The development of a Java image processing framework : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Technology in Computer Systems Engineering at Massey University

Practical computer-based teaching methods are often used in conjunction with theory-based lecture sessions and textbooks when teaching image processing. In kind, electronic or on-line image processing courses commonly provide both theoretical and interactive components, however these are often disparate in that the software used to provide each component is independent rather than integrated. It is less common to find electronic instructional resources for image processing that integrate theoretical textual and practical interactive content together into one seamless package. An integrated approach has the advantage that the concepts are more easily conveyed and reinforced when taught 'side-by-side' this way. The World Wide Web offers an attractive medium for delivering an integrated instructional resource on image processing. Applets written in Java may be seamlessly integrated into a hypertext environment. These applets can provide practical demonstrations of image processing concepts along side the relevant hypertext-based theoretical content. One of the major barriers to realising this kind of resource is the development effort required to create the necessary applets. This research demonstrates that the provision of a software framework can significantly reduce the burden of developing these applets. Such a framework provides a common code base that can be drawn upon during applet development, thereby avoiding the need to start from scratch each time a new applet is needed. The framework's design is modelled on a dataflow view of image processing, allowing applets to be built in terms of interconnections between operations. This design is intended to provide the developer with an intuitive and easy-to-use application programming interface (API) for developing applets. The framework also provides APIs for the programmer to implement new operations and data types, thereby extending the capabilities of the framework. Further, the framework's design is general enough to allow it to be used for developing general purpose image processing programs, or other programs that lend themselves to development using a dataflow language. This thesis shows that the proposed framework achieves its aims through an example application of the development of an applet that demonstrates a thresholding operation

Integrating mobile robotics and vision with undergraduate computer science

This paper describes the integration of robotics education into an undergraduate Computer Science curriculum. The proposed approach delivers mobile robotics as well as covering the closely related field of Computer Vision, and is directly linked to the research conducted at the authors’ institution. The paper describes the most relevant details of the module content and assessment strategy, paying particular attention to the practical sessions using Rovio mobile robots. The specific choices are discussed that were made with regard to the mobile platform, software libraries and lab environment. The paper also presents a detailed qualitative and quantitative analysis of student results, including the correlation between student engagement and performance, and discusses the outcomes of this experience

EMBODIMENT IN SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING

This paper aims to elaborate the implementation of Embodiment as one of the concept of Cognitive Linguistics in second language learning and teaching. Cognitive Linguistics is simply pointed that language is all about meaning. It views the learner as a thinking being and an active processor of information. However, it is interesting as we found that mind and body are not separate entities. Involved in understanding what people say to us and what we read, Embodiment relates meanings directly to our physical experience; it emphasizes on the way cognition is shaped by the body and its sensorimotor interaction with the world. Furthermore, this paper is trying to show how the theoretical assumptions, basic units, and constructs used in Cognitive Linguistics offer a better understanding of the true nature of language and grammar, and how Embodiment may improve current second language teaching and learning methods

A Framework for XML-based Integration of Data, Visualization and Analysis in a Biomedical Domain

Biomedical data are becoming increasingly complex and heterogeneous in nature. The data are stored in distributed information systems, using a variety of data models, and are processed by increasingly more complex tools that analyze and visualize them. We present in this paper our framework for integrating biomedical research data and tools into a unique Web front end. Our framework is applied to the University of Washington’s Human Brain Project. Specifically, we present solutions to four integration tasks: definition of complex mappings from relational sources to XML, distributed XQuery processing, generation of heterogeneous output formats, and the integration of heterogeneous data visualization and analysis tools