432 research outputs found
Ambient Gestures
We present Ambient Gestures, a novel gesture-based system designed to support ubiquitous ‘in the environment’ interactions with everyday computing technology. Hand gestures and audio feedback allow users to control computer applications without reliance on a graphical user interface, and without having to switch from the context of a non-computer task to the context of the computer. The Ambient Gestures system is composed of a vision recognition software application, a set of gestures to be processed by a scripting application and a navigation and selection application that is controlled by the gestures. This system allows us to explore gestures as the primary means of interaction within a multimodal, multimedia environment. In this paper we describe the Ambient Gestures system, define the gestures and the interactions that can be achieved in this environment and present a formative study of the system. We conclude with a discussion of our findings and future applications of Ambient Gestures in ubiquitous computing
Experimental study on the cyclic resistance of a natural loess from Northern France
In order to analyze the instability phenomenon observed along the Northern
High Speed Line of R\'eseau Ferr\'e de France (RFF), soil blocks were taken at
a site near the railway, at four different depths (1.2, 2.2, 3.5 and 4.9 m).
Cyclic triaxial tests were carried out on saturated and unsaturated soil
specimens. The results from tests on initially saturated specimens showed that
the soil taken at 2.2 m depth has the lowest resistance to cyclic loading, in
relation to its highest porosity and lowest clay fraction. This soil was then
studied at unsaturated state with various initial water contents. Unsaturated
soil specimens were first subjected to cyclic loadings to decrease their
volume. These cyclic loadings was stopped when the volume decrease was
approximately equal to the initial pore air volume, or when the pores filled by
air were eliminated and the soil was considered to become saturated.
Afterwards, the back-pressure tubing was saturated with de-aired water and
cycles were applied under undrained condition. Significant effect of initial
water content was evidenced: the lower the initial water content, the higher
the cyclic resistance. This can be explained by the densification of the soil
during the initial cyclic loadings
Experimental Study of a Liquid Fuel Bluff Body Flame at Elevated Pressures
The purpose of this research was to operate a bluff body flame holder with the objective of stabilizing a flame at elevated pressures over a range of equivalence ratios. The ability to have a ground-based test rig capable of maintaining stable flames at high pressures and temperatures is critical in understanding flames present in modern jet engines and gas turbine technologies. The facility was reconfigured multiple times and the resultant flame was imaged within the optical test section. A converging nozzle was utilized to choke the flow and vary the operating pressures up to 5 atm. By regulating mass flow rates of both the fuel and air, the target range of equivalence ratios was achieved. Jet fuel was successfully ignited on the bluff body and a flame was maintained in the recirculation zone. Visualization of flames during the flights of any aircraft is limited due to material and weight requirements, therefore, performing these studies in ground- based facilities is required. Further analysis was performed to characterize C2* and CH* radicals in fuel lean and rich flames
iGesture: A Platform for Investigating Multimodal, Multimedia Gesture-based Interactions
This paper introduces the iGesture platform for investigating multimodal gesture based interactions in multimedia contexts. iGesture is a low-cost, extensible system that uses visual recognition of hand movements to support gesture-based input. Computer vision techniques support gesture based interactions that are lightweight, with minimal interaction constraints. The system enables gestures to be carried out 'in the environment' at a distance from the camera, enabling multimodal interaction in a naturalistic, transparent manner in a ubiquitous computing environment. The iGesture system can also be rapidly scripted to enable gesture-based input with a wide variety of applications. In this paper we present the technology behind the iGesture software, and a performance evaluation of the gesture recognition subsystem. We also present two exemplar multimedia application contexts which we are using to explore ambient gesture-based interactions
Increasing Complexity and Partisanship in Business Damages Expert Testimony: The Need for a Modified Trial Regime in Quantification of Damages
Increasing Complexity and Partisanship in Business Damages Expert Testimony: The Need for a Modified Trial Regime in Quantification of Damages
Colorectal Cancer
This chapter in Cancer Concepts: A Guidebook for the Non-Oncologist presents an overview of colorectal cancer, including etiology, screening, pathology, staging, and treatment.https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/cancer_concepts/1015/thumbnail.jp
Structure and morphology of ACEL ZnS:Cu,Cl phosphor powder etched by hydrochloric acid
© The Electrochemical Society, Inc. 2009. All rights reserved. Except as provided under U.S. copyright law, this work may not be reproduced, resold, distributed, or modified without the express permission of The Electrochemical Society (ECS). The archival version is available at the link below.Despite many researches over the last half century, the mechanism of ac powder electroluminescence remains to be fully elucidated and, to this end, a better understanding of the relatively complex structure of alternate current electroluminescence (ACEL) phosphors is required. Consequently, the structure and morphology of ZnS:Cu,Cl phosphor powders have been investigated herein by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) on hydrochloric acid-etched samples and X-ray powder diffraction. The latter technique confirmed that, as a result of two-stage firing during their synthesis, the phosphors were converted from the high temperature hexagonal (wurtzite) structure to the low temperature cubic (sphalerite) polymorph having a high density of planar stacking faults. Optical microscopy revealed that the crystal habit of the phosphor had the appearance of the hexagonal polymorph, which can be explained by the sphalerite pseudomorphing of the earlier wurtzite after undergoing the hexagonal to cubic phase transformation during the synthesis. SEM micrographs of the hydrochloric-etched phosphor particles revealed etch pits, a high density of planar stacking faults along the cubic [111] axis, and the pyramids on the (111) face. These observations were consistent with unidirectional crystal growth originating from the face showing the pyramids.EPSRC, DTI, and the Technology Strategy Board-led Technology Program
Bayesian Bacterial Detection Using Irregularly Sampled Optical Endomicroscopy Images
Pneumonia is a major cause of morbidity and mortality of patients in intensive care. Rapid determination of the presence and gram status of the pathogenic bacteria in the distal lung may enable a more tailored treatment regime. Optical Endomicroscopy (OEM) is an emerging medical imaging platform with preclinical and clinical utility. Pulmonary OEM via multi-core fibre bundles has the potential to provide in vivo, in situ, fluorescent molecular signatures of the causes of infection and inflammation. This paper presents a Bayesian approach for bacterial detection in OEM images. The model considered assumes that the observed pixel fluorescence is a linear combination of the actual intensity value associated with tissues or background, corrupted by additive Gaussian noise and potentially by an additional sparse outlier term modelling anomalies (bacteria). The bacteria detection problem is formulated in a Bayesian framework and prior distributions are assigned to the unknown model parameters. A Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm based on a partially collapsed Gibbs sampler is used to sample the posterior distribution of the unknown parameters. The proposed algorithm is first validated by simulations conducted using synthetic datasets for which good performance is obtained. Analysis is then conducted using two ex vivo lung datasets in which fluorescently labelled bacteria are present in the distal lung. A good correlation between bacteria counts identified by a trained clinician and those of the proposed method, which detects most of the manually annotated regions, is observed
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