Kostas Daniilidis
Professor


Department of Computer and Information Science
School of Engineering and Applied Science
University of Pennsylvania

Director of the GRASP Laboratory
CV Publications
Recent Papers: Oleg Naroditsky, Xun S. Zhou, Jean Gallier, Stergios I. Roumeliotis, and Kostas Daniilidis, Two Efficient Solutions for Visual Odometry Using Directional Correspondence, accepted IEEE PAMI, 2011, pdf.

O. Naroditsky and K. Daniilidis, Optimizing Polynomial Solvers for Minimal Geometry Problems, Int Conf Computer Vision, ICCV, 2011. pdf.

C. Phillips, K. Derpanis, K. Daniilidis, A Novel Stereoscopic Cue for Figure-Ground Segregation of Semi-Transparent Objects, 1st IEEE Workshop on Challenges and Opportunities in Robot Perception, 2011. pdf.

D. Scaramuzza, A. Censi, K. Daniilidis, Exploiting Motion Priors in Visual Odometry for Vehicle-Mounted Cameras with Non-holonomic Constraints, IROS 2011. pdf.

O. Naroditsky, A. Patterson, K. Daniilidis, Automatic Alignment of a Camera with a Line Scan LIDAR System, In IEEE Int. Conf. Robotics and Automations, 2011, pdf.

A. Toshev, B. Taskar, and K. Daniilidis. Object detection via boundary structure segmentation,. In IEEE Comp. Vision Pattern Recognition, 2010, pdf.

A. Makadia and K. Daniilidis. Spherical correlation of visual representations for 3d model retrieval. International Journal of Computer Vision, 2010. pdf.

G.L. Mariottini, F. Morbidi, D. Prattichizzo, N. Vander Val, N. Michael, G.J. Pappas, and K. Daniilidis. Vision-based localization of leader-follower formations. IEEE Trans. Robotics and Automation, 2009 pdf.

N. Moshtagh, N. Michael, A. Jadbabaie, and K. Daniilidis. Vision-based, distributed control laws for motion coordination of nonholonomic robots. IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 2009, pdf.

A. Toshev, A. Makadia, K. Daniilidis: Shape-based Detection of Moving Objects in Videos, IEEE Computer Vision Pattern Recognition CVPR 2009. pdf.

R. Anati, K. Daniilidis. Constructing Topological Maps using Markov Random Fields and Loop-Closure Detection. Neural Information Processing Systems 2009. pdf.

J.P. Tardif, Y. Pavlidis, and K. Daniilidis. Monocular visual odometry in urban environments using an omdirectional camera. In EEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2008 pdf.

Research: My research field is computer vision and robotics and in particular space and motion perception with machines. Since 1990, I have been studying multiple view geometry, image matching, stereo vision, recognition, sensor deployment, and camera design. Recently, my group has been working on:

Image matching: Matching images, for example for location recognition, is challenging when views have small overlap and significant clutter. Using harmonic analysis on groups we have been able to convert a voting scheme for matching without any feature correspondence into a filtering problem, assuming only a consistent scene geometry (PAMI 2003, IJCV 2007, CVPR 2003, 2005, ICCV 2007). We extended our results to range imaging, by finding a procedure for aligning point clouds based on the similarity of their orientation histograms (CVPR 2006).

Image co-salience: We introduced a new matching score that rewards a simultaneous intra-image segmentation and inter-image correspondence between co-salient regions, and optimized it spectrally in a joint graph (CVPR 2007). We applied it in a novel approach for recogition of 3D objects in videos (CVPR 2009).

Vision based formation control: We established the first framework for consensus of a formation of robots using only the lines of sight to neighbors. We proved that this is feasible using only bearing and the time to collision, giving thus a justification to biological evidence that many species flock without having any range sensors (RSS 2005, 2008, Transactions on Robotics 2009). When an agent can play the role of leader, we proved that the formation can act as a collective observer (ICRA 2007).

Visual odometry and mapping: Using only omnidirectional cameras and exploiting proximal as well as distal landmarks we have been able to reconstruct one of the longest outdoor maps, a result that attracted immediate attention regarding application in GPS-denied environments (IROS 2008).

Geometric foundations of panoramic cameras and omnidirectional vision: We introduced a novel unifying geometric theory (IJCV 2001) that described reflections of the 3D world on mirrors followed by projections on the omnidirectional plane. This model unifies all second order reflective surfaces and includes the traditional CCD camera as a degenerate case and reveals constraints for self-calibration (PAMI 2002). A representation of lifted points and line projections (circles) in a commo 3D space, called circle space -- after Moebius work; We discovered a group-theoretic characterization of fundamental intrinsic transformations in such systems: they are elements of the Lorentz group O(3,1) (ICCV 2003). This discovery enabled us to estimate motion and intrinsic camera parameters from kernels of 4x4 matrices. Later we generalized the lifting to cover radial distortion models (ICCV 2005).

