Imaging and cognition: towards a unified vision

The guideline of the research activity that I have been carrying out over the last three years consists in the inter-disciplinary multi-modal approach to the investigation (analysis and modelling) of issues of interest in both the biomedical and multimedia frameworks.

Two complementary research directions are concerned: modelling human perception and investigation of methodologies aiming at the analysis and characterization of biological data from both the structural and the functional points of view.

Though historically investigated by different communities and following different approaches, such research domains are strongly connected and present many overlaps in both the biomedical and multimedia scenarios. Some examples can be found in imaging related issues in surgical robotics and neuronavigation, as well as in advanced videosurveillance systems based on social signalling.

The unifying element is the human brain, for which we aim at a view from inside (structural and functional properties) and from outside (cognition).

In this seminar, the rationale, approach, objectives and methodologies of the proposed research will be illustrated as well as some of the results obtained so far. To conclude, a view on the foreseen future activity will be provided.