Course Overview
CS332 explores models for deriving information about the three-dimensional world from visual images. We examine methods used in computer vision systems to analyze digital images and strategies used by biological vision systems to interpret the retinal image. We show how an interdisciplinary study that combines computer science, psychology and neuroscience, contributes to the design of effective computer vision systems and the understanding of human visual processing. Topics include edge detection, stereopsis, motion analysis, color, face recognition, object recognition, and image processing applications in areas such as medicine, security, information retrieval, robotics and intelligent vehicles. The course uses vision software written in MATLAB.
Prerequisites: CS112 or CS230 or permission of instructor. No prior
experience with MATLAB is needed.
Distribution Credit: Mathematical Modeling
Units: 1.0
Reading
There is no required textbook for this course. Notes, book excerpts, and journal articles will be distributed throughout the semester. Some useful background material will be drawn from the book, Vision Science: Photons to Phenomenology, by Stephen Palmer.
Course Evaluation
There will be 7 or 8 homework assignments, most of which will require computer work. The assignments will use vision software written in MATLAB that can be run on Macs and PCs.
There will be two in-class exams on the following dates:
Exam 1: Friday, October 14
Exam 2: Friday, November 18
These exams will be open book/open notes. There will be no final exam.
Finally, there will be a final project that involves the independent exploration of a vision topic that is of interest to you. Topics can be explored through current literature that may include journal articles, excerpts from books, or online papers, and can include an implementation or computer simulations with a vision model, or a perceptual experiment. Some possible areas of exploration are listed on the final project web page. During the last week of the semester, students will give an 8-10 minute presentation of their final project work. A final paper on this work is due by the end of final exam period, on Thursday, December 22.
Your final grade will be based on the following components of your work: assignments (45%), the two exams (20% each), the final project (10%), and class participation (5%). All submitted work counts toward the final grade.
Late Assignment Policy
All assignments are due in class on the advertised due date, which will
usually be a Friday. An assignment due on a particular day will be accepted
until
Collaboration Policy
You are encouraged to discuss assignments with other students and to exchange ideas about how to solve problems. However, I ask that you compose your own final solutions to assignment problems. In particular, for problems that involve computer work, either programming or running simulations, you may discuss strategies for approaching these problems with classmates and receive general debugging advice from them, but you should write your own code, run your own simulations, and write up the conclusions of your work on your own. For problems requiring only a written analysis, you can again discuss strategies for solving the problems with classmates, but should write out the details of the problem solution on your own, and in your own words. When assignment work is started in class, you may work in pairs, and this class work can be shared between you and your partner. If you have questions about this policy, please talk to me.
Course Directory and Student Accounts on the CS File Server
Materials for this course will be available on the CS file server, in the
directory /home/cs332. Software to be downloaded will be placed in the
subdirectory /home/cs332/download. Course webpages are stored in
/home/cs332/public_html and available from a web browser at the
following site: http://cs.wellesley.edu/~cs332/
Each student will have an individual account on the CS file server. If you have taken other computer science courses at Wellesley, you probably already have an account. If not, you should submit the Server Account Request form to obtain a new account. You can also use this form to change your password. This form is only accessible from the campus network.
Course Software
All of the CS332 course software is written in MATLAB. At Wellesley, MATLAB 8 (version R2015b) is available on all public computers, including Macs and PCs, and can also be installed on your personal Mac or PC for use on the campus network. Your personal copy of MATLAB can be used off-campus by installing software for the SSL VPN on your Mac or PC. For more information about these options, see the Wellesley Technology Support webpage, or the CS332 documentation page. The MATLAB software is key-served, so there are a limited number of copies that can be used at one time. Please be sure to exit MATLAB when you are done using it! A student version of MATLAB can also be purchased at the Mathworks website for $99.
Specific course software can be downloaded and uploaded to and from personal
computers using Fetch (for Macs) and WinSCP (for
PCs). Information about these tools is
available at the Wellesley Technology Support
webpage.
A Google Group has been created, CS-332-01-FA16, and students enrolled in
this class have been added as members. If you did not receive a confirmation e-mail, please let
me know so that I can add you. You can send e-mail to this group at the address
CS-332-01-FA16@wellesley.edu.
I will post important announcements here about
assignments, changes to office hours, and CS department events such as seminars and
parties. I encourage you to post questions or comments related
to course material or activities, or other topics of interest to
students in the class. Feel free to respond to questions posted by other students.
Please do not post MATLAB code here — homework discussions
should be at a high-level English description.
If you have special needs of any kind, please meet with us to discuss
accommodations that may be helpful to you. Google Group
Students with Special Needs