is in statistical modelling and its use for image restoration and pattern classification. The main areas of applications are in biomedical imaging, industrial vision, material science, remote sensing, scientific visualization and virtual reality. 3.4  Odense Institution: The Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Institute for Production Technology (Vision Group) Address: The Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Institute for Production Technology Odense University Campusvej 55 DK-5230 Odense M Denmark Contact: Ivar Balslev Phone: +45 6550 3521 Fax: +45 6615 7697 Email: ivb@mip.sdu.dk URL: http://www.mip.sdu.dk/vision/ Faculty: 1 Associate Prof, 1 Assistant Prof Post-Docs: 0 persons Students: » 2 Ph.D. students Projects SCAPE (Smart Classifier And Pose Estimator): The objective is the development of a general purpose computer vision system for classification and pose estimation of solid objects. The key research issues are combined classification and pose estimation where high flexibility concerning the shape of objects is assumed, automatic training using a vision-based physical setup or using a CAD representation of the objects and recognition of partially occluded objects. (Sponsor: Industry) 4  CZECH REPUBLIC 4.1  Prague Institution: Center for Machine Perception Address: Center for Machine Perception Czech Technical University Faculty of Electrical Engineering Department of Cybernetics Technicka 2 166 27 Praha 6 Czech Republic Contact: Prof. Vaclav Hlavac Phone: +420 2 2435 7637 Fax: +420 2 2435 7385 Email: hlavac@vision.felk.cvut.cz URL: http://cmp.felk.cvut.cz Faculty: 1 Professors, 1 Assistant Prof Post-Docs: 5 persons Students: » 17 Ph.D. students Projects Interpreting and Understanding Activities of Expert Operators for Teaching and Education (ActIPret), see Institute of Flexible Automation, Vienna, Austria. Inspecting Sewerage Systems and Image Analysis by Computer (ISAAC): project integrates computer vision with the existing inspection equipment for sewerage inspection.The basic idea is to discriminate between essential and non-essential repairs/renovation in this process (Sponsor: EU). The group has a strong theoretical basis with long-term research on stereo systems, and recognition methods. The group is a member of the ActiPret consortium (see Vienna) 5  FINLAND 5.1  Helsinki Institution: Neural Networks Research Centre Address: University of Helsinki Laboratory of Computer and Information Science Computer Science building, Konemiehentie 2, Otaniemi campus P.O. Box 5400, 02015 HUT Finland Contact: Prof. Erkki Oja Phone: +358 9 451 3265 Fax: +358 9 451 3277 Email: Erkki.Oja@hut.fi URL: http://www.cis.hut.fi/ Faculty: 2 Professors Post-Docs: 14 persons Students: » 30 Ph.D. students Projects The project related to computer vision covers research on adaptive analysis of images. The emphasis is mainly on novel, adaptive and learning algorithms for image processing and analysis. 5.2  Oulu Institution: Machine Vision Group Address: Machine Vision Group University of Oulu Department of Electrical Engineering P.O.Box 4500 FIN-90014 University of Oulu Finland Contact: Prof. Matti Pietikäinen Phone: +358 8 553 2782 Fax: +358 8 553 2612 Email: mkp@ee.oulu.fi URL: http://www.ee.oulu.fi/mvg/mvg.php Faculty: 3 Professors, 2 Assoc Prof Post-Docs: 4 persons Students: » 15 Ph.D. students Projects The research inside the group is distributed across several projects such as: color-based face analysis, grain size distribution determination, plant vitality by spectral measurement, text recognition from scene images, tracking people from image sequences, video coding solutions for wireless applications, visual inspection of lumber and visual training of vision-based inspection devices. The group is well known for its industrial applications of image processing techniques in a wide variety of application domains. 5.3  Tampere Institution: Multimodal Interaction Group Address: Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction (TAUCHI) University of Tampere Department of Computer and Information Sciences Pinninkatu 53B FIN-33014 University of Tampere Finland Contact: Prof. Roope Raisamo Phone: 358 3 215 7056 Fax: 358 3 215 8557 Email: rr@cs.uta.fi URL: http://www.cs.uta.fi/hci/mmig/ Faculty: 1 Professors, 1 Assistant Prof Post-Docs: 0 persons Students: » 6 Ph.D. students Projects The group performs basic research in haptic interaction and auditory feedback. Here, several modalities (haptics, audio and vision) are used redundantly to implement a multimodal user interface for the visually disabled people. The research combines the constructive and empirical research methods. Based on the empirical findings and logical deduction, models to rationalize interaction design are being developed. 6  FRANCE 6.1  Grenoble Institution: Perception of Action for Multi-modal Interaction Address: Project PRIMA INRIA Rhône-Alpes 655 Av. de l'Europe 38330 Montbonnot-St. Martin France Contact: Prof. James L. Crowley Phone: +33 4 7661 5396 Fax: +33 4 7661 5210 Email: Crowley@imag.fr URL: http://www-prima.inrialpes.fr Faculty: 2 Professors, 5 researchers Post-Docs: 0 persons Students: » 3 Ph.D. students Projects Project PRIMA concerns technologies for the perception and recognition of human action for intelligent environments and man-machine interaction. In terms of computer vision, main research interest are feature extraction and grouping, top-down priming for spatial and temporal attention, representation and recognition of objects, contexts and situations, learning instances of the representations from visual evidence and reactive and top-down control of the recognition process. The group is the scientific coordinator for the EU project DETECT that studies motion and classification for MPEG coding. 6.2  Grenoble Institution: MOVI - MOdels for VIsion Address: INRIA Rhône-Alpes 655, avenue de l'Europe 38330 Montbonnot France Contact: Prof. Radu Horaud Phone: +33 476 61 5226 Fax: +33 476 61 5454 Email: Radu.Horaud@inrialpes.fr URL: http://www.inrialpes.fr/movi Faculty: 1 Professor, 6 researchers Post-Docs: 0 persons Students: » 4 Ph.D. students Projects Main areas of research are: structuring of image features to reconstruct the topological and numerical information, the symbolic description of shapes and of the contextual constraints, model construction through observation integration, use of movement to increase the quality of the perceived structures and precision of the spatial measures, indexing for manufacturing robotics and the exploitation of graphics documents. The research has three main avenues: Recovery of shape, visual servoing and recognition methods. All there areas are characterised by a solid theoretical basis. The group is a major partner in the LAVA project that studies categorisation methods based on use of multiple cues, prior knowledge and efficient indexing. The methods are evaluated in the context of mobile agents and symbolic annotation of video. (Sponsor EU) 6.3  Lyon Institution: Vision and Pattern Recognition (RFV) Address: Laboratoire Reconnaissance de Formes et Vision Bât. Jules Verne 403 17, avenue Jean Capelle 69621 Villeurbanne Cedex France Contact: Prof. Hubert Emptoz Phone: 33 4 7243 8096 Fax: 33 4 7243 8097 Email: rfv@insa-lyon.fr URL: http://rfv.insa-lyon.fr/ Faculty: 2 Professors, 4 researchers Post-Docs: 0 persons Students: » 10 Ph.D. students Projects The basic research issues include fundamental aspects of shape recognition, writing analysis, document treatment and perceptive models for vision. 