Dear Dr Chan,
I would be grateful if you could pass on the following. Thanks,
Lex Toet
Call for participation
TARGET DISTINCTNESS QUANTIFICATION CONTEST
to be held in conjunction with the
NATO AC243 SGE-CCD RSG.2
WORKSHOP ON THE ASSESSMENT OF
CAMOUFLAGE, CONCEALMENT AND DECEPTION MEASURES
Driebergen, The Netherlands, June 7-10, 1998
________________
Visual search and detection models predict the probability to detect a
target after a given amount of time and for a given target distinctness.
The quality of these predictions depends critically on the value of the
target distinctness parameter.
Various metrics of target distinctness have been developed over the years.
Some of these are based on the outcome of psychophysical laboratory
experiments using simple artificial stimuli, presented under extremely
restricted (impoverished) conditions, and in different experimental paradigms.
Others are based on signal processing techniques and have no obvious counterpart
in human vision.
So far, none of these metrics have been validated against the
performance of human observers in realistic scenarios.
TNO-HFRI recently compiled a dataset of 44 digital color images of different
complex natural scenes containing a single military vehicle as a search
target. Search times were measured for 64 observers.
These images are available on CD-ROM, together with a report that describes
these images in detail and gives the corresponding ground truth.
The complete dataset can be used to validate
- digital metrics that compute the visual distinctness
(contrast, conspicuity, or saliency) of targets in complex scenes, and
- models of human visual search and detection.
Individuals and/or institutions working on computational and psychophysical
approaches to visual target signature analyis are invited to apply their
methods to the abovementioned image dataset, to predict search times or
related metrics for each of the targets.
All prospective participants must respond to this announcement by
contacting the contest chair, indicating their intent to take part in
the contest (please see the instructions for prospective participants
at the end of this message). In return, they will receive a copy of the
CD-ROM with the image set, and a copy of the report describing the images
in detail.
Methods will be judged by TNO-HFRI on the basis of the correlation between
metric and mean observer acquisition time.
The results of the contest will be presented during the
NATO AC243 SGE-CCD RSG.2
WORKSHOP ON THE ASSESSMENT OF
CAMOUFLAGE, CONCEALMENT AND DECEPTION MEASURES
which is to be held in June 7-10 1998 in The Netherlands.
Selected participants may be invited to participate in the workshop and
present a paper on their method. This paper will be included in the post
workshop book.
Instructions for Prospective Participants
*****************************************
All prospective participants must send a formal application to
participate in the contest. The application may be sent in any of the following forms:
Email (plain ascii) to
toet@tm.tno.nl
Please use the subject heading "TDQ Contest Application"
Regular or express mail to
Alexander Toet
TNO Human Factors Research Institute
Kampweg 5
NL 3769 DE Soesterberg
The Netherlands
Phone: (+)31-3463-56237
Fax : (+)31-3463-53977
For e-mail, fax, and express mail applications, if you do not receive
a response within a week of your submission, please try to reach me to
find out if I received your application. For applications sent through
regular mail, please allow two weeks to hear back.
Alexander Toet
TNO Human Factors Research Institute Phone: (+)31-3463-56237
Kampweg 5 Fax: (+)31-3463-53977
NL 3769 DE Soesterberg email: toet@tm.tno.nl
The Netherlands