Specialisation in Computer Vision and Signal Analysis

The specialisation in Computer Vision and Signal Analysis (DSA) is aimed at students with an interest in visual computing. This has been a strong area at the Faculty of Science and Engineering (LiTH) for many years, which is reflected in the local industry with around thirty companies with a basis in the techniques taught in the specialisation. Applications are found in many different areas such as medical imaging, automation, production systems, visual inspection, driver assistance and autonomous vehicles, mapping and 3D reconstruction, safety, image sensors, movies and entertainment, games and media, space, and road and traffic analysis. This page contains all information about the specialisation, which is available on the two programmes Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering (Y-DSA) and Computer Science and Engineering (D-DSA). These two specialisations are nearly identical, and where they differ, they are referred to as Y-DSA and D-DSA repectively.

NB! The information on this page applies to the specialization in its current form. For those who have chosen their specialisation earlier years, the course content for that year still applies. To find an earlier description, visit Studieinfo, select your programme and admission year, then select "Show only specialisation courses" in the "Curriculum" tab.

Manager for the specialisation:Per-Erik Forssén

Area Overview

This specialisation will give you in-depth knowledge of visual computing from several perspectives:

• Imaging sensors
  How is an image created in a digital camera, and how does it end up in computer memory? How do infra-red cameras work? How does a computer tomograph create cross sections of the human body? What is a 3D camera?
  
• Graphics and Visualization
  How does a computer generate an image, e.g. with realistic rendering of furniture and lighting, outdoor sceneries, or even animated creatures? How are complex physical phenomena visualized from meteorological data or even atom-level measurements? How are computer game engines designed?
  
• Image and Video coding
  How can an image with millions of pixels be stored in a file of only 50K bytes? What exactly is a jpeg image, and how does the mp3 audio format work?
• Seeing computers and robots
  How can a computer learn to read letters or find objects in an image? How can the number of cells in microscope image be counted, how is distance computed from stereo images?

Structure

• The DSA specialisation starts in Term 7 with mostly mandatory courses. These serve as a preparation for the elective courses in Term 8 and Term 9.
• In Term 9 there is a project course TSBB11 Images and Graphics, Project course, CDIO, 12hp (mandatory for Y-DSA)
  In the project course a large engineering project is conducted in a group of 5-6 students, often with an external problem owner, where theoretical and practical skills obtained in earlier courses will be utilized. The results are presented in written form, and orally at the final seminar. The course is thus a good preparation for the subsequent Master's thesis project.
• The conclusion of the specialisation is the Master's thesis project which is conducted in Term 10.

Schedule 2024

In the table below you can find all mandatory and elective courses within the specialisation. They are sorted in blocks to make it easier to spot collisions while selecting courses.

• Courses marked in green below are mandatory for D-DSA and Y-DSA.
• Courses in red are mandatory for Y-DSA and elective for D-DSA.
• Courses in blue are elective specialisation courses.

The course information can be reached by clicking the course code for the respective course in the schedule below.

Most of the courses in this specialisation are located at ISY (course codes starting with "TS"). Course codes starting with "TD" are given at IDA, course codes starting with "MD" are given at IMT, and course codes starting with "TN" are given at ITN in Norrköping.

Specialisation Courses

Within this specialisation you can either read a broad selection of courses or make a more narrow selection within e.g.

• Graphics, games and visualization
• Image compression and analysis
• Medical imaging and analysis
• Computer Vision, and vision for robots and autonomous vehicles

The specialisation D-DSA (on the D-programme) and Y-DSA (on the Y-programme) are near identical. The difference is that Y-DSA has a mandatory course in Signal theory in Term 7, and also a mandatory CDIO project course in Term 9. This means that D-DSA has 36hp and Y-DSA has 48hp as minimal number of specialisation credits.

Also other courses can potentially be counted as specialisation courses (after approval), e.g. courses read during an exchange semester away from LiU, provided that they can be considered to be sufficiently well connected to the specialisation.

Manager for the specialisation:Per-Erik Forssén