2,217 research outputs found
Micro Fourier Transform Profilometry (FTP): 3D shape measurement at 10,000 frames per second
Recent advances in imaging sensors and digital light projection technology
have facilitated a rapid progress in 3D optical sensing, enabling 3D surfaces
of complex-shaped objects to be captured with improved resolution and accuracy.
However, due to the large number of projection patterns required for phase
recovery and disambiguation, the maximum fame rates of current 3D shape
measurement techniques are still limited to the range of hundreds of frames per
second (fps). Here, we demonstrate a new 3D dynamic imaging technique, Micro
Fourier Transform Profilometry (FTP), which can capture 3D surfaces of
transient events at up to 10,000 fps based on our newly developed high-speed
fringe projection system. Compared with existing techniques, FTP has the
prominent advantage of recovering an accurate, unambiguous, and dense 3D point
cloud with only two projected patterns. Furthermore, the phase information is
encoded within a single high-frequency fringe image, thereby allowing
motion-artifact-free reconstruction of transient events with temporal
resolution of 50 microseconds. To show FTP's broad utility, we use it to
reconstruct 3D videos of 4 transient scenes: vibrating cantilevers, rotating
fan blades, bullet fired from a toy gun, and balloon's explosion triggered by a
flying dart, which were previously difficult or even unable to be captured with
conventional approaches.Comment: This manuscript was originally submitted on 30th January 1
A real-time human-robot interaction system based on gestures for assistive scenarios
Natural and intuitive human interaction with robotic systems is a key point to develop robots assisting people in an easy and effective way. In this paper, a Human Robot Interaction (HRI) system able to recognize gestures usually employed in human non-verbal communication is introduced, and an in-depth study of its usability is performed. The system deals with dynamic gestures such as waving or nodding which are recognized using a Dynamic Time Warping approach based on gesture specific features computed from depth maps. A static gesture consisting in pointing at an object is also recognized. The pointed location is then estimated in order to detect candidate objects the user may refer to. When the pointed object is unclear for the robot, a disambiguation procedure by means of either a verbal or gestural dialogue is performed. This skill would lead to the robot picking an object in behalf of the user, which could present difficulties to do it by itself. The overall system — which is composed by a NAO and Wifibot robots, a KinectTM v2 sensor and two laptops — is firstly evaluated in a structured lab setup. Then, a broad set of user tests has been completed, which allows to assess correct performance in terms of recognition rates, easiness of use and response times.Postprint (author's final draft
Mobile Pointing Task in the Physical World: Balancing Focus and Performance while Disambiguating
International audienceWe address the problem of mobile distal selection of physical objects when pointing at them in augmented environments. We focus on the disambiguation step needed when several objects are selected with a rough pointing gesture. A usual disambiguation technique forces the users to switch their focus from the physical world to a list displayed on a handheld device's screen. In this paper, we explore the balance between change of users' focus and performance. We present two novel interaction techniques allowing the users to maintain their focus in the physical world. Both use a cycling mechanism, respectively performed with a wrist rolling gesture for P2Roll or with a finger sliding gesture for P2Slide. A user experiment showed that keeping users' focus in the physical world outperforms techniques that require the users to switch their focus to a digital representation distant from the physical objects, when disambiguating up to 8 objects
Multi modal multi-semantic image retrieval
PhDThe rapid growth in the volume of visual information, e.g. image, and video can
overwhelm users’ ability to find and access the specific visual information of interest
to them. In recent years, ontology knowledge-based (KB) image information retrieval
techniques have been adopted into in order to attempt to extract knowledge from these
images, enhancing the retrieval performance. A KB framework is presented to
promote semi-automatic annotation and semantic image retrieval using multimodal
cues (visual features and text captions). In addition, a hierarchical structure for the KB
allows metadata to be shared that supports multi-semantics (polysemy) for concepts.
The framework builds up an effective knowledge base pertaining to a domain specific
image collection, e.g. sports, and is able to disambiguate and assign high level
semantics to ‘unannotated’ images.
Local feature analysis of visual content, namely using Scale Invariant Feature
Transform (SIFT) descriptors, have been deployed in the ‘Bag of Visual Words’
model (BVW) as an effective method to represent visual content information and to
enhance its classification and retrieval. Local features are more useful than global
features, e.g. colour, shape or texture, as they are invariant to image scale, orientation
and camera angle. An innovative approach is proposed for the representation,
annotation and retrieval of visual content using a hybrid technique based upon the use
of an unstructured visual word and upon a (structured) hierarchical ontology KB
model. The structural model facilitates the disambiguation of unstructured visual
words and a more effective classification of visual content, compared to a vector
space model, through exploiting local conceptual structures and their relationships.