6.4  Sophia-Antipolis Institution: ODYSSEE Laboratory Address: INRIA, Odyssee Lab 2004 route des Lucioles B.P. 93 06902 Sophia-Antipolis Cedex France Contact: Prof. Olivier Faugeras Phone: +33 4 9238 7831 Fax: +33 4 9238 7845 Email: faugeras@sophia.inria.fr URL: http://www-sop.inria.fr/robotvis/robotvis-eng.html Faculty: 2 Professors, 4 researchers Post-Docs: 1 persons Students: » 12 Ph.D. students Projects Some of the research interests of the group are: i) Variational methods and partial differential equations for feature integration and shape detection, ii) functional imaging for observing brain activity to improve the knowledge of visual perception, and iii) modelling brain activity to develop biologically plausible mechanisms which implement functionalities such as classification, categorisation and trajectory generation. The group is also involved in reconstruction of video-sequences. The group participates in the CogViSys consortium (see Univ. of Karlsruhe) 6.5  Sophia-Antipolis Institution: ORION Laboratory Address: INRIA, ORION Lab 2004 route des Lucioles B.P. 93 06902 Sophia-Antipolis Cedex France Contact: Prof. Monique Thonnat Phone: +33 4 9238 7867 Fax: +33 4 9238 7845 Email: Monique.Thonnat@inria.fr URL: http://www.inria.fr/recherche/equipes/orion.en.html Faculty: 2 Professors, 6 researchers Post-Docs: 0 persons Students: » 3 Ph.D. students Projects This is multi-disciplinary team at the frontier of computer vision, knowledge-based systems, and software engineering. The objective of Orion is to design and develop techniques and software aimed at on the one hand, automatic image interpretation and on the other hand, program supervision and reuse. The core of the research is on use of knowledge based techniques for interpretation of images and scene dynamics. The research is carried out in a number of national and EU projects. 7  GERMANY 7.1  Bielefeld Institution: Applied Computer Science Group Address: Technische Fakultät Universität Bielefeld Angewandte Informatik Postfach 100 131 D-33501 Bielefeld Germany Contact: Prof. Gerhard Sagerer Phone: +49 521 106 2935 Fax: +49 521 106 2992 Email: sagerer@TechFak.Uni-Bielefeld.DE URL: http://www.TechFak.Uni-Bielefeld.DE/ags/ai/ Faculty: 2 Professors Post-Docs: 5 persons Students: » 20 Ph.D. students Projects The group is conducting research in the area of pattern analysis, computer vision and speech understanding. The problem domains of man-machine communication using the modalities vision and speech, dialog systems and applications to the field of natural sciences are investigated. The particular research topics include hybrid techniques for object recognition, qualitative modeling of spatial relations, integration of speech and vision processing and architectures for large distributed pattern analysis systems. VAMPIRE: The project aims at the development of an active memory and retrieval system in the context of an Augmented Reality scenario. The user wears a head-mounted camera and display such that the system is able to build up a hierarchically structured memory of what the user sees. 7.2  Bochum Institution: Institut für Neuroinformatik - Systems Biophysics Address: Institut für Neuroinformatik Ruhr-Universität Bochum D-44780 Bochum Germany Contact: Prof. Christoph von der Malsburg Phone: +49 234 3228 998 Fax: +49 234 3214 210 Email: systembiophysik@neuroinformatik.ruhr-uni-bochum.de URL: http://www.neuroinformatik.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/VDM/top.html Faculty: 1 Professor Post-Docs: 1 persons Students: » 13 Ph.D. students Projects Four main areas of research include computer vision (model representation, elastic graph matching, segmentation), robotics (design of anthropomorphic robots), biologically motivated models (sensor fusion) and growing self-organizing networks. 7.3  Bonn Institution: Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Group Address: CVPR Group c/o Prof. Dr. Joachim Buhmann Dept. of Computer Science III University of Bonn Roemerstr. 164 D-53117 Bonn Germany Contact: Prof. Joachim Buhmann Phone: +49 228 73 4380 Fax: +49 228 73 4382 Email: jb@informatik.uni-bonn.de URL: http://www-dbv.informatik.uni-bonn.de Faculty: 1 Professors Post-Docs: 2 persons Students: » 5 Ph.D. students Projects The main research topics involve real time image segmentation, segmentation of remote sensing imagery and unsupervised learning. 7.4  Bonn Institution: The Institute of Photogrammetry Address: Institut für Photogrammetrie Universität Bonn Nußallee 15 D-53115 Bonn Germany Contact: Prof. Wolfgang Förstner Phone: +49 228 732713 Fax: +49 228 732712 Email: wf@ipb.uni-bonn.de URL: http://www.ipb.uni-bonn.de/ Faculty: 1 Professor Post-Docs: 5 persons Students: » 9 Ph.D. students Projects The research in computer vision is structured around the problem of acquiring 3D-information from multiple images. Particular applications are building of city models mainly from aerial images and reconstruction for industrial inspection using various imaging techniques. 7.5  Bremen Institution: Institute of Theoretical Neurophysics Address: Universität Bremen, FB 1 Institut für Theoretische Physik Kufsteiner Str. D-28334 Bremen Germany Contact: Prof. Klaus Pawelzik Phone: +49 421 218 3645 Fax: +49 421 218 9104 Email: pawelzik@physik.uni-bremen.de URL: http://pooh.physik.uni-bremen.de Faculty: 2 Professors Post-Docs: 3 persons Students: » 8 Ph.D. students Projects The institute conducts a wide variety of research in the area of sensorimotor processing in biological and technical neural systems. Topics include early image processing (segmentation and stereo), object recognition and localization, insect navigation, multi stability in perception and basic principles of neural processing. 7.6  Darmstadt Institution: Cognitive Computing and Medical Imaging Address: Fraunhofer IGD Fraunhoferstr. 5 D-64283 Darmstadt Germany Contact: Prof. Georgios Sakas Phone: +49 6151 155 153 Fax: +49 6151 155 559 Email: gsakas@igd.fhg.de URL: http://www.igd.fhg.de/igd-a7/ Faculty: 1 Professor, 1 researcher Post-Docs: 0 persons Students: » 12 Ph.D. students Projects The main research topics are visual computing (segmentation and reconstruction), medical imaging (CGI and 3D modeling) and multimedia interfaces using eye-tracking, speech and gesture recognition. 7.7  Erlangen Institution: Chair for Pattern Recognition Address: Chair for Pattern Recognition (Informatik 5) Martensstr. 3 University Erlangen-Nürnberg 91058 Erlangen Germany Contact: Prof. Heinrich Niemann Phone: +49 9131 85 27774 Fax: +49 9131 303811 Email: niemann@informatik.uni-erlangen.de URL: http://www5.informatik.uni-erlangen.de Faculty: 1 Professor Post-Docs: 3 persons Students: » 10 Ph.D. students Projects The main research topics of the group are: knowledge based image analysis, 3D model generation and object-oriented software for image analysis. The group has a long tradition in pattern recognition and is considered particularly strong on basic methods for recognition (speech, vision, ...). The group is a member of the EU consortium VAMPIRE (see Bielefeld). 