Qualitätstaxonomie für skalierbare Algorithmen von Free Viewpoint Video Objekten

Diese Dissertation beabsichtigt einen Beitrag zur Qualitätsbeurteilung von Algorithmen für Bildanalyse und Bildsynthese im Anwendungskontext Videokommunikationssysteme zu leisten. In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden Möglichkeiten und Hindernisse der nutzerzentrierten Definition von subjektiver Qualitätswahrnehmung in diesem speziellen Anwendungsfall untersucht. Qualitätsbeurteilung von aufkommender Visualisierungs-Technologie und neuen Verfahren zur Erzeugung einer dreidimensionalen Repräsentation unter der Nutzung von Bildinformation zweier Kameras für Videokommunikationssysteme wurde bisher noch nicht umfangreich behandelt und passende Ansätze dazu fehlen. Die Herausforderungen sind es qualitätsbeeinflussende Faktoren zu definieren, passende Maße zu formulieren, sowie die Qualitätsevaluierung mit den Erstellungsalgorithmen, welche noch in Entwicklung sind, zu verbinden. Der Vorteil der Verlinkung von Qualitätswahrnehmung und Servicequalität ist die Unterstützung der technischen Realisierungsprozesse hinsichtlich ihrer Anpassungsfähigkeit (z.B. an das vom Nutzer verwendete System) und Skalierbarkeit (z.B. Beachtung eines Aufwands- oder Ressourcenlimits) unter Berücksichtigung des Endnutzers und dessen Qualitätsanforderungen. Die vorliegende Arbeit beschreibt den theoretischen Hintergrund und einen Vorschlag für eine Qualitätstaxonomie als verlinkendes Modell. Diese Arbeit beinhaltet eine Beschreibung des Projektes Skalalgo3d, welches den Rahmen der Anwendung darstellt. Präsentierte Ergebnisse bestehen aus einer systematischen Definition von qualitätsbeeinflussenden Faktoren inklusive eines Forschungsrahmens und Evaluierungsaktivitäten die mehr als 350 Testteilnehmer inkludieren, sowie daraus heraus definierte Qualitätsmerkmale der evaluierten Qualität der visuellen Repräsentation für Videokommunikationsanwendungen. Ein darauf basierendes Modell um diese Ergebnisse mit den technischen Erstellungsschritten zu verlinken wird zum Schluss anhand eines formalisierten Qualitätsmaßes präsentiert. Ein Flussdiagramm und ein Richtungsfeld zur grafischen Annäherung an eine differenzierbare Funktion möglicher Zusammenhänge werden daraufhin für weitere Untersuchungen vorgeschlagen.The thesis intends to make a contribution to the quality assessment of free viewpoint video objects within the context of video communication systems. The current work analyzes opportunities and obstacles, focusing on users' subjective quality of experience in this special case. Quality estimation of emerging free viewpoint video object technology in video communication has not yet been assessed and adequate approaches are missing. The challenges are to define factors that influence quality, to formulate an adequate measure of quality, and to link the quality of experience to the technical realization within an undefined and ever-changing technical realization process. There are two advantages of interlinking the quality of experience with the quality of service: First, it can benefit the technical realization process, in order to allow adaptability (e.g., based on systems used by the end users). Second, it provides an opportunity to support scalability in a user-centered way, e.g., based on a cost or resources limitation. The thesis outlines the theoretical background and introduces a user-centered quality taxonomy in the form of an interlinking model. A description of the related project Skalalgo3d is included, which offered a framework for application. The outlined results consist of a systematic definition of factors that influence quality, including a research framework, and evaluation activities involving more than 350 participants. The thesis includes the presentation of quality features, defined by evaluations of free viewpoint video object quality, for video communication application. Based on these quality features, a model that links these results with the technical creation process, including a formalized quality measure, is presented. Based on this, a flow chart and slope field are proposed. These intend the visualization of these potential relationships and may work as a starting point for further investigations thereon and to differentiate relations in form of functions

SELF-IMAGE MULTIMEDIA TECHNOLOGIES FOR FEEDFORWARD OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING

This dissertation investigates the development and use of self-images in augmented reality systems for learning and learning-based activities. This work focuses on self- modeling, a particular form of learning, actively employed in various settings for therapy or teaching. In particular, this work aims to develop novel multimedia systems to support the display and rendering of augmented self-images. It aims to use interactivity (via games) as a means of obtaining imagery for use in creating augmented self-images. Two multimedia systems are developed, discussed and analyzed. The proposed systems are validated in terms of their technical innovation and their clinical efficacy in delivering behavioral interventions for young children on the autism spectrum

