Also, on a side note, I submitted my fifth journal paper a few days back that has to do with tactical tracking for 3DLADAR applications.  When submitting it, it reminding me of a previous post of the importance of cover leters etc., and I have been getting a lot of feedback on how to respond to reviewers.  I intend to gather a few of my response letters and post a similar step by step procedure on how to effectively (and politely) respond to reviewers here soon.  At any rate, here’s the poster for the Summer School.

Till next time.

~rome

Day 3:

After giving our lecture on computer vision, Shawn and I began the actual site seeing.  At this point of the journey, we learned early on that the sun rose early about 5:30 AM, and that unlike back at home, we couldn’t do much touring around after 6:00 PM.  Of course, being graduate students, getting up early was no problem!  At any rate, we woke up at the crack of dawn and jumped into our rental car.  We headed up north to Rosh HaNikra, which is labeled C on the map in my previous post.

The drive up to Rosh HaNikra was great since it border the Mediterranean Sea.  In particular, we heard from a friend that it was a great site since the location has been not only a pivotal point communication and travel in recent history, but its significance can date back to Roman times.  Here’s a few pictures of the Mediterranean Sea, the Grottoes, and the border crossing between Lebanon and Israel at Rosh HaNikra.

In recent times, Rosh HaNikra had been used in World War II as a railroad station so that supplies could be easily transferred without having to go through the rugged mountainous terrain.  Unfortunately, as the war came to a close, tensions began to arise between Lebanon and Israel.  During the war of indepedence, Israel feared that Lebanon would use Rosh HaNikra as a junction to sneak troops into the country.  This lead to severing and blockcading the tunnel between the two countries and has been closed since then.  However, even before these times, Rosh HaNikra was used by the Romans to also transport supplies and the Grottoes shown above give tourists like us an amazing view of nature evolving at its finest.

Leaving Rosh HaNikra, we started to travel towards the historic city of Safed (Tsfat) now known for its Hasidic Jewish population as well as a central point for Kaballah..  For Shawn and I, we also had a personal interest in this city as it is not only where our advisor Allen Tannenbaum’s family is from, but its the name of our server here at Georgia Tech!  This is labeled as D on the map.  The city itself is not a very big tourist attraction unless you are concerned with Kaballah, but it does have a very historic feel to it. In fact, Shawn and I felt very much an outsider as most of the population of Safed are Hasidic Jews and we were arriving on Friday (the day before the Sabbath).  Nevertheless, the city had a very pleaseant and calm vibe, just don’t expect many people partying!

After eating lunch at Safed, we began our winding journey towards the tallest mountain in Israel, Mount Khermon.  This is labeled as E on the map.  Interestingly, this region of Israel, which is located right by Syria, is not recognized by the United Nations as apart of Israel. However, it is controlled by Israel and you will find Israeli troops and checkpoints near the mountain.  But before we reached Mt. Khermon, Shawn and I made the first driving mistsake of our trip as we missed a sharp turn to the mountain and ended up in a settlement called the Majdal al-Shams.  Luckily, a point of advice, when you get lost, always retrace your footsteps!  As we were leaving Majdal al-Shams, we met up with a local coffee shop owner who gave us directions to Mt. Khermon as well as free coffee and tea.  He also gave us a brief insight into the culture and everyday life, which is something that you definitely wouldn’t get on a tour.  Anyhow, here’s a few pictures of our drive up to Mt. Khermon, Shawn posing in front of the Ski office (it snowed the week before), and the mountain itself.  Note, on the otherside of the moutain is Syria and people are not allowed on the top of the mountainside since there are still some land mines.

At this point of the day, we realized that we only had about an hour or so before the sunset so we decided to quickly drive down to the Sea of Galilee and Tiberus to catch the view.  This is labeled F on the map and here are a few pictures of the historic biblical sea and city.

In fact, it was interesting to see that such a city that had such a significance impact on human history (as with the rest of Israel and the Middle East) had been turned into a tourist attraction.  While we did not see the city during the day, most of the people and natives said that the city of Tiberus was great for shopping and eating.  My particular take on the city was that the boardwalk on which we ate dinner was not nearly enticing as Haifa.  In fact, aside from the cool sunset view of Sea of Galilee, I would not recommend hanging out in the city for more than a few hours if that.  At any rate, we left the city when it was pitched black and headed back to Haifa to end Day 3.  The next post and final post will cover my visit to Jerusalem and our early morning hike up Masada to watch the sunrise.

