Julien's fuzzy blog

French Prime Minister JP Raffarin has become an idol for some people since he tried to speak English about the European Constitution. I reckon the accent is not that bad, but the meaning...


click to get the video

I'm sorry, it's in wmv format I couldn't translate it to divx in a fairly good quality with mencoder (5000-line man page...).

I'm about to finish my pre-project... and therefore to start my PhD ! I got exactly the subject I wanted: IBMR for surgery.

"Image-Based Modeling and Rendering" is the field of research that uses images from a set of cameras to build a 3D model of an object and even a 3D rendering. This is a really powerful technique to generate photo-realistic 3D scenes. A couple of links about that:
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~ph/869/www/misc.html
http://peter-oel.de/ibmr-focus/
http://www.ibmr.net/

By the way, the weather is nice again today !

I've started to develop a filter plugin for the simulator that provides a kind of Night Vision Device (NVD) view. These devices are based on electron acceleration/multiplication, and are frequently shown in movies such as "The Silence of the Lambs".

 

It is simply based on a blurring effect, a shift to the green and a kind of saturation filter.

After 3 days of hot and sunny weather, we got some rain this morning ...

Yes he did! After 19 days without a single post on his blog (previous one dated 01/03/2005), Thibault finally decided to show us something. Instead of the traditional "Home renovation" you will now find an article entitled "Panoramic round 2" heading the blog. Very nice panoramic views from UK and Paris.

The permalink to this article might be useful in case of sudden blog-posting spree ...

nb -a ; nb -c 1 -a ; nb -c 2 -a ; nb -c 1,2 -a ; nb -a ; nb -a ; nb -a ; nb -c 2 -a ; nb -c 1 -a ; nb -c 2,1 -a ; nb -a ; nb -a

Image not clickable

Last week I designed a poster on what I've done so far (unfortunately the filter plugin was not available yet).Today it has been printed out on a high quality A0 sheet of "Kodak Royal Paper", which looks more like PVC than paper. A royal paper is the minimum required for the Imperial College . I will present it at the International Workshop on Wearable & Implantable Body Sensor Networks in mid-April.

Seen on a banner hanging in front the "Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle" (French high school) on Cromwell Road - in the middle of many other slogans . I'm quite impressed, because this high school is supposed to be very strict.

Note to the non-French readers: I won't translate the title, let you imagine... . François Fillon is the current French Minister for National Education, Higher Education and Research. And tries to pass a very unpopular law. A bit more information on the BBC web site.

It reminds me the students marchs I've done a couple of years ago. By the way, I was wondering if the French students here in London can and will demonstrate in UK. It would be great to show to the French government that even from overseas people strongly disagree. Come on guys !

Is that already summer ?

I went to the department in T-shirt this morning (yes, I know, last year I did that even in the middle of winter). But it's already 14°C, and 19°C are expected this afternoon !

As you know, I work on a camera network simulator. The software I'm building is now able to load through XML files:

• the 3D model of a building
• a camera network setup (position, angle, etc)
• a programmed path for a person (here a cow )

Moreover, I've developed a system of plugins. The developers can compile their plugins separately as shared objects (*.so/*.dll). Such plugins can then be dynamically loaded inline.
An interesting type of plugin is the filter, allowing to process operations on the output of a virtual camera. They'll be used to test gait detection algorithms for example. You can plug in as many filters as you need, building a tree of filters.

Screen shots are more talkative . First one is an overview of the system:



The 4 following detailed views represent:

• the original view
• a blur filter applied to this view
• a red filter on the output of the blur filter (to test filter chain system)
• a movement detection filter (to test temporal aspect)

Of course, these filters are not useful at all, I've done them only for test purpose.

       

The application relies on:

• OpenSceneGraph
• Open Inventor (for osgPlugin - VRML)
• libXML
• CImg for image display (it's a shame, this French lib can do far more !)

What's next ?

• Debbugging .
• All the objects (building, cow, camera, filter) can be loaded from a console, which is not convenient. I will ameliorate it.
• A WxWidget-based GUI to setup the tree of filters.
• SQL data loader
• Python plugin system for fast prototyping
• More interaction in the OpenGL viewer (hide objects, etc)

I now share my room with a lovely mouse which climbs ontop of my curtains at night and doesn't seem very frightened by me... Keep looking at what I'm doing.

This week-end, I went to Manchester to visit Venetia and Bertrand (alias Tony).

The trip started like the cliché of a rail journey in England. A typical 20-minute delay in the tube on Picadilly line. 20 minutes waiting between two stations, I can tell you, it's really long. Then the train to Manchester was announced for departure 15 minutes late (Friday evening classic). It was amazing: as soon as the plaftorm was given, an impressive rush started, everybody pushing hard to be sure to get a seat. Actually bookings have been disabled. Explanation: on Virgin trains, you now have your name displayed on an LCD ontop of your seat. And the system is controlled by satellite - wow that's a beautiful technology ! Well if it works, otherwise no seat is booked... As I was not prepared for this rush, I was not well positioned on the starting line, but thanks to my marathon training I could run full-speed all along the platform and find in extremis a seat available in the front coach. A good 35-minute delay on arrival.

Anyway, I was warmly welcomed and the week-end was really nice. Beautiful weather. We visited the city, museum, went for pints. And cooked and ate a lot ! I've put on weight, approximatively 2kg (4pounds). Excellent ! By the way, I noticed while cooking the lasagnas that I was really missing to prepare fine cuisine. The flat of Venetia and Bertand is really large and cosy. Living room, kitchen, bathroom, two bed-rooms and balcony ! Wow ! Decorated French and Greek style. No special annoucement from the couple ...

On return, the satellite booking system was not repaired yet. But the train proudly arrived in London 20 minutes earlier than expected ! I think I shouldn't try to understand the British Railways anymore ...

I'm now properly registered for the Belfast City Marathon 2005. My race number is 270. This is quite a small number compared to my 23298 last year at the Paris Marathon ...

Yeah, I've done it ! Former record was 2 words, with "Mornin' - Mornin'". It's now 7 words ! Amazing, isn't it ? The transcript shows you the intensity of the action:

Julien: Good evening
Housemate: Hi !
I opened the door for her.
Housemate: Thank you ! (French accent maybe detected)
Julien: Your' welcome.

Yes I know, some of you will tell me that 'your' is actually 'you are' in proper English. And therefore should count for 2. But this is supposed to be a happy occasion! Let's not bicker and argue over who killed who!

Andy gave me a couple of pictures from the hiking week-end in the Dartmoor National Park.

  

Thank you Andy !

(Directed by martin Scorsese, starring DiCaprio, ...) Don't go to watch this crap movie. I wanted to left the room after half-an-hour. Even Mommas said it was not as good as expected. So you've been warned...

This week I've started to intensify my running schedule. I've decided to run the Belfast marathon (*) which will be held on 2nd May. That's a 8-week period that is starting. I hope I will be fit enough to finish, and hopefully to run in around 3h30, admitted objective !

A web page summarizing the plans for this trip is available.

(*) I initially planned to run the London Marathon, but was far too late !