The key contributions of this framework in using local features for image
representation include: first, a method to generate visual words using the semantic
local adaptive clustering (SLAC) algorithm which takes term weight and spatial
locations of keypoints into account. Consequently, the semantic information is
preserved. Second a technique is used to detect the domain specific ‘non-informative
visual words’ which are ineffective at representing the content of visual data and
degrade its categorisation ability. Third, a method to combine an ontology model with
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a visual word model to resolve synonym (visual heterogeneity) and polysemy
problems, is proposed. The experimental results show that this approach can discover
semantically meaningful visual content descriptions and recognise specific events,
e.g., sports events, depicted in images efficiently.
Since discovering the semantics of an image is an extremely challenging problem, one
promising approach to enhance visual content interpretation is to use any associated
textual information that accompanies an image, as a cue to predict the meaning of an
image, by transforming this textual information into a structured annotation for an
image e.g. using XML, RDF, OWL or MPEG-7. Although, text and image are distinct
types of information representation and modality, there are some strong, invariant,
implicit, connections between images and any accompanying text information.
Semantic analysis of image captions can be used by image retrieval systems to
retrieve selected images more precisely. To do this, a Natural Language Processing
(NLP) is exploited firstly in order to extract concepts from image captions. Next, an
ontology-based knowledge model is deployed in order to resolve natural language
ambiguities. To deal with the accompanying text information, two methods to extract
knowledge from textual information have been proposed. First, metadata can be
extracted automatically from text captions and restructured with respect to a semantic
model. Second, the use of LSI in relation to a domain-specific ontology-based
knowledge model enables the combined framework to tolerate ambiguities and
variations (incompleteness) of metadata. The use of the ontology-based knowledge
model allows the system to find indirectly relevant concepts in image captions and
thus leverage these to represent the semantics of images at a higher level.
Experimental results show that the proposed framework significantly enhances image
retrieval and leads to narrowing of the semantic gap between lower level machinederived
and higher level human-understandable conceptualisation
Sound for Fantasy and Freedom
Sound is an integral part of our everyday lives. Sound tells us about physical events in the environ- ment, and we use our voices to share ideas and emotions through sound. When navigating the world on a day-to-day basis, most of us use a balanced mix of stimuli from our eyes, ears and other senses to get along. We do this totally naturally and without effort. In the design of computer game experiences, traditionally, most attention has been given to vision rather than the balanced mix of stimuli from our eyes, ears and other senses most of us use to navigate the world on a day to day basis. The risk is that this emphasis neglects types of interaction with the game needed to create an immersive experience. This chapter summarizes the relationship between sound properties, GameFlow and immersive experience and discusses two projects in which Interactive Institute, Sonic Studio has balanced perceptual stimuli and game mechanics to inspire and create new game concepts that liberate users and their imagination
Programmatic and Direct Manipulation, Together at Last
Direct manipulation interfaces and programmatic systems have distinct and
complementary strengths. The former provide intuitive, immediate visual
feedback and enable rapid prototyping, whereas the latter enable complex,
reusable abstractions. Unfortunately, existing systems typically force users
into just one of these two interaction modes.
We present a system called Sketch-n-Sketch that integrates programmatic and
direct manipulation for the particular domain of Scalable Vector Graphics
(SVG). In Sketch-n-Sketch, the user writes a program to generate an output SVG
canvas. Then the user may directly manipulate the canvas while the system
immediately infers a program update in order to match the changes to the
output, a workflow we call live synchronization. To achieve this, we propose
(i) a technique called trace-based program synthesis that takes program
execution history into account in order to constrain the search space and (ii)
heuristics for dealing with ambiguities. Based on our experience with examples
spanning 2,000 lines of code and from the results of a preliminary user study,
we believe that Sketch-n-Sketch provides a novel workflow that can augment
traditional programming systems. Our approach may serve as the basis for live
synchronization in other application domains, as well as a starting point for
yet more ambitious ways of combining programmatic and direct manipulation.Comment: PLDI 2016 Paper + Supplementary Appendice
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