MICCAI 2019 Wednesday

MICCAI 2019 DAILY Shape Modeling and Analysis asked Guido and Stanley if they wanted to meet, and that is where it all began. Why shape? Stanley explains: “Shape is a very broad and at the same t ime a bi t of a fuzzy term. For me, shape refers to geometry and to something which is global . When I recognize you as your si lhouet te, I don’ t see a set of elements l ike your ears or the contour of your arm, what I see is a global thing. I think this is where shape comes into play, in the way you can f ind global representat ion of an object by i ts genet ic nature. There are many di fferent discipl ines. In medical imaging, you have shape in the human body everywhere. Also, in computer vision, in natural scenes, you have shapes of objects that you want to recognize. We are working wi th anthropologists and they are looking for the shape of bones or skul ls and trying to decipher the or igin of humankind. Shape is everywhere, and I think i t ’s going to be the next front ier for computer vision and AI .” Guido tel ls us that one of the textbooks they al l use was wr i t ten in 1910 by D’Arcy Thompson. I t ’s over 100 years old because shape is a universal concept . . Everybody uses the term shape – cl inicians, researchers, engineers – but understand i t to mean di fferent things. Stanley adds that 17 shape is a transversal concept . I t crosses many di fferent scient i f ic discipl ines – computer vision, medical imaging, anthropology – and di fferent professionals – industry, cl inicians, academics. I t ’s a chal lenge to connect al l these people together, but that is the just i f icat ion for the SIG. Through the SIG, they want to bring disjointed communities together who don’ t usual ly talk to each other, to form a new communi ty where everybody is invi ted to exchange informat ion and ideas. They can col lect useful tools, methodologies, and open- source sof tware. They want to hold tutor ials and workshops and support other workshops under the umbrel la of MICCAI and can fund a keynote speaker or a best paper award for shape each year at thei r meet ings. Beatr iz goes on to say : “I think one of the reasons for these several distant communi t ies not f inding a l ink between each other is that al l of these communi t ies are rewarded or advance in thei r careers for things that don’ t necessar i ly involve the rest . Industry has al ready benef i t ted from including scholars in thei r products. I think we have to cont inue encouraging i t . We can reach out to involve these industr ies in the conversat ion. Educat ing our communi t ies that great things wi l l come from working together is part