7.8  Hamburg Institution: The Cognitive Systems Group Address: Fachbereich Informatik Universität Hamburg Vogt-Källn-Straße 30 22527 Hamburg Germany Contact: Prof. Bernd Neumann Phone: +49 (40) 42883 2451 Fax: +49 (40) 42883 2572 Email: neumann@informatik.uni-hamburg.de URL: http://kogs-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de Faculty: 3 Professors Post-Docs: 2 persons Students: » 5 Ph.D. students Projects Description Logics and Spatial reasoning (DLS): the project aims at a semantically based integration of spatial reasoning and conceptual reasoning in order to develop an integrated theory for Description Logics and Spatial reasoning. The main application is to provide adequate models for many classes of real-world objects and phenomena. Vision with Generic Algorithms (VIGRA) - development of a library for low-level image processing. The group is a member of the CogVis consortium (see Stockholm) 7.9  Hannover Institution: Institut für Theoretische Nachrichtentechnik und Informationsverarbeitung Address: Institut für Theoretische Nachrichtentechnik und Informationsverarbeitung Appelstrasse 9A D-30167 Hannover Germany Contact: Prof. Hans-Georg Musmann Phone: +49 511 762 5317 Fax: +49 511 762 5333 Email: musmann@tnt.uni-hannover.de URL: http://www.tnt.uni-hannover.de Faculty: 2 Professors Post-Docs: 2 persons Students: » 20 Ph.D. students Projects The main research topics include audio and video coding, knowledge based image interpretation, 3D scene analysis and visualisation 7.10  Heidelberg Institution: Medical and Biological Informatics Address: German Cancer Research Center Dept. Medical and Biological Informatics Im Neuenheimer Feld 280 D-69120 Heidelberg Germany Contact: Prof. Hans-Peter Meinzer Phone: +49 6221 42 2366 Fax: +49 6221 42 2345 Email: H.P.Meinzer@DKFZ-Heidelberg.de URL: http://mbi.dkfz-heidelberg.de/ Faculty: 1 Professor, 1 researcher Post-Docs: 1 persons Students: » 11 Ph.D. students Projects Computer aided Planning in Liver Surgery: research includes image segmentation, intraoperative visualization and tool navigation (Sponsor: German). Computer and Sensor Supported Surgery: the main research topic is the development of software for visualization and analysis of 4D-Doppler-ultrasound images of the heart (Sponsor: German). 7.11  Karlsruhe Institution: Institut für Algorithmen und Kognitive Systeme (IAKS) Address: Institut für Algorithmen und Kognitive Systeme Fakultät für Informatik der Universität Karlsruhe (TH) Am Fasanengarten 5 76128 Karlsruhe Germany Contact: Prof. Hans-Helmut Nagel Phone: +49 721 608 4323 Fax: +49 721 608 6678 Email: nagel@ira.uka.de URL: http://i21www.ira.uka.de Faculty: 1 Professor Post-Docs: 0 persons Students: » 6 Ph.D. students Projects Cognitive Vision Systems (CogViSys): the goal of the project is to build a vision system that can be used in a wider variety of fields and that is re-usable by introducing self-adaptation at the level of perception, by providing categorisation capabilities, and by making explicit the knowledge base at the level of reasoning, and thereby enabling the knowledge base to be changed. The group has a long term record on model based vision for visual servoing, analysis of traffic patterns, and motion analysis. 7.12  Kiel Institution: Cognitive Systems Group Address: Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel Institut für Informatik und Praktische Mathematik Preusserstr. 1-9 D-24105 Kiel Germany Contact: Prof. Gerald Sommer Phone: +49 431 5604 70/73 Fax: +49 431 5604 81 Email: gs@ks.informatik.uni-kiel.de URL: www.ks.informatik.uni-kiel.de Faculty: 1 Professor Post-Docs: 1 persons Students: » 7 Ph.D. students Projects Vision-based Integrated Systems Adaptive to Task and Environment with Cognitive abilities (VISATEC): the goal of the project is to design a learning-based cognitive vision architecture for automatic adaptation to underlying tasks and environments. The objectives include adequate representation schemes for multi-dimensional images and object shapes, reliable feature extraction and multi cue integration, dynamic adaptation and learning mechanisms and their purposive use for the detection of 3D objects in images and attentive object/situation analysis. 7.13  Koblenz Institution: Image Recognition Lab Address: Labor Bilderkennen Building B, Room 325 Universität Koblenz-Landau, Abt. Koblenz Universitätsstrasse 1 (ehemals: Rammsweg 1) 56070 Koblenz Germany Contact: Prof. Lutz Priese Phone: +49 261 287 2729 Fax: +49 261 287 2800 Email: priese@uni-koblenz.de URL: http://www.uni-koblenz.de/ lb Faculty: 1 Professor Post-Docs: 0 persons Students: » 3 Ph.D. students Projects The main research issues inside the group are segmentation of 3D voxel-images, color image segmentation, realtime traffic sign recognition and motion estimation in color image sequences. 7.14  Munich Institution: Robot Vision Group Address: TU München, RCS Arcisstraße 21 D-80290 München Germany Contact: Prof. Georg Färber Phone: +49 89 289 23551 Fax: +49 89 289 23555 Email: Georg.Faerber@rcs.ei.tum.de URL: http://www.rcs.ei.tum.de/research/rovi/ Faculty: 1 Professor Post-Docs: 0 persons Students: » 7 Ph.D. students Projects Human and robot hand-eye coordination: the goal of the project is to develop an autonomous robotic hand-eye system by analyzing how humans manage to grasp objects using visual information. Tasks considered are analysis of human trajectory generation and development of the corresponding robot methods. The hand-eye system used is called MinERVA. The group is well known for its work on model based recognition and its use in industrial applications. 7.15  Munich Institution: Informatics IX: Image Understanding and Knowledge-based Systems Address: TU Munich Fakulät für Informatik Lehrstuhl Informatik IX Boltzmannstr. 3 D-85748 Garching b. Munich Germany Contact: Prof. Bernd Radig Phone: +49 89 289 17756 Fax: +49 89 289 17757 Email: link@in.tum.de URL: http://wwwradig.informatik.tu-muenchen.de/ Faculty: 4 Professors Post-Docs: 7 persons Students: » 15 Ph.D. students Projects Image Understanding: research topics include exploration in indoor and outdoor environmnets, people recognition and development of image analysis tools. Medical Applications: in terms of medical applications some of the projects are Computer Aided Surgery (CAS), planning for radio-surgery (MIPART), brachytherapy (CARoB) and orthopedic navigation based on MRI-data (MRNav). Model Based System: the main research topics involve automated diagnosis and diagnostic tools for technical systems, supported or automated generation of repair actions, design of support systems (failure mode effects analysis) and model-based behavior prediction for ecological systems. 7.16  Paderborn Institution: Computer Vision Lab Address: Universität Paderborn Fachbereich Elektrotechnik FB 14/150 Pohlweg 47-49 33098 Paderborn Germany Contact: Prof. Georg Hartmann Phone: +49 52 5160 2206 Fax: +49 52 5160 3238 Email: hartmann@get.uni-paderborn.de URL: http://getwww.uni-paderborn.de Faculty: 1 Professor Post-Docs: 2 persons Students: » 5 Ph.D. students Projects DEMON - autonomous disassembly of used cars:The task is to recognize the parts to be disassembled, determine their position and compiling required obstacle representation for collision-avoidance with the necessary accuracy. SPIKE - the key research issue is examination of pulse-coded neural networks (PCNN) for better understanding of the mechanisms in brains, especially in their vision part and to implement some of the capabilities into a robotic vision system. 7.17  Tübingen Institution: Cognitive and Computational Psychophysics at Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics Address: Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics Dept. Bülthoff Spemannstraße 38 72076 Tübingen Germany Contact: Prof. Heinrich H. Bülthoff Phone: +49 7071 601 601 Fax: +49 7071 601 616 Email: heinrich.buelthoff@tuebingen.mpg.de URL: http://www.kyb.tuebingen.mpg.de Faculty: 1 Professor, 10 researchers Post-Docs: 6 persons Students: » 10 Ph.D. students Projects The main research areas include: sensorimotor integration, spatial cognition, visual recognition and functional imaging of visual perception. The group has a long term record on studies of human perception and here in particular methods for categorisation and recognition using view based techniques. The group has also studied visual feedback during driving and use of non-visual cues as part of navigation. The group is a member of the CogVis consortium (see Stockholm). 