Hybrid Discrete Wavelet Transform and Gabor Filter Banks Processing for Features Extraction from Biomedical Images

A new methodology for automatic feature extraction from biomedical images and subsequent classification is presented. The approach exploits the spatial orientation of high-frequency textural features of the processed image as determined by a two-step process. First, the two-dimensional discrete wavelet transform(DWT) is applied to obtain the HH high-frequency subband image. Then, a Gabor filter bank is applied to the latter at different frequencies and spatial orientations to obtain new Gabor-filtered image whose entropy and uniformity are computed. Finally, the obtained statistics are fed to a support vector machine (SVM) binary classifier. The approach was validated on mammograms, retina, and brain magnetic resonance (MR) images.The obtained classification accuracies show better performance in comparison to common approaches that use only the DWT or Gabor filter banks for feature extraction

Word based off-line handwritten Arabic classification and recognition. Design of automatic recognition system for large vocabulary offline handwritten Arabic words using machine learning approaches.

The design of a machine which reads unconstrained words still remains an unsolved problem. For example, automatic interpretation of handwritten documents by a computer is still under research. Most systems attempt to segment words into letters and read words one character at a time. However, segmenting handwritten words is very difficult. So to avoid this words are treated as a whole. This research investigates a number of features computed from whole words for the recognition of handwritten words in particular. Arabic text classification and recognition is a complicated process compared to Latin and Chinese text recognition systems. This is due to the nature cursiveness of Arabic text. The work presented in this thesis is proposed for word based recognition of handwritten Arabic scripts. This work is divided into three main stages to provide a recognition system. The first stage is the pre-processing, which applies efficient pre-processing methods which are essential for automatic recognition of handwritten documents. In this stage, techniques for detecting baseline and segmenting words in handwritten Arabic text are presented. Then connected components are extracted, and distances between different components are analyzed. The statistical distribution of these distances is then obtained to determine an optimal threshold for word segmentation. The second stage is feature extraction. This stage makes use of the normalized images to extract features that are essential in recognizing the images. Various method of feature extraction are implemented and examined. The third and final stage is the classification. Various classifiers are used for classification such as K nearest neighbour classifier (k-NN), neural network classifier (NN), Hidden Markov models (HMMs), and the Dynamic Bayesian Network (DBN). To test this concept, the particular pattern recognition problem studied is the classification of 32492 words using ii the IFN/ENIT database. The results were promising and very encouraging in terms of improved baseline detection and word segmentation for further recognition. Moreover, several feature subsets were examined and a best recognition performance of 81.5% is achieved

Deep Learning in Medical Image Analysis

The accelerating power of deep learning in diagnosing diseases will empower physicians and speed up decision making in clinical environments. Applications of modern medical instruments and digitalization of medical care have generated enormous amounts of medical images in recent years. In this big data arena, new deep learning methods and computational models for efficient data processing, analysis, and modeling of the generated data are crucially important for clinical applications and understanding the underlying biological process. This book presents and highlights novel algorithms, architectures, techniques, and applications of deep learning for medical image analysis

Unconstrained Iris Recognition

This research focuses on iris recognition, the most accurate form of biometric identification. The robustness of iris recognition comes from the unique characteristics of the human, and the permanency of the iris texture as it is stable over human life, and the environmental effects cannot easily alter its shape. In most iris recognition systems, ideal image acquisition conditions are assumed. These conditions include a near infrared (NIR) light source to reveal the clear iris texture as well as look and stare constraints and close distance from the capturing device. However, the recognition accuracy of the-state-of-the-art systems decreases significantly when these constraints are relaxed. Recent advances have proposed different methods to process iris images captured in unconstrained environments. While these methods improve the accuracy of the original iris recognition system, they still have segmentation and feature selection problems, which results in high FRR (False Rejection Rate) and FAR (False Acceptance Rate) or in recognition failure. In the first part of this thesis, a novel segmentation algorithm for detecting the limbus and pupillary boundaries of human iris images with a quality assessment process is proposed. The algorithm first searches over the HSV colour space to detect the local maxima sclera region as it is the most easily distinguishable part of the human eye. The parameters from this stage are then used for eye area detection, upper/lower eyelid isolation and for rotation angle correction. The second step is the iris image quality assessment process, as the iris images captured under unconstrained conditions have heterogeneous characteristics. In addition, the probability of getting a mis-segmented sclera portion around the outer ring of the iris is very high, especially in the presence of reflection caused by a visible wavelength light source. Therefore, quality assessment procedures are applied for the classification of images from the first step into seven different categories based on the average of their RGB colour intensity. An appropriate filter is applied based on the detected quality. In the third step, a binarization process is applied to the detected eye portion from the first step for detecting the iris outer ring based on a threshold value defined on the basis of image quality from the second step. Finally, for the pupil area segmentation, the method searches over the HSV colour space for local minima pixels, as the pupil contains the darkest pixels in the human eye. In the second part, a novel discriminating feature extraction and selection based on the Curvelet transform are introduced. Most of the state-of-the-art iris recognition systems use the textural features extracted from the iris images. While these fine tiny features are very robust when extracted from high resolution clear images captured at very close distances, they show major weaknesses when extracted from degraded images captured over long distances. The use of the Curvelet transform to extract 2D geometrical features (curves and edges) from the degraded iris images addresses the weakness of 1D texture features extracted by the classical methods based on textural analysis wavelet transform. Our experiments show significant improvements in the segmentation and recognition accuracy when compared to the-state-of-the-art results

Determining Additional Modulus of Subgarde Reaction Based on Tolerable Settlement for the Nailed-slab System Resting on Soft Clay.

Abstract—Nailed-slab System is a proposed alternative solution for rigid pavement problem on soft soils. Equivalent modulus of subgrade reaction (k’) can be used in designing of nailed-slab system. This modular is the cumulative of modulus of subgrade reaction from plate load test (k) and additional modulus of subgrade reaction due to pile installing (∆∆∆∆k). A recent method has used reduction of pile resistance approach in determining ∆∆∆∆k. The relative displacement between pile and soils, and reduction of pile resistance has been identified. In fact, determining of reduction of pile resistance is difficult. This paper proposes an approach by considering tolerable settlement of rigid pavement. Validation is carried out with respect to a loading test of nailed-slab models. The models are presented as strip section of rigid pavement. The theory of beams on elastic foundation is used to calculate the slab deflection by using k’. Proposed approach can results in deflection prediction close to observed one. In practice, the Nailed-slab System would be constructed by multiple-row piles. Designing this system based on one-pile row analysis will give more safety design and will consume less time