recognition as segmentation across time

Let me start out my brief discussion with a segmentation result:


This is the image the New Year's Party picture that I posted a few posts ago. This is the result of Felzenszwalb's graph based segmentation executable. I ran the executable many times by uniformly sampling the input parameter space and selected one image which looked particularly nice.

Segmentation is generally referred as a mid-level process, ie a process which groups together similar regions. However, it is still not a high-level process because it doesn't use any information from other images. When the concept of segmentation was introduced into the vision community, researchers thought that it would a good pre-processing step that would further aid object recognition. However, the community quickly realized that an object-consistent segmentation is only possible after the objects have been identified in the image!

Image segmentation is still very popular as of 2006; however, the traditional definition of segmentation as something you do before recognition is slowly becoming outdated. Modern research on segmentation has a significant object-recognition feel to it, and one interesting question that remains is: how does one incorporate information from a large set of images to segment 1 image?

Every problem in computer vision can be solved with an object recognition module, unfortunately recognition is the most difficult. Computer vision is not simply image processing. Computer vision strives to build machines that can make synthetic a posteriori statements about the world. If Emmanuel Kant was alive this day, he would be a vision hacker.

we, the lunatics, and the two Smiths

I would like to briefly comment on the dystopia presented in Orwell's 1984 and its relationship to Heinlein's utopia from Stranger in a Strange Land. Winston Smith's world -- the world of 1984 -- is a world where the Party has determined how man should live his or her life. In this cold and lonesome world, man has been taught to suppress his or her emotions/instincts/desires, cast doubt on their senses, and love their patron -- Big Brother. Characteristic of this dystopia is the mechanical progression of every man's daily life; the irrational and unpredictable elements of modern human life have deemed as crimes. It is important to note that the world of 1984, as presented in the first half of the book, is the dystopia while the hypothetical world of hope and freedom that exists in Winston's mind is the utopia. Orwell presents a world where many people are aware of some shadow lurking in the background -- something wrong with the current way of life -- but they are simply too weak to do anything about it on their own.

The world of Michael Valentine Smith -- the Man from Mars -- is so magical that is transcends the word utopia. By introducing elements from science fiction, Heilnein carefully presents the reader with a world of unfettered emotion, a world introduced to humanity by the man from Mars. In Stranger from a Strange Land, the utopian state is induced by Smith's way of life and embodied by the inhabitants of the Nest (read the book to find out more about this). This utopia (by introducing elements from fiction, Heinlein makes this an extravagantly exaggerated utopia) can be compared to the human way of life the way it was before Michael Valentine Smith arrived. All that is prohibited in the world of Big Brother is encouraged in the world of Michael Valentine Smith. By presenting such a utopian way of life, perhaps Heinlein wanted us to focus on the world the way it was before it was touched by Michael Valentine Smith. Although Heinlein portrays the future as very similar to the modern world as of 2006, it nevertheless portrays it as a sort of dystopia. The big difference between the world of Stranger in a Strange Land (before the Man from Mars came) and the world of 1984 is that Oceania's denizens are somewhat aware of their predicament while the citizens of Heinlein's world only become aware of their situation after their savior comes.

Just how different is the world of 2006 compared to the world of 1984? Does one have to be aware of their predicament for the predicament to truly exist?

back in style

I'm back in Pittsburgh, reading 1984, arpeggiating 7th cords, and getting ready for classes to start.

four books and a drive with the new deal

I recently finished Stranger In a Strange Land and I will be leaving Long Island with four new books tomorrow. I have recently purchased Tom Wolfe's I Am Charlotte Simmons, Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver, George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, and I acquired Dune by Frank Herbert as a gift. I'm not sure what to read next, but I'll gladly take any recommendations.


I will be driving from Long Island to Pittsburgh tomorrow after I drop off my brother at Maritime College. Today I downloaded The New Deal's New Year's show at B.B. King's and I look forward to listening to that on the way. I should be blogging from Shadyside shortly.

Stranger: done!

Stranger In a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein isn't your stereotypical science fiction novel. It is a novel that leaves the reader thinking about love, their own life, and ethics; therefore, I would only recommend it for the philosophically inclined.

Although under the most straightforward interpretation of the title there is nothing ambiguous about the words 'stranger' and 'strange', there is an alternate interpretation that I would like to proffer. Under the straightforward interpretation, the stranger is Valentine Michael Smith -- the man from Mars -- and the strange land is earth.

Alternatively, one can interpret the word 'stranger' in the title of this novel to relate to any human living on earth who is not accustomed to the Martian way of life, an unenlightened individual. The 'strange land' would then refer to the very same Earth -- a very strange place for the unenlightened human. Under this interpretation, I am using the "One who is unaccustomed to or unacquainted with something specified; a novice." definition of 'stranger' and the "Not previously known; unfamiliar." definition of 'strange'. These definitions were taken from the 'stranger' entry on dictionary.com.

This novel does a good job at showing how non-Martian lifestyle-following, earth-dwelling humans are novices in the game of life. The stranger is the human who has grown old and weary in his ways by adhering to the tenets of modern society. The novel shows how such a non-Martian lifestyle leaves one unfamiliar with respect to the taste of reality. The man from Mars handed out a taste of Utopia and the strangers were the humans who haven't yet shared water and grown closer. Perhaps Heinlein wanted to convey the idea that the strangeness of the world around us is intimately related to our world view; Mike wanted to make the world less strange for the denizens of Earth.

Ahead of its time (this book was released in the early 60s and not the early 70s) and promoting a pantheistic view that emphasizes personal responsibility in our own lives, this book is not only entertaining but it will leave the reading asking questions.

Experience More in 2006

I've always been troubled by the concept of a New Year's Resolution. There's nothing special about the start of a new calendar year that warrants a change in one's life. I'm not saying that people are wrong in wanting to do something such as 'exercise more' or 'quit smoking'; however, they should do those things for a reason that transcends the progression of the calendar year.

A good resolution is to Experience More. Simply put, Experiencing More translates to looking past the barriers that have been shaped around us and mandate our daily experience. Experiencing More is grokking that there is more to life than the predictable routine of daily life; it is an attempt to spice up the story of our life. The routine of modern life acts as a strong force that binds us to a particular beat of life and the first step in Experiencing More is understanding what aspects of our life are too predictable. To become a navigator of the space of all beats one has to only perturb their daily routine and be aware of the world around them as everything will take care of itself.

Aquafraternally yours,
Tomasz

new years fiesta picture

Here is a picture of Cole, Dan, Me, and Roseann from the New Year's Party I attended.