Contributions to reconfigurable video coding and low bit rate video coding

In this PhD Thesis, two different issues on video coding are stated and their corresponding proposed solutions discussed. In the first place, some problems of the use of video coding standards are identi ed and the potential of new reconfigurable platforms is put to the test. Specifically, the proposal from MPEG for a Reconfigurable Video Coding (RVC) standard is compared with a more ambitious proposal for Fully Configurable Video Coding (FCVC). In both cases, the objective is to nd a way for the definition of new video codecs without the concurrence of a classical standardization process, in order to reduce the time-to-market of new ideas while maintaining the proper interoperability between codecs. The main difference between these approaches is the ability of FCVC to reconfigure each program line in the encoder and decoder definition, while RVC only enables to conform the codec description from a database of standardized functional units. The proof of concept carried out in the FCVC prototype enabled to propose the incorporation of some of the FCVC capabilities in future versions of the RVC standard. The second part of the Thesis deals with the design and implementation of a filtering algorithm in a hybrid video encoder in order to simplify the high frequencies present in the prediction residue, which are the most expensive for the encoder in terms of output bit rate. By means of this filtering, the quantization scale employed by the video encoder in low bit rate is kept in reasonable values and the risk of appearance of encoding artifacts is reduced. The proposed algorithm includes a block for filter control that determines the proper amount of filtering from the encoder operating point and the characteristics of the sequence to be processed. This filter control is tuned according to perceptual considerations related with overall subjective quality assessment. Finally, the complete algorithm was tested by means of a standard subjective video quality assessment test, and the results showed a noticeable improvement in the quality score with respect to the non-filtered version, confirming that the proposed method reduces the presence of harmful low bit rate artifacts

The 1988 Goddard Conference on Space Applications of Artificial Intelligence

This publication comprises the papers presented at the 1988 Goddard Conference on Space Applications of Artificial Intelligence held at the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland on May 24, 1988. The purpose of this annual conference is to provide a forum in which current research and development directed at space applications of artificial intelligence can be presented and discussed. The papers in these proceedings fall into the following areas: mission operations support, planning and scheduling; fault isolation/diagnosis; image processing and machine vision; data management; modeling and simulation; and development tools/methodologies

Best Environmental Management Practice in the Tourism Sector

The tourism sector has a large potential to reduce its environmental impacts and many measures are already effectively implemented by companies of this sector. This document describes what are the best practices employed by frontrunners in all aspects under their direct control or on which they have a considerable influence. They cover cross-cutting issues, destination management, tour operators and travel agents, water and energy consumption and waste production in accommodation, restaurant and hotel kitchens, and campsites management. The document also contains sector-specific environmental performance indicators and benchmarks of excellence. These can be used by all the actors involved in the tourism sector to monitor their environmental performance and to benchmark it against the performance of frontrunners in each given specific area. Overall, this document aims at supporting all actors in the tourism sector who intend to improve their environmental performance and seek for reliable and proven information on how best to do it.JRC.J.5-Sustainable Production and Consumptio

Stereoscopic high dynamic range imaging

Two modern technologies show promise to dramatically increase immersion in virtual environments. Stereoscopic imaging captures two images representing the views of both eyes and allows for better depth perception. High dynamic range (HDR) imaging accurately represents real world lighting as opposed to traditional low dynamic range (LDR) imaging. HDR provides a better contrast and more natural looking scenes. The combination of the two technologies in order to gain advantages of both has been, until now, mostly unexplored due to the current limitations in the imaging pipeline. This thesis reviews both fields, proposes stereoscopic high dynamic range (SHDR) imaging pipeline outlining the challenges that need to be resolved to enable SHDR and focuses on capture and compression aspects of that pipeline. The problems of capturing SHDR images that would potentially require two HDR cameras and introduce ghosting, are mitigated by capturing an HDR and LDR pair and using it to generate SHDR images. A detailed user study compared four different methods of generating SHDR images. Results demonstrated that one of the methods may produce images perceptually indistinguishable from the ground truth. Insights obtained while developing static image operators guided the design of SHDR video techniques. Three methods for generating SHDR video from an HDR-LDR video pair are proposed and compared to the ground truth SHDR videos. Results showed little overall error and identified a method with the least error. Once captured, SHDR content needs to be efficiently compressed. Five SHDR compression methods that are backward compatible are presented. The proposed methods can encode SHDR content to little more than that of a traditional single LDR image (18% larger for one method) and the backward compatibility property encourages early adoption of the format. The work presented in this thesis has introduced and advanced capture and compression methods for the adoption of SHDR imaging. In general, this research paves the way for a novel field of SHDR imaging which should lead to improved and more realistic representation of captured scenes

Research and technology

Activities of the Goddard Space Flight Center are described in the areas of planets and interplanetary media, comets, astronomy and high-energy physics, solar physics, atmospheres, terrestrial physics, ocean science, sensors and space technology, techniques, user space data systems, space communications and navigation, and system and software engineering. Flight projects and mission definition studies are presented, and institutional technology is described

The 1991 research and technology report, Goddard Space Flight Center

The 1991 Research and Technology Report for Goddard Space Flight Center is presented. Research covered areas such as (1) earth sciences including upper atmosphere, lower atmosphere, oceans, hydrology, and global studies; (2) space sciences including solar studies, planetary studies, Astro-1, gamma ray investigations, and astrophysics; (3) flight projects; (4) engineering including robotics, mechanical engineering, electronics, imaging and optics, thermal and cryogenic studies, and balloons; and (5) ground systems, networks, and communications including data and networks, TDRSS, mission planning and scheduling, and software development and test