A Study On Information Retrieval Systems

A video is a key component of today's multimedia applications,  including Video Cassette Recording (VCR), Video-on-Demand (VoD), and virtual walkthrough. This happens supplementary with the fast amplification in video skill (Rynson W.H. Lau et al. 2000). Owing to innovation's progress in the  media, computerized TV, and data frameworks, an immense measure of video information is now exhaustively realistic (Walid G. Aref et al. 2003). The startling advancement in computerized video content has made entrée and moves the data in a tremendous video database a muddled and sensible issue (Chih-Wen Su et al. 2005). Therefore, the necessity for creating devices and frameworks that can effectively investigate the most needed video content, has evoked a great deal of interest among analysts. Sports video has been chosen as the prime application in this proposition since it has attracted viewers around the world

Diseño de herramientas de apoyo para la detección de logotipos en secuencias de video

Este Trabajo Fin de Grado se ha realizado usando herramientas y conceptos de visión por ordenador para poder desarrollar métodos analíticos que permitan procesar una secuencia de video y obtener distintos tipos de parámetros o datos que de forma independiente o encadenados puedan llevar a realizar detecciones de logos (precargados o no) en los distintos fotogramas de la secuencia a procesar. El trabajo no se realiza sólo sobre un concepto dentro de la visión por ordenador y el procesado de imagen, sino que se intentan abarcar el máximo de herramientas y conceptos que pueden ser utilizados para detectar un logo, ya sean de color o forma. El método comienza definiendo tres pasos de pre-procesado que, motivados por las heurísticas del diseño, determinan las áreas donde un logo es más susceptible de ser localizado. Específicamente, los métodos usados son estrategias basadas en técnicas estructurales, saliencia y color que vayan reduciendo las zonas donde se ejecutarán las tareas de detección. Además, una detección de regiones estáticas en la secuencia evita detecciones en éstas áreas. En este proyecto, la detección de logotipos se logra mediante una serie de pasos, siendo el primero y más innovador el preprocesado, seguido del uso de segmentado de la imagen y matching de puntos de interés para alcanzar el reconocimiento correcto de un logotipo, que luego será revisado por varias técnicas incluyendo un módulo de perspectiva que detecta si el match está en la perspectiva general de la toma. Los logos se detectan midiendo el grado de similitud entre la plantilla transformada y el área candidata. Los resultados experimentales en una serie de secuencias elegidas validan parcialmente el diseño y método para transmisiones futbolísticas. Aunque por otro lado, los resultados muestran las limitaciones y problemas del método al analizar secuencias de otros deportes. Además, también se incluyen experimentos preliminares del uso de éste método en la generación de estadísticas enfocadas al análisis publicitario, dando resultados prometedores. En términos generales, los resultados sugieren que el uso de técnicas de pre-procesado puede ayudar en la labor de detección automática de logotipos.This work describes an automatic method for the detection of brand logos in sport sequences. The work starts by studying the solutions existing in the state-of-the art in the topic. From this study a set of conclusions is derived, and these are used to define the design of the proposed method. The method starts by defining three pre-processing methods which—motivated by design-heuristics—determine the spatial areas on which a logo is prone to be placed. Specifically, the methods use colour, structural and saliency based strategies to constrain the areas on which the logo detection process takes place. On the candidate areas—those prone to contain a logo—, a classical point-of-interest matching strategy is used to relate the candidate instances with a preload logo template. From these matches, an affine correction of the template is derived. Logos are detected by measuring the similarity between the transformed template and the candidate areas. Experimental results on a set of candidate sequences partially validate the design and development of the method for soccer sequences. However, results also illustrate the method’s drawbacks and limitations when analysing sequences of alternative sports. Furthermore, preliminary experiments on the use of the method for the generation of publicity statistics are also included, obtaining promising results. In overall, results suggest that the use of pre-processing techniques may help in the task of automatic logo detection

