EUROPEAN COMMISSION Research Executive Agency Marie Curie Actions Industry-Academia Partnerships and Pathways Project No: 324359 Project Acronym: CENTAUR Project Full Name: Crowded ENvironments monitoring for Activity Understanding and Recognition Marie Curie Actions Mid-term report Period covered: from 01/01/2013 to 01/01/2015 Date of preparation: 27/11/2014 Start date of project: 01/01/2013 Date of submission (SESAM): 28/11/2014 Project coordinator name: Dr. Vít Líbal Version: 2 Project coordinator organisation name: HONEYWELL, SPOL. S.R.O
Mid-term report PROJECT MID-TERM REPORT Grant Agreement number: 324359 Project acronym: Project title: Funding Scheme: CENTAUR Crowded ENvironments monitoring for Activity Understanding and Recognition FP7-MC-IAPP Mid-term period covered - start date: 01/01/2013 Mid-term period covered - end date: 01/01/2015 Project co-ordinator: Organisation PIC: 999952728 Organisation legal name: HONEYWELL, SPOL. S.R.O Person in charge of scientific aspects: Title: First name: Name: Dr. Vít Líbal Tel: +420 234 625 948 Fax: E-mail: vit.libal@honeywell.com Project website address: http://www.centaur-project.eu/ Page - 2 of 12
OVERALL PROGRESS OF THE PROJECT: Comments: So far, the project succeeds in fulfilling its objectives. Due to the personnel issues, some secondments and two of four recruitments are running late. This also delays the project progress, but does not constitute a serious problem with respect to achieving the project objectives as the situation with recruitments are now under control. To date, there are 12 completed secondments, 2 secondments ongoing. Due to the personnel availability reasons, 4 secondments were delayed, 4 secondments were split and four secondments had changed their experience levels (all changes were well justified and approved by the PO). Notably, the long secondments were split mainly due to unavailability of fellows for such long time and for very difficult administration associated with visa and work permit issues needed for the Type A secondments. An Amendment to the Consortium Agreement was signed to cover secondment changes. One recruitment has finished and the remaining three are scheduled to start early 2015. This means that two recruitments, EPFL and HON recruitments are significantly delayed (over 1 year time -- see below the explanations). However, the recruitment hiring process in INRIA and in HON are close to completion (candidate was selected) and the recruitment hiring process by EPFL will be resumed and finished after the return of the EPFL leader, prof. Fua, from his sabbatical in February 2015 and is expected to complete fast. Therefore, no serious problems are expected to issue from the recruitment delays that would prevent the project to achieve its objectives. The technical progress corresponds to the secondment and recruitment status -- it is delayed accordingly. Since the delayed secondments and recruitments are already scheduled for 2015, no impact for the project objectives and completing on time are expected. In particular, the consortium had performed most of technical progress specified for the workpackage WP2. The workpackage WP3 and the workpackage WP4 have recently started. The deliverables D2.1, the software module for tracking, is being prepared for the early 2015. The knowledge transfer activities comprise 19 internal seminars, 11 external seminars, 2 published book chapters, 2 conference papers, 5 consortium meetings, 17 workpackage leader's meetings. INRIA has transfered knowledge in the area of people reidentification and people detection to HON and knowledge of people counting and people detection and tracking to NEO. EPFL provided knowledge of multi camera view tracking to HON and to NEO.QMUL provided knowledge of automated calibration of cameras, distributed sensor networks and anomaly detection. HON provided knowledge of sensor fusion and of business driven research to QMUL and to INRIA. NEO shared knowledge of people counting using the advanced depth sensing cameras. The deliverable D6.1, the first annual online