The development of a hybrid virtual reality/video view-morphing display system for teleoperation and teleconferencing

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2000.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Includes bibliographical references (p. 84-89).The goal of this study is to extend the desktop panoramic static image viewer concept (e.g., Apple QuickTime VR; IPIX) to support immersive real time viewing, so that an observer wearing a head-mounted display can make free head movements while viewing dynamic scenes rendered in real time stereo using video data obtained from a set of fixed cameras. Computational experiments by Seitz and others have demonstrated the feasibility of morphing image pairs to render stereo scenes from novel, virtual viewpoints. The user can interact both with morphed real world video images, and supplementary artificial virtual objects (“Augmented Reality”). The inherent congruence of the real and artificial coordinate frames of this system reduces registration errors commonly found in Augmented Reality applications. In addition, the user’s eyepoint is computed locally so that any scene lag resulting from head movement will be less than those from alternative technologies using remotely controlled ground cameras. For space applications, this can significantly reduce the apparent lag due to satellite communication delay. This hybrid VR/view-morphing display (“Virtual Video”) has many important NASA applications including remote teleoperation, crew onboard training, private family and medical teleconferencing, and telemedicine. The technical objective of this study developed a proof-of-concept system using a 3D graphics PC workstation of one of the component technologies, Immersive Omnidirectional Video, of Virtual Video. The management goal identified a system process for planning, managing, and tracking the integration, test and validation of this phased, 3-year multi-university research and development program.by William E. Hutchison.S.M

Videos in Context for Telecommunication and Spatial Browsing

The research presented in this thesis explores the use of videos embedded in panoramic imagery to transmit spatial and temporal information describing remote environments and their dynamics. Virtual environments (VEs) through which users can explore remote locations are rapidly emerging as a popular medium of presence and remote collaboration. However, capturing visual representation of locations to be used in VEs is usually a tedious process that requires either manual modelling of environments or the employment of specific hardware. Capturing environment dynamics is not straightforward either, and it is usually performed through specific tracking hardware. Similarly, browsing large unstructured video-collections with available tools is difficult, as the abundance of spatial and temporal information makes them hard to comprehend. At the same time, on a spectrum between 3D VEs and 2D images, panoramas lie in between, as they offer the same 2D images accessibility while preserving 3D virtual environments surrounding representation. For this reason, panoramas are an attractive basis for videoconferencing and browsing tools as they can relate several videos temporally and spatially. This research explores methods to acquire, fuse, render and stream data coming from heterogeneous cameras, with the help of panoramic imagery. Three distinct but interrelated questions are addressed. First, the thesis considers how spatially localised video can be used to increase the spatial information transmitted during video mediated communication, and if this improves quality of communication. Second, the research asks whether videos in panoramic context can be used to convey spatial and temporal information of a remote place and the dynamics within, and if this improves users' performance in tasks that require spatio-temporal thinking. Finally, the thesis considers whether there is an impact of display type on reasoning about events within videos in panoramic context. These research questions were investigated over three experiments, covering scenarios common to computer-supported cooperative work and video browsing. To support the investigation, two distinct video+context systems were developed. The first telecommunication experiment compared our videos in context interface with fully-panoramic video and conventional webcam video conferencing in an object placement scenario. The second experiment investigated the impact of videos in panoramic context on quality of spatio-temporal thinking during localization tasks. To support the experiment, a novel interface to video-collection in panoramic context was developed and compared with common video-browsing tools. The final experimental study investigated the impact of display type on reasoning about events. The study explored three adaptations of our video-collection interface to three display types. The overall conclusion is that videos in panoramic context offer a valid solution to spatio-temporal exploration of remote locations. Our approach presents a richer visual representation in terms of space and time than standard tools, showing that providing panoramic contexts to video collections makes spatio-temporal tasks easier. To this end, videos in context are suitable alternative to more difficult, and often expensive solutions. These findings are beneficial to many applications, including teleconferencing, virtual tourism and remote assistance

New Australian plants and animals. An exhibition - and - Physiology, phenomenology and photography: Picturing the indeterminate within an Australian art practice. An exegesis

