Publications: Fred Nicolls

Journal articles

• A. Patel, B. Stocks, C. Fisher, F. Nicolls, and E. Boje, Tracking the Cheetah Tail using Animal-Borne Cameras, GPS and an IMU, IEEE Sensors letters, vol. 1, issue 4, August 2017, DOI:10.1109/LSENS.2017.2716618.
  
  
• M. Kulkarni, R. Dendere, F. Nicolls, and T. Douglas, Monte-Carlo simulation of a slot-scanning digital mammography system for tomosynthesis, Journal of X-Ray Science and Technology, Vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 191-206, 2016. DOI:10.1109/TPWRD.2015.2503478.
  
  
• M. Kulkarni, R. Dendere, F. Nicolls, S. Steiner, and T. Douglas, Monte-Carlo simulation of a slot-scanning X-ray imaging system, Physica Medica: European Journal of Medical Physics, vol. 32, issue 1, pp. 284-289, January 2016. DOI:10.1016/j.ejmp.2015.12.003.
  
  
• U.J. Minnaar, F. Nicolls, and C.T. Gaunt, Automating Transmission Line Fault Root Cause Analysis, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, volume 31, issue 4, pp. 1692-1700, August 2015. DOI:10.1109/TPWRD.2015.2503478.
  
  
• B.S. Spottiswoode, D.J. van den Heever, Y. Chang, S. Engelhardt, S. Du Plessis, F. Nicolls, H.B. Hartzenberg, and A. Gretschel, Preoperative Three-Dimensional Model Creation of Magnetic Resonance Brain Images as a Tool to Assist Neurosurgical Planning, Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, vol. 91, no. 3, pp. 162-169, May 2013. DOI:10.1159/000345264.
  
  
• S. Hendricks, D. Karpul, F. Nicolls, and M. Lambert, Velocity and Acceleration before contact in the Tackle, Journal of Sports Sciences, vol. 30, issue 12, pp. 1215-1224, August 2012. DOI:10.1080/02640414.2012.707328.
  
  
• U.J. Minnaar, C.T. Gaunt, and F. Nicolls, Characterisation of power system events on South African transmission power lines, Electric Power Systems Research, vol. 88, pp. 25-32, July 2012. DOI:10.1016/j.epsr.2012.01.015.
  
  
• M. Louw and F. Nicolls, Shape from shading using MRF optimization with Gibbs Sampling with quadruplet cliques, South African Computer Journal, No. 40, pp. 11-17, June 2008.
  
  
• F. Nicolls and G. de Jager, Optimality in detecting targets with unknown location, Signal Processing, vol. 87, issue 5, pp. 841-852, May 2007. DOI:10.1016/j.sigpro.2006.08.005.
  
  
• S. Mkwelo, G. de Jager, and F. Nicolls, Watershed-based segmentation of rock scenes and proximity-based classification of watershed regions under uncontrolled lighting, Transactions of the SAIEE, vol. 96 no. 1, pp. 28-34, March 2005.
  
  
• F. Nicolls, G. de Jager, and B. T. Sewell, Use of a General Imaging Model to achieve Predictive Autofocus in the Scanning Electron Microscope, Ultramicroscopy, vol. 69, pp. 25-37, August 1997. DOI:10.1016/S0304-3991(97)00028-4.
  

Book chapters

• N. Matjelo, F. Nicolls, and N. Muller, Evaluation of Optimal Control-Based Deformable Registration Model, In: K. Elleithy and R. Sobh, New Trends in Networking, Computing, E-learning, Systems Sciences, and Engineering, Volume 312 of series Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, Springer, pp 117-124, 2015. DOI:10.1007/978-3-319-06764-3_15.
  


• N. Govender, P. Torr, M. Keaikitse, F. Nicolls, and J. Warrell, Probabilistic Active Recognition of Multiple Objects Using Hough-Based Geometric Matching Features, In: Y. Sun, A. Behal, R. Chung New Development in Robot Vision Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 89-109, 2015. DOI:10.1007/978-3-662-43859-6_6.
  

Top-tier international conference papers

• D. Joska, L. Clark, N. Muramatsu, R. Jericevich, F. Nicolls, A. Mathis, M.W. Mathis, and A. Patel, Acinoset: A 3d pose estimation dataset and baseline models for cheetahs in the wild, International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 13901-13908, 2021. DOI:10.1109/ICRA48506.2021.9561338.
  
  
• F. Nicolls and P.H.S. Torr, Discrete minimum ratio curves and surfaces, International Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), San Francisco, 2010. DOI:10.1109/CVPR.2010.5539892.
  
