Home page of Zhu Li @ Dept of Computing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Zhu Li's Homepage at Hong Kong Polytechnic Univ

About me:

I am now an Asst. Prof. with the Dept of Computing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Before that I was with the Multimedia Research Lab, Motorola Labs , USA, from 2000~2008, where I was a Principal Staff Research Engineer. I received my PhD in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Northwestern University, Evanston, USA, in 2004.

I am an IEEE Senior Member, elected Vice Chair for IEEE Multimedia Communication Tech Committee (MMTC), and my recent awards include a Best Poster Paper Award from IEEE International Conf on Multimedia & Expo (ICME), 2006, Toronto, and Best Paper Award from IEEE International Conf on Image Processing (ICIP), 2007.

For more info: my Bio, CV,, and old webpage .
Contact: Office: PQ-714, Office Phone: (852) 2766 7316, Email:

Teaching:
Fall 2009, COMP100 Intro to Info Tech
Spring 2009, COMP435 Biometrics
Fall 2008, COMP212 Computer Architecture

Have Fun:

Research Summary:

My research interests are in video coding and communication, optimization and distributed computing techniques in multimedia streaming and networking, video signal analysis and machine learning with applications in biometrics, video event recognition, as well as large respository video search and mining.

My research projects are currently supported by grants from Microsoft Research Asia, Hong Kong RGC/GRF, and PolyU, which are graciously acknowledged here.

Call for Chapters: Intelligent Multimedia Communication: Techniques and Applications , Ed. Changwen Chen, Zhu Li, and Shiguo Lian, Springer-Verlag, 2009.
Call for Chapters: Multimedia Analysis, Processing and Communication, Ed. Z. Li, J. Kacprzyk, D. Tao, W. Lin, E. Izquierdo, and H. Wang, Springer-Verlag, 2009.

Research Group

Dr. Wen Ji , Post-Doc Researcher from ICT/CAS, Beijing, Video Networking
Haomian Zheng, PhD Student, Video Analytics, Machine Learning, Multimedia Retrieval
Yin Yuan, PhD Student, Video Networking, Source-Channel Coding and Optimization
Bo Liu, Research Assistant, Machine Learning, Multimedia Search.

Post-Doc/PhD/Research Assistant Recruiting: support is available for motivated students in areas of video analysis, video search and mining, video communication and networking. Please see my related research projects for more detail. See the current opening for more detail.

Some highlights of recent projects and selected publications (book chapters/journal papers and submissions in green):

Multimedia Communication:

Adances in video signal processing and coding give us a rich set of video coding and adaptation tools with associated quality metrics, how to utilize these tools and metrics, and integrate with underlying network engineering elements like channel and network coding, routing and resource allocation and optimization solutions, developing a distributed, scalable and adaptive content delivery network solution, are my interests.

[1] Internet Video Delivery: utility gradient driven scheduling, P2P, content-aware, source-channel coding, elasticity and R-D optimization

Ying Li, Z. Li, Mung Chiang and A. Robert Calderbank, "Content-Aware Distortion Fair Video Streaming in Congested Networks", in press, IEEE Trans. on Multimedia, 2009.
Ying Li, Z. Li, Mung Chiang and A. Robert Calderbank, "Video Transmission Scheduling for Peer-to-Peer Live Streaming System", oral paper, Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Multimedia & Expo (ICME), Hanover, Germany, 2008.
Ying Li, Z. Li, Mung Chiang, and A. Robert Calderbank, "Content Aware Distortion-Fair Video Streaming in Networks", Proc of IEEE GLOBECOM, New Orleans, USA, 2008.
Z. Li, J. Huang, and A. K. Katsaggelos, "Utility Driven Video Segment Scheduling for Peer-to-Peer Live Video Streaming System", Proc of 45th Allerton Conference on Communication, Control and Computing, Monticello, IL, USA, 2007.