This practice-led research project investigates indeterminate aspects of perception related to human vision and postcolonial conditioning. Through an inventive range of lens-based artworks, the research draws parallels between preconscious visual phenomena and the subjective experience of non-indigenous Australians of multiple generations. The resulting body of creative work, New Australian Plants and Animals, can be seen to approach preconscious visual phenomena derived from the physiology of the human eye through the use of primitive photographic lens technology. This process is applied to the subject matter: introduced plants and partially naturalised migrants. This synthesis of subject and materials creates new insights into preconscious vision whilst questioning aspects of colonisation-in-reverse (Tacey, 1995) where the colonised land immeasurably exerts itself on the coloniser’s psyche. The partially naturalised migrant is metaphorically compared to introduced plants in Australia that are found inexplicably to evolve into new species. The research highlights photography’s historic role in falsely maintaining the view that the human eye views the world with a flat, sharp field of focus by revealing how images potentially appear at the back of the human eye before being processed by the mind. The photographic component of the research work can be seen to depart from the contemporary practice of representing cultured landscapes with highly refined technical processes. Instead, the photographs move towards picturing an indeterminate space where the physical world meets the embodied subject through the use of primitive photographic materials. Additionally, by inverting the power of the lens and photographing the coloniser instead of the colonised, this project enabled fresh insights into the postcolonial subject. In line with Paul Carter’s concept of material thinking (2004), this research relies on the ‘intelligence’ of materials to automatically reduce visual phenomena to a preconscious ocular quality whilst metaphorically operating as nineteenth-century colonial survey equipment. A broad range of artists has informed the research, ranging from late nineteenth-century European naturalist painters to contemporary Australian installation artists. The main theorists informing this project are Walter Benjamin, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Edmund Husserl

Electronic Imaging & the Visual Arts. EVA 2012 Florence

The key aim of this Event is to provide a forum for the user, supplier and scientific research communities to meet and exchange experiences, ideas and plans in the wide area of Culture & Technology. Participants receive up to date news on new EC and international arts computing & telecommunications initiatives as well as on Projects in the visual arts field, in archaeology and history. Working Groups and new Projects are promoted. Scientific and technical demonstrations are presented

Towards a Practitioner Model of Mobile Music

This practice-based research investigates the mobile paradigm in the context of electronic music, sound and performance; it considers the idea of mobile as a lens through which a new model of electronic music performance can be interrogated. This research explores mobile media devices as tools and modes of artistic expression in everyday contexts and situations. While many of the previous studies have tended to focus upon the design and construction of new hardware and software systems, this research puts performance practice at the centre of its analysis. This research builds a methodological and practical framework that draws upon theories of mobile-mediated aurality, rhetoric on the practice of walking, relational aesthetics, and urban and natural environments as sites for musical performance. The aim is to question the spaces commonly associated with electronic music – where it is situated, listened to and experienced. This thesis concentrates on the creative use of existing systems using generic mobile devices – smartphones, tablets and HD cameras – and commercially available apps. It will describe the development, implementation and evaluation of a self-contained performance system utilising digital signal processing apps and the interconnectivity of an inter-app routing system. This is an area of investigation that other research programmes have not addressed in any depth. This research’s enquiries will be held in dynamic and often unpredictable conditions, from navigating busy streets to the fold down shelf on the back of a train seat, as a solo performer or larger groups of players, working with musicians, nonmusicians and other participants. Along the way, it examines how ubiquitous mobile technology and its total access might promote inclusivity and creativity through the cultural adhesive of mobile media. This research aims to explore how being mobile has unrealised potential to change the methods and experiences of making electronic music, to generate a new kind of performer identity and as a consequence lead towards a practitioner model of mobile music

The harmonious coexistence of sound and image for efficient audiovisual communication: the case of Kairos Communications LTD