webinar was accomplished and is available online through the CENTAUR Web site. The deliverable D6.2, the second annual online webinar is being planned for early 2015. The list of completed deliverables follows here: D.1.1, First year progress report, due by Dec 2013 (attached to this report) D.1.2, Midterm Report, due by Sept 2014 (this report) D.6.1, Annual webinar 1, due by Dec 2013 (cannot be attached due to its filesize -- the recording of the webinar may be found at: http://www.centaur-project.eu/centaur-webinar-july-22/ ) ------- The list of deliverables that are due soon: D.1.3, First periodic report, due by Jan 2015 D.2.1, Software module for tracking, due by Dec 2014 D.5.1, Evaluation of tracking on realistic data, due by Jan 2015 D.6.2, Annual Webinar 2, due by Dec 2014 D.6.4, Journal or conference publication on tracking, due by Apr 2015 The list of publications created in the consortium follows here: Juan C. SanMiguel, C. Micheloni, K. Shoop, G. L. Foresti and A. Cavallaro, Self-reconfigurable Page - 3 of 12
smart camera networks, IEEE Computer, 47(5):67-73, May 2014. Juan C. SanMiguel and A. Cavallaro, Temporal validation of particle filters for video tracking, Computer Vision and Image Understanding, June 2014 (In press). S. Katragadda, Juan C. SanMiguel and A. Cavallaro, Consensus protocols for distributed tracking in wireless camera networks, Int. Conf. on Information Fusion, Salamanca (Spain), July 2014, (In press) S. Katragadda, Juan C. SanMiguel and A. Cavallaro, The costs of fusion in smart camera networks, IEEE/ACM Int. Conf. on Distributed Smart Cameras, Venice (Italy), Nov 2014, (In press) These publications are all compiled into a single pdf file and attached to this report. Page - 4 of 12
CONTRACT DELIVERABLES UPDATE M - Months RESR - Researcher FAC B - Fixed amount contract B (%) SECONDMENT Participants S.1 S.2 S.3 S.4 S.5 S.6 S.7 S.8 S.9 S.10 S.11 S.12 S.13 S.14 S.15 S.16 S.17 S.18 S.19 S.20 S.21 S.22 S.23 S.24 S.25 S.26 S.27 Honeywell 15 4 75 2 1 13 3 75 12 3 33 5 3 20 7 0 13 0 0 0 NEO 6 1 4 2 50 2-1 NaN 9 3 67 3 2 33 6 1 34 0 0 0 INRIA 0 0 0 6 2 100 0 6 2 100 4 2 100 4 2 100 0 QMUL 0 2 1 100-2 -1 NaN 4 2 100 2 1 100 2 1 2 1 100 0 2 1 100 EPFL 2 1 100 0 2 1 100 2 1 100 0 100 2 1 0 3 2 100-3 -2 NaN Total 23 6 175 8 4 150 15 2 25 33 11 400 10 6 253 23 5 147 6 3 200 7 4 200-1 -1 S.1 : Foreseen months (ESR<4) S.2 : Foreseen researchers (ESR<4) S.3 : Foreseen Fixed amount contract B (%)(ESR<4) S.4 : Implemented months (ESR<4) S.5 : Implemented researchers (ESR<4) S.6 : Implemented Fixed amount contract B (%) (ESR<4) S.7 : Difference months (ESR<4) S.8 : Difference researchers (ESR<4) S.9 : Difference Fixed amount contract B (%) (ESR<4) S.10 : Foreseen months (ER 4-10) S.11 : Foreseen researchers (ER 4-10) S.12 : Foreseen Fixed amount contract B (%)(ER 4-10) S.13 : Implemented months (ER 4-10) S.14 : Implemented researchers (ER 4-10) S.15 : Implemented Fixed amount contract B (%) (ER 4-10) S.16 : Difference months (ER 4-10) S.17 : Difference researchers (ER 4-10) S.18 : Difference Fixed amount contract B (%) (ER 4-10) S.19 : Foreseen months (ER>10) S.20 : Foreseen researchers (ER>10) S.21 : Foreseen Fixed amount contract B (%) (ER>10) S.22 : Implemented months (ER>10) S.23 : Implemented researchers (ER>10) S.24 : Implemented Fixed amount contract B (%) (ER>10) S.25 : Difference months (ER>10) S.26 : Difference researchers (ER>10) S.27 : Difference Fixed amount contract B (%) (ER>10) Page - 5 of 12
