Multimodal Vision Research Laboratory

MVRL

Research Area: Camera Calibration

How can we estimate camera pose and intrinsics from images when metadata are missing or unreliable? We develop calibration and pose-estimation methods that exploit structure, natural cues, and cross-view consistency. Recent directions include structure-aware direct pose estimation, extending absolute pose regression to multiple scenes, and calibration from clouds, rainbows, and horizon geometry. Calibration underpins localization, stereo depth, and distributed camera networks—linking geometric vision to long-running outdoor imaging systems.

All Publications

  1. Xiong Z, Qiao F, Zhang Y, Jacobs N. 2023. StereoFlowGAN: Co-training for Stereo and Flow with Unsupervised Domain Adaptation. In: British Machine Vision Conference (BMVC).
  2. Zhu XX, Wang Y, Kochupillai M, Werner M, Haberle M, Hoffmann EJ, Taubenbock H, Tuia D, Levering A, Jacobs N, Kruspe A, Abdulahhad K. 2022. Geoinformation Harvesting From Social Media Data: A community remote sensing approach. IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine 10:150–180. DOI: 10.1109/MGRS.2022.3219584.
  3. Thumbnail for Content-Based Detection of Temporal Metadata Manipulation
    Padilha R, Salem T, Workman S, Andaló FA, Rocha A, Jacobs N. 2022. Content-Based Detection of Temporal Metadata Manipulation. IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security:1316–1327. DOI: 10.1109/TIFS.2022.3159154.
  4. Thumbnail for A Structure-Aware Method for Direct Pose Estimation
    Blanton H, Workman S, Jacobs N. 2022. A Structure-Aware Method for Direct Pose Estimation. In: IEEE Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision (WACV). DOI: 10.1109/WACV51458.2022.00028.
  5. Tuia D, Roscher R, Wegner JD, Jacobs N, Zhu XX, Camps-Valls G. 2021. Towards a Collective Agenda on AI for Earth Science Data Analysis. IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine 9:88–104. DOI: 10.1109/MGRS.2020.3043504.
  6. Blanton H, Greenwell C, Workman S, Jacobs N. 2020. Extending Absolute Pose Regression to Multiple Scenes. In: Joint Workshop on Long-Term Visual Localization, Visual Odometry and Geometric and Learning-based SLAM (CVPR Workshop). DOI: 10.1109/CVPRW50498.2020.00027.
  7. Thumbnail for Horizon Lines in the Wild
    Workman S, Zhai M, Jacobs N. 2016. Horizon Lines in the Wild. In: British Machine Vision Conference (BMVC).
  8. Thumbnail for Camera Geo-Calibration using an MCMC Approach
    Zhai M, Workman S, Jacobs N. 2016. Camera Geo-Calibration using an MCMC Approach. In: IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP). DOI: 10.1109/ICIP.2016.7532905.
  9. Thumbnail for Detecting Vanishing Points using Global Image Context in a Non-Manhattan World
    Zhai M, Workman S, Jacobs N. 2016. Detecting Vanishing Points using Global Image Context in a Non-Manhattan World. In: IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR). DOI: 10.1109/CVPR.2016.610.
  10. Workman S, Greenwell C, Zhai M, Baltenberger R, Jacobs N. 2015. DeepFocal: A Method for Direct Focal Length Estimation. In: IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP). DOI: 10.1109/ICIP.2015.7351024.
  11. Workman S, Jacobs N. 2015. On the Location Dependence of Convolutional Neural Network Features. In: IEEE/ISPRS Workshop: Large Scale Computer Vision for Remote Sensing (EARTHVISION). 1–9. DOI: 10.1109/CVPRW.2015.7301385.
  12. Thumbnail for Scene Shape Estimation from Multiple Partly Cloudy Days
    Workman S, Souvenir R, Jacobs N. 2015. Scene Shape Estimation from Multiple Partly Cloudy Days. Computer Vision and Image Understanding (CVIU):116–129. DOI: 10.1016/j.cviu.2014.10.002.
  13. Thumbnail for A Pot of Gold: Rainbows as a Calibration Cue
    Workman S, Mihail RP, Jacobs N. 2014. A Pot of Gold: Rainbows as a Calibration Cue. In: European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV). 820–835. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-10602-1_53.
