The Digital Image Processing Team
Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think mobile phones with cameras are a pretty neat idea.
This planet has or rather had a problem, which was this: most of the mobile phones didn't have very good cameras, so the videos taken with them were of an awful quality. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned on the POCS method, which is odd because on the whole it wasn’t a very fast method. And so the problem remained; lots of the people were mean, and most of them were miserable, even the ones with very expensive mobile phones.
Many were increasingly of the opinion that they’d all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no one should ever have left the oceans. And then, one Thursday, nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change, one girl sitting on her own in a small cafe in Rickmansworth suddenly realized what it was that had been going wrong all this time, and she finally knew how the world could be made a good and happy place. This time it was right, it would work, and no one would have to get nailed to anything.Sadly, however, before she could get to a phone to tell anyone about it, a terribly stupid catastrophe occurred, and the idea was lost forever.This is not her story.
Modified from "The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy" by Douglas Adams
A bit of history...
The DIPteam had started its work back in 2007 as a research team consisting of a professor, teaching assistant and a number of postgraduate students. The primary focus of the research was in the field of Digital Image Processing (hence the name DIPteam) on mobile platforms, which soon broadened to Digital Image & Video Processing. The research was mostly financed by companies producing mobile platforms and software for mobile platforms, therefore it was mainly directed towards simple algorithms implementable on mobile platforms of the time. Some of the areas of interest included image and video enhancement, image segmentation and analysis, image orientation detection, context and content recognition, object detection and localization, high dynamic range imaging, and others.
From 2010 the interest broadened towards more complex algorithms in the field of multiframe superresolution, human figure detection, image and video visual quality assessment, and, finally, from 2013 with computer vision.
The DIPteam has also increased its scope of scientific interest to the fields of the analysis, processing and synthesis of digital audio and speech. The team's members have done research in a broad span of topics ranging from text-to-speech synthesis (TTS), to automatic speech recognition (ASR), speaker identification, the analysis of prosody, and even forensic audio analysis and firearm gunshot recognition. The team has built the leading TTS system in Macedonia from scratch, and is in development of a medium vocabulary ASR system for vocal control of devices.
The riders of DIPteam
Zoran Ivanovski, Prof.
" Guys, where are we now? "
Super-resolution from compressed video, compression artifacts suppression, image and video compression, motion estimation and compensation.
contact: zoran.ivanovski@feit.ukim.edu.mk
Tomislav Kartalov, Prof.
" Aha… let's do it step by step. "
Compression artifacts suppression, image and video compression, HDR, exposure fusion, image pyramid decomposition and multiresolution analysis.
MSc: Compression artifacts suppression for DVB-S and DVB-T
PhD: Real time fusion of images and video frames
contact: kartalov@feit.ukim.edu.mk
Branislav Gerazov, Prof.
" Audio - where FFT makes perfect sense :) "
Speech analysis, synthesis and recognition. Digital audio processing and acoustics.
MSc: Text-to-Speech Synthesis
PhD: Noise robust automatic speech recognition for the use in systems for vocal interaction
contact: gerazov@feit.ukim.edu.mk
Elena Vasileva, MSc
" "
Image analysis, deep learning, 3D vision. Pick-and-place systems, licence plate detection.
BSc: Licence plate recognition in general video
MSc: Object instance segmentation in low-resolution distance maps
contact: el.vasileva.7@gmail.com
Tatjana Petkovska, BSc
" Definitely. "
Licence plate detection, vehicle detection and identification, image analysis, video processing, event organization.
BSc: Implementation of a system for vehicle identification
contact: tatjanapetkovska98@gmail.com
Martina Petrovska, BSc
" "
Medical image processing and analysis.
BSc: ML-based segmentation of spine vertebrae in MRI
contact: petrovskamartina20@yahoo.com
Monika Todevska, BSc
" "
Object detection, 3D vision.
