Detection and representation of moving objects for video surveillance

In this dissertation two new approaches have been introduced for the automatic detection of moving objects (such as people and vehicles) in video surveillance sequences. The first technique analyses the original video and exploits spatial and temporal information to find those pixels in the images that correspond to moving objects. The second technique analyses video sequences that have been encoded according to a recent video coding standard (H.264/AVC). As such, only the compressed features are analyzed to find moving objects. The latter technique results in a very fast and accurate detection (up to 20 times faster than the related work). Lastly, we investigated how different XML-based metadata standards can be used to represent information about these moving objects. We proposed the usage of Semantic Web Technologies to combine information described according to different metadata standards

Designing a Contactless, AI System to Measure the Human Body using a Single Camera for the Clothing and Fashion Industry

Using a single RGB camera to obtain accurate body dimensions rather than measuring these manually or via more complex multi-camera or more expensive 3D scanners, has a high application potential for the apparel industry. In this thesis, a system that estimates upper human body measurements using a set of computer vision and machine learning techniques. The main steps involve: (1) using a portable camera; (2) improving image quality; (3) isolating the human body from the surrounding environment; (4) performing a calibration step; (5) extracting body features from the image; (6) indicating markers on the image; (7) producing refined final results. In this research, a unique geometric shape is favored, namely the ellipse, to approximate human body main cross sections. We focus on the upper body horizontal slices (i.e. from head to hips) which, we show, can be well represented by varying an ellipse’s eccentricity, this per individual. Then, evaluating each fitted ellipse’s perimeter allows us to obtain better results than the current state-of-the-art for use in the fashion and online retail industry. In our study, I selected a set of two equations, out of many other possible choices, to best estimate upper human body horizontal cross sections via perimeters of fitted ellipses. In this study, I experimented with the system on a diverse sample of 78 participants. The results for the upper human body measurements in comparison to the traditional manual method of tape measurements, when used as a reference, show ±1cm average differences, sufficient for many applications, including online retail

Remapping Athens: an analysis of urban cosmopolitan milieus

The study makes a claim for a critical cosmopolitanism situated in daily performances and encounters of difference in Athens. In the wake of mass migration and economic crisis, the contemporary urban environment changes, creating new social spaces where identities and cultures interact. Festivals are seen as sites of creative dialogue between the Self, the Other and local communities. Festivals are examples of those new spaces where different performances of belonging give rise to alternative social imaginations. This study explores the emotional, cultural and political aspects of cosmopolitanism with the latter leading to the formation of an active civil society. As such, it seeks to evidence cosmopolitanism as an embodied, everyday practice. The research thus extends the current field by locating its empirical lens in a specific milieu. Empirical analysis of grounded cosmopolitanism anchored in behavioural repertoires redefines ubiquitous polarities of margin and centre, pointing towards social change in Athens. Fieldwork was conducted in Athens over eighteen months, comprising of building communities of participants involved in three festivals, including both artists and organisations. Research methods included observation and participation in the festivals, which were photographically documented for research visual diaries. Semi-structured interviews formed the core of the fieldwork. The approach allowed access to experiences, feelings and expressions through artworks, embodying ‘third spaces’. In the milieu of rapid social change, as urban localities transform as a result of economic and social crisis, the need for redefining politics emerges. The case studies explore how change in a celebratory moment can have a more sustainable legacy encouraging active citizenship. The analysis highlights the value of a model of cosmopolitanism in action, positing that transformation of the social and political must be local and grounded in everyday actions if it is to engage with promises of alternative futures

Smart cmos image sensor for 3d measurement

3D measurements are concerned with extracting visual information from the geometry of visible surfaces and interpreting the 3D coordinate data thus obtained, to detect or track the position or reconstruct the profile of an object, often in real time. These systems necessitate image sensors with high accuracy of position estimation and high frame rate of data processing for handling large volumes of data. A standard imager cannot address the requirements of fast image acquisition and processing, which are the two figures of merit for 3D measurements. Hence, dedicated VLSI imager architectures are indispensable for designing these high performance sensors. CMOS imaging technology provides potential to integrate image processing algorithms on the focal plane of the device, resulting in smart image sensors, capable of achieving better processing features in handling massive image data. The objective of this thesis is to present a new architecture of smart CMOS image sensor for real time 3D measurement using the sheet-beam projection methods based on active triangulation. Proposing the vision sensor as an ensemble of linear sensor arrays, all working in parallel and processing the entire image in slices, the complexity of the image-processing task shifts from O (N 2 ) to O (N). Inherent also in the design is the high level of parallelism to achieve massive parallel processing at high frame rate, required in 3D computation problems. This work demonstrates a prototype of the smart linear sensor incorporating full testability features to test and debug both at device and system levels. The salient features of this work are the asynchronous position to pulse stream conversion, multiple images binarization, high parallelism and modular architecture resulting in frame rate and sub-pixel resolution suitable for real time 3D measurements

Based on a true story : "The Gezi Film Poster Series" and the role of narrative in cultural history

textFocusing on a series of hypothetical film posters titled the "Gezi Movie Theatre Poster Series," commissioned by Istanbul's independent magazine Bant Mag, this thesis is a multi-methodological, exploratory case study utilizing ethnographic methods, as well as visual, textual, and document analysis. The posters within this series narrativize and encapsulate instances that took shape on the ground during the Gezi protests in Turkey in the Summer of 2013. Embodying the confluence of larger contextual events through the micro-lens of a singular organization and cultural product, the series provides an instance in which key and complex factors regarding social structure, political activism, and cultural production come together in the form of visual narrative. This undertaken analysis seeks to bring together theoretical constructs of social structure, historicization, alternative media and cultural resistance, material culture, artistic creation, and the imaginary, and apply them, in order, to Turkey, Gezi, Bant Mag, and the posters themselves, in order to create an understanding of how they each play a role within the series and its archival formation. Utilizing a critical analytical framework by focusing on the series as art, artifact, and action, after firmly contextually situating the film poster series within Bant Mag's own organizational framework, internal discourse, and history as a magazine, zine, and online resource, this study hopes to demonstrate the affordances of art, imagination, and subjectivity in the creation, documentation, and conservation of historical micro-narratives.Radio-Television-Fil

Intelligent laser scanning for computer aided manufacture.

Reverse engineering requires the acquisition of large amounts of data describing the surface of an object, sufficient to replicate that object accurately using appropriate fabrication techniques. This is important within a wide range of commercial and scientific fields where CAD models may be unavailable for parts that must be duplicated or modified, or where a physical model is used as a prototype. The three-dimensional digitisation of objects is an essential first step in reverse engineering. Optical triangulation laser sensors are one of the most popular and common non-contact methods used in the data acquisition process today. They provide the means for high resolution scanning of complex objects. Multiple scans of the object are usually required to capture the full 3D profile of the object. A number of factors, including scan resolution, system optics and the precision of the mechanical parts comprising the system may affect the accuracy of the process. A single perspective optical triangulation sensor provides an inexpensive method for the acquisition of 3D range image data

Bitter-Sweet Home: The Pastoral Ideal in African-American Literature, from Douglass to Wright

Discussions of the pastoral mode in American literary history frequently omit the complicated relationship between African Americans and the natural world, particularly as it relates to the South. The pastoral, as a sensibility, has long been an important part of the southern identity, for the mythos of the South long depended upon its association with a new “Garden of the World” image, a paradise dependent upon slave labor and a racial hierarchy to sustain it. For African Americans, the rural South has been both a home and a place of violence and oppression, particularly during the period of slavery through the 1930s. During this time, African Americans were either conflated with nature, as slaves, or murdered in the midst of it, as evidenced by the frequency of lynchings during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Clearly, then, the troubled and often violent treatment of African Americans in the rural, often pastoralized South vexes the pastoral ideal for black writers. Rather than take an entirely anti-pastoral stance, however, black writers frequently reworked and embraced the pastoral mode often as a way to expose their casting out from it. Writers such as Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Angelina Welde Grimké, Richard Wright, and Jean Toomer all attempted to reconcile the pastoral sensibility of the South, a sensibility which they, too, sought to experience, with the oppressive treatment of African Americans in it