Robert Laganière

Robert Laganière is a Professor at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Ottawa, where he has been actively contributing to the fields of computer vision and image analysis. He is a member of the VIVA research laboratory and holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. from INRS-Telecommunications in Montreal, as well as a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from École Polytechnique de Montréal.

• Bachelor's in Electrical Engineering: École Polytechnique de Montréal (1987)
• Master's Degree: INRS-Telecommunications (1990)
• Doctorate: INRS-Telecommunications (1996)

Professor Laganière's research focuses on computer vision, with particular expertise in image and video analysis, visual surveillance, embedded vision systems, and deep learning applications. His work spans fundamental research in feature detection and matching to practical applications in autonomous driving, human recognition, and real-time object tracking. He has made significant contributions to the development of algorithms for pedestrian detection, age and gender recognition, and 3D object localization.

His publication trends reveal a consistent focus on practical computer vision applications with a strong emphasis on real-time performance and embedded implementation. Over the past decade, his research has evolved from foundational work in feature matching and homography estimation toward more complex applications in action recognition, human-computer interaction, and intelligent surveillance systems. His work consistently bridges theoretical computer vision with practical engineering constraints, particularly for mobile and embedded platforms.

• Best Paper Award, IEEE International Conference on Computer and Robot Vision (CRV 2014)
• Best Paper Award, CVPR Embedded Vision Workshop, Providence, RI, June 2012
• Best Real-time Tracker, IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV) Workshop on Visual Object Tracking (VOT2015)

Professor Laganière has supervised numerous graduate students through the years, with a particular focus on practical applications of computer vision in surveillance, human recognition, and embedded systems. His research has been supported through industry partnerships with companies including CogniVue Corp, NXP, iWatchLife.com, Solink Corp, CBSA Canada, Ross Video, Thales, Habitat Seven, and YouI Labs. He has successfully translated his research into commercial applications through his founding of Visual Cortek (acquired by iWatchLife in 2009) and Tempo Analytics (founded in 2016).

As a member of the VIVA research laboratory, Professor Laganière collaborates with colleagues on advanced computer vision projects, particularly those involving intelligent video analytics for security and commerce applications. His work on NAVIRE (Virtual Navigation in Remote Environments) demonstrates his commitment to developing practical solutions for real-world navigation challenges using image-based representations of real environments.