Evaluation of Color Anomaly Detection in Multispectral Images For Synthetic Aperture Sensing

In this article, we evaluate unsupervised anomaly detection methods in multispectral images obtained with a wavelength-independent synthetic aperture sensing technique, called Airborne Optical Sectioning (AOS). With a focus on search and rescue missions that apply drones to locate missing or injured persons in dense forest and require real-time operation, we evaluate runtime vs. quality of these methods. Furthermore, we show that color anomaly detection methods that normally operate in the visual range always benefit from an additional far infrared (thermal) channel. We also show that, even without additional thermal bands, the choice of color space in the visual range already has an impact on the detection results. Color spaces like HSV and HLS have the potential to outperform the widely used RGB color space, especially when color anomaly detection is used for forest-like environments.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, 3 table

Detectability of Clothing Color by Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems for Search and Rescue Operations

Search-and-rescue operations are adopting small unmanned aircraft system technology to aid traditional human search parties operating on foot or by vehicle, which can be hindered by challenging terrain and obstacles. This study utilized three camera equipped small unmanned aircraft to collect aerial images of a simulated human torso in a rural/remote desert summer daytime environment. The study compared detection rates for 10 different garment colors using image analysis software. Results indicated that garment color was statistically significant for detection rate. However, the garment colors with the highest detection rates did not correspond with the garment colors recommended by retail outlets, government agencies, or hunting clubs. As the use of small unmanned aircraft for search and rescue operations continues to increase, it is imperative that individuals conducting activities that have a higher risk for getting lost or injured are aware of the limitations of emerging technology, and that they wear the most visible color of clothing to ensure the best chance of rescue, should the need arise

Anomaly Detection in Aerial Videos with Transformers

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are widely applied for purposes of inspection, search, and rescue operations by the virtue of low-cost, large-coverage, real-time, and high-resolution data acquisition capacities. Massive volumes of aerial videos are produced in these processes, in which normal events often account for an overwhelming proportion. It is extremely difficult to localize and extract abnormal events containing potentially valuable information from long video streams manually. Therefore, we are dedicated to developing anomaly detection methods to solve this issue. In this paper, we create a new dataset, named DroneAnomaly, for anomaly detection in aerial videos. This dataset provides 37 training video sequences and 22 testing video sequences from 7 different realistic scenes with various anomalous events. There are 87,488 color video frames (51,635 for training and 35,853 for testing) with the size of $640 \times 640$ at 30 frames per second. Based on this dataset, we evaluate existing methods and offer a benchmark for this task. Furthermore, we present a new baseline model, ANomaly Detection with Transformers (ANDT), which treats consecutive video frames as a sequence of tubelets, utilizes a Transformer encoder to learn feature representations from the sequence, and leverages a decoder to predict the next frame. Our network models normality in the training phase and identifies an event with unpredictable temporal dynamics as an anomaly in the test phase. Moreover, To comprehensively evaluate the performance of our proposed method, we use not only our Drone-Anomaly dataset but also another dataset. We will make our dataset and code publicly available. A demo video is available at https://youtu.be/ancczYryOBY. We make our dataset and code publicly available

Sabbatical Report

In the fall of 2002, I was awarded a sabbatical leave for the spring of 2004 to study early American history and literature. I chose this topic out of personal interest, but also to prepare myself to teach my department’s early American literature course, an area of study in which I had little previous experience. My project proposal consisted of two main parts. One was simply to read a selection of historical and literary works that are ordinarily taught in or used as background for that literature course. The other was to pursue original research into a family legend—my family—and then attempt to integrate that research into the broader subject of oral history. This second part of my proposal turned out to be more interesting and educationally profitable than I had anticipated, inasmuch as I made some unexpected discoveries and ended up solving a mystery. In the process, I learned a great deal about one very small corner of early American history. The following report is a summary, with pictures, of my research. The first half of the report recounts a trip I made to northern New York state and the research I did there; the second half summarizes some of the history of that region and attempts to explain how that history might have engendered the family legend. I would not have undertaken any of this work had I not been granted a sabbatical leave to do it; I therefore wish to express my gratitude to Parkland College and the Board of Trustees for giving me this opportunity

The Adirondack Chronology

The Adirondack Chronology is intended to be a useful resource for researchers and others interested in the Adirondacks and Adirondack history.https://digitalworks.union.edu/arlpublications/1000/thumbnail.jp

Scott the Rhymer

Renewed arguments over the definition of Romanticism warrant a new look at the narrative poetry of Sir Walter Scott. Nancy Moore Goslee’s study, the first full treatment of Scott\u27s poems in many years, will do for his poetry what Judith Wilt\u27s book has done for his novels. Already a subtle reader of the high Romantics and their celebrations of the visionary imagination, Goslee draws upon several recent critical developments for this study of Scott: a growing tendency among critics of his novels to see romance as a positive strength, the broader development of narrative theory, and feminist theory. Like Thomas the Rhymer, the half-historical, half- mythic minstrel who rides off with the elfin queen, Scott\u27s poems repeatedly accept the world of romance and yet challenge it, often wittily, with an array of hermeneutic perspectives upon its function. The perspectives Goslee considers most fully are the development of poetry from a communal, oral performance to a written, published document; the larger, more violent development of Scottish and British history from feudal to modern cultures; and the repeated contrast, in that succession of cultures, between the limited, passive role of most actual women and their active, powerful role as elfin queen or enchantress in the romance. As if drawn toward yet simultaneously repelled by such women, Scott alternates between poems in which enchantresses seem to control their worlds and those in which women are only pawns, desirable for the land they inherit. The poems of the latter group are more realistically historical in plot, turning upon major battles; those of the former are more romantic and magical. Yet both follow similar narrative patterns derived from medieval and especially Renaissance romance. Both, too, show a wandering in more primitive, violent societies which delays the rational, gradual progress seen as cultural salvation by Enlightenment historians. Nancy Moore Goslee, professor of English at the University of Tennessee, is the author of Uriel\u27s Eye: Miltonic Stationing and Statuary in Blake, Keats, and Shelley.https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_english_language_and_literature_british_isles/1037/thumbnail.jp