  14. Smith JD, Baltenberger R, Workman S, Jacobs N. 2014. User-in-the-Loop Calibration and Mensuration. In: National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR).
  15. Thumbnail for Scene Geometry from Several Partly Cloudy Days
    Jacobs N, Workman S, Souvenir R. 2013. Scene Geometry from Several Partly Cloudy Days. In: ACM/IEEE International Conference on Distributed Smart Cameras (ICDSC). 1–6. DOI: 10.1109/ICDSC.2013.6778227.
  16. Jacobs N, Abrams A, Pless R. 2013. Two Cloud-Based Cues for Estimating Scene Structure and Camera Calibration. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (PAMI) 35:2526–2538. DOI: 10.1109/TPAMI.2013.55.
  17. Thumbnail for Cloud Motion as a Calibration Cue
    Jacobs N, Islam MT, Workman S. 2013. Cloud Motion as a Calibration Cue. In: IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR). 1344–1351. DOI: 10.1109/CVPR.2013.177.
  18. Abrams A, Hawley C, Miskell K, Stoica A, Jacobs N, Pless R. 2013. Shadow Estimation Method for "The Episolar Constraint: Monocular Shape from Shadow Correspondence". arXiv preprint 1304.4112 [cs.CV].
  19. Jacobs N, Miskell K, Pless R. 2011. Webcam Geo-localization using Aggregate Light Levels. In: IEEE Workshop on Applications of Computer Vision (WACV). 132–138. DOI: 10.1109/WACV.2011.5711494.
  20. Abrams A, Fridrich N, Jacobs N, Pless R. 2010. Participatory Integration of Live Webcams into GIS. In: International Conference on Computing for Geospatial Research and Applications (COM.GEO). 1–8. DOI: 10.1145/1823854.1823867.
  21. Thumbnail for Using Cloud Shadows to Infer Scene Structure and Camera Calibration
    Jacobs N, Bies B, Pless R. 2010. Using Cloud Shadows to Infer Scene Structure and Camera Calibration. In: IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR). 1102–1109. DOI: 10.1109/CVPR.2010.5540093.
  22. Jacobs N. 2010. Discovering, Localizing, Calibrating, and Using Thousands of Outdoor Webcams. Computer Science and Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, MO, USA.
  23. Jacobs N, Schuh S, Pless R. 2010. Compressive Sensing and Differential Image Motion Estimation. In: IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP). 718–721. DOI: 10.1109/ICASSP.2010.5495053.
  24. Thumbnail for The Global Network of Outdoor Webcams: Properties and Applications
    Jacobs N, Burgin W, Fridrich N, Abrams A, Miskell K, Braswell BH, Richardson AD, Pless R. 2009. The Global Network of Outdoor Webcams: Properties and Applications. In: ACM SIGSPATIAL International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems (ACM SIGSPATIAL). 111–120. DOI: 10.1145/1653771.1653789.
  25. Jacobs N, Pless R. 2009. Calibrating and Using the Global Network of Outdoor Webcams. In: ACM/IEEE International Conference on Distributed Smart Cameras (ICDSC). 1–2. DOI: 10.1109/ICDSC.2009.5289404.
  26. Jacobs N, Souvenir R, Pless R. 2009. Passive Vision: The Global Webcam Imaging Network. In: IEEE Applied Imagery and Pattern Recognition (AIPR). 1–8. DOI: 10.1109/AIPR.2009.5466314.
  27. Jacobs N, Schuh S, Pless R. 2009. On Unusual Pixel Shapes and Image Motion. Computer Science and Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, MO, USA.
  28. Jacobs N, Burgin W, Speyer R, Ross D, Pless R. 2009. Adventures in Archiving and Using Three Years of Webcam Images. In: IEEE CVPR Workshop on Internet Vision. 39–46. DOI: 10.1109/CVPRW.2009.5204185.
  29. Jacobs N, Roman N, Pless R. 2008. Toward Fully Automatic Geo-Location and Geo-Orientation of Static Outdoor Cameras. In: IEEE Workshop on Applications of Computer Vision (WACV). 1–6. DOI: 10.1109/WACV.2008.4544040.
  30. Thumbnail for Geolocating Static Cameras
    Jacobs N, Satkin S, Roman N, Speyer R, Pless R. 2007. Geolocating Static Cameras. In: IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV). 1–6. DOI: 10.1109/ICCV.2007.4408995.