  
• S. Milborrow and F. Nicolls, Locating Facial Features with an Extended Active Shape Model, European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV), Marseille, France, 2008. DOI:10.1007/978-3-540-88693-8_37.
  
  
• K. Forbes, F. Nicolls, G. de Jager, and A. Voigt, Shape-from-Silhouette with Two Mirrors and an Uncalibrated Camera, European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV), Graz, Austria, 2006. DOI:10.1007/11744047_13.
  
  
• F. Nicolls and G. de Jager, Uniformly most powerful cyclic permutation invariant detection for discrete-time signals, International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP), Salt Lake City, Utah, 2001. DOI:10.1109/ICASSP.2001.940330.
  
  
• F. Nicolls and G. de Jager, Maximum likelihood estimation of Toeplitz-block-Toeplitz covariances in the presence of subspace interference, International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR), Brisbane, Australia, 1998. DOI:10.1109/ICPR.1998.712018.
  
  

Peer-reviewed international conference papers

• R. Mangera, F. Senekal, and F. Nicolls, Cascading Neural Networks for Upper-body Gesture Recognition, International Conference on Machine Vision and Machine Learning (MVML), Prague, Czech Republic, 2014.
  
  
• N. Govender, J. Warrell, P. Torr, and F. Nicolls, Probabilistic Models for 2D Active Shape Recognition using Fourier Descriptors and Mutual Information, Advances in Computer Vision, pp. 76-81, Istanbul, Turkey, 2014.
  
  
• Stephen Milborrow and Fred Nicolls, Active Shape Models with SIFT Descriptors and MARS, International Conference on Computer Vision Theory and Applications (VISAPP), Lisbon, Portugal, 2014. DOI:10.5220/0004680003800387.
  
  
• Natasha Govender, Jonathan Claassens, Fred Nicolls, Jonathan Warrell, Active Object Recognition using Vocabulary Trees, IEEE Workshop on Robot Vision (WORV), Clearwater, USA, 2013. DOI:10.1109/WORV.2013.6521945.
  
  
• Stephen Milborrow, Tom Bishop, and Fred Nicolls, Multiview Active Shape Models with SIFT Descriptors for the 300-W Face Landmark Challenge, ICCV Workshops, Sydney, Australia, 2013. DOI:10.1109/ICCVW.2013.57.
  
  
• Natasha Govender, Jonathan Warrell, Philip H.S. Torr, and Fred Nicolls, Probabilistic Object and Viewpoint Models for Active Object Recognition, Africon, Mauritius, 2013.
  
  
• Jason de Villiers, Fintan Wilson, and Fred Nicolls, A study of the sensitivity of long-range passive ranging techniques to atmospheric scintillation, Proc. SPIE 8399, 83990O, Baltimore, USA, 2012. DOI:10.1117/12.920358.
  
  
• Y-C. Chang, F. Nicolls, and B.S. Spottiswoode, Combination of Structural and Functional MRI with Rapid Prototyping as a Neurosurgical Tool, Proceedings of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM), vol. 19, p. 4149, Montreal, Canada, 2011.
  
  
• Asheer K. Bachoo, Francois le Roux, and Fred Nicolls, An optical tracker for the maritime environment, Proc. SPIE 8050, 80501G, Orlando, USA, 2011. DOI:10.1117/12.884126.
  
  
• Asheer K. Bachoo, Jason P. de Villiers, Fred Nicolls, and Francois P. J. le Roux, Quantitative analysis of the improvement in high zoom maritime tracking due to real-time image enhancement, Proc. SPIE 8052, 80520E, Orlando, USA, 2011. DOI:10.1117/12.884046.
  
  
• Jason P. de Villiers, Asheer K. Bachoo, Fred Nicolls, and Francois P. J. le Roux, Quantitative analysis of the improvement in omnidirectional maritime surveillance and tracking due to real-time image enhancement, Proc. SPIE 8052, 80520F, Orlando, USA, 2011. DOI:10.1117/12.884052.
  
  
• Jason P. de Villiers, Jaco Cronje, and Fred Nicolls, Improved neural network modeling of inverse lens distortion, Proc. SPIE 8056, 80560L, Orlando, USA, 2011. DOI:10.1117/12.884065.
  
  
• M. Louw and F. Nicolls, Accelerated sparse feature correspondence resolution using loopy belief propagation with MRF clique based structure preservation, Computer Graphics and Imaging (CGIM), pp. 109-116, Innsbruck, Austria, 2010.
  
  
• M. Louw and F. Nicolls, Surface classification via BRDF parameters, using population Monte Carlo for MRF parameter estimation, Computer Graphics and Imaging (CGIM), pp. 145-154, Innsbruck, Austria, 2010.
  
