Abstract
The rising challenges in the field of iris recognition, concerning the development of accurate recognition algorithms using images acquired under an unconstrained set of conditions, is leading to the a renewed interest in the area. Although several works already report excellent recognition rates, these values are obtained by acquiring images in very controlled environments. The use of such systems in daily security activities, such as airport security and bank account management, is therefore hindered by the inherent unconstrained nature under which images are to be acquired. The proposed work focused on mutual context information from iris centre and iris limbic contour to perform robust and accurate iris segmentation in noisy images. A random subset of the UBIRIS.v2 database was tested with a promising E1 classification rate of 0.0109.

Abstract
While video surveillance systems are spreading everywhere, extracting meaningful information from what they are recording is still prohibitively expensive. There is a major effort under way in order to make this process economical by including an intelligent software that eases the burden of the system. In this paper, we introduce an incremental learning framework to classify parallel data streams generated in a multi-camera surveillance scenario. The framework exploits active learning strategies in order to interact wisely with operators to address various problems that exist in such non-stationary environments, such as concept drift and concept evolution. If we look at the problem as mining parallel streams, the framework can address learning from uneven parallel streams applying a class-based ensemble, a problem that has not been addressed before. Favourable results indicate the success of the framework.

Abstract
Through the years, several CAD systems have been developed to help radiologists in the hard task of detecting signs of cancer in the numerous screening mammograms. A more recent trend includes the development of pre-CAD systems aiming at identifying normal mammograms instead of detecting suspicious ones. Normal breasts are screened-out from the process, leaving radiologists more time to focus on more difficult cases. In this work, a new approach for the identification of normal breasts is presented. Considering that even breasts with malignant findings are mostly constituted by normal tissue, the breast area is divided into blocks which are then compared pairwise. If all blocks are very similar, the breast is labelled as normal, and as suspicious otherwise. Features characterizing the pairwise block similarity and characterizing the intra-block pixel distribution are used to design a predictive method based on machine learning techniques. The proposed solution was applied on a real world screening setting composed by nearly 18000 mammograms. Results are similar to the more complex state of the art approaches by correctly identifying more than 20% of the normal mammograms. These results suggest the usefulness of the relative comparison instead of the absolute classification. When properly used, simple statistics can suffice to distinguish the clearly normal breasts.

Abstract
A key issue in video object tracking is the representation of the objects and how effectively it discriminates between different objects. Several techniques have been proposed, but without a generally accepted method. While analysis and comparisons of these individual methods have been presented in the literature, their evaluation as part of a global solution has been overlooked. The appearance model for the objects is a component of a video object tracking framework, depending on previous processing stages and affecting those that succeed it. As a result, these interdependencies should be taken into account when analysing the performance of the object description techniques. We propose an integrated analysis of object descriptors and appearance models through their comparison in a common object tracking solution. The goal is to contribute to a better understanding of object description methods and their impact on the tracking process. Our contributions are threefold: propose a novel descriptor evaluation and characterisation paradigm; perform the first integrated analysis of state-of-the-art description methods in a scenario of people tracking; put forward some ideas for appearance models to use in this context. This work provides foundations for future tests and the proposed assessment approach contributes to the informed selection of techniques more adequately for a given tracking application context.

Abstract
Nowadays, breast cancer has become the most common cancer amongst females. As long as breast is assumed to be a feminine symbol, any imposed deformation of surgical procedures can affect the patients' quality of life. However, using a planning tool which is based on parametric modeling, not only improves surgeons' skills in order to perform surgeries with better cosmetic outcomes, but also increases the interaction between surgeons and patients during the decision for necessary procedures. In the current research, a methodology of parametric modeling, called Free-Form Deformation (FFD) is studied. Finally, confirmed by a quantitative analysis, we proposed two simplified versions of FFD methodology to increase model similarity to input data and decrease required fitting time.

Abstract
Breast cancer is one of the most mediated malignant diseases, because of its high incidence and prevalence, but principally due to its physical and psychological invasiveness. Surgeons and patients have often many options to consider for undergoing the procedure. The ability to visualise the potential outcomes of the surgery and make decisions on their surgical options is, therefore, very important for patients and surgeons. In this paper we investigate the fitting of a 3d point cloud of the breast to a parametric model usable in surgery planning, obtaining very promising results with real data.