Thad Starner   

Professor | Contextual Computing Group| College of Computing | Georgia Institute of Technology
Interfaces for Augmenting
Face-to-Face Conversation >>
  • Mobile Text Entry
  • Dual-Purpose Speech
  • Augmenting Conversation between
    the Deaf and Hearing Community


  • Gesture Recognition &
    Activity Discovery >>
  • Sign Language
  • Activity
  • Gesture


  • Previous Work >>
  • Face & Handwriting Recognition
  • Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality
  • Power & Heat
  • Agents & Ubiquitous Computing
  • Miscellaneous

  • Face & Handwriting Recognition


    Eigenfaces

    Wearable Face Recognition Interface



    With obvious applications in security, face recognition has been a focus for computer pattern recognition research for several decades. The Eigenfaces technique uses principle component analysis to recover vectors that more efficiently describe a training database of faces. Given a new face image, the image can be projected on these vectors and quickly compared to faces in the training database. This comparison can be very efficient, allowing the comparison of thousands of faces in a second. It can also be very compact with respect to memory. In addition to some of the earliest and most extensive experiments with Eigenfaces, we have investigated face recognition for use in everyday applications on wearable computers.

    Handwriting recognition is another traditional problem in pattern recognition. We demonstrate how hidden Markov models (HMMs) can achieve high accuracies (95-97% per word) in recognizing on-line cursive handwriting of six subjects transcribing text with a 26,000 word lexicon and 86 symbols. Such a recognition system could be adapted for use in a PDA or other tablet-based system. Having created one of the earliest large databases of on-line script (now part of the UNIPEN handwriting corpus), we also demonstrated how HMM recognition accuracy can be improved through the use of context models and statistical grammars in much the same manner as in speech recognition.



    Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality


    Perceptive Workbench

    AR Game:Shadow of gesture

    Mobile player HMD & camera system



    Under construction


    Publications & Related Projects

    The perceptive workbench: Computer-vision-based gesture tracking, object tracking, and 3D reconstruction for augmented desks, In Machine Vision and Applications, Volume 14 (1), pp. 59~71, 2003

    Integration of Wireless Gesture Tracking, Object Tracking, and 3D Reconstruction in the Perceptive Workbench (Computer Vision Systems, Vancouver, Canada, July 2001)

    Towards Augmented Reality Gaming (IMAGINA 2000)

    Guided by Voices: An Audio Augmented Reality System (International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD), Atlanta, GA, April 2000)

    The Perceptive Workbench: Towards Spontaneous and Natural Interaction in Semi-Immersive Virtual Environments (Virtual Reality, New Brunswick, NJ, March 2000)

    MIND-WARPING: Towards Creating a Compelling Collaborative Augmented Reality Game (Intelligent User Interfaces, New Orleans, LA, January 2000)

    Towards Spontaneous Interaction with the PerceptiveWorkbench, In IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, Volume 20 (6), pp. 54~65, November 2000

    Augmented Realities Integrating User and Physical Models, In Augmented Reality: Placing Artificial Objects in Real Scenes, R. Behringer, G. Klinker, G. J. Klinter, and D. Mizell (editors), A. K. Peters Ltd., December, 1999

    Augmented Realities Integrating User and Physical Models (International Workshop on Augmented Reality, San Francisco, CA, November 1998)

    Stochasticks: Augmenting the Billiards Experience with Probabilistic Vision and Wearable Computers (ISWC, Cambridge, MA, October 1997)

    Augmented Reality Through Wearable Computing, In Presence, Volume 6 (4), pp. 386-398, Winter 1997

    Perceptive Spaces for Performance and Entertainment: UntetheredInteraction Using Computer Vision and Audition, In Applied Artificial Intelligence Journal, Volume 11 (4), pp. 267~284, June 1997

    Hierarchical Classification for Human Body Tracking (SPIE Integration Issues in Large Commercial Media Delivery Systems, October, 1995)

    Unencumbered Virtual Environments ( IJCAI Workshop on Entertainment and AI/Alife, Montreal, Quebec, August 1995)

    Pfinder: A Real-Time System for Tracking People (SPIE Conference on Real-Time Vision, M. Bove (editor), Philadelpia, PA, July 1995)

    Visually Controlled Graphics, In IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, Volume 15 (6), pp. 602~605,IEEE Computer Society Press, June 1993

    Device Synchronization Using an Optimal Linear Filter, In Virtual Reality Systems, Earnshaw, Gigante, and Jones (editors), Academic Press, 1993

    Device Synchronization Using an Optimal Linear Filter (Interactive 3D Graphics, March 1992)

    The Thing-World Modeling System, In Algorithms and Parallel VLSI Architectures, pp. 425~434. E.F. Deprettere (editor), Elsevier Press, 1991

    Synchronization in Virtual Realities, In Presence, Volume 1 (1), pp. 139~144, MIT Press, Spring 1991

    The ThingWorld Modeling System (International Workshop on Algorithms and Parallel VLSI Architectures, Pont-a-Mousson, France, June 1990)





    Agents & Ubiquitous Computing


    Aware Home

    Gesture Pendant @ Aware Home


    Under construction