7.18  Wessling Institution: Robot Vision Group Address: Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics German Aerospace Center / DLR P.O. Box 1116 Oberpfaffenhofen 82234 Wessling Germany Contact: Prof. Gerd Hirzinger Phone: +49 8153 28 2400 Fax: +49 8153 28 1134 Email: Gerd.Hirzinger@dlr.de URL: http://www.robotic.dlr.de/vision Faculty: 1 Professor Post-Docs: 2 persons Students: » 5 Ph.D. students Projects The main research issue is the development of robot skills using vision. In these terms, the integration of visual information is used to estimate the state of both environment and robot in order to correct and refine the a-priori defined internal models used for visual servoing tasks. 8  GREECE 8.1  Heraklion Institution: Institute of Computer Science Address: Institute of Computer Science Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH) Science and Technology Park of Crete Vassilika Vouton, P.O. Box 1385 GR 711 10 Heraklion Crete, Greece Contact: Prof. Stelios Orphanoudakis Phone: +30 81 391600/605 Fax: +30 81 391601 Email: orphanou@ics.forth.gr URL: http://www.ics.forth.gr/ Faculty: 1 Professor, 2 Assoc Prof, 2 researchers Post-Docs: 0 persons Students: » 2 Ph.D. students Projects The main research topics are image segmentation and tracking, automatic/semi-automatic 3-D layering, visual perception of motion and depth and robot navigation based on visual information. The group is a participant in the ActiPret consortium (see Vienna) 8.2  Thessaloniki Institution: AIIA Laboratory Address: AIIA Laboratory Computer Vision and Image Processing Group Dept. of Informatics Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Box 451 Thessaloniki, GR-54006 Greece Contact: Prof. Ioannis Pitas Phone: +30 310 996304 Fax: +30 310 996304 Email: pitas@zeus.csd.auth.gr URL: http://poseidon.csd.auth.gr/EN/ Faculty: 1 Professors, 1 Assistant Prof Post-Docs: 2 persons Students: » 12 Ph.D. students Projects Multi-modal Human Computer Interaction (muHCI): the main goal is the development of a human-like computer that can understand the behavior of human beings, express its emotions and communicate and interact with USERS in natural ways (Sponsor: EU). Research topics also include face detection and tracking, watermark inspection and 3D modelling. 9  IRELAND 9.1  Dublin Institution: Vision Systems Laboratory Address: School of Electronic Engineering Dublin City University Dublin 9 Ireland Contact: Prof. Paul Whelan Phone: +353 1 700 5489 Fax: +353 1 700 5508 Email: paul.whelan@eeng.dcu.ie URL: www.eeng.dcu.ie Faculty: 1 Assoc Prof Post-Docs: 1 persons Students: » 5 Ph.D. students Projects The main reserach areas are: the development of automated techniques for inspection and classification of natural textures, the use of machine vision in robotic applications such as the automated handling of materials and motion extraction for autonomous navigation of mobile robots. 10  ITALY 10.1  Brescia Institution: Advanced Robotics Laboratory (ARL) Address: Department of Electronics for Automation University of Brescia Via Branze 38 I-25123 Brescia Italy Contact: Riccardo Cassinis Phone: +39 30 371 5453 Fax: +39 30 380 014 Email: riccardo.cassinis@unibs.it URL: http://bsing.ing.unibs.it/ cassinis/main.htm Faculty: 1 Assoc Prof Post-Docs: (no info) Students: (no info) Projects The main research projects are Pollicino (the bee emulation program for robot navigation using simple visual information processing) and the mine sniffer project (devoted to anti-personnel mines localization and neutralization). 10.2  Firenze Institution: VIPLab - Visual Information Processing Lab Address: Università di Firenze Dipartimento di Sistemi e Informatica Via S. Marta 3 50139 Firenze Italy Contact: Prof. Alberto Del Bimbo Phone: +39 055 47 96 262 Fax: +39 055 47 96 363 Email: delbimbo@dsi.unifi.it URL: http://www.viplab.dsi.unifi.it Faculty: 1 Professor, 1 Assoc Prof Post-Docs: 4 persons Students: » 3 Ph.D. students Projects The main research topics are image and video content based retrieval (Automatic Segmentation and Semantic Annotation of Sports Videos - ASSAVID project), real-time computer vision for human-computer interaction and human-machine interfaces. 10.3  Genova Institution: Laboratory for Integrated Advanced Robotics (LIRA-Lab) Address: LIRA-Lab DIST-University of Genova Viale F. Causa, 13 16145 Genova Italy Contact: Prof. Giulio Sandini Phone: +39 010 353 2779 Fax: +39 010 353 2948 Email: sandini@dist.unige.it URL: http://www.lira.dist.unige.it/ Faculty: 1 Professor, 1 researcher Post-Docs: 3 persons Students: » 3 Ph.D. students Projects BabyBot : the human sensory-motor system is studied in order to provide design methodologies for development of artificial (robotic) systems. The physical components of the developed humanoid robot are: eyes, head (binocular), an artificial vestibular system (composed of linear and rotational accelerometers), microphones (for sound localization), an öff-the-shelf" arm equipped with a force sensor and a rotating base (the torso). The group has a long term record on use of space variant sensors for visual navigation, in particular the development of a log-polar sensor and its use in robotics. The group is a member of the CogVis consortium (see Stockholm) 10.4  Milano Institution: Istituto per le Tecnologie Informatiche Multimediali Address: ITIM - Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche Via Ampère, 56 20131 Milano Italy Contact: Anna Della Ventura Phone: +39 02 7064 3255 Fax: +39 02 7064 3292 Email: adv@itim.mi.cnr.it URL: http://www.itim.mi.cnr.it Faculty: 1 Professor, 9 researchers Post-Docs: 0 persons Students: » 0 Ph.D. students Projects In terms of computer vision, the three main research topics are image processing and analysis, color analysis and cross-media color reproduction and content-based image and video retrieval. 10.5  Napoli Institution: Intelligent Systems and Artificial Vision Group Address: Dipartimento di Informatica e Sistemistica Universita` di Napoli "Federico II" Via Claudio, 21 80125 Napoli Italy Contact: Prof. Luigi Pietro Cordella Phone: +39 081 768 3158 Fax: +39 081 768 3186 Email: siva@amalfi.dis.unina URL: http://amalfi.dis.unina.it Faculty: 1 Professor, 2 Assoc Prof, 4 Assistant Prof Post-Docs: 0 persons Students: » 2 Ph.D. students Projects The main research interests include image analysis, image interpretation and recognition and parallel algorithms for image analysis. 10.6  Parma Institution: Artificial Vision and Intelligent Systems Lab Address: Laboratorio Visione Pal 1 - Dip. Ing. Informazione viale delle Scienze, 181A 43100 - Parma Italy Contact: Prof. Alberto Broggi Phone: +39 0521 905 722 Fax: +39 0521 905 723 Email: broggi@ce.unipr.it URL: http://vislab.ce.unipr.it Faculty: 1 Professor Post-Docs: 2 persons Students: » 2 Ph.D. students Projects Automatic Vehicle Driving (ARGO): the aim of the project, which is now in its second stage is development of a new prototype vehicle, integration of the hardware and software system for active safety and automatic guidance, test of the vehicle with a long trip for an extensive test on public roads. 10.7  Pavia Institution: Computer Vision Lab Address: Laboratorio di Visione Artificiale Dipartimento di Informatica e Sistemistica Università degli Studi di Pavia Via Ferrata 1 27100 Pavia Italy Contact: Prof. Virginio Cantoni Phone: +39 0382 505358 Fax: +39 0382 505373 Email: cantoni@vision.unipv.it URL: http://iride.unipv.it Faculty: 1 Professor, 2 Assoc Prof, 1 Assistant Prof Post-Docs: 3 persons Students: » 4 Ph.D. students Projects The main interest of the group are high level image processing domains, such as the management of knowledge description and of learning capabilities for vision tasks. Other research areas are 3D vision, human-computer interaction, visual languages, image synthesis, multimedia and E-learning. 