We introduce a new technique for estimating the optical flow field, starting from image sequences. As suggested by Fleet and Jepson (1990), we track contours of constant phase over time, since these are more robust to variations in lighting conditions and deviations from pure translation than contours of constant amplitude. Our phase-based approach proceeds in three stages. First, the image sequence is spatially filtered using a bank of quadrature pairs of Gabor filters, and the temporal phase gradient is computed, yielding estimates of the velocity component in directions orthogonal to the filter pairs' orientations. Second, a component velocity is rejected if the corresponding filter pair's phase information is not linear over a given time span. Third, the remaining component velocities at a single spatial location are combined and a recurrent neural network is used to derive the full velocity. We test our approach on several image sequences, both synthetic and realistic.

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The dynamical properties of electroencephalogram (EEG) segments have recently been analyzed by Andrzejak and co-workers for different recording regions and for different brain states, using the nonlinear prediction error and an estimate of the correlation dimension. In this paper, we further investigate the nonlinear properties of the EEG signals using two established nonlinear analysis methods, and introduce a "delay vector variance" (DVV) method for better characterizing a time series. The proposed DVV method is shown to enable a comprehensive characterization of the time series, allowing for a much improved classification of signal modes. This way, the analysis of Andrzejak and co-workers can be extended toward classification of different brain states. The obtained results comply with those described by Andrzejak et al., and provide complementary indications of nonlinearity in the signals.

A new method to extend the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) into the complex domain is proposed. Unlike the existing method for EMD in the complex domain, this is achieved in a generic way so that the mathematical development of this method mirrors the algorithm defined for EMD in the real domain. The so derived Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs) are complex by design and are shown to provide a consistent framework for handling both real and complex data. The simulations on real world complex-valued signals illustrate the applications of the technique.

Abstract-In this paper, we introduce a methodology for comparing the nonlinearities present in sets of time series using four different nonlinearity measures, one of which, the "delay vector variance" method, is a novel approach to the characterization of a time series. It is then applied to examine the difference in nonlinearity between functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signals that have been recorded using different contrast agents. Recently, an exogenous contrast agent, monocrystalline iron oxide particle (MION), has been introduced for fMRI, which has been shown to increase the functional sensitivity compared with the traditional blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) technique. The resulting fMRI signals are influenced by cerebral blood volume, whereas the more traditionally recorded BOLD signals are influenced not only by cerebral blood volume, but also by the cerebral blood flow and the metabolic rate of oxygen. The proposed methodology is applied to address the question whether this difference in the number of physiological variables is reflected in a difference in the degree of nonlinearity. We therefore analyze two sets of fMRI signals, one from a BOLD and the other from a MION monkey study with similar experimental designs. In the neuroimaging context, the proposed nonlinearity analyses are different from those described in the literature, since no a priori model is assumed: rather than pinpointing the source(s) of nonlinearity, nonparametric analyses are performed on BOLD and MION fMRI signals. Furthermore, we introduce a strategy for analyzing a population of fMRI signals, rather than focusing the analysis on one signal, as is traditionally done in the domain of nonlinear signal processing. Our results show that, overall, the BOLD signals are more nonlinear in nature than the MION ones, which is in agreement with current hypotheses.