Novel methods of image compression for 3D reconstruction

Data compression techniques are widely used in the transmission and storage of 2D image, video and 3D data structures. The thesis addresses two aspects of data compression: 2D images and 3D structures by focusing research on solving the problem of compressing structured light images for 3D reconstruction. It is useful then to describe the research by separating the compression of 2D images from the compression of 3D data. Concerning image compression, there are many types of techniques and among the most popular are JPEG and JPEG2000. The thesis addresses different types of discrete transformations (DWT, DCT and DST) thatcombined in particular ways followed by Matrix Minimization algorithm,which is achieved high compression ratio by converting groups of data into a single value. This is an essential step to achieve higher compression ratios reaches to 99%. It is demonstrated that the approach is superior to both JPEG and JPEG2000 for compressing 2D images used in 3D reconstruction. The approach has also been tested oncompressing natural or generic 2D images mainly through DCT followed by Matrix Minimization and arithmetic coding.Results show that the method is superior to JPEG in terms of compression ratios and image quality, and equivalent to JPEG2000 in terms of image quality. Concerning the compression of 3D data structures, the Matrix Minimization algorithm is used to compress geometry and connectivity represented by a list of vertices and a list of triangulated faces. It is demonstrated that the method can compress vertices very efficiently compared with other 3D formats. Here the Matrix Minimization algorithm converts each vertex (X, Y and Z) into a single value without the use of any prior discrete transformation (as used in 2D images) and without using any coding algorithm. Concerningconnectivity,the triangulated face data are also compressed with the Matrix Minimizationalgorithm followed by arithmetic coding yielding a stream of compressed data. Results show compression ratiosclose to 95% which are far superior to compression with other 3D techniques. The compression methods presented in this thesis are defined as per-file compression. The methods to generate compression keys depend on the data to be compressed. Thus, each file generates their own set of compression keys and their own set of unique data. This feature enables application in the security domain for safe transmission and storage of data. The generated keys together with the set of unique data can be defined as an encryption key for the file as, without this information, the file cannot be decompressed

Considerations for dealing with significant organizational change

Business enterprises are being challenged to confront change where there is impact on the enterprise due to some radical, financial, and/or organizational adjustment (significant change). By utilizing both a quantitative and qualitative research methodology and focusing on a single case study dealing with a Decision Support System (significant change), the critical success factors of previous research are confirmed, and two additional critical factors are revealed: (1) Flexible curriculum---the need for a comprehensive action plan, and (2) Perception of Personal Gain---the need to present a clear understanding addressing the aspirations of those involved and affected by the change initiative.;Learning to deal with change transformation can be enabled either by internal education and/or seeking external expertise. The focus of additional research is to explore the role of the external expert (consultant) and to affirm the benefits of using such expertise. Utilizing grounded theory research, five (5) stages of consultant/client interaction are identified to establish the prerequisite partnership. In addition to these stages, the optimization of the consultant/client relationship is reviewed through three (3) propositions: (1) an organization employing a consultant can expect to reduce the time going through the change transformation and regain productivity faster, (2) the consultant must become intimately involved with the organization to be effective, and (3) in order to be an effective consultant within the organization, experience is important, but not necessarily as a formal teacher/educator. The findings show that to optimize the client-consultant relationship and maximize the chances of success, there needs to be not only intimate interactions between the two parties, but experiences and the ability to teach. The need for the consultant to have formal credentials is found to be less important.;Regardless of the learning method and the actual change initiative, organizations that go through a significant change transformation need to look beyond the critical factors for success and implement a strategy to continue their quality efforts. It is recommended that an organization identify a methodology that develops a change management Philosophy; Towards this end, development of a framework based on the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Criteria for Performance Excellence is explored in-depth