Comments: Comments on all secondment changes that caused deviation from original plan: 1) INRIA to NEO, Vasanth Bathrinarayanan (Fellow no. 9), June + July 2013, WP2, planned ER, seconded as ESR: The experience level change was based on person availability. Originally planned Srinidhi Simha, an ER, was not available for personal planning reasons (left INRIA in July 2013). No other eligible ER with similar profile was available at INRIA for the secondment at the planned time and after. Longer postponement was difficult to organize for NEO, who is a small SME with restricted personal resources. Vasanth Bathrinarayanan s profile was the closest match for the planned secondment with respect to his expertise, capabilities, actual experience and knowledge exchange abilities. Prior the secondment, Vasanth was working on the topic of people detection for more than 2 years and is INRIA s expert in the domain. The work that he was able to do at NEO (test of various algorithms for People detection), including the knowledge exchange, was beyond expectation. 2) INRIA to Honeywell, Malik Souded (Fellow no. 2), January + February 2014 (in progress), WP2 + WP4, planned ESR, seconded as ER: The experience level change was based on person availability. Originally planned Piotr Bilinski, an ESR, was not available for personal reasons. Malik Souded was the only available person for the secondment and was matching experience level, but his personally motivated secondment postponement caused change of experience level (Malik Souded received his PhD in Dec 2013, two weeks prior secondment commencement). It was agreed by INRIA and HON that the change of his experience level does not impact any scientific and knowledge exchange objectives of the planned secondment and of the whole project. 3) NEO to QMUL, Ondrej Fisar (Fellow no. 20), May + June 2013, WP2, planned ER, seconded as ESR: The experience level change was based on person availability. Originally planned researcher, was not available due to health problems (serious injury making the travel impossible). No other ER level researcher was available for the secondment at the planned time and a half year after. A longer secondment postponement was difficult to organize for NEO, who is a small SME with restricted personal resources. Ondrej Fisar s expertise, capabilities, actual experience and knowledge exchange abilities were closest match for the originally planned secondment. It was agreed by QMUL and NEO that this change of experience level does not impact any scientific an knowledge exchange objectives of the planned secondment and of the whole project. 4) EPFL to Honeywell, Horesh Ben Shitrit (Fellow no. 8), August + September 2013, planned for 6 month, but could only serve 2 month: For personal reasons (family) and timing of the academic career, the fellow served only 2 months (received his PhD and thus cannot serve as ESR experience level any more). The 4 remaining month of this secondment have to be served by another fellow, who is to be determined. 5) EPFL to NEO, Fellow no. 12, secodment postponement: EPFL decided to postpone the secondment due to the personnel availability in the EPFL CV Lab. A suitable fellow is now being selected and will be seconded during 2014. 6) HON to EPFL, Fellow no. 22, secondment experience upgrade (ER to VER): The experience level change was based on people availability. Originally planned Eva Jerhotova gave up her project participation due to her family situation (pregnancy, then maternity leave). With respect to the DOW and WP2 completion, the next available researcher, Vit Libal filled in and served this secondment. 7) NEO to EPFL, Fellow no. 23, secondment experience upgrade (ER to VER): The experience level change was based on people availability. The ER level researcher with an appropriate expertise was not available. With respect to the DOW and WP2 completion, the only available researcher was Radek Svoboda. 8) EPFL to NEO, Xinchao Wang (Fellow no. 12), July + August 2014, planned for 6 month, but could only serve 2 month: Page - 6 of 12
For the reasons related to timing of his academic career, the fellow served only 2 months. The 4 remaining month of this secondment have to be served by another fellow, who is to be determined. 9) QMUL to Honeywell, Syed Fahad Tahir (Fellow no. 7), October to December 2014, planned for 6 month, but could only serve 3 month: For reasons related to his academic career, the fellow serves only 3 months (receives his PhD degree at the end of the secondment). The 3 remaining month of this secondment have to be served by another fellow, who is to be determined. 10) QMUL to NEO, Tewodoros Atanaw Biresaw (Fellow no. 11), November to January 2014, planned for 5 month, but could only serve 3 month: For reasons related to his academic career, the fellow serves only 3 months (received his PhD and thus cannot serve as ESR experience level any more). The 2 remaining months of this secondment have to be served by another fellow, who is to be determined.. Page - 7 of 12
