Picsaw

Event Introduction

Image processing is a very important and lively field of study in today’s times. Though the analysis of images requires one to delve into the aspects of linear algebra, modern technology has made it possible to manipulate signals such as image, speech and video signals with ease. The onset of MATLAB, the language of technical computing, has heralded a whole new era in image processing. PICSAW @ Engineer Golden Jubilee Edition adds a whole new dimension to this field by requiring participants to program a real-time Game-Playing bot using MATLAB.

Problem statement

The goal is to write a real-time MATLAB code to reconstruct a whole image from its fragments and lock the corresponding fragments during the course of the game.

Rules and Regulations

• The game involves a single image which will contain a uniform color convex polygon of random number of sides.
• The image is split into 9 parts and the fragments of the image will be shuffled and displayed on a 3X3 tile.
• There will be 2 straight-line cuts, each along horizontal and vertical directions as shown in Figure 1(a) and the angle of the cutting lines will be random.
• A thumbnail of the original image will be displayed in the right bottom of the screen.

• During the game, each slot in the tile can contain any fragment of the image and the fragments on the tile will change randomly at uniform intervals.
• The aim of the team is to lock the fragments as and when they appear in their corresponding positions of the original image.
• Once locked, the fragment does not appear in any other slot and no other fragment will appear in a locked slot.
• The team has to communicate a particular slot number (Figure 1(b)) for locking.
• An option to unlock will be present. The team can communicate the number of a locked slot to toggle it to unlocked status.
• Once all the image fragments are locked in correct positions, the game starts again with another image but with a faster refresh rate of the fragments.
• The entire screen projection will be captured using a webcam and relayed as image frames to the team's code on a client machine.

Figure 2. Sample screen-shots of the game, (a) at any time during the game play (b) at the end of Game

Judging Criteria

• There will be maximum time limit of 15 mins for every team including calibration.
• Total time taken to finish the game will be considered.
• There will be negative points for fragments locked in incorrect slots.
• At the end of the game, points will be awarded for fragments in their correct slot even if all the fragments are not locked in their respective slots.

What we will provide

• Web-camera, details of which will be put up soon.
• Routines for communication between client and server computers.
• Teams are requested to have a code which can be easily copied to our client computer.

Event rules

• A team can have a maximum of 3 members.
• The participants have to use the camera that is provided by us.
• The participants have to submit a MATLAB code only, which does not require any human intervention during its execution.
• The decision of the judges is final and binding.

Game Demo:

• The demo version of the game can be downloaded here.
• The screenshot of the game is given below, only the shaded region will be visible to the camera
• The current refresh rate of shuffling is 2s. But it will start at 5s during the actual event and later reduce for higher levels.
• Follow the Readme file for instructions
• Report any bugs to picsaw@engineer.org.in

Contact details:

• Varun Kumar N : +91-9844316252
• You can email your queries to picsaw@engineer.org.in