10.8  Udine Institution: Machine Vision Laboratory Address: Laboratorio Immagini Dipartimento di Matematica e Informatica Università di Udine Via delle Scienze 206 I-33100 Udine Italy Contact: Prof. Vito Roberto Phone: +39 0432 558439 Fax: +39 0432 558499 Email: v.roberto@dimi.uniud.it URL: http://www.dimi.uniud.it Faculty: 1 Professor, 1 Assoc Prof Post-Docs: 0 persons Students: » 3 Ph.D. students Projects The main research interests include knowledge-based pattern understanding, tracking, stabilization and stereo. The main project is Distributed Multimedia Services for Tele-pathology (MULTIPATH) where the aim is to improve health care delivery in pathology by developing an integrated environment for tele-pathology using affordable and widely available telecommunication and information technologies. 11  NORWAY 11.1  Oslo Institution: Digital Signal Processing and Image Analysis Address: Department of Informatics Informatikkbygget Gaustadalléen 23 N-0371 Oslo Norway Contact: Prof. Fritz Albregtsen Phone: +47 2285 2463 Fax: +47 2285 2401 Email: fritz@ifi.uio.no URL: http://www.ifi.uio.no/forskning/grupper/dsb/ Faculty: 3 Professors, 1 Assoc Prof Post-Docs: 5 persons Students: » 4 Ph.D. students Projects The research is focused on two applications: i) medical imaging and ii) analysis and earth observation. Medical imaging covers mainly analysis of cell nuclei images in digital pathology for early diagnosis and prognosis for cancer patients. Second application area is analysis of images from satellite and airborne sensors for environmental monitoring of large areas of the earth. 12  PORTUGAL 12.1  Lisboa Institution: Institute for Systems and Robotics - Computer Vision Laboratory Address: Instituto de Sistemas e Robotica Instituto Superior Tecnico Torre Norte Av. Rovisco Pais, 1, 1049-001 Lisboa Portugal Contact: Jose Santos-Victor Phone: +351 21 841 8294 Fax: +351 21 841 8291 Email: jasv@isr.ist.utl.pt URL: http://vislab.isr.ist.utl.pt/ Faculty: 1 Professor, 1 Assistant Prof Post-Docs: 2 persons Students: » 7 Ph.D. students Projects The research is focused on the development of tools based on computer vision, mostly for robotic applications. The particular interests are in the problems of active vision, visual based control, motion analysis and segmentation. The group has a long-term record on use of space variant sensing in particular in the context of active vision 12.2  Coimbra Institution: Institute of Systems and Robotics Address: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering - Polo 2 University of Coimbra 3030 Coimbra Portugal Contact: Helder Araujo Phone: +351 239 796216 Fax: +351 239 406672 / 796247 Email: helder@isr.uc.pt URL: http://www.isr.uc.pt/ Faculty: 17 researchers Post-Docs: 0 persons Students: » 4 Ph.D. students Projects The main activities of the group are in the areas of robotics vision, autonomous systems, multi-sensor fusion and integration, tele-operation and sensor development. Ongoing projects include the development of navigation systems for mobile robots, autonomous wheelchairs, high-performance man-machine interface for tele-operation, active vision systems for robotics applications, 3D reconstruction of the human eye, new sensors for robotics, vision-based robotic arc welding, development of neural an genetic controllers and advanced motor drive systems. 13  SPAIN 13.1  Barcelona Institution: Computer Vision Centre Address: Computer Vision Center (CVC) Campus Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona 08193 Bellaterra Barcelona Spain Contact: Prof. Juan J. Villanueva Phone: +93 581 18 28 Fax: +93 581 16 70 Email: villanueva@cvc.uab.es URL: http://www.cvc.uab.es Faculty: 1 Professor, 8 Assoc Prof, 11 Assistant Prof Post-Docs: 0 persons Students: » 7Ph.D. students Projects The center promotes industrial development of computer vision applications as well as research collaboration in the same field. The main research topics are low-level vision, object recognition, document analysis, medical imaging, texture and color analysis and head-eye systems. 13.2  Castello Institution: Robotic Intelligence Laboratory Address: Robotic Intelligence Laboratory Universidad Jaume-I Campus Riu Sec, Edificio TI E-12080 Castellón Spain Contact: Prof. Angel Pasqual del Pobil i Ferré Phone: +34 964 72 8344 Fax: +34 964 72 8435 Email: pobil@ieee.org URL: http://robot.act.uji.es Faculty: 1 Professor Post-Docs: 5 persons Students: » 3 Ph.D. students Projects The main research topics in terms of computer vision are directly related to robotic applications and include: learning for sensorimotor coordination in robot manipulation, visually guided grasping, and stereo guided visual servoing. 14  SWEDEN 14.1  Linköping Institution: Image Coding Group Address: Linköping University ISY/ICG SE-581 83 Linköping Sweden Contact: Robert Forchheimer Phone: +46 13 281 342 Fax: +46 13 284 422 Email: robert@isy.liu.se URL: http://www.icg.isy.liu.se Faculty: 1 Assoc Prof Post-Docs: 2 persons Students: » 8 Ph.D. students Projects INTERFACE (Multimodal Analysis/Synthesis System for Human Interaction to Virtual and Augmented Environments): The project deals with defining new models for audio-video analysis, synthesis and representation in order to provide essential technologies for the implementation of large-scale virtual and augmented environments (Sponsor: EU). Coding based on perception, models and fractal coding: Here, different approaches are studied for approximation of natural images (Sponsor: Swedish). 14.2  Linköping Institution: Computer Vision Laboratory Address: Linköping University Valhallagatan 16 Computer Vision Laboratory SE-582 43 Linköping Sweden Contact: Prof. Gösta H. Granlund Phone: +46 13 281 303 Fax: +46 13 138 526 Email: gosta@isy.liu.se URL: http://www.isy.liu.se/cvl/index.html Faculty: 1 Professor, 2 Assoc Prof Post-Docs: 2 persons Students: » 10 Ph.D. students Projects Beside the basic research in computer vision this group is is involved in developing information technology for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV's) - a helicopter carrying computers, video cameras and other electronic equipment on board using it for observing what the ground and making decisions on that basis (Sponsor: mainly Swedish). The core of the research competence of this group is in the area of signal processing methods for analysis of space-time images. The group is a partner in the VISATEC project (see Kiel). The group is also member of the Swedish consortium VISIT (see Lund). 14.3  Lund Institution: Mathematical Imaging Group Address: Department of Mathematics (LTH) Lund Institute of Technology / Lund University P.O. Box 118 S-221 00 Lund Sweden Contact: Gunnar Sparr Phone: +46 46 22 285 28 Fax: +46 46 22 240 10 Email: Gunnar.Sparr@math.lth.se URL: http://www.maths.lth.se/matematiklth/vision/ Faculty: 3 Professors, 2 Assoc Prof Post-Docs: 0 persons Students: » 1 Ph.D. students Projects VISIT (VISual Information Technology): The main research topics are view synthesis, contents based search in image and video, quality estimation for image sequences, 3D tracking of fibers in paper, fusion of 3D medical images, spatio-temporal and volume shape analysis from 2D image sequences and modelling and analysis of biological 3D shapes (Sponsor: Swedish). VISIRE (Virtual Image-processing System for Intelligent Reconstruction of 3D-Environments): The main objective of the project is then to develop new 3D computer vision acquisition techniques and tools that makes possible the construction of realistic 3D scenarios for a great variety of applications including simulations, multimedia and TV broadcast. The group is an active partner in the LAVA project (see INRIA - Grenoble) 14.4  Stockholm Institution: Centre for Autonomous Systems Address: Kungl Tekniska Högskolan NADA, CVAP/CAS Se-100 44 Stockholm Sweden Contact: Prof. Henrik I Christensen Phone: +46 8 790 6792 Fax: +46 8 723 0302 Email: hic@nada.kth.se URL: http://www.cas.kth.se/ Faculty: 5 Professors, 3 Associate Professors Post-Docs: 5 persons Students: » 30 Ph.D. students Projects Cognitive Vision - CogVis: The project is aimed at a merge of Artificial Intelligence and Computer Vision to study recognition, categorisation and scene interpretation. As part of the work essential issues involves memory organisation and learning of models of object and events (Sponsor: EU). Intelligent Service Robot: In the context of service robotics issues related to visual servoing and recognition are studied to understand use of visual perception in domestic setting. Primary issues here are robustness and real-time operation (Sponsor: Swedish). 