New Methods for Omni-directional and Equirectangular Image and Video Processing Call for Papers
Special Issue
New Methods for Omni-directional and Equirectangular Image and Video Processing
in the Journal of Imaging.
For details, please check the following link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/jimaging/special_issues/omnidirectional
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2022.
Journal of Imaging is an international, multi/interdisciplinary,
peer-reviewed, open access journal of imaging techniques published
online monthly by MDPI.
Call for papers:
Omni-directional (or 360°) cameras are devices able to record a
spherical view of the whole environment, unlike traditional cameras
that have a predefined field of view. Indeed, 360° cameras can
generally acquire panoramic images with a 360° horizontal view and
180° vertical view, resulting in a complete representation of the
environment. The newest omni-directional devices use multiple
calibrated cameras with partially overlapping fields of view. Each
camera can shoot part of the scene, and the final image is
reconstructed by stitching algorithms after correcting the distortion
introduced by lenses. The most popular 360° cameras typically
comprise two wide-angle lenses; the entire system is relatively
inexpensive, and the stitching process is much simpler and quite
efficient. Recently, such cameras have gained popularity and their use
is spreading, especially in consumer and cultural heritage
applications. Users may interact with a recorded video by navigating
around the environment through changing the point of view; 360°
pictures and videos are uploaded and usable on several social
platforms (such as Facebook and YouTube) and can also be viewed
through head-mounted viewers (Google Cardboard, Oculus Quest, etc.) to
improve the users’ sense of immersivity.
Regardless of the acquisition device, pixels of the sensed images are
mapped onto a sphere and then projection techniques, such as
equirectangular or cubic projections, are used. Cubic projections are
mainly adopted to navigate through the environment. Equirectangular
projections represent the sphere on a single image (2:1 ratio) and are
mainly used to store the data. This projection introduces distortions
particularly visible around the poles of the sphere.
These 360° videos are potentially very attractive in the fields of
mixed reality, mobile robotics, video surveillance, and distancing
applications. Nonetheless, few studies have been proposed about the
processing of equirectangular images in these fields. This might be
ascribable to the challenges presented by these images and videos,
which may hinder the development of methods for their processing,
especially deep learning techniques. Indeed, equirectangular images
have high resolution and display severe deformations that may inhibit
the adoption of state-of-the-art computer vision and image processing
techniques. Some attempts have been made to adapt pre-trained networks
to equirectangular formats (i.e., SphereNet) or to adopt cubic
projections on demand; however, there are still issues linked with the
high computational demand and loss of resolution when processing large
images.
The aim of this Special Issue is to present novel and diverse research
articles that demonstrate new methods for the efficient processing of
equirectangular images and videos. Topics of interest include, but are
not limited to, the following:
- Compression techniques for spherical views;
- Stabilization and pre-processing techniques in 360° videos;
- Novel 360° datasets and experimental protocols;
- Novel applications involving the use of omni-directional and equirectangular images or videos;
- Visual tracking approaches for equirectangular images;
- Segmentation techniques and detection approaches for spherical images;
- Action detection and classification from 360° videos;
- Visual attention techniques in 360° videos;
- Depth estimation in spherical views;
- Applications based on multi-camera systems involving 360° cameras;
- Novel learning methods specifically designed for spherical images.
Guest Editors:
Prof. Marco La Cascia, University of Palermo, Italy, marco.lacascia@unipa.it
Prof. Liliana Lo Presti, University of Palermo, Italy, liliana.lopresti@unipa.it
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2022.
Manuscript Submission Information
Please, visit
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/jimaging/special_issues/omnidirectional
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering
and logging in to the website. Once you are registered, go to the
submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All
papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published
continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed
together on the special issue website. Research articles, review
articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned
papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to
the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor
be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference
proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a
single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other
relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the
Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Imaging is an international
peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a
manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in
this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers
should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's
English editing service prior to publication or during author
revisions.