  
• S. Mkwelo, F. Nicolls, and G. de Jager, Range and Intensity Vision for rock-scene segmentation, 12th Iberoamerican Congress on Pattern Recognition (CIARP), Vina del Mar/Valparaiso, Chile, 2007.
  
  
• M. Louw and F. Nicolls, Improved Sparse Correspondence Resolution using Loopy Belief Propagation with MRF Clique based Structure Preservation, Visualization, Imaging, and Image Processing, (VIIP), Palma de Mallorca, Spain, 2007.
  
  
• M. Louw and F. Nicolls, A Spatially Multiresolution, MRF Optimization based Approach to the Shape from Shading Problem, Visualization, Imaging, and Image Processing (VIIP), Palma de Mallorca, Spain, 2007.
  
  
• M. Louw and F. Nicolls, A Loopy Belief Propagation Approach to the Shape From Shading Problem, International Conference on Computer Vision Theory and Applications (VISAPP), Barcelona, Spain, 2007.
  
  
• B. Merven, F. Nicolls, and G. de Jager, Auto Camera Calibration Method for Person Tracking Applications, Scandinavian Conference on Image Analysis (SCIA), pp. 91-100, Halmstad, Sweden, 2003. DOI:10.1007/3-540-45103-X_13.
  
  

Peer-reviewed local conference papers

• X. Nkwentsha, A. Hounkanrin and F. Nicolls, Automatic classification of medical X-ray images with convolutional neural networks, International SAUPEC/RobMech/PRASA Conference, Cape Town, South Africa, 2020, DOI:10.1109/SAUPEC/RobMech/PRASA48453.2020.9041052.
  
  
• E. Y. Ali and F. Nicolls, 3D Pose Estimation and Tracking of an Electricity Pylon, International SAUPEC/RobMech/PRASA Conference, Cape Town, South Africa, 2020, DOI:10.1109/SAUPEC/RobMech/PRASA48453.2020.9041094.
  
  
• A. Chiranjan and B. Duvenhage, and F. Nicolls, Implementation of Adaptive Coded Aperture Imaging using a Digital Micro-Mirror Device for Defocus Deblurring, PRASA-RobMech International Conference, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 2016. DOI:10.1109/RoboMech.2016.7813138.
  
  
• L. Dunbar and F. Nicolls, Using the Earth Mover's Distance for Perceptually Meaningful Visual Saliency, PRASA-RobMech International Conference, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, 2015. DOI:10.1109/RoboMech.2015.7359491
  
  
• J. de Villiers, R. Jermy, and F. Nicolls, A study on the effect of different image centres on stereo triangulation accuracy, PRASA-RobMech International Conference, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, 2015. DOI:10.1109/RoboMech.2015.7359493
  
  
• C. Bradshaw, F. Nicolls, and G. de Jager Augmenting the L1 Tracker with appearance based tracking improvements, PRASA2014, Cape Town, South Africa, 2014.
  
  
• J. de Villiers and F. Nicolls, A study on the sensitivity of photogrammetric camera calibration and stitching, PRASA2014, Cape Town, South Africa, 2014.
  
  
• D. Wong and F. Nicolls, Automation of Region Specific Scanning for Real Time Medical Systems, PRASA2012, Pretoria, South Africa, 2012.
  
  
• J. de Villiers, F. Wilson and F. Nicolls, The effects of lens distortion calibration patterns on the accuracy of monocular 3D measurements, PRASA2011, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2011.
  
  
• B. Lubinsky and F. Nicolls, Fast Implementation of the FRAME Algorithm using a GPU Gibbs Sampler, PRASA2011, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2011.
  
  
• T. Ndhlovu and F. Nicolls, Using temporal seeding to constrain the disparity search range, PRASA2011, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2011.
  
  
• M. Wilson and F. Nicolls, Coded Aperture and Coded Exposure Photography, PRASA2011, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2011.
  
  
• S. Milborrow, J. Morkel, and F. Nicolls, The MUCT Landmarked Face Database, PRASA2010, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 2010.
  
  
• M. Kulkarni and F. Nicolls, Graph cuts with shape priors for segmentation, PRASA2010, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 2010.
  
  
• J. de Villiers and F. Nicolls, Application of neural networks to inverse lens distortion modelling, PRASA2010, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 2010.
  
  
• U.J. Minnaar, C.T. Gaunt, and F. Nicolls, Signal processing tools for voltage dip analysis, SAUPEC2010, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2010.
  
  
• M. Louw and F. Nicolls, Texture based classification of images using frequency estimated pairwise MRF joint distributions on site labels from wavelet decomposed images, PRASA2009, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 2009.
  