Automating the support of highly-configurable services

Faltan las palabras claveLas crecientes capacidades de configuración de los servicios, especialmente en el cloud, han dado lugar a los así llamados Servicios Altamente Configurables (HCSs). Dichas capacidades de configuración están aumentando la demanda y complejidad de las aplicaciones basadas en HCS y de las necesidades de infraestructura para soportarlas, soluciones guiadas por HCS de aquí en adelante. Tras un estudio del estado del arte, concluimos que dichas soluciones guiadas por HCSs pueden ser mejoradas significativamente en 1) los lenguajes para describir las configuraciones, también conocidas como el espacio de decisión del servicio, y 2) en las técnicas para extraer información de utilidad del espacio de decisión, técnicas de análisis en adelante. Por un lado, no existen Lenguajes Específicos de Dominio (DSLs) para describir el espacio de decisión, aunque hay algunas aproximaciones cercanas. En esta tesis creemos que es posible mejorar el actual panorama diseñando un DSL: i) en conformidad con los principales proveedores de HCSs, ii) que soporte múltiples ítems, iii) suficientemente expresivo para facilitar la descripción de relaciones lógicas y aritméticas en los términos del servicio y iv) independiente del dominio. Adicionalmente, este DSL debe definir criterios de validez para asegurar que el espacio de decisión satisface propiedades básicas como la consistencia y la configurabilidad. Más allá, se deben ofrecer explicaciones cuando el espacio de decisión del servicio no satisfaga dichas propiedades. Por otro lado, la mayor parte de las actuales técnicas de análisis, como aquellas encargadas de encontrar configuraciones óptimas o de reconfigurar servicios multitenant, llevan consigo algunos inconvenientes propios de técnicas emergentes. Para superar estos inconvenientes, se deben desarrollar: a) implementaciones de referencia totalmente funcionales, b) técnicas reusables, c) mecanismos de extensión efectivos e d) interfaces amigables. El principal objetivo de esta disertación es mejorar el soporte existente para el desarrollo de soluciones guiadas por HCS, considerando las recomendaciones anteriores. Las principales contribuciones de esta tesis son un DSL (llamado SYNOPSIS) para especificar el espacio de decisión de los HCS, y un nuevo catálogo de operaciones para comprobar y explicar los criterios de validez así como para encontrar configuraciones óptimas para uno o más usuarios. Como contribuciones menores, también presentamos dos soluciones que han sido desarrolladas para mejorar el soporte existente para la migración de infraestructuras a Amazon EC2 y para reconfigurar servicios multitenant. La piedra angular de nuestra propuesta para mejorar las técnicas de especificación ha sido definir un DSL, SYNOPSIS, y dotarlo con semántica formal basada en Modelos de Características con Estados. Acerca de nuestra propuesta para mejorar las técnicas de análisis, la clave ha sido la organización de dichas técnicas en un catálogo de operaciones básicas que pueden ser combinadas para dar lugar a soluciones guiadas por HCS m más avanzadas. La aplicabilidad de nuestros resultados está limitada a aquellos espacios de decisión que pueden ser transformados en Modelos de Características con Estados, que por nuestra experiencia es suficiente para soportar HCSs reales.The growing customisation capabilities of services, especially in Cloud scenarios, have led to the so-named Highly-configurable Services (HCSs). Such capabilities are boosting the demand and complexity of HCS-based applications and the infrastructure need to support them, HCS-driven solutions from now on. After a study of the existing literature we conclude that these HCS-driven solutions can be significantly enhanced in both 1) the languages to describe the configurations, a.k.a. the decision space of HCSs and 2) the techniques to extract useful information from the decision space, analysis techniques, in advance. On the one hand, there are no Domain Specific Languages (DSLs) to describe the decision space, although there exist some very close approaches. We suggest that it is possible to improve the current landscape by designing a DSL: i) Compliant with big HCS vendors, ii) multi-item aware, iii) expressive-enough to ease the description of arithmetic-logical relationships on configurable description terms, and iv) domainindependent. In addition, this DSL must define validity criteria for checking that the decision space satisfies some basic properties such as the consistency, and the configurability. Furthermore, explanations must be provided when the decision space do not satisfy such basic properties. On the other hand, most of the current analysis techniques such as those relate to find optimal configurations or reconfigure a multi-tenant service includes some drawbacks that can be found in emerging techniques. To overcome such drawbacks there must be developed: a) fully-functional reference implementations, b) techniques with a reuse-oriented design, c) effective extension mechanisms, and d) user-friendly interfaces. The main goal of this dissertation is to enhance the existing support to develop HCS-driven solutions considering the aforementioned suggestions for improvement. The main thesis contributions are a DSL to specify the decision space of HCSs called SYNOPSIS, and a novel catalogue of analysis operations to check and explain validity criteria as well as to find optimal configurations for one or many users. As minor contributions, two solutions have been developed to improve the existing tooling support to migrate on-premise infrastructure to Amazon EC2 and to reconfigure multi-tenant service. The cornerstone of our proposal to improve the specification techniques has been to define a DSL, SYNOPSIS, and endow it with a formal semantics based on Stateful Feature Models. Regarding our proposal to improve the analysis techniques, the key has been the organization of such techniques in a catalogue of basic analysis operations that can be combined to support more advanced HCS-driven solutions. The applicability of our results is limited to those decision spaces that can be translated to a Stateful Feature Model, that is enough to support real-world HCSs, in our experience