M - Months RESR - Researcher FAC B - Fixed amount contract B (%) RECRUITMENT Participants R.1 R.2 R.3 R.4 R.5 R.6 R.7 R.8 R.9 R.10 R.11 R.12 R.13 R.14 R.15 R.16 R.17 R.18 Honeywell 0 0 0 18 1 0 18 1 NEO 0 0 0 0 0 0 INRIA 12 1 0 12 1 0 0 0 QMUL 12 1 12 1 0 0 0 0 EPFL 14 1 0 14 1 0 0 0 Total 38 3 12 1 26 2 18 1 0 18 1 R.1 : Experienced Researcher (ER 4-10) - Foreseen months R.2 : Experienced Researcher (ER 4-10) - Foreseen researchers R.3 : Experienced Researcher (ER 4-10) - Foreseen Fixed amount contract B (%) R.4 : Experienced Researcher (ER 4-10) - Implemented months R.5 : Experienced Researcher (ER 4-10) - Implemented researchers R.6 : Experienced Researcher (ER 4-10) - Implemented Fixed amount contract B (%) R.7 : Experienced Researcher (ER 4-10) - Difference months R.8 : Experienced Researcher (ER 4-10) - Difference researchers R.9 : Experienced Researcher (ER 4-10) - Difference Fixed amount contract B (%) R.10 : Experienced Researcher (ER>10) - Foreseen months R.11 : Experienced Researcher (ER>10) - Foreseen researchers R.12 : Experienced Researcher (ER>10) - Foreseen Fixed amount contract B (%) R.13 : Experienced Researcher (ER>10) - Implemented months R.14 : Experienced Researcher (ER>10) - Implemented researchers R.15 : Experienced Researcher (ER>10) - Implemented Fixed amount contract B (%) R.16 : Experienced Researcher (ER>10) - Difference months R.17 : Experienced Researcher (ER>10) - Difference researchers R.18 : Experienced Researcher (ER>10) - Difference Fixed amount contract B (%) Page - 8 of 12
Comments: Justifications of the recruitment postponement: 1) EPFL recruitment, fellow no. 24, originally planned to start on July 2013, postponed till 2015: EPFL requested to postpone the recruitment due to the availability of the EPFL CV Lab leader prof. Pascal Fua (leaving for sabbatical in 2014). It had been decided that it is better for the CENTAUR project to postpone the recruitment. Planning of the dependent project activities is being modified accordingly. 2) HON recruitment, fellow no. 1, originally planned to start on Jan 2014, postponed till 2015: HON had been having internal issues in 2013 with that caused delay opening the position. Further, the hiring was delayed due to difficulty to find a suitable candidate (VER person with high demands for his/her scientific career and presentation skills). All issues seem to be resolved and the recruit should start in early 2015. This delay does not represent a serious issue for the project and is actually well fitted with the EPFL recruitment postponement. Page - 9 of 12
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES / EVENTS OPEN TO EXTERNAL RESEARCHERS Event Number Participant hosting the event Type of Event Month when the event took place Start date of the event End date of the event Total number of researchers outside the network attending the event Total number of researcher days for researchers from outside the network attending the event Website of the event 1 Honeywell Webinar 18 22/06/2014 22/06/2014 15 15 http://www.centaur-projec t.eu/centaur-webinar-july -22/ Total number of researchers outside the network attending the event Total number of researcher days for researchers from outside the network attending the event 15 15 Planned number of researcher days for researchers from outside the network attending the event: 0 Remaining number of researcher days for researchers from outside the network attending the event: -15 Page - 10 of 12
Comments: Page - 11 of 12
Attachments Name Date CENTAUR_publications_28Nov2014.pdf, report1218933_firstyearprogressreport.pdf This declaration was visaed electronically by Vít LÍBAL (ECAS user name nlibalvi) on 28/11/2014 Page - 12 of 12