URL: http://www.vision.caltech.edu/mariomu/

EDUCATION

• Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, January 2000.
California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, USA.
Thesis title: "Visual input for pen-based computers".
Thesis advisor: Dr. Pietro Perona.


• M.S. in Electrical Engineering, June 1994 (GPA: 4.0/4.0).
California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, USA.


• Electronic Systems Design Specialist, March 1993
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, (Polytechnic University of Madrid), Spain.


• Electrical Engineer, October 1991 (Higest GPA in his class 9.70/10.0).
  
Universidad Nacional de Rosario, (National University of Rosario), Argentina.


• Electrical Technician, December 1985.
Instituto Politécnico "General San Martín", Rosario, Argentina.

• Computer vision
• Human-machine interfaces
• Machine learning and pattern recognition
• Image and Signal processing
• Speech recognition
• Handwriting recognition
• Robotics

• Human-machine interfaces: Developed a novel computer interface for handwriting based on video technology and computer vision techniques. The system consists of a camera, a piece of paper and a common pen. The camera, focused on the sheet of paper, images the hand writing thereby tracking the trajectory described by the pen and detecting when the user is writing on the paper. The system was demonstrated working at real-time, 60 Hertz, on a Pentium II platform equipped with off-the-shelf camera and frame grabber. [US patent 6,044,165] (see http://www.vision.caltech.edu/mariomu/research/ ).
• Biometrics & Pattern Recognition: Developed a biometric-type personal identification method based on signatures. The camera-based interface for handwriting was used to capture the signatures. The verification algorithm takes advantage of all the information provided by the camera-based interface, namely, the dynamics of the signature generation and the non-written strokes. The system was tested on a database of visually acquired signatures from 101 subjects, achieving a performance of 2% of error for intentional forgeries and 0.2% of error for random forgeries.
• Algorithms: Derived a curve matching algorithm that works at inter-sample resolution using a translation-invariant distance.
• Speech Recognition: Developed a novel approach for isolated character recognition based on explicit modeling of shared acoustic features. The system has an error rate of 7% for telephony speech. Developed an acoustic signature recognition system for vehicle recognition. The system has a 8% recognition performance on a small dataset provided by the Army research laboratories.

• Evolution Robotics : (Oct. 2001-present).
Senior Research Scientist. Developed speech-based human-computer interface for a robotics application. Designed and developed a personality and emotional models for a robot.


• VocalPoint Technologies : (Feb. 2000-Oct. 2001).
Research Scientist. Developed a real-time character recognizer for telephone speech.


• Engineering Information Consulting Company: Rosario, Argentina (1991-1992).
Developed microcontroller based systems for industrial control and measurement.

• Teaching Assistant: California Institute of Technology (Spring 95/96/97 ).
Set up and taught ``Sensory Information Processing Laboratory'' (CNS/EE 248) class at Caltech. Assisted students, graded assignments and generated projects in fingerprint recognition, speech recognition for lip reading and audio waveforms, motion detection, and autonomous robot navigation experiments.


• Head Teaching Assistant: National University of Rosario, Argentina (1989-1993).
Taught "Linear Electronics I" and "Linear Electronics II" and modified the syllabi for these two courses.


• Teacher: "General San Martin" Polytechnic Institute, Rosario, Argentina (1985-1993)
Taught "Physics", "Computer Programs", "Electrical Laboratory", "Electrical Circuit Theory" and "Elements of Electronics"

• Programming languages: C/C++, Matlab, perl.
• Operating systems: Dos, Unix, Linux, Windows 9x & NT.
• Design and implementation of real-time computer vision and image processing algorithms.
• Design and implementation of machine learning algorithms.
• Client/Server systems implementation and programming.
• Languages: Spanish, English, Italian, French.

• Caltech Neuromorphic Engineering Student Society (NESS) coordinator, September 1997 -- October 1998.
• Member of the academic Consulting Committee. "General San Martin" Polytechnic Institute of Rosario, Argentina, 1990-1993.

• J. Walker von Brimer award for extraordinary accomplishments in the field of Computer Vision, January 2000.
• Medal for ranking 1st in my class at the School of Engineering of the National University of Rosario, Argentina, 1991.
• Junior Chamber of Rosario. Awarded for "Leadership and Academic Accomplishments" in the "Outstanding Santa Fe Juniors Program", 1991.
• Iberoamerican Cooperation Institute, Spain. Scholarship awarded to study for three months at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, Spain. Course: "Design of Electronic Systems", 1992.

• Visual identification by signature tracking

Mario E. Munich and Pietro Perona
IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 2003.

• Visual input for pen-based computers

Mario E. Munich and Pietro Perona
IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 24(3):313--328, 2002.

• Continuous Dynamic Time Warping for translation-invariant curve alignment with applications to signature verification

Mario E. Munich and Pietro Perona
(8 pages postscript)
Proc. of the 7th Inter. Conf. on Computer Vision, ICCV 99.


• Visual signature verification using affine arc-length

Mario E. Munich and Pietro Perona
(7 pages postscript)
Proc. of the of the IEEE Conf. on Comp. Vision and Pattern Recognition, CVPR 99.


• Camera-based ID verification by signature tracking

Mario E. Munich and Pietro Perona
(16 pages postscript)
Proc. of the 5th Europ. Conf. on Computer Vision, ECCV98.


• Visual input for pen-based computers

Mario E. Munich and Pietro Perona
(7 pages postscript)
Proc. of the 13th Int. Conference on Pattern Recognition, ICPR 96.