Data compression and transmission aspects of panoramic videos

Panoramic videos are effective means for representing static or dynamic scenes along predefined paths. They allow users to change their viewpoints interactively at points in time or space defined by the paths. High-resolution panoramic videos, while desirable, consume a significant amount of storage and bandwidth for transmission. They also make real-time decoding computationally very intensive. This paper proposes efficient data compression and transmission techniques for panoramic videos. A high-performance MPEG-2-like compression algorithm, which takes into account the random access requirements and the redundancies of panoramic videos, is proposed. The transmission aspects of panoramic videos over cable networks, local area networks (LANs), and the Internet are also discussed. In particular, an efficient advanced delivery sharing scheme (ADSS) for reducing repeated transmission and retrieval of frequently requested video segments is introduced. This protocol was verified by constructing an experimental VOD system consisting of a video server and eight Pentium 4 computers. Using the synthetic panoramic video Village at a rate of 197 kb/s and 7 f/s, nearly two-thirds of the memory access and transmission bandwidth of the video server were saved under normal network traffic.published_or_final_versio

A cross-modal investigation into the relationships between bistable perception and a global temporal mechanism

When the two eyes are presented with sufficiently different images, Binocular Rivalry (BR) occurs. BR is a form of bistable perception involving stochastic alternations in awareness between distinct images shown to each eye. It has been suggested that the dynamics of BR are due to the activity of a central temporal process and are linked to involuntary mechanisms of selective attention (aka exogenous attention). To test these ideas, stimuli designed to evoke exogenous attention and central temporal processes were employed during BR observation. These stimuli included auditory and visual looming motion and streams of transient events of varied temporal rate and pattern. Although these stimuli exerted a strong impact over some aspects of BR, they were unable to override its characteristic stochastic pattern of alternations completely. It is concluded that BR is subject to distributed influences, but ultimately, is achieved in neural processing areas specific to the binocular conflict

Mathematical surfaces models between art and reality

In this paper, I want to document the history of the mathematical surfaces models used for the didactics of pure and applied “High Mathematics” and as art pieces. These models were built between the second half of nineteenth century and the 1930s. I want here also to underline several important links that put in correspondence conception and construction of models with scholars, cultural institutes, specific views of research and didactical studies in mathematical sciences and with the world of the figurative arts furthermore. At the same time the singular beauty of form and colour which the models possessed, aroused the admiration of those entirely ignorant of their mathematical attraction

Spherical mosaic construction using physical analogy for consistent image alignment

The research contained in this thesis is an investigation into mosaic construction. Mosaic techniques are used to obtain images with a large field of view by assembling a sequence of smaller individual overlapping images. In existing methods of mosaic construction only successive images are aligned. Accumulation of small alignment errors occur, and in the case of the image path returning to a previous position in the mosaic, a significant mismatch between nonconsecutive images will result (looping path problem). A new method for consistently aligning all the images in a mosaic is proposed in this thesis. This is achieved by distribution of the small alignment errors. Each image is allowed to modify its position relative to its neighbour images in the mosaic by a small amount with respect to the computed registration. Two images recorded by a rotating ideal camera are related by the same transformation that relates the camera's sensor plane at the time the images were captured. When two images overlap, the intensity values in both images coincide through the intersection line of the sensor planes. This intersection line has the property that the images can be seamlessly joined through that line. An analogy between the images and the physical world is proposed to solve the looping path problem. The images correspond to rigid objects, and these are linked with forces which pull them towards the right positions with respect to their neighbours. That is, every pair of overlapping images are "hinged" through their corresponding intersection line. Aided by another constraint named the spherical constraint, this network of selforganising images has the ability of distributing itself on the surface of a sphere. As a direct result of the new concepts developed in this research work, spherical mosaics (i.e. mosaics with unlimited horizontal and vertical field of view) can be created

Compressing the illumination-adjustable images with principal component analysis.

