3D Face Synthesis with KINECT

This work describes the process of face synthesis by image morphing from less expensive 3D sensors such as KINECT that are prone to sensor noise. Its main aim is to create a useful face database for future face recognition studies.Peer reviewe

Insignificant shadow detection for video segmentation

To prevent moving cast shadows from being misunderstood as part of moving objects in change detection based video segmentation, this paper proposes a novel approach to the cast shadow detection based on the edge and region information in multiple frames. First, an initial change detection mask containing moving objects and cast shadows is obtained. Then a Canny edge map is generated. After that, the shadow region is detected and removed through multiframe integration, edge matching, and region growing. Finally, a post processing procedure is used to eliminate noise and tune the boundaries of the objects. Our approach can be used for video segmentation in indoor environment. The experimental results demonstrate its good performance

Cardiac Tamponade Secondary to Metastasis from Adenocarcinoma of the Parotid Gland

BACKGROUND: Metastatic involvement of pericardium producing cardiac tamponade is rare. When occurs it is mainly from the lung, breast and the neoplasms of the lymphoreticular system. Hematogenous spread of parotid adenocarcinoma to heart is extremely rare and only two cases have been reported in literature so far. CASE PRESENTATION: We report an unusual case of a patient with adenocarcinoma of the parotid gland, which presented with cardiac tamponade and was treated urgently with pericardial drainage and intrapericardial injection of cisplatin. CONCLUSIONS: Our case demonstrates the possibility of metastatic pericardial involvement and cardiac tamponade in patients with parotid adenocarcinoma. The patient was successfully treated with pericardial drainage and intrapericardial injection of chemotherapeutic agent to control recurrent pericardial effusion

Penetrating eye injuries at the workplace : case reports and discussion

We describe two recent cases of penetrating eye injury seen at Mater Dei Hospital, both resulting in a poor final outcome and illustrating the importance of wearing appropriate eye protection at the workplace. In case 1, injury was caused by a metal chip produced by a hammer and chisel that penetrated the sclera and lodged in the vitreous cavity, requiring vitrectomy and lens extraction and ultimately resulting in severe visual loss. In case 2, injury was caused by a shard released from an angle grinder disc that struck the orbit and caused severe disruption of the globe, which required enucleation. This is followed by a discussion on penetrating eye injuries, summarising the initial assessment and management of a suspected penetrating injury in the primary care setting and highlighting the need for urgent ophthalmic referral in cases where the nature of work was suggestive of high-speed projectiles, even where the trauma is seemingly trivial.peer-reviewe

Efficient Evaluation of the Number of False Alarm Criterion

This paper proposes a method for computing efficiently the significance of a parametric pattern inside a binary image. On the one hand, a-contrario strategies avoid the user involvement for tuning detection thresholds, and allow one to account fairly for different pattern sizes. On the other hand, a-contrario criteria become intractable when the pattern complexity in terms of parametrization increases. In this work, we introduce a strategy which relies on the use of a cumulative space of reduced dimensionality, derived from the coupling of a classic (Hough) cumulative space with an integral histogram trick. This space allows us to store partial computations which are required by the a-contrario criterion, and to evaluate the significance with a lower computational cost than by following a straightforward approach. The method is illustrated on synthetic examples on patterns with various parametrizations up to five dimensions. In order to demonstrate how to apply this generic concept in a real scenario, we consider a difficult crack detection task in still images, which has been addressed in the literature with various local and global detection strategies. We model cracks as bounded segments, detected by the proposed a-contrario criterion, which allow us to introduce additional spatial constraints based on their relative alignment. On this application, the proposed strategy yields state-of the-art results, and underlines its potential for handling complex pattern detection tasks