Thomas Binford

Who is Thomas Binford?

Thomas Oriel Binford has been a leading researcher in image analysis and computer vision since 1967. He is known for pioneering a model-based approach to computer vision in which complex objects are represented as collections of generalized cylinders. His results reflect seminal work in numerous other areas of research including the interpretation of complex scenes using invariants and quasi-invariants, inference rules and evidential reasoning in extended Bayes networks of symbolic geometric constraints, the SUCCESSOR system, a portable, intelligent vision system, stereo and visual robot navigation, segmentation and feature estimation in complex images, color image analysis, surface material analysis, and image compression. He has led the development of numerous computer vision systems, including systems successfully employed in brain surgery on humans, high-precision automated machining, and helicopter navigation.

Binford received a Ph.D. in particle physics in 1965 from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, under the supervision of Myron L. Good; his thesis was entitled "Angular Distribution and Polarization of Neutral Hyperons Produced in Association with Neutral Kaons".