Fall Meeting 2007

The Fall meeting will be held on Wednesday, November 14, 2007, in Krieger Hall, room 205, on the Homewood Campus of Johns Hopkins University at 8:30 p.m. The speaker will be Dr. Donald Geman, Professor, Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics and Center for Imaging Science of Johns Hopkins University. He will present a lecture entitled "Interactive Search for Image Categories by Mental Matching."

You are cordially invited to attend the pre-lecture dinner with the speaker. See below for directions and parking information for the lecture and dinner.

Lecture

Interactive Search for Image Categories by Mental Matching

Dr. Donald Geman
Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics
and Center for Imaging Science
Johns Hopkins University

Everybody knows about Google and word-based search for documents from user input. Inventing analogues for image-based search is proving far more difficult, partly because large image databases are not, and currently cannot be, semantically annotated. The standard scenario in image retrieval, and the one that works well, is "query-by-visual-example": the "query image" resides in the database and is matched by the system with other images. Suppose, instead, the query image is "external" and the matching is "mental." For instance, an image resides in the mind of the user or there is an actual object or photograph. The user may seek versions of the same image (e.g., the same face) or images belonging to the same class (e.g., similar landscapes) and responds to a sequence of machine-generated queries designed to accelerate the search. For example, the user declares which of several displayed images is "closest" to his query. These similarity decisions are entirely subjective and user-dependent. I will discuss a model-based interactive search engine which mixes geometry, information theory and statistical inference. Performance is measured by the expected number of iterations necessary to display an exemplar from the user's class. Designing metrics and models which are consistent with human behavior is essential for achieving practical results with large databases, as illustrated with art and faces.


Dinner

The pre-lecture dinner will be held at Gertrude's Restaurant in the Baltimore Museum of Art, which is next to the Johns Hopkins campus. Dinner will begin at 6:30 p.m. Four entrees are available for your advance selection: Five-Spice Chicken ($32.00), Top Sirloin Steak ($35.00), Gertie's Crab Cake ($33.00), and Thai Vegetable Curry ($29.00). The pricing is inclusive of salad, entree choice, all soft beverages (sodas, coffee, tea, etc.), tax and gratuity.

To attend the dinner, please send your entree choice along with a check for the appropriate amount (made out to SIAM Washington- Baltimore Section) early enough to be received by Friday, November 9, to our Treasurer, Ioannis Konstantinidis, at 808 Kennebec Ave #4, Takoma Park, MD 20912. If you cannot get your check to him by that date and you still want to come to dinner, then please call him by Friday, November 9, at 301-405-5158. Gertrude's can accommodate at most twenty-five diners on this occasion, so be sure to reserve in advance.


Campus Directions

The Homewood Campus of Johns Hopkins University is in Baltimore near 33rd and Charles Streets. The lecture will be held in Krieger Hall, room 205. Gertrude's Restaurant is in the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA), which is next to the campus. You may refer to the Homewood Campus and Parking Map for the exact location of both venues.

Driving to BMA from I-695 (points East, North, and West):
Take exit #23 to I-83 South (Jones Falls Expressway). Follow I-83 several miles to 28th Street eastbound exit. On 28th Street, go to the fourth traffic light, and turn left onto North Howard Street. Go one block on Howard Street, crossing 29th Street, and bear right at the fork onto Art Museum Drive. The BMA will be on your left.

Driving to BMA from I-95 or MD-295 (points South):
If coming on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway (MD-295), follow it to the end and you'll be on Russell Street. If coming on I-95, take the Russell Street exit. On Russell Street go over the bridge, exit into the right lane, and follow the signs onto Martin Luther King Boulevard. On Martin Luther King Boulevard go past U.S. 40; get into the center lane. After passing Druid Hill Avenue stay in your lane and bear left onto North Howard Street. Go past North Avenue and continue until you pass 29th Street. Bear around to the right at the fork onto Art Museum Drive. The BMA will be on your left.

 

Parking

There are three parking options:

  1. On-Street metered parking along Art Museum Drive
    E-Z Park Meters accept coins, debit cards, and credit cards. After pre-paying, simply display the printed parking receipt on the dashboard of your vehicle. The rate is $0.50 per hour.
  2. BMA-Gated Parking Lots
    There is a flat parking rate of $5 from 5 p.m. until midnight.
  3. JHU Homewood Campus (South Parking Garage and Metered Faculty Lots)
    You may refer to http://www.parking.jhu.edu/general_maps.html, for visitor parking locations. There is a flat parking rate of $5 from 3:45 p.m. until midnight at the garage, and $2 per hour at the meters with a maximum charge of $5, valid until the end of the day.


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