[2] Multi-Access Multimedia Networking: pricing model on resource allocation, distributed coordination for outer loop control, while source coding/adaptation R-D optimization in the inner loop:

Y. Yang, Z. Li, W. Shi, Y. Chen, and H. Xu, "Cross-Layer Optimization for State Update in Mobile Gaming", IEEE Trans. on Multimedia, vol. 10(5), pp. 701-710, August, 2008.
J. Huang, Z. Li, M. Chiang, and A. K. Katsaggelos, "Joint Source Adaptation and Resource Allocation for Multi-User Wireless Video Streaming", IEEE Trans. on Circuits & System for Video Tech, vol. 18 (5), pp. 582-595, May, 2008.
F. Zhai, Z. Li and A. K. Katsaggelos, "Joint Source-Channel Coding for Multi-User Wireless Video Communication", Proc of IEEE Intl. Conf on Multimedia & Expo (ICME), Beijing, China, 2007.
Z. Li, J. Huang, and A. K. Katsaggelos, "Pricing based collaborative multi-user video streaming over power constrained wireless down link", oral paper, Proceedings of IEEE Intl. Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP) , Toulouse, France, 2006.
Z. Li, J. Huang, M. Chiang, and A. K. Katsaggelos, "Intelligent Wireless Video Communication: Source Adaptation and Multi-User Collaboration", invited paper, special issue on Multimedia Communication, Ed. Changwen Chen, China Journal of Communication, December, 2006.
Z. Li; Alan Q. Cheng; Aggelos K. Katsaggelos; Faisal Ishtiaq, "Video Summarization and Transmission Power Adaptation for Very Low Bit Rate Multiuser Wireless Uplink Video Communication", Proc of IEEE Int'l Workshop on Multimedia Signal Processing (MMSP), 2005.

[3] Wireless Video: video source adaptation, cross-layer optimization, source-channel coding, resource allocation and collaboration, local relays, wireless P2P, energy efficiency.

Z. Li, Ying Li, Mung Chiang and A. Robert Calderbank, "Optimal Transmission Scheduling For Scalable Wireless Video Broadcast with Rateless Erasure Correction Code", Proc of IEEE Consumer Communication and Networking Conference (CCNC), Las Vegas, USA, 2009.
Ying Li, Z. Li, Mung Chiang and A. Robert Calderbank, "Energy-Efficient Video Transmission Scheduling for Wireless Peer-to-Peer Live Streaming", Proc of IEEE Consumer Communication and Networking Conference (CCNC), Las Vegas, USA, 2009.
Z. Li, F. Zhai, and A. K. Katsaggelos, "Joint Video Summarization and Transmission Adaptation for Energy Efficient Wireless Streaming", EURASIP Journal on Advances in Signal Processing, special issue on Wireless Video, vol. 2008, May, 2008.

[4] Video Summarization & VLBR Video Streaming: Frame drop distortion metrics, Viterbi algorithm based frame drop optimization to minimize frame drop distortions, with applications in VLBR video streaming (e.g. QCIF "foreman" sequence streaming at 18kbps, demo available on request).

Z. Li, A. K. Katsaggelos, G. Schuster and B. Gandhi, "Rate-Distortion Optimal Video Summary Generation", IEEE Trans. on Image Processing, pp. 1550-1560, vol. 14, no. 10, October, 2005.
Z. Li, G. Schuster, A. K. Katsaggelos, "MINMAX Optimal Video Summarization and Coding", special issue on Analysis & Understanding for Media Adaptation, IEEE Trans. on Circuits and System for Video Technology, pp. 1245-1256, vol. 15, no. 10, October, 2005.
Z. Li, G. M. Schuster, and A. K. Katsaggelos, "Video summarization for multiple path communication", Proceedings of IEEE Intl. Conference on Image Processing (ICIP), Geona, Italy, 2005.
Z. Li, A. K. Katsaggelos, and G. M. Schuster, "Rate-Distortion Optimal Video Summarization", book chapter in Intelligent Multimedia Processing with Soft Computing, pp. 171-204, editors: Y.P. Tan, K. H. Yap, and L. Wang,, Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, 2004.

Multimedia Computing:

Currently I am interested in spatio-temporal appearance modeling, piece-wise linear approximation of non-linear appearance manifolds, with query driven and/or global structures, and their applications in multimedia computing problems.