BSc: ML-based distance measurement error correction
contact: m.todevska@yahoo.com
Used to ride with us
Dean Petreski, BSc.
" "
Digital image processing, computer vision, machine learning, deep learning.
BSc: Vehicle detection and localization in high angle shots
contact: petreski.dean@gmail.com
Nikolaj Apostolovski, BSc
" In this specific case, we pray. "
Machine learning, digital signal processing, image analysis, optimization of algorithms for real time execution.
BSc: Free parking spot detection in a parking lot
contact: nikolaj_0@hotmail.com
Naum Trajanovski, MSc
" I (de)bug, therefore I am. "
Vehicle re-identification and tracking, speed & trajectory estimation, computer vision.
BSc: Embedded system for motion control of an autonomous robot
MSc: A real-time trafic analysis and monitoring system using a stationary camera
contact: naumtrajanovski@gmail.com
Marko Chavdar, MSc.
" "
Digital image processing, machine learning, digital audio processing, dynamical systems.
BSc: Critical traffic acoustic event recognition
MSc: Detection of critical traffic acoustic events
contact: marko.chavdar@gmail.com
Ljupco Milosheski, MSc.
" Same sh**, different packaging. "
3D vision, quality control.
MSc: Quality control system for composite tape laying based on a 3D profile
BSc:
contact: milosheskiljupcho@gmail.com
Ana Stojkovic, BSc.
Super-resolution estimation, sub-pixel motion estimation.
contact: anazstojkovic@yahoo.com
Aleksandar Melov, BSc.
Digital audio processing. Speaker diarization.
contact: aleksandar_melov@yahoo.com
Ivana Shopovska (Ivana-2), MSc.
" ...ok (by nodding, without a sound)... "
Sky detection, image content classification.
contact: ivana.sopovska@gmail.com
Martin Dimitrievski, MSc
" ... maybe I didn't mention, I tried that too... "
Parts based human detection, Image and Video Quality Assessment, digital photography.
contact: liquid_mermer@yahoo.com
Aleksandar Milcevski, MSc.
Super-resolution estimation, sub-pixel motion estimation.
contact: milcevski@yahoo.com
Dimce Kostadinov, MSc.
" Any true algorithm should produce visually pleasing outcome. " – Dimsata axiom
Single image 3D scene reconstruction, computer vision, image understanding, artificial intelligence and machine learning.
contact: dimceko@yahoo.com
Ivana Cingovska (Ivana-1), MSc.
" I'll try it and tell you what happened... "
Image orientation detection.
contact: ivana.cingovska@gmail.com
Hristina Pavlovska, MSc.
" It's not working! Now what? "
Edge detection in highly compressed images and video, face and skin detection, content-based video classification.
contact: hpavlovska@gmail.com
Mitko Veta, MSc.
" I have an idea, may I try it? "
Deringing algorithms for highly compressed images and video. Indoor/outdoor image and video classification.
Currently pursuing his PhD at Image Sciences Institute, Utrecht University, Nederlands.
contact: mitko.veta@gmail.com
Aleksandar Petrov, BSc.
" I cannot recall that this was ever attempted... "
Blocking artifacts detection and estimation, deblocking algorithms.
contact: geniusap@gmail.com
Biljana Paunkoska, BSc.
" I've tried that and it is a mess! "
Motion estimation, face and skin detection, color histograms, object and region detection.
contact: bilepaun@gmail.com
Bojan Pepik, BSc.
" The new guy. Zie German! "
Human detection in digital video.
Currently at UdS Graduate School for Computer Science
contact: bojan.pepik@gmail.com
Viktor Slavkovik, BSc.
Image segmentation.
Attending Color in Informatics and Media Technology (CIMET) postgraduate studies.
contact: viktor.slavkovik@gmail.com
Blagoj Kocovski, BSc.
" I have a slight feeling that this might work..." - Cafkata method
Deblocking algorithms, wavelet based image compression.
Attending postgraduate studies in image and video compression.