From Fundamentals to Applications

ESSAY COMPETITION - The Social Impact of Computer Vision
Deadline for submission is: 15 June 2014

This essay competition reflects the importance of considering the “real world” social impact of technology alongside the fundamental goals of basic R&D. Computer Vision is an area of scientific and technological development that will continue to have a profound impact on society. It will redefine the way in which information technology intersects and interfaces with medicine and other disciplines, it will play a key role in the care of an ageing population and it is already a fundamental aspect of modern security technology.

Participants in the competition may write a piece of original work on the topic reported below. There are no style guidelines, or “correct answers”. You may reference any sources you wish (from any field of thought / endeavor). You may contextualize the discussion to your specific area of investigation and research interest. It is however requested that the discussion be scientific and grounded on current technological and research achievements, e.g. start-ups, patents, publications. There is a strict word limit of 1,500 words, excluding citations and footnotes. Through an entirely subjective, qualitative and irreproducible selection process, the successful essayist will have his €500 attendance fees at the ICVSS 2014 reimbursed. The essay competition prize is sponsored by OrCam. The winner of the competition will have the opportunity to be interviewed for an article of newsletter IAPR.

Submissions should be sent in PDF or Word format to icvss@dmi.unict.it. Your name, email address and university/ organization should be written at the top of your essay. Deadline for submission is 15 June 2014. The winner of the competition will be announced on 18 July 2014. The essays will be shared with fellow summer school attendees.

Essay Topic:
Assistive computer vision: technology which improves the quality of life. Discuss.

Laura Cabrera-Quirós, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

Thomas Castelli, Laboratoire Hubert Curien, France

Shreyansh Daftry, Graz University of Technology, Austria

Stephanie R. Debats, Princeton University, USA

Gerrit Ecke, University of Tübingen, Germany

Olesia Kushnir, Tula State University, Russia

Aleksandra Melinska, Wroclaw University of Technology, Poland

Maciej Plocharski, Aalborg University, Denmark

Choon-Ching Ng, Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom

Nati Ofir, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel