9422195 Healey This award is to purchase computer equipment which will be dedicated to support research in computer and information science and engineering. This equipment will be used for several research projects, including in particular: 1) Image modeling and segmentation; 2) Algorithms for estimating illumination-invariant properties of objects; 3) Algorithms for estimating geometry-invariant properties of objects; and 4) Algorithms for cue integration for object recognition. The four workstations will be used for the development of new color image models and associated algorithms for the estimation of object properties which are invariant to an object's environment. New random field models will be developed that describe physically relevant interactions within and between bands of a color image. These image models will be parametrized by surface properties and scene conditions and will be used for image segmentation. Algorithms will also be developed which compute illumination-invariant and geometry-invariant properties of objects. These models and algorithms will be used by methods that rigorously combine estimated properties for object recognition. The proposed equipment will also allow experimentation with the developed models and algorithms on large databases to characterize performance and to suggest areas for future research. ***