Near Field Communication: From theory to practice

This book provides the technical essentials, state-of-the-art knowledge, business ecosystem and standards of Near Field Communication (NFC)by NFC Lab - Istanbul research centre which conducts intense research on NFC technology. In this book, the authors present the contemporary research on all aspects of NFC, addressing related security aspects as well as information on various business models. In addition, the book provides comprehensive information a designer needs to design an NFC project, an analyzer needs to analyze requirements of a new NFC based system, and a programmer needs to implement an application. Furthermore, the authors introduce the technical and administrative issues related to NFC technology, standards, and global stakeholders. It also offers comprehensive information as well as use case studies for each NFC operating mode to give the usage idea behind each operating mode thoroughly. Examples of NFC application development are provided using Java technology, and security considerations are discussed in detail. Key Features: Offers a complete understanding of the NFC technology, including standards, technical essentials, operating modes, application development with Java, security and privacy, business ecosystem analysis Provides analysis, design as well as development guidance for professionals from administrative and technical perspectives Discusses methods, techniques and modelling support including UML are demonstrated with real cases Contains case studies such as payment, ticketing, social networking and remote shopping This book will be an invaluable guide for business and ecosystem analysts, project managers, mobile commerce consultants, system and application developers, mobile developers and practitioners. It will also be of interest to researchers, software engineers, computer scientists, information technology specialists including students and graduates.Publisher's Versio

A Tale of Two Influences: An Exploration of Downward Accountability in World Vision International

International nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) face increasing accountability challenges stemming from past scandals and their claims to advance the public good. Since the 1990s, INGOs have responded with numerous reforms. The creation of the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership in 2003 and the INGO Accountability Charter in 2009 reflect sector-wide efforts to enhance accountability to mission, intended beneficiaries, and peer organizations. Many INGOs have adopted a broad range of accountability reforms. This dissertation focuses on how World Vision, the world’s largest INGO, has done so. Downward accountability remains elusive due to such factors as INGOs’ lack of transparency toward beneficiaries; the power imbalance between them; donor pressures; and competition with other INGOs. In the first phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 past and present staff members across nine countries and a wide range of seniority levels, using these sensitizing concepts: downward accountability, social accountability, humanitarian relief, development. The second phase comprised analysis of an internal dataset summarizing annual reports from 64 country offices; and review of documents including annual reports spanning 18 years. Using a within-case comparison, the study demonstrates that World Vision has experienced most progress in the area of beneficiary feedback and complaints (as opposed to consultation, participation, or information provision). This has typically taken place within emergency relief rather than development projects. A principal reason is the comparative simplicity of relief aid, contrasted with the difficulty of achieving long-term change through consultation and participation. Another is the greater role of institutional funding (vs. individual donations) in humanitarian relief. However, these donor pressures can lead to a “tick-the-box” mentality in which routinized compliance substitutes for authentic accountability. This study suggests that current downward accountability practices fall short of accomplishing a reconfiguration of power relations between the INGO and beneficiaries. They risk becoming another technical component in a large apparatus used to meet donor requirements. This is not surprising when we consider that service delivery comprises a significantly greater proportion of World Vision’s work than does advocacy. Consequently, the relationships between agency and beneficiaries are potentially more susceptible to clientelistic tendencies

Social Enterprise in Asia

In the absence of a widely accepted and common definition of social enterprise (SE), a large research project, the ""International Comparative Social Enterprise Models"" (ICSEM) Project, was carried out over a five-year period; it involved more than 200 researchers from 55 countries and relied on bottom-up approaches to capture the SE phenomenon. This strategy made it possible to take into account and give legitimacy to locally embedded approaches, thus resulting in an analysis encompassing a wide diversity of social enterprises, while simultaneously allowing for the identification of major SE models to delineate the field on common grounds at the international level. These SE models reveal or confirm an overall trend towards new ways of sharing the responsibility for the common good in today’s economies and societies. We tend to consider as good news the fact that social enterprises actually stem from all parts of the economy. Indeed, societies are facing many complex challenges at all levels, from the local to the global level. The diversity and internal variety of SE models are a sign of a broadly shared willingness to develop appropriate—although sometimes embryonic—responses to these challenges, on the basis of innovative economic/business models driven by a social mission. In spite of their weaknesses, social enterprises may be seen as advocates for and vehicles of the general interest across the whole economy. Of course, the debate about privatisation, deregulation and globalised market competition—all factors that may hinder efforts in the search for the common good–has to be addressed as well. The first of a series of four ICSEM books, Social Enterprise in Asia will serve as a key reference and resource for teachers, researchers, students, experts, policy makers, journalists and other categories of people who want to acquire a broad understanding of the phenomena of social enterprise and social entrepreneurship as they emerge and develop across the world