42,409 research outputs found
Construction of all-in-focus images assisted by depth sensing
Multi-focus image fusion is a technique for obtaining an all-in-focus image
in which all objects are in focus to extend the limited depth of field (DoF) of
an imaging system. Different from traditional RGB-based methods, this paper
presents a new multi-focus image fusion method assisted by depth sensing. In
this work, a depth sensor is used together with a color camera to capture
images of a scene. A graph-based segmentation algorithm is used to segment the
depth map from the depth sensor, and the segmented regions are used to guide a
focus algorithm to locate in-focus image blocks from among multi-focus source
images to construct the reference all-in-focus image. Five test scenes and six
evaluation metrics were used to compare the proposed method and representative
state-of-the-art algorithms. Experimental results quantitatively demonstrate
that this method outperforms existing methods in both speed and quality (in
terms of comprehensive fusion metrics). The generated images can potentially be
used as reference all-in-focus images.Comment: 18 pages. This paper has been submitted to Computer Vision and Image
Understandin
Remote Sensing Information Sciences Research Group, Santa Barbara Information Sciences Research Group, year 3
Research continues to focus on improving the type, quantity, and quality of information which can be derived from remotely sensed data. The focus is on remote sensing and application for the Earth Observing System (Eos) and Space Station, including associated polar and co-orbiting platforms. The remote sensing research activities are being expanded, integrated, and extended into the areas of global science, georeferenced information systems, machine assissted information extraction from image data, and artificial intelligence. The accomplishments in these areas are examined
Assistance strategies for robotized laparoscopy
Robotizing laparoscopic surgery not only allows achieving better
accuracy to operate when a scale factor is applied between master and slave or thanks to the use of tools with 3 DoF, which cannot be used in conventional manual surgery, but also due to additional informatic support. Relying on computer assistance different strategies that facilitate the task of the surgeon can be incorporated, either in the form of autonomous navigation or cooperative guidance, providing sensory or visual feedback, or introducing certain limitations of movements. This paper describes different ways of assistance aimed at improving the work capacity of the surgeon and achieving more safety for the patient, and the results obtained with the prototype developed at UPC.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft
Simultaneous Feature and Body-Part Learning for Real-Time Robot Awareness of Human Behaviors
Robot awareness of human actions is an essential research problem in robotics
with many important real-world applications, including human-robot
collaboration and teaming. Over the past few years, depth sensors have become a
standard device widely used by intelligent robots for 3D perception, which can
also offer human skeletal data in 3D space. Several methods based on skeletal
data were designed to enable robot awareness of human actions with satisfactory
accuracy. However, previous methods treated all body parts and features equally
important, without the capability to identify discriminative body parts and
features. In this paper, we propose a novel simultaneous Feature And Body-part
Learning (FABL) approach that simultaneously identifies discriminative body
parts and features, and efficiently integrates all available information
together to enable real-time robot awareness of human behaviors. We formulate
FABL as a regression-like optimization problem with structured
sparsity-inducing norms to model interrelationships of body parts and features.
We also develop an optimization algorithm to solve the formulated problem,
which possesses a theoretical guarantee to find the optimal solution. To
evaluate FABL, three experiments were performed using public benchmark
datasets, including the MSR Action3D and CAD-60 datasets, as well as a Baxter
robot in practical assistive living applications. Experimental results show
that our FABL approach obtains a high recognition accuracy with a processing
speed of the order-of-magnitude of 10e4 Hz, which makes FABL a promising method
to enable real-time robot awareness of human behaviors in practical robotics
applications.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, accepted by ICRA'1
Land Use Changes and Their Perception in the Hinterland of Barranquilla, Colombian Caribbean
The coastal strip of the western peri-urban area of Barranquilla in the Atlántico Department (Colombia) is experiencing changes in human-environment interactions through infrastructure, residential, and tourism projects in a vulnerable landscape. In the hilly area, fragments of biodiverse tropical dry forest still exist in various states of conservation and degradation. To understand the interrelated social, economic, and ecological transformations in the area, we analyzed land use change on the local scale including the local community’s perception, because the local community is a key actor for sustainable land use. For the analysis of the interrelated social, economic, and ecological processes, we combined visual interpretation of high-resolution satellite imagery, on-site field land use mapping, and a spatial statistical analysis of the distribution of land use classes with in-depth interviews and a participatory GIS workshop, thus benefitting from the complementary methodological strengths of these approaches. The case study is the rural community of El Morro, which exhibits the typical social, economic, and ecological changes of the coastal strip of the western peri-urban area of Barranquilla. The local community perceives a continuous loss of forest area, but observations from on-site field mapping cannot confirm this linear trend. We observed a gradual replacement of traditional land uses such as smallholder agriculture, charcoal production, and cattle breeding by services for tourism, gated community projects for urban dwellers, and infrastructure projects; these spatial developments have several characteristics of rural gentrification. We conclude that the drivers of environmental degradation have changed and the degradation increased. The development projects of external companies have been rejected by the local community and have induced environmental consciousness among community members. Thus, the local community has become an advocate for sustainable land use in the study area
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