Events

Microsoft Research and Selected Activities in Multimedia, HCI and RTCI will start with a brief introduction to Microsoft Research (MSR): its missions, how it functions, and the research activities in the Redmond center. I will then present some of my own research activities. I have been doing research in computer vision, speech enhancement, and audiovisual speaker intention detection. For this talk, I will only focus on a few vision projects with applications to human-computer interaction (HCI) and real-time communication and collaboration (RTC). They include
- Face modeling with a webcam. We have developed a model-based technique to build a 3D face model from snapshots or video clips. The built model can be animated immediately for expressions and talking, and can be integrated in a game to allow the gamer to play inside the game.
- Eye-gaze correction for video conferencing: The lack of eye contact in desktop video teleconferencing substantially reduces the effectiveness of video contents. We describe a novel approach: Based on stereo analysis combined with rich domain knowledge (a personalized face model), we synthesize, using graphics hardware, a virtual video that maintains eye contact.
- Whiteboard Technology: While physical whiteboards are frequently used by knowledge workers, they are not perfect. The content on the board is hard to archive or share with others who are not present in the session. We have developed a set of technologies which include automatic whiteboard note taking by scanning with a web cam and by enhancing the images, automatic audio and whiteboard meeting archiving and indexing, and live meetings with enhanced whiteboard streaming.
- Visual Screen and Visual Panel. With the help of a video camera, the first converts an ordinary screen into a touch screen, and the second converts a rectangular panel (e.g., an ordinary piece of paper) into a virtual mouse, keyboard or joystick.
In the talk, I will incorporate some aspects of human visual perception.

Zhengyou Zhang is a Principal Researcher with Microsoft Research, Redmond, USA. He is an IEEE Fellow, an Associate Editor of several international journals including the “IEEE Transactions on Multimedia” and the “International Journal of Computer Vision” (IJCV), a member of IEEE Technical Committee on Multimedia Signal Processing and a member of IEEE Technical Committee on Autonomous Mental Development. He received the B.S. degree in electronic engineering from the University of Zhejiang, China, in 1985, the M.S. in computer science from the University of Nancy, France, in 1987, the Ph.D. degree in computer science from the University of Paris XI, France, in 1990, and the Doctor of Science (Habilitation à diriger des recherches) diploma from the University of Paris XI, in 1994. He has been with INRIA for 11 years before joining Microsoft Research in March 1998. In 1996-1997, he spent one-year sabbatical as an Invited Researcher at the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR), Kyoto, Japan. He has published over 150 papers in refereed international journals and conferences, and has co-authored three books.