Defense, Security and Sensing 2009

DSS 2009 took place between 13 and 17 April 2009 in Orlando, FL. More information about the event and its various conferences are available at:

http://spie.org/x34810.xml

I had two talks at DSS 2009 this year, both at the Mobile Multimedia/Image Processing, Security, and Applications conference. My first talk was on Next Generation Image Coding Standards: JPEG XR and AIC, was an invited talk. The second was entitled: Multi-view Video Segmentation and Tracking for Video Surveillance.

You can consult the slides of the invited talk below. As the link is sometimes too slow, an alternative way to see these slides would be to go directly to my LinkedIn profile to see these and some other slides I have put there.

At DSS 2009, like in its previous year edition, I had an opportunity to meet Dr. Pankaj Topiwala who is an old timer and very active contributor to DSS. Here, a picture of us.

JPEG XR AhG meeting in Tokyo, Japan, February 2009

PDF presentation of Dr. Gary Sullivan:

https://documents.epfl.ch/users/e/eb/ebrahimi/www/JPEGXR-TOKYO/Gary.pdf

PDF presentation of Prof. Touradj Ebrahimi:

https://documents.epfl.ch/users/e/eb/ebrahimi/www/JPEGXR-TOKYO/Touradj.pdf

87th MPEG meeting at EPFL in February 2009

The 87th MPEG meeting took place at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, from February 1st to 6th, 2009. This was the 7th time MPEG committee was coming to Switzerland at the invitation of the Swiss National Body to ISO, and the third time the committee came to EPFL. This meeting was very productive with many exciting developments. Among others, one can mention activities around 3D video coding, and the newly launched High Performance Video Coding, referred to as HVC, which aims at creating the next generation video compression algorithms beyond Advanced Video Compression AVC (also known as MPEG-4 part 10 and H.264). Another highlight of the meeting was the announcement that MPEG committee has received two Emmy Awards thanks to its outstanding contributions with AVC.

Some pictures of the meeting can be consulted at the following URL:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Touradj.Ebrahimi/SwissMPEG2009?feat=directlink

VPQM2009

The forth edition of international workshop on video processing and quality metrics for consumer electronics (VPQM) took place in Scottsdale, Arizona, on January 15 and 16, 2009. This event has now become a traditional gathering place for experts from around the world active in the field of video quality assessment. More details about the forth edition, and previous workshops, together with program and papers presented are available at the following url:

http://enpub.fulton.asu.edu/resp/vpqm/

During this workshop I presented a work we did jointly with FUB on the influence of color information in the perception of quality in high resolution pictures. The pdf version of the paper can be accessed at the end of this article on its EPFL mirror.

I took a few pictures while at VPQM, that you can consult here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Touradj.Ebrahimi/VPQM2009?feat=directlink

It is worth mentionning that I am organizing a workshop related to this topic in San Diego from July 29-31st, 2009, called QoMEX.

Have a look at the following url and consider submitting a contribution:

http://www.qomex.org

MMSPG 2008 Christmas dinner

The now traditional MMSPG 2008 Christmas dinner took place on Saturday December 13th, 2008, at the usual place: Relais de la Poste, a nice restaurant on the easterns hights of Lausanne, in the middle of vineyards. This was a joyful and friendly gathering to meet with colleagues and their family members, and to celebrate a rather dynamic year 2008. Some photos of the dinner can be found at the following url:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Touradj.Ebrahimi/MMSPG2008ChristmasDinner?feat=directlink

9th MMSPG lunch meeting in 2008

The 9th, and probably last lunch meeting of our research group in 2008, took place on November 7th. This lunch was organized by Jong-Seok LEE. Thanks to his wife's kind efforts and contributions, we could all enjoy some interesting and very tasty Korean food and drinks. Our appreciations go to both of them, and we look forward to have another similar experience very soon.

There are some pictures in the following URL of the event, and especially a few snapshots of some of the food we had:

picasaweb.google.com/Touradj.Ebrahimi/9thMMSPGLunchMeetingIn2008#

Eighth MMSPL lunch meeting

The Eighth lunch meeting in 2008, and the first after the summer break, took place on 22nd September 2008. This lunch was organized by Daniele Ticca one week before he ends his stay with us. Unsurprizingly, on he menu, we had Pizza! We wish Daniele good luck in his future career and will always remember his stay and the good memories he left with us.

Some photos of the lunch are available at:

picasaweb.google.com/Touradj.Ebrahimi/EighthMMSPLLunchMeeting#