The interpretation of copyright protection in video game streaming in Europe

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonVideo games play an important role in the economic and cultural landscape in Europe and have been the basis for user-generated content of all kinds. Online video gaming in particular has become very popular worldwide. One of the reasons for the ever-increasing popularity of the online video game is that it is available for live game streaming. ‘Let’s Play’ (LP) videos, is a term originated by the gaming community to refer to videos of someone playing a video game, with their audio commentary of the gameplay, which is edited to entertain the audience. LP videos are ‘episodic accounts of a player’s journey’, are very entertaining in nature, and can be broadcasted as pre-recorded videos on video-sharing platforms as well as live streamed. There are three types of LP videos: reviews, playthrough videos with commentary, and playthrough videos without commentary. The first category constitutes reviews of video games. In the second category a viewer can watch the entire or part of the video game being played, while the gamer gives his/her commentary on their experience. In the third category, viewers can watch videos of the entire game being played, with no commentary of the gamer. There is a debate about whether streaming video games online constitutes an act of communication to the public and as such, an online copyright infringement. Article 3 of the Directive 2001/29/EC provides that Member States shall provide authors with the exclusive right to authorise or prohibit any communication to the public of their works, by wire or wireless means, including the making available to the public of their works in such a way that members of the public may access them from a place and at a time individually chosen by them. Given that gamers communicate to the public whole or part of a video game, without the authorisation of the rightholder, it constitutes an unauthorised act of communication to the public. However, economic and strategy reasons have led video game developers to tolerate streaming activity, leaving streamers and platforms that host streaming videos at an uncertain stage regarding the lawfulness of their activities. While review LP videos fall under the exceptions and limitations to the communication to the public right, for the purposes of criticism or review, playthrough videos with and without commentary do not. The thesis interprets the communication to the public right in video game streaming, explores whether hosting service providers (platforms) can effectively take down infringing content as well as whether Internet Service Providers (ISPs) can effectively block access to infringing content. With the deployment of doctrinal and comparative analysis, the thesis brings to the surface the limitations of current online copyright enforcement methods and proposes ways to overcome those obstacles. In an effort to strike a fair balance between the rightholders’ rights, the right to conduct a business, and the freedom of expression, the thesis contributes that for LP videos and live streams to continue to exist, without the risk that they will be taken down after a request made by the rightholders, licence agreement is an alternative and feasible solution. In light of the DSM Directive 2019/790, streaming platforms, such as YouTube and Twitch.tv, perform an act of communication to the public or an act of making available to the public when give the public access to copyright-protected works or other protected subject matter uploaded by its users. Platforms shall be liable for unauthorised act of communication to the public, unless they obtain authorisation from the rightholder, by concluding a licence agreement, or they demonstrate that they have made their best efforts to obtain authorisation. The DSM Directive requires a licence agreement between rightholders and service providers (platforms). It is proposed that the licence agreement, which would allow the streaming of video game content, should be restricted to certain types of video games. Meanwhile, the thesis explores the potential of blockchain technology for the facilitation of the licence agreement. The potential of blockchain technology to process huge amounts of data, to issue digital certificates and the track of the use of non-licensable works would benefit the rightholders, intermediaries, and users

ACRP Design Competition -- Eagle Eye

This report outlines the concept generation, design, testing, and implementation process of a drone-based automated inspection system. This project was completed for submission in the ACRP Design Competition and for the University of Rhode Island Mechanical Engineering Capstone Design Course. Throughout the course of the year the team was sponsored by their Professor and faculty advisor, Dr. Nassersharif, and worked closely with their airport sponsor, the Rhode Island Airport Corporation. Capstone Design Team 11 was chosen to participate in the Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) National Design Competition. The aim is to plan, design and create innovative approaches to resolve problems experienced by airports and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The team was able to choose between four main categories in which to compete. The category chosen for the competition is the “Airport Management and Planning” category and the “planning for the integration and mitigation of possible impacts of drones into the airport environment” subcategory. The team addressed this subcategory with a solution that automates the daily inspections for runway and taxiway lighting as well as airport perimeter and security of a General Aviation (GA) airport using a drone. The final design was created and validated using Westerly State Airport to complete calculations and perform flight tests. The design is scalable and transferable with the ability to adapt to other GA and private airports, and potentially larger airports. The team demonstrated the adaptability and versatility of the design by also testing the system at Newport State Airport. The design requirements include automating aspects of the daily airfield inspection process and significantly reducing the required man hours to complete the respective inspection tasks. Typical perimeter and security inspections and lighting inspections take approximately one hour to complete. The automated inspection process demonstrated in this project completes each inspection in under 20 minutes. The system uses a video recording feature attached to the drone so that inspections can be logged and archived as well as used as evidence in the event of an incident such as a crash. The design allows for ease of use with a low learning curve to implement and operate the system for different airports. The costs for implementing the system are $4,017. After implementation, airports will save$23,233.5 the first year of operation and $27,250.5 each year thereafter

Human Pose Estimation with Implicit Shape Models

This work presents a new approach for estimating 3D human poses based on monocular camera information only. For this, the Implicit Shape Model is augmented by new voting strategies that allow to localize 2D anatomical landmarks in the image. The actual 3D pose estimation is then formulated as a Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) where projected 3D pose hypotheses are compared with the generated landmark vote distributions