Tele-immersion and Stereo: In 1998, together with UNC, Brown University, and ANS, we set as our goal to make feasible an immersive sense of remote presence, so compelling that it instantaneously creates the illusion of being near to people and objects which are physically miles away. Our desire to close the loop through networking and graphics made us put a considerable effort on the systems and performance aspect. A series of successful milestones led to a system that acquires an environment as a set of depth maps from several viewpoints in 10Hz (using a dual Intel P4) and can run for several days without interruption (IJCV 2002, IEEE-CSVT 2003).

Recent Activities:

Program Co-chair ECCV 2010: 11th European Conference on Computer Vision
Assosiate Editor of PAMI, the IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (2003-2007)
Short Courses Chair at CVPR 2007
CoChair 3DPVT: 3rd Int. Symposium on 3D Data Processing, Visualization, and Transmission 2006
Area Chair of ICCV 2007, CVPR 2006, 2005, 2004, and ECCV 2004.
Special Issue of the IEEE R&A Magazine on Panoramic Robotics, December 2004.
Co-Chair of the Computer and Robot Vision TC of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society
Chair of the IEEE Workshop on Omnidirectional Vision, June 12, 2000.,

News/Media: Watch Sandy Patterson and me for 5min in the Discovery Channel feature "Debunked" .
PhD Students: Matthieu Lecce , Menglong Zhu , Cody Phillips , Mayank Bansal , Oleg Naroditsky, Alexander Patterson, Roy Anati.
Postdocs: Konstantinos Derpanis, Davide Scaramuzza.
Alumni PhDs: Alexander Toshev (Google Research), Ankita Kumar, (Oracle), Nima Moshtagh (Scientific Systems). Ameesh Makadia (Google Labs), Volkan Isler (faculty at U. of. Minnesota), Christopher Geyer (iRobot), Adnan Ansar (JPL/NASA), Weichuan Yu (faculty at HKUST).
Alumni Postdocs/Visitors: Philippos Mordohai (Stevens Inst. of Technology), Jean-Philippe Tardif (CMU), Irene Cheng (U. of Alberta), Yanis Pavlidis , Rodrigo Carceroni(Google Labs), Rahul Swaminathan (Deutsche Telekom Labs), Xenophon Zampoulis (FORTH/CSI), Joao Barreto (University of Coimbra), Nikhil Kelshikar, Thomas Buelow (Philips Research), Jane Mulligan (University of Colorado at Boulder).
Alumni MSE Students: Jason Liu (UCLA), Allison Mathis (2008), Ming-Hsien Yang (2004), Ting-Chung Hung (2004), Dinkar Gupta (2004), Oleg Naroditski (2003), Daniel Rudoy (2002, Harvard PhD), Andrew Trister (2002, MD-PhD Penn). ,
Teaching: Spring 2007, 2008, Fall 2008, 2009, 2010: CIS121 Intro to Programming II
Fall 2006, 2007, Spring 2009, 2010, 2011: CIS580 Machine Perception
Sping 2005: CSE399-002 or cse399b Computer Vision
Fall 2004, Fall 2003, Spring 2002, Fall 2002,: CSE390 Robotics.
Fall 2000, 1999, 1998: CSE240 Introduction to Computer Architecture.
Spring 2004, 2001: CIS 700 Special Topics in Machine Perception
Spring 2003, 2000, 1999: CIS 680 Advanced Topics in Machine Perception

2001 Ford Motor Company Award for Best Faculty Advising

Education: PhD, 1992, University of Karlsruhe with Hans-Hellmut Nagel. My advisor's advisor was the 1989 Physics Nobel Laureate Wolfgang Paul (1913-1993). Wolfgang Paul's advisor was Hans Kopfermann (1895-1963). Kopfermann's advisor was James Franck (1882-1964) Nobel Laureate 1925, Franck's advisor was Emil Warburg (1846-1931).
Diploma (Masters equivalent) in EE, 1986, National Technical University of Athens
Mail Address: Department of Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania, 3330 Walnut Street, Levine Hall, Philadelphia, PA 19104. How to reach GRASP
Acknowledgments: Grateful for support through the following grants: NSF-IIP-0742304, NSF-IIP- 0835714, NSF-OIA-1028009, ARL MAST-CTA W911NF-08-2-0004, and ARL RCTA W911NF-10-2-0016, NSF-DGE-0966142.

Greek name spelling: Κώστας Δανιηλίδης

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