Computing in Image Processing, Computer Graphics, Virtual Surgery, and Sports

This workshop focuses on the processing, modeling and simulation of image data, and in particular, data that is related to humans and human activities. The main core areas consist of image processing, computer graphics, virtual surgeries, and sport sciences. The modern world is full of image data that is not only gathered from the real world via various imaging mechanisms, but also produced through computer simulations in a wide range of virtual settings. In order for this image based information to be useful, tasks such as cleaning up the images, segmenting special features from images, and comparing either the extracted features or the image data itself are essential. These tasks involve processing data that live in a wide range of dimensions, from two dimensional image data to very high dimensional data (e.g. the space of images), and require in depth mathematical analysis, modeling, and numerical algorithms.

This workshop has a particular focus on virtual surgery and sport science, tasks which require modeling the human body, where image processing and computer graphics may play an essential role. Successful virtual surgery programs not only require good computer graphics that faithfully reflect reality, but also numerical simulation of partial differential equations for elastic materials that performs fast enough to admit real-time user interaction. Scientific computing in real-time is only just now becoming a viable option and is a discipline that spans applied mathematics, computer science and applied engineering. Sport sciences involve biomechanical modeling as well as intensive mathematical modeling, computations, and computer science. Several results in biomechanical modeling have been obtained in sports disciplines such as swimming, biking, rowing, and athletics, where the research efforts include optimization of the human body kinematics, statistical analysis and signal processing. The considerable advances obtained in recent years in the mathematical modeling of human physiology are to analyze the human body behavior under extreme sport efforts. Optimal design has also been used to improve sports performance through construction of "shapes" (yacht hull, sails and appendages for the America's cup competition, swimsuits for swimmers, hulls for rowing, helms for bikers, airfoils for racing cars like those in Formula One, etc.) . These three areas are interdisciplinary in nature and inter-related. New advancement in each area would directly benefit the others. This workshop will bring leading experts in the related fields together to exchange the latest developments and to point out current challenges and new directions. Tutorials will provide a common ground for participants who are interested in these areas.