Pun-Mo Ho.Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2003.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 90-95).Abstracts in English and Chinese.Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1Chapter 1.1 --- Background --- p.1Chapter 1.2 --- Existing Approaches --- p.2Chapter 1.3 --- Our Approach --- p.3Chapter 1.4 --- Structure of the Thesis --- p.4Chapter 2 --- Related Work --- p.5Chapter 2.1 --- Compression for Navigation --- p.5Chapter 2.1.1 --- Light Field/Lumigraph --- p.5Chapter 2.1.2 --- Surface Light Field --- p.6Chapter 2.1.3 --- Concentric Mosaics --- p.6Chapter 2.1.4 --- On the Compression --- p.7Chapter 2.2 --- Compression for Relighting --- p.7Chapter 2.2.1 --- Previous Approaches --- p.7Chapter 2.2.2 --- Our Approach --- p.8Chapter 3 --- Image-Based Relighting --- p.9Chapter 3.1 --- Plenoptic Illumination Function --- p.9Chapter 3.2 --- Sampling and Relighting --- p.11Chapter 3.3 --- Overview --- p.13Chapter 3.3.1 --- Codec Overview --- p.13Chapter 3.3.2 --- Image Acquisition --- p.15Chapter 3.3.3 --- Experiment Data Sets --- p.16Chapter 4 --- Data Preparation --- p.18Chapter 4.1 --- Block Division --- p.18Chapter 4.2 --- Color Model --- p.23Chapter 4.3 --- Mean Extraction --- p.24Chapter 5 --- Principal Component Analysis --- p.29Chapter 5.1 --- Overview --- p.29Chapter 5.2 --- Singular Value Decomposition --- p.30Chapter 5.3 --- Dimensionality Reduction --- p.34Chapter 5.4 --- Evaluation --- p.37Chapter 6 --- Eigenimage Coding --- p.39Chapter 6.1 --- Transform Coding --- p.39Chapter 6.1.1 --- Discrete Cosine Transform --- p.40Chapter 6.1.2 --- Discrete Wavelet Transform --- p.47Chapter 6.2 --- Evaluation --- p.49Chapter 6.2.1 --- Statistical Evaluation --- p.49Chapter 6.2.2 --- Visual Evaluation --- p.52Chapter 7 --- Relighting Coefficient Coding --- p.57Chapter 7.1 --- Quantization and Bit Allocation --- p.57Chapter 7.2 --- Evaluation --- p.62Chapter 7.2.1 --- Statistical Evaluation --- p.62Chapter 7.2.2 --- Visual Evaluation --- p.62Chapter 8 --- Relighting --- p.65Chapter 8.1 --- Overview --- p.66Chapter 8.2 --- First-Phase Decoding --- p.66Chapter 8.3 --- Second-Phase Decoding --- p.68Chapter 8.3.1 --- Software Relighting --- p.68Chapter 8.3.2 --- Hardware-Assisted Relighting --- p.71Chapter 9 --- Overall Evaluation --- p.81Chapter 9.1 --- Compression of IAIs --- p.81Chapter 9.1.1 --- Statistical Evaluation --- p.81Chapter 9.1.2 --- Visual Evaluation --- p.86Chapter 9.2 --- Hardware-Assisted Relighting --- p.86Chapter 10 --- Conclusion --- p.89Bibliography --- p.9

Neutral hydrogen and magnetic fields in M83 observed with the SKA Pathfinder KAT-7

We present new KAT-7 observations of the neutral hydrogen (HI) spectral line, and polarized radio continuum emission, in the grand design spiral M83. These observations provide a sensitive probe of the outer disk structure and kinematics, revealing a vast and massive neutral gas distribution that appears to be tightly coupled to the interaction of the galaxy with the environment. We present a new rotation curve extending out to a radius of 50 kpc. Based on our new HI dataset and comparison with multiwavelength data from the literature we consider the impact of mergers on the outer disk and discuss the evolution of M83. We also study the periphery of the HI distribution and reveal a sharp edge to the gaseous disk that is consistent with photoionization or ram pressure from the intergalactic medium (IGM). The radio continuum emission is not nearly as extended as the HI and is restricted to the main optical disk. Despite the relatively low angular resolution we are able to draw broad conclusions about the large-scale magnetic field topology. We show that the magnetic field of M83 is similar in form to other nearby star forming galaxies, and suggest that the disk-halo interface may host a large-scale regular magnetic field.Comment: 20 pages, 19 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA