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Counting objects is a fundamental but challenging problem. In this paper, we propose diffusion-based, geometry-free, and learning-free methodologies to count the number of objects in images. The main idea is to represent each object by a unique index value regardless of its intensity or size, and to simply count the number of index values. First, we place different vectors, refer to as seed vectors, uniformly throughout the mask image. The mask image has boundary information of the objects to be counted. Secondly, the seeds are diffused using an edge-weighted harmonic variational optimization model within each object. We propose an efficient algorithm based on an operator splitting approach and alternating direction minimization method, and theoretical analysis of this algorithm is given. An optimal solution of the model is obtained when the distributed seeds are completely diffused such that there is a unique intensity within each object, which we refer to as an index. For computational efficiency, we stop the diffusion process before a full convergence, and propose to cluster these diffused index values. We refer to this approach as Counting Objects by Diffused Index (CODI). We explore scalar and multi-dimensional seed vectors. For Scalar seeds, we use Gaussian fitting in histogram to count, while for vector seeds, we exploit a high-dimensional clustering method for the final step of counting via clustering. The proposed method is flexible even if the boundary of the object is not clear nor fully enclosed. We present counting results in various applications such as biological cells, agriculture, concert crowd, and transportation. Some comparisons with existing methods are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The more advanced multi-view extension, MV-HEVC, effectively exploits visual similarities between multi-view videos and enables high compression efficiency. Each view in the multi-view sequence depends on the captured scene, the distance between cameras and recording angles. Increasing the distance between dependent viewpoints generates an inter-view disparity. This impacts the inter-view similarities, affects the disparity estimation and further increases the computational complexity of the MV-HEVC encoder. In this paper, an efficient earlier disparity estimation is proposed for low complexity MV-HEVC. This algorithm is based on reducing the complexity of disparity estimation by eliminating the inter-view offset. Moreover, the inter-view similarities are controlled by considering the reliability of each coding unit size in the search range. This reliability is estimated by reducing the number of searching points within a new limited window. For reliable motion estimation, we further proposed an earlier decision of coding units splitting in the dependent views according to those in the reference views. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can achieve an average encoding time saving of 20.37%–40,61% with marginal performance degradation. • Visual adjustment between views can be improved by eliminating inter-view offsets. • Eliminating inter-view offsets reduces search time in the disparity estimation. • The visual adjustment allows a trade-off between encoding time and video quality. • An earlier decision of coding units splitting for reliable motion estimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]