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K.U.Leuven Projects

Mixing and Analyzing Real and Virtual Environments and Lighting (MARVEL)

In this project, three research groups at the University of Leuven join their expertise. These are the Computer Graphics group (GRAPHICS) at the Division Informatics of the Dept. of Computer Science and the Industrial (VISICS) and Medical (MIC) Image Processing groups of the division PSI (Processing Speech and Images) at the Dept. of Electrical Engineering (ESAT).

During the course of this project, these groups will develop novel solutions in the area of mixed or augmented reality. From [3]: ”Augmented Reality (AR) is a variation of Virtual Reality (VR). VR technologies completely immerse a user inside an artificial, completely computer-generated environment. While immersed, the user cannot see the real world around him. In contrast, AR allows the user to see the real world, with virtual objects superimposed upon or composited with the real world. AR enhances a user’s perception of and interaction with the real world. The virtual objects display information that the user cannot directly detect with his own senses. Potential AR application domains that have been explored are: medical visualization, maintenance and repair, annotation, robot path planning, entertainment, and military aircraft navigation and targeting.”

Center for Archaeological Sciences (CAS)

In the recent past, at the K.U.Leuven, there have been several examples of co-operation between archaeological projects and different disciplines from the natural sciences. Especially the Sagalassos team has established an interdisciplinary approach, spanning more than a decade. Because of the increasing importance (internationally) of interdisciplinary research in archaeology, a Center for Geo- and Bio-Archaeology and Archaeological Image Processing (BOF – Impulse Financing) was created, later merged into the Center for Archaeological Sciences (BOF - Excellence Financing). The main goal of the recently established CAS at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven is therefore to support archaeological research projects with an extensive and in-depth experience built up in the Faculties of Exact Sciences and Engineering in Leuven. It acts as a focal point for advanced interdisciplinary research to be made available to all archaeologists from Belgium and the international community in general.

Model based intelligent robots

This projects aims at enhancing the state of the art in model based intelligent robotics by developing and improving building blocks for modelling, planning, sensing and control at each of the three control levels (low, medium and high), and by developing an approach to integrate these building blocks into an overall architecture. We want to demonstrate the relevance and the validity of the approach by developing a new generation experimental environment in which it is easy to switch between and integrate various robot systems, sensors and tasks in realistic environments.

Completed Projects

Variability in human shape and speech (VHS)

When observing human shape or speech, the signals show a substantial degree of variability. Its sources are diverse: differences between individuals, interfering noise, the natural dynamics etc. The project aims at studying this variability, both with the aim to exploit it as a source of information and to better discard it when change-invariant decisions are to be taken. Three application areas are envisaged: medical imaging, forensic data analysis, and the creation of new human-machine interfaces.

3D information and object recognition

This project aims to bring together the disciplines of psychology, engineering and neuroscience, which all three study vision from their own background. Issues that will be studies are: (1) the role of separate depth cues and the way that they interact to establish a specific 3D impression, (2) the observation and recognition of complex forms and objects from different points of view.