14.5  Stockholm Institution: Computational Vision and Active Perception Address: Kungl Tekniska Högskolan NADA, CVAP Se-100 44 Stockholm Sweden Contact: Prof. Jan-Olof Eklundh Phone: +46 8 790 8161 Fax: +46 8 723 0302 Email: joe@nada.kth.se URL: http://www.nada.kth.se/cvap Faculty: 3 Professors, 2 Associate Professors Post-Docs: 6 persons Students: » 20 Ph.D. students Projects The core of the research is encompassed by the concept of a "mobile visual observer", that involves facilities for figure ground segmentation, recognition and interpretation - including methods for interaction. The research involves basic methods on geometry, active vision, segmentation, image modelling, and recognition. The methods are studies both from a basic research point of view and as part of application in multi-media, medical imaging and robotics VIBES: recovery of 3D shape for interpretation of dynamics motion as part of human interaction (Sponsor: EU) - (See also Lausanne) The group is the national coordinator of a project on cognitive vision (Sponsor SSF). The group is a member of the VISIT consortium (see Lund). There is a close interaction between the CVAP group and the Centre for Autonomous Systems 15  SWITZERLAND 15.1  Basel Institution: Scientific Photography and Image Processing Lab Address: Institute of Physical Chemistry Scientific Photography Lab Klingelbergstrasse 80 CH-4056 Basel Switzerland Contact: Rudolf Gschwind Phone: +41 61 267 3836 Fax: +41 61 267 3855 Email: gschwind@foto.chemie.unibas.ch URL: http://foto.chemie.unibas.ch/ Faculty: 1 docent, Post-Docs: 0 persons Students: 4 assistants Projects The goal of the current research is to improve the tools and methods to restore movie pictures using digital image processing techniques. 15.2  Bern Institution: Research Group of Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence Address: Universität Bern Institut für Informatik und angewandte Mathematik (IAM) Neubrückstrasse 10 CH-3012 Bern Switzerland Contact: Prof. Horst Bunke Phone: +41 (0)31 631 4451 Fax: +41 (0)31 631 3262 Email: bunke@iam.unibe.ch URL: http://iamwww.unibe.ch Faculty: 1 Professor Post-Docs: 0 persons Students: » 6 Ph.D. students Projects The basic research topics include: range image analysis, document image analysis and understanding, structural and syntactic pattern recognition, graph matching algorithms and applications, automatic diatom identification and classification. 15.3  Geneva Institution: Computer Vision and Multimedia Lab Address: Computer Vision Group Computing Science Centre University of Geneva 24 rue du Général-Dufour 1211 Geneva 4 Switzerland Contact: Prof. Thierry Pun Phone: +41 22 705 7627 Fax: +41 22 320 2927 Email: Thierry.Pun@cui.unige.ch URL: http://vision.unige.ch/ Faculty: 1 Professors Post-Docs: 5 persons Students: » 6 Ph.D. students Projects VIPER (Visual Information Processing for Enhanced Retrieval): this project deals with content-based image and multimedia retrieval. Database strategies are being developed for efficient retrieval of documents on the basis of textual and visual criteria. 15.4  Geneva Institution: MIRALab Address: MIRALab CUI University of Geneva 24 rue du General Dufour CH-1211 Geneva Switzerland Contact: Prof. Nadia Magnenat Thalmann Phone: +41 22 705 7769 Fax: +41 22 705 7780 Email: thalmann@miralab.unige.ch URL: http://miralabwww.unige.ch/ Faculty: 1 Professors Post-Docs: 4 persons Students: » 24 Ph.D. students Projects This group is mainly involved in a number of virtual reality projects where the most significant ones are VIRTUAL, JUST, INTERFACE (see Virtual Reality Lab, Lausanne, Switzerland). 15.5  Lausanne Institution: Virtual Reality Lab Address: Virtual Reality Lab Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) CH-1015 Lausanne Switzerland Contact: Prof. Daniel Thalmann Phone: +41 21 693 5214 Fax: +41 21 693 5328 Email: thalmann@lig.di.epfl.ch URL: http://ligwww.epfl.ch/ Faculty: 1 Professors, 1 Assistant Prof Post-Docs: 1 persons Students: » 32 Ph.D. students Projects CROSSES (Crowd Simulation System for Emergency Situations): this project deals with virtual reality tools for training people to efficiently respond to urban emergency situations. The idea is to use a simulator of an everyday environment to prepare to such dynamic scenarios through global and immersive interaction. Similar research is performed inside three other projects - VIRTUAL (Virtual reality systems for perceived ergonomic quality testing of driving task and design), JUST(Training of non professionals in Health Emergency Situations by Virtual Reality and INTERFACE (Multimodal Analysis/Synthesis System for Human Interaction to Virtual and Augmented Environments) (Sponsor: EU). 15.6  Lausanne Institution: Vision Group Address: Computer Vision Group Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) CH-1015 Lausanne Switzerland Contact: Pascal Fua Phone: +41 21 693 6647 Fax: +41 21 693 5328 Email: pascal.fua@epfl.ch URL: http://ligwww.epfl.ch/ Faculty: 1 Assoc Prof Post-Docs: 2 persons Students: » 6 Ph.D. students Projects VIBES (Video Browsing, Exploration and Structuring): this is a research project on object-level understanding of film and television video. It covers both correspondence/indexing (roughly at the level of MPEG-7) and reconstruction/re-synthesis (roughly at the level of MPEG-4). (Sponsor: EU) MESH (Modeling of Expression and Shape of human Heads): the goal of this project is to create virtual heads that are indistinguishable from real ones in terms of their shape, texture, and dynamics (emotions and speech). 15.7  Zurich Institution: Image Science Group Address: Computer Vision Laboratory Gloriastrasse 35 ETH-Zentrum CH - 8092 Zurich Switzerland Contact: Prof. Luc Van Gool Phone: +41 1 632 6578 Fax: +41 1 632 1199 Email: vangool@vision.ee.ethz.ch URL: http://www.vision.ee.ethz.ch Faculty: 2 Professors Post-Docs: 7 persons Students: » 27 Ph.D. students Projects The Computer Vision Laboratory main research area is the interpretation of 2D and 3D image data sets from conventional and non-conventional image sources. The problems studied the modeling, simulation and visualization of the underlying scene and processes in terms of medical imaging, shape modeling and image geometry and remote sensing. member of the Cognitive Vision Systems (CogViSys) consortium - see IAKS, Karlsruhe, Germany. 15.8  Zurich Institution: Perceptual Computing and Computer Vision Address: Perceptual Computing and Computer Vision Institute of Scientific Computing Department of Computer Science IFW B26.1, ETH Zurich Switzerland Contact: Prof. Bernt Schiele Phone: +41 1 632 0668 Fax: +41 1 632 1596 Email: schiele@inf.ethz.ch URL: http://www.vision.ethz.ch Faculty: 1 Assistant Prof Post-Docs: 2 persons Students: » 7 Ph.D. students Projects SMARTITS (Interconnected Embedded Technology for Smart Artefacts with Collective Awareness): the main two research issues here are the development of low-cost methods for single device feature extraction and the development of methods for collective perception of ad hoc connected distributed sensors and devices (Sponsor: EU). A major part of the research is on recognition methods and its use of wearable computing. Beside the research on real-time object tracking, content-based image retrieval, this group is also involved in Cognitive Vision project (see CAS, Stockholm, Sweden). 