The purpose of my trip was one motivated by a guest invitation to give a lecture about my on-going research in 3D visual tracking.  Of course, like traveling to conferences, it was also a time to meet fellow colleagues in the field and get a chance to visit an exotic place.  For now, I’ll just start summarizing the trip here and I’ll write a little more in-depth about the places we visited including pictures and opinions in the next post.

Day 1:

Jumping right in, my friend and colleague Shawn Lankton and I landed in Tel Aviv in the afternoon.  To our dismay, we didn’t realize how early the sun sets and how quickly it gets dark.  By the time we exited the airport, it felt like it was 9 PM (it was actually only 5 PM).  Nevertheless, we quickly rented our small and compact car, and were on our way to Haifa.  Being the “navigator” of the trip, I pulled out the maps and got familiar with the highway systems.  Here’s a quick google map look at the path we took all over Israel including the exact highways, toll roads, and places we visited during our stay.

View Larger Map

Becase we didn’t travel to all of these locations in one day, I’ll break up the trip by days beginning with our arrival in Tel Aviv. But before I do that, here’s a legend and short description of the places traveled (listed in order):

A:  Israel Airport. This is where we started. On the way back, we visisted Tel Aviv via highway 2.

B:  Haifa. This was where we were staying.  The Technion is located on the hills of Haifa, and it also allowed us to have a somewhat central position for visiting several places.  Each night except one night, we stayed in Haifa so a lot of the paths take us back here.

C:  Rosh HaNikra. This is the border between Lebanon and Israel where the Grottoes are located.

D:  Safed (Tsfat). This is a old city where Kabbalah originated from.

E:  Mt. Khermon. This is the tallest mountain in Israel and it happens to border Israel and Syria.  Interesting area since the U.N does not recognize this terrority as Israel, but is under Israeli control

F:  Tiberus and Sea of Galilee. These are historic areas that are attractive from both a tourist spot as well as historical biblical happenings.

G:  Jerusalem. Well, as our tour guide would put it, its the holiest of the … holies when it comes to cities.

H:  Ein Gedi and Masada. This was where we decided to float in the Dead Sea as well as hike up an old historic and relgious site of the Jewish people, which also happens to be located in the desert.  Absolutely beautiful.

I:  Haifa. This was where we were staying.

J:  Israel Airport. It was time to leave…

Not Listed.

Acre.  This is located on highway 4 going north to Rosh HaNikra.

Ceasera. This is located on highway 2 going south to Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv. We visited here on the way back to the airport.  Attraction as the biggest city in Israel.

Border Travels through Palestine. I was not the navigator here, but we followed our advisor through borders between Israel and Palestine.  We also passed through the area of where Amargeddon is suppose to happen (it was a peaceful agriculture field).  A bit hard to show on the map as these were smaller roads.

One thing that I will note here is that if you have ever traveled to Israel, it is quite fascinating how small the distances are from each of the major cities and even those cities that are located within Palestine.  Watching news, you sometimes get the feel that the areas are separated far apart, but in actuality, they are really close!  So close, that you can run from one city that is in Palestine to another located in Israel in less than 20 min (assuming there is no border patrol).  This was interesting for me since a major part of world conflict has to do with the state of Israel and Palestine.  Moreover, here we were driving on a highway and by using the naked eye, you could see the cities with relative ease as with neighbors in a suburb.

At any rate, since this was day 1, we finally reached the Technion and the local guesthouse.  Here’s a picture of the view from our balcony.

Day 2:

Waking up early from the mix of jet lag and with an early sun rise, Shawn and I explored the Technion.  Like that of Haifa, the university itself is built in levels on the mountainside.  The day consisted of working and meeting people and of course, we gave our lectures on the research projects that both Shawn and I are working on.  I have provided a preview here of my presentation as well as a downloadable link for those who are interested.  The main topic that I discuss is the framework of coupling 2D image segmentation and 3D pose estimation in a unified setting for the task of visual tracking.  Note:  Videos not included.

Download Link: Guest_Lecture_Presentation

Preview:

After the lectures, we ended walking by the beaches on the boardwalk of Haifa.  These beaches for me were one of the most relaxing and beautiful beaches that I went to, but perhaps this opinion is more slanted since I actually liked the city as a whole more so than others.  At any rate, let me conclude here.  In my next post, I’ll give a description of the places that we got to see and my novice travel tips for those that might be interested in visiting Israel soon!