AcknowledgementsMy journey this far in my research has been made possible by the wonderful people around me. Here is my humble attempt to express my gratitude for all their time, efforts and motivation.First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Prof. Thambipillai Srikanthan for being a constant source of energy and inspiration throughout this research work, with his relentless guidance and motivation. Despite his numerous commitments, Prof. Sri ensured that he engaged with me in weekly discussions that kept up my momentum. I also appreciate him for always pushing me beyond my comfort zones that allowed me to grow as a researcher.I would like to thank Dr. Siew-Kei Lam for all the discussions to strengthen my work and his patient guidance throughout all my research publications. I am grateful to Dr. Meiqing Wu for all the brainstorming sessions and for inspiring me with the rigour she brings into her research. I would like to thank Dr. Alok Prakash for helping me during the critical phase of thesis writing. Thank you Supriya Sathyanarayana, Kratika Garg, Dr. Suchitra Sathyanarayana and Dr. Ravi Satzoda for the numerous brainstorming sessions and for making computer vision research fun. For all the technical and logistic support, I wish to thank Mr. Jeremiah Chua and Ms. Nah Kiat Joo.I am forever grateful to be blessed with the most supportive family and loving friends without whom this journey would have been impossible. Thank you Bhaskar, my pillar of strength. Thank you Amma, Appa and Sowmya, and Paatti for being there always. My friends Kavitha, Karthik, Kavitha and Deepthi, thank you.