16  THE NETHERLANDS 16.1  Amsterdam Institution: Intelligent Autonomous Systems Group Address: Faculty of Science Department of Computer Science Intelligent Autonomous Systems Group Kruislaan 403, 1098 SJ, Amsterdam The Netherlands Contact: Prof. Frans C. A. Groen Phone: +3120 525 7461 Fax: +3120 525 7490 Email: groen@ wins.uva.nl URL: http://www.science.uva.nl/research/ias/ Faculty: 1 Professors, 1 Associate Prof, 2 Assistant Prof Post-Docs: 3 persons Students: » 9 Ph.D. students Projects The main research issue are intelligent autonomous systems operating in a real environment. The focus is on learning (including neuro-computation and probabilistic models), real world multi agents systems and perception for autonomous systems (including vision and sound processing). 16.2  Delft Institution: Pattern Recognition Group Address: Pattern Recognition Group Faculty of Applied Sciences TU Delft Lorentzweg 1 NL-2628 CJ Delft The Netherlands Contact: Prof. Ted Young Phone: +31 15 278 5390 Fax: +31 15 278 6740 Email: young@ph.tn.tudelft.nl URL: http://www.ph.tn.tudelft.nl/ Faculty: 1 Professors, 2 Assoc Prof Post-Docs: 3 persons Students: » 25 Ph.D. students Projects Image processing projects include: super-resolution issues in under-sampled image sequences, 3D image analysis of micro-structures food products, texture analysis and segmentation of subsurface images and 4D image processing (movement and motion). 16.3  Delft Institution: Advanced School of Computing and Imagining (ASCI) Address: Advanced School for Computing and Imaging ITS / TU Delft P.O. Box 5031 2600 GA Delft The Netherlands Contact: Prof. Andrew S. Tanenbaum Phone: +31 15 278 8032 Fax: +31 15 278 6632 Email: asci@its.tudelft.nl URL: http://www.asci.tudelft.nl/ Faculty: 100 (prof, ass and assoc prof, post-docs) Students: » 100 Ph.D. students Projects Computer Systems: methods and techniques for the design and implementation of advanced computer systems are studied, specially parallel, distributed, embedded and real-time systems. Imaging Systems: here, methods and techniques for the analysis (basic interpretation of the data) and synthesis of images (mainly data visualization) are studied. 16.4  Utrecht Institution: Center for Geometry, Imaging and Virtual Environments Address: Institute of Information and Computing Sciences P.O.Box 80.089 3508 TB Utrecht The Netherlands Contact: Prof. Mark Overmars Phone: +31 30 253 1454 Fax: +31 30 251 3791 Email: markov@cs.uu.nl URL: http://www.cs.uu.nl Faculty: 2 Professors Post-Docs: 15 persons Students: » 7 Ph.D. students Projects The main research area is the development of three-dimensional CAD-models and complete virtual worlds. The main focus is on geometric algorithms for storing, analyzing and manipulation of spatial data. 17  UNITED KINGDOM 17.1  Brighton Institution: Cognitive and Computing Sciences - Vision Group Address: Cognitive and Computing Sciences University of Sussex Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QH United Kingdom Contact: Prof. Hilary Buxton Phone: +44 1273 678 569 Fax: +44 1273 671 320 Email: hilaryb@cogs.susx.uk.ac URL: http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk Faculty: 1 Professors, 2 lecturers Post-Docs: 0 persons Students: » 8 Ph.D. students Projects Interpreting and Understanding Activities of Expert Operators for Teaching and Education (ActIPret), (see, Institute of Flexible Automation, Vienna, Austria) (Sponsor: EU). The core of research within this group is knowledge based interpretation of scene dynamics using a variety of paradigms including Bayesian networks. 17.2  Bristol Institution: Image Processing and Computer Vision Group Address: Computer Vision Group Department of Computer Science University of Bristol Merchant Venturers Building Bristol BS8 1UB United Kingdom Contact: Prof. Barry Thomas Phone: +44 (0)117 954 5130 Fax: +44 (0)117 954 5208 Email: Barry.Thomas@bristol.ac.uk URL: http://www.cs.bris.ac.uk/Research/Vision/ Faculty: 2 Professors, 3 Lecturers Post-Docs: 4 persons Students: » 14 Ph.D. students Projects Autonomous Road Navigation : The aim of the project is to use a vision based real-time road following system as the navigator for a computer controlled golf buggy. Visual feedback using modular, transputer based, parallel system involves road extraction using lines. Medical Image Analysis : Here, a neural networks based system has been developed to automatically detect a specific type of benign brain tumour using Magnetic Resonance (MR) images of the head. A Mobility Aid for Low Vision: This research aims at producing a portable mobility aid for people with low vision, integrating techniques from Computer Vision (neural networks based object classifiers) and Virtual Reality. 17.3  Cambridge Institution: Speech Vision and Robotics Group Address: Department of Engineering University of Cambridge Trumpington St. Cambridge CB2 1PZ United Kingdom Contact: Prof. Roberto Cipolla Phone: +44 1223 332 849 Fax: +44 1223 332 662 Email: cipolla@eng.cam.ac.uk URL: http://svr-www.eng.cam.ac.uk Faculty: 2 Professors, 4 Lecturers Post-Docs: 0 persons Students: » 3 Ph.D. students Projects In terms of computer vision the main research topics are interpretation of visual motion, visual tracking, robot guidance, face detection and tracking, image segmentation and compression. 17.4  Edinburgh Institution: Institute of Perception, Action and Behaviour Address: Division of Informatics University of Edinburgh 5 Forrest Hill Edinburgh EH1 2QL Scotland Contact: Bob Fisher Phone: +44 131 650 3098 Fax: +44 131 650 6899 Email: rbf@dai.ed.ac.uk URL: http://www.informatics.ed.ac.uk/research/ipab/ Faculty: 4 Lecturers Post-Docs: 0 persons Students: » 5 Ph.D. students Projects The main research topic is the investigation of how to link, both in theory and in practice, computational action, perception, representation, transformation and generation processes to external worlds, whether the "real" world or another computational environment. Research activities include computer vision, mobile and assembly robotics, music perception and visualization. The group has a long term record on range image analysis, where it has developed both basic acquisition methods, segmentation methods and modelling techniques. The group is the coordinator of the on-line resources CVonline and HIPR. 17.5  Edinburgh Institution: Department of Computing and Electrical Engineering Address: Department of Computing and Electrical Engineering Heriot-Watt University Riccarton Edinburgh EH14 4AS Scotland Contact: Prof. Andrew M. Wallace Phone: +44 131 451 3423 Fax: +44 131 451 3431 Email: andy@cee.hw.ac.uk URL: http://www.cee.hw.ac.uk Faculty: 3 Professors Post-Docs: 7 persons Students: » 10 Ph.D. students Projects Model Based Image Interpretation: basic principles of features based approaches to object recognition are studied. Parallel and Space Variant Vision: in terms of real-time vision systems, two principal mechanisms are studied. First is the use of several processors with coarse or fine grain parallelism. Second is to concentrate attention on the foveal (or any other) region of the scene in view, adopting a non-uniform sampling strategy. 17.6  Leeds Institution: Computer Vision Group Address: Computer Vision Group School of Computing University of Leeds Leeds LS2 9JT United Kingdom Contact: Prof. David Hogg Phone: +44 113 343 5765 Fax: +44 113 343 5468 Email: dch@comp.leeds.ac.uk URL: http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/vision/ Faculty: 1 Professor Post-Docs: 9 persons Students: » 9 Ph.D. students Projects REconstruction using Scanned Laser and Video (RESOLV): the goal is to develop a mobile robot known as the EST, Environmental Sensor for Telepresence, that will undertake a 3D survey of a building, including capturing the appearance of the visible surfaces used to construct VR models for the visualisation of refurbishment and maintenance projects and for displaying 3D interiors on the World-Wide Web. Cognitive Vision - see CAS, Stockholm, Sweden. The group has a long term record on modelling of human and car motion for interpretation of scene and scene dynamics. Particular emphasis has been on detection of incidents using knowledge based and statistical methods. 