  
• M. Kulkarni and F. Nicolls, Interactive Image Segmentation using Graph Cuts, PRASA2009, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 2009.
  
  
• T. Ndhlovu and F. Nicolls, An alternative confidence measure for local-matching stereo algorithms, ROBMECH 2009, Pretoria, South Africa, 2009.
  
  
• J. Morkel and F. Nicolls, Photometric modelling of real-world objects, PRASA2008, Cape Town, South Africa, 2008.
  
  
• M. Louw and F. Nicolls, A faster MRF optimization based method for Shape from Shading using Gibbs sampling with quadruplet cliques, PRASA2007, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, 2007.
  
  
• S. Mkwelo, G. De Jager, and F. Nicolls, Range Sections as Rock Models for Rock Scene Segmentation, PRASA2007, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, 2007.
  
  
• M. Louw, F. Nicolls, and D. Bradshaw, A Comparison of Iterative Bayesian Methods for Solving the Sparse Point Correspondence Problem, PRASA2006, Parys, South Africa, 2006.
  
  
• F. Nicolls, Estimating relative world views, PRASA2005, pp. 71-76, Langebaan, Cape Town, 2005.
  
  
• M. Louw and F. Nicolls, An approximate EM Homographical Iterative Closest Point algorithm, PRASA2005, pp. 89-92, Langebaan, Cape Town, 2005.
  
  
• N. F. Maunder, G. de Jager, and F. Nicolls, Virtual View Synthesis using Visual Hulls, PRASA2005, pp. 77-82, Langebaan, Cape Town, 2005.
  
  
• F. Nicolls, Structure and motion from SEM: a case study, PRASA2004, pp. 19-23, Grabouw, Cape Town, 2004.
  
  
• P. Milne, F. Nicolls, and G. de Jager, Visual hull surface estimation, PRASA2004, pp. 13-18, Grabouw, Cape Town, 2004.
  
  
• B. Merven, F. Nicolls, and G. de Jager, Multi-Camera person tracking using an extended Kalman Filter, PRASA2003, pp. 45-50, Langebaan, Cape Town, 2003.
  
  
• S. Mkwelo, F. Nicolls, and G. de Jager, Watershed-based segmentation of rock scenes and Proximity-based classification of watershed regions under uncontrolled lighting conditions, PRASA2003, pp. 107-112, Langebaan, Cape Town, 2003.
  
  
• M. Price, F. Nicolls, and G. de Jager, Using colour features for video-based tracking of people in a multi-camera environment, PRASA2003, pp. 39-44, Langebaan, Cape Town, 2003.
  
  
• P. Milne, F. Nicolls, and G. de Jager, Generation of Visual Hull Models from 3D Objects, PRASA2003, pp. 27-32, Langebaan, Cape Town, 2003.
  
  
• F. Nicolls, Gaze estimation using appearance models, PRASA2002, pp. 13-18, Langebaan, Cape Town, 2002.
  
  
• B. Merven, F. Nicolls, and G. de Jager, Automatic calibration method for fixed camera person tracking applications, PRASA2002, pp. 7-12, Langebaan, Cape Town, 2002.
  
  
• M. Louw, F. Nicolls, and G. de Jager, MultiBlob particle filter, PRASA2002, pp. 25-29, Langebaan, Cape Town, 2002.
  
  
• F. Nicolls and G. de Jager, Uniformly most powerful cyclic permutation invariant detection for discrete-time signals, PRASA, 1998.
  
  
• F. Nicolls and G. de Jager, Subspace interference in statistical signal detection, PRASA, 1997.
  
  
• F. Nicolls, G. de Jager, and B.T. Sewell, A Predictive Autofocus Algorithm for SEM, EMSSA 1996.
  
  
• F. Nicolls, G. de Jager, and B.T. Sewell, Towards a Predictive Autofocus Algorithm for SEM, EMSSA 1994.
  
  

Theses

• F. Nicolls, Constraints and invariance in target detection, PhD thesis, University of Cape Town, 2000.
  
  
• F. Nicolls, The Development of a Predictive Autofocus Algorithm using a General Image Formation Model, MSc thesis, University of Cape Town, 1996.
  
  

Patents

• M. P. Beets, F. C. Nicolls, and G. de Jager, Distortion correction method for linear scanning x-ray system, US patent 7,873,142, granted 18 January 2011.
  
  
• G. de Jager, J. J. Francis, D. P. Hatfield, D. J. Bradshaw, B. G. Oostendorp, S. H. Morar, F. C. Nicolls, G. R. Forbes, G. S. Heinrich, and H. W. Markham, The Extraction of Valuable Minerals from Mined Ore, patent no. 2005/06954, South Africa, granted June 2006.
  
  

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