Categorization using a Discriminative Approach

Barbara Caputo (KTH Stockholm, Sweden)

In this talk I'll present an SVM-based strategy for categorization of objects and actions in realistic settings. With respect to object categorization, I will present a family of kernels which allow to use local features as input of SVM classifiers, and a cue integration scheme which accumulates confidence measures, obtained via large margin classifiers like (but not only) SVMs, obtaining a more robust and effective categorization.

With respect to action, I will show how the same approach developed for object categorization can be used for multiple action recognition in realistic settings; interestingly, experimental results show that the algorithm tend to group together 'leg actions' and 'arm actions'. The talk will conclude with a discussion on open challenges for categorization of visual patterns, and some ongoing research on those topics.