17.7  London Institution: Vision Group at Queen Mary and Westfield College Address: Department of Computer Science Queen Mary University of London Mile End Road, London E1 4NS United Kingdom Contact: Prof. Shaogang Gong Phone: +44 (0)20 7882 5249 Fax: +44 (0)20 8980 6533 Email: sgg@dcs.qmul.ac.uk URL: http://www.dcs.qmul.ac.uk Faculty: 3 Professors, 2 lecturers Post-Docs: 2 persons Students: » 5 Ph.D. students Projects Incident Recognition for Surveillance and Security (ICONS): the project advances and exploits state-of-the-art research of zero motion detection (detection of medium- to long-term visual changes in a scene) and behaviour recognition (characterise and detect undesirable behaviour in video data). 17.8  London Institution: Vision Research group at Royal Halloway Address: Vision Research Group Department of Psychology Royal Holloway University of London Egham, Surrey TW20 OEX United Kingdom Contact: Prof. Andrew T Smith Phone: +44 (0)1784 443 717 Fax: +44 (0)1784 434 347 Email: a.t.smith@rhul.ac.uk URL: http://www.pc.rhbnc.ac.uk/vision/ Faculty: 1 Professor, 4 lecturers Post-Docs: 2 persons Students: » 2 Ph.D. students Projects The group conducts research on fundamental aspects of human vision. The main emphasis is on psychophysical investigations, particularly studies of motion perception, brain imaging studies and eye movements. 17.9  Manchester Institution: Imaging Science and Biomedical Engineering Address: Dept. of of Imaging Science and Biomedical Engineering University of Manchester Stopford Building Oxford Rd. Manchester. M13 9PT United Kingdom Contact: Prof. Chris Taylor Phone: +44 (0)161 275 5130 Fax: +44 (0)161 275 5145 Email: ctaylor@man.ac.uk URL: http://www.isbe.man.ac.uk Faculty: 3 Professors, 10 Lecturers Post-Docs: 9 persons Students: » 8 Ph.D. students Projects Quantitative Imaging and Physiological Measurement which involves applying an understanding of physical principles and biological mechanisms to measuring structure and function 'in vivo'. Current activities include Magnetic Resonance (MR) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging, MR spectroscopy, radio-labeling and electro-physiology. The other research topics include medical image analysis, face recognition, industrial inspection and signal interpretation in critical care. The group is particularly known for its efficient snake models for tracking of dynamics phenomena. 17.10  Oxford Institution: Visual Geometry Group Address: Dept of Engineering Science University of Oxford 19 Parks Road Oxford OX13PJ United Kingdom Contact: Prof. Andrew Zisserman Phone: 44 1865 2 73148 Fax: +44 1865 2 73908 Email: az@robots.ox.ac.uk URL: http://www.robots.ox.ac.uk/ vgg Faculty: 1 Professor Post-Docs: 5 persons Students: » 5 Ph.D. students Projects V2I (Video and Virtual camera Integration): The objective of this project is the development of fully automatic techniques which will enable a video sequence to be augmented with virtual objects using inexpensive equipment (e.g. a laptop computer) without requiring special camera control equipment or calibration objects. Video Browsing, Exploration and Structuring: see Vision Group, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland. Cognitive Vision Systems (CogViSys): see Image Science Group, Zurich, Switzerland. The group is well known as one of the strongest groups of 3D geometry in vision. 17.11  Oxford Institution: Active Vision Laboratory Address: Dept of Engineering Science University of Oxford Parks Road Oxford OX13PJ United Kingdom Contact: Prof. David Murray Phone: +44 (0) 1865 2 73106 Fax: +44 (0) 1865 2 73908 Email: david.murray@eng.ox.ac.uk URL: http://www.robots.ox.ac.uk/ lav/ Faculty: 1 Professors, 1 lecturer Post-Docs: 2 persons Students: » 5 Ph.D. students Projects The main research topics inside the group are: human motion understanding, wearable robotics (active camera platforms), tracking for surveillance purposes, visual navigation, vision for tele-presence and teleoperation and hardware for active vision. 17.12  Oxford Institution: Medical Vision Lab Address: University of Oxford Parks Road Oxford OX13PJ United Kingdom Contact: Prof. Mike Brady Phone: +44 1865 282185 Fax: +44 1865 273908 Email: jmb@robots.ox.ac.uk URL: http://www.robots.ox.ac.uk/ mvl Faculty: 1 Professor Post-Docs: 8 persons Students: » 13 Ph.D. students Projects The research of the group involves the development of 2D and 3D image processing techniques for quantifying disease progression and regression and organ function. Particular applications include breast, brain, cardiac and ophthalmological image analysis. 17.13  Southampton Institution: Image, Speech, and Intelligent Systems Research Group Address: Image, Speech, and Intelligent Systems Research Group Department of Electronics and Computer Science Building 1 University of Southampton Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ United Kingdom Contact: Prof. Mark Nixon Phone: +44 023 8059 3542 Fax: +44 023 8059 4498 Email: msn@ecs.soton.ac.uk URL: http://www.isis.ecs.soton.ac.uk Faculty: 1 Professor, 3 lecturers Post-Docs: 3 persons Students: » 19 Ph.D. students Projects The main research of the group is in biometrics (face, gait and ear recognition), medical imaging (lung and heart image analysis), feature extraction for motion detection and remotely sensed image analysis. 17.14  Surrey Institution: Centre for Vision, Speech and Signal Processing Address: Department of Electronic Engineering University of Surrey Guildford Surrey GU2 7XH United Kingdom Contact: Prof. Josef Kittler Phone: +44 1483 689294 Fax: +44 1483 686031 Email: J.Kittler@surrey.ac.uk URL: http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/CVSSP Faculty: 3 Professors, 7 Lecturers Post-Docs: 5 persons Students: » 11 Ph.D. students Projects In terms of computer vision, the main interests of the group are: 3D vision: The goal is to capture accurate 3D models of real objects and environments for mechanical inspection and to provide realistic content CGI, VR, animation and 3DTV. Pattern Recognition and Neural Networks: The main attempt is to provide an analytical approach to neural network design which avoids the problems of training and of architecture selection for multi-layer perceptron Neural Networks. Shape Representation and Object Recognition: The main research areas include multi-view 3D object recognition, free-form multi-scale 3D surface description and silhouette-based object recognition with occlusions. The group is a member of the EU consortium VAMPIRE (see Bielefeld). 17.15  York Institution: Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Group Address: Department of Computer Science The University of York Heslington YORK YO10 5DD United Kingdom Contact: Prof. Edwin Hancock Phone: +44 1904 43 3374 Fax: +44 1904 433389 Email: erh@minster.york.ac.uk URL: http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/ erh/cvprgroup/ Faculty: 1 Professor Post-Docs: 0 persons Students: » 9 Ph.D. students Projects The basic research studies the objective principles of pattern recognition in order to design robust and effective algorithms for machine vision. Individual topics include: analysis of differential surface structure, face detection, tracking, graph matching and radar imagining.

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