Relatório de estágio de mestrado em Ciências da Comunicação (área de especialização em Audiovisual e Multimédia)The present report is the result of a three-month traineeship at the Kairos Communications LTD in Maynooth, Ireland, which has long experience in cultural and religious sound and video productions, being an opportunity to practice audio-visual and multimedia knowledge acquired at the University of Minho. Although the traineeship was focused on production and post-production of contents, the Kairos Outside Broadcasting Unit was a big asset to improve technical skills. Based on the empirical experience acquired in the internship, this report is focused on the harmonious coexistence of sound and image for an efficient audio-visual communication. Sound and image corelates with each other as complementary elements in many digital media contents of today’s different digital platforms and applications. The increasing access to smartphones with great capabilities to record, edit ad share sound and image has turn most of the users into content producers, so that today, any cultural, politic, or social event has most probably someone catching sound or image. From the knowledge acquired with the research, an overview on the development of communication in the Democratic Republic of Congo is presented. Oral tradition has been the instrument to pass on knowledge to younger generations or convey information to the public. The development of communication in the Democratic Republic of Congo is linked to the former colonial power (Belgium) and France. France provided formation as well as equipment to update former radio journalists to the television that had been invading most of the world as an instrument of national pride. In fact, the development of media, mostly the radiobroadcast in the beginning, and then the television, was a great instrument of political propaganda for the newly independent African countries. Every country setup a radiobroadcast to free oneself from any other dependency. It was conceived as a great instrument to disseminate ideologies to the population. The forms of communication (verbal, non-verbal, written, etc.), the power and revolution of words and images in the world and in Africa, and the evolution in Congo, from oral to digital communication, are the focus of this report, which tries to understand what had led the Democratic Republic of Congo to the new media environment and where word and image intermingleO presente relatório é o resultado de um estágio de três meses na Kairos Communications LTD em Maynooth, Irlanda, que possui uma longa experiência em produções culturais e religiosas de som e vídeo, sendo uma oportunidade para praticar conhecimentos audiovisuais e multimédia adquiridos na Universidade do Minho. Embora o estágio tenha sido focado na produção e pós produção de conteúdos, a Kairos Outside Broadcasting Unit foi um grande ativo para o aperfeiçoamento das habilidades técnicas. Com base na experiência empírica adquirida no estágio, este relatório centra-se na coexistência harmoniosa de som e imagem para uma comunicação audiovisual eficiente. Som e imagem correlacionam-se entre si como elementos complementares em muitos conteúdos de média digital das diferentes plataformas e aplicativos digitais de hoje. O crescente acesso a smartphones com grandes recursos para gravar, editar e partilhar som e imagem transformou a maioria dos utilizadores em produtores de conteúdo, sendo que hoje, qualquer evento cultural, político ou social tem muito provavelmente alguém a captar o som ou a imagem. A partir dos conhecimentos adquiridos com a pesquisa realizada, é apresentado um panorama sobre o desenvolvimento da comunicação na República Democrática do Congo. A tradição oral tem sido o instrumento para passar conhecimento às gerações mais novas ou levar informações ao público. O desenvolvimento da comunicação na República Democrática do Congo está ligado à ex-potência colonial (Bélgica) e à França. A França forneceu formação e também equipamento para atualizar os ex-jornalistas de rádio sobre a televisão que vinha invadindo a maior parte do mundo como um instrumento de orgulho nacional. Na verdade, o desenvolvimento dos média principalmente a radiodifusão no início, e depois a televisão, foi um grande instrumento de propaganda política para os países africanos recém-independentes. Cada país estabelece uma transmissão de rádio para se libertar de qualquer outra dependência. Foi concebido como um grande instrumento de divulgação de ideologias para a população. As formas de comunicação (verbal, não verbal, escrita, etc.), o poder e a revolução das palavras e imagens no mundo e em África, e a evolução no Congo, da comunicação oral à digital, são o foco deste relatório, que procura compreender o que levou a República Democrática do Congo ao novo ambiente mediático no qual a palavra e a imagem misturam-se.Part of this work was supervised in the scope of the project “Audire - Audio Repository: saving sonic-based memories”, co-funded by the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalization and by the Portuguese Foundation of Science and Technology (PTDC-COM-CSS/32159/2017). This has instructed the theoretical framework of the present work, specifically on the role of sound and its relationship with image, in the evolution of the communication models and the respective emancipation of communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Past, Present, and Future of Simultaneous Localization And Mapping: Towards the Robust-Perception Age

Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM)consists in the concurrent construction of a model of the environment (the map), and the estimation of the state of the robot moving within it. The SLAM community has made astonishing progress over the last 30 years, enabling large-scale real-world applications, and witnessing a steady transition of this technology to industry. We survey the current state of SLAM. We start by presenting what is now the de-facto standard formulation for SLAM. We then review related work, covering a broad set of topics including robustness and scalability in long-term mapping, metric and semantic representations for mapping, theoretical performance guarantees, active SLAM and exploration, and other new frontiers. This paper simultaneously serves as a position paper and tutorial to those who are users of SLAM. By looking at the published research with a critical eye, we delineate open challenges and new research issues, that still deserve careful scientific investigation. The paper also contains the authors' take on two questions that often animate discussions during robotics conferences: Do robots need SLAM? and Is SLAM solved