[1] Visual Pattern Recognition and Biometrics: appearance manifold modeling, local embeddings, diffusions, model localization with piece-wise linear model approximation of a global non-linear manifold, with application in face recognition, head-pose estimation and video search metrics.

H. Zheng, Z. Li, Yun Fu, "Efficient Human Action Recognition by Luminance Field Trajectory and Geometry Information", IEEE Int'l Conf on Multimedia & Expo, New York, USA, 2009.
Z. Li, Yun Fu, Shuicheng Yan, and Thomas S. Huang, "Real-Time Human Action Recognition by Luminance Field Trajectory Analysis", ACM Multimedia, Vancouver, Canada, 2008.
Yun Fu, Z. Li, J. Yuan, Ying Wu, and Thomas S. Huang, "Locality vs. Globality: Query-Driven Localized Linear Models for Facial Image Computing," IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology (T-CSVT), vol. 18(12), pp. 1741-1752, December, 2008.
Y. Fu, Z. Li, T. S. Huang, and A. K. Katsaggelos, "Locally adaptive subspace and similarity metric learning for visual data clustering and retrieval", Computer Vision and Image Understanding (CVIU), vol. 110(3), pp. 390-402, June, 2008.
Z. Li, Yun Fu, Junsong Yuan, T. S. Huang , and Ying Wu, "Query Driven Local Linear Discriminant Models for Head Pose Estimation", Best Paper Candidate from HCI track, Proc. of IEEE Intl. Conf on Multimedia & Expo (ICME), Beijing, China, 2007.
Y. Fu, J. Yuan, Z. Li, T. S. Huang, and Y. Wu, "Query-Driven Locally Adaptive Fisher Faces and Expert-Model for Face Recognition", oral paper, IEEE Intl. Conference on Image Processing (ICIP), San Antonio, USA, 2007.
Y. Fu, Z. Li, X. Zhou, and T. S. Huang, "Laplacian Affinity Propagation For Semi-Supervised Object Classification", Best Paper Award (DoCoMo Innovation Paper), IEEE Intl. Conference on Image Processing (ICIP) , San Antonio, USA, 2007.

[2] Image/Video Search and Mining : repeated clip search and mining with the LUminance Field Trajectory (LUFT) modeling, scalability in searching large video repositories, SIFT based image similarity search. Our LUFT based repated video clip searching achieves very high performance in speed (0.012sec to search an 5-hour collection) and precision-recall (100% vs 96%), see a report,

Z. Li, Y. Fu, J. Yuan, Y. Wu, A. K. Katsaggelos and T. S. Huang, "Multimedia Data Indexing", book chapter in Semantic Mining Technologies for Multimedia Databases, Ed. D. Tao, D. Xu, and X. Li, IGI Publishing, to appear, 2008.
L. Gao, Z. Li, and A. K. Katsaggelos, "Luminance Filed Trajectory Based Video Indexing and Searching", accepted, IEEE Trans. On Circuits & Sys. For Video Tech.
J. Yuan, Z. Li, Y. Fu, Y. Wu, and T. S. Huang, "Common Spatial Pattern Discovery by Efficient Candidate Pruning", oral paper, IEEE Intl. Conference on Image Processing (ICIP) , San Antonio, USA, 2007.
Z. Li, L. Gao, and A. K. Katsaggelos, "Locally Embedded Linear Spaces for Efficient Video Shot Indexing and Retrieval", Best Poster Paper Award, Proceedings of IEEE Intl. Confernece on Multimedia & Expo (ICME), Toronto, Canada, 2006.
L. Gao, Z. Li, and A. K. Katsaggelos, "Fast Video Shot Retrieval with Luminance Field Trace Indexing and Geometry Matching", Proc of IEEE Int'l Conf on Image Processing (ICIP), 2006.
Z. Li, A. K. Katsaggelos, and B. Bandhi, "Fast Video Shot Segmentation and Retrieval Based on Trace Geometry in Principal Component Space", IEE Proceedings on Vision, Image and Signal Processing, pp. 367-373, vol. 152(3), May, 2005.

updated: 10/10/2009, by Z. Li.