Layered Interpretation of Street View Images

We propose a layered street view model to encode both depth and semantic information on street view images for autonomous driving. Recently, stixels, stix-mantics, and tiered scene labeling methods have been proposed to model street view images. We propose a 4-layer street view model, a compact representation over the recently proposed stix-mantics model. Our layers encode semantic classes like ground, pedestrians, vehicles, buildings, and sky in addition to the depths. The only input to our algorithm is a pair of stereo images. We use a deep neural network to extract the appearance features for semantic classes. We use a simple and an efficient inference algorithm to jointly estimate both semantic classes and layered depth values. Our method outperforms other competing approaches in Daimler urban scene segmentation dataset. Our algorithm is massively parallelizable, allowing a GPU implementation with a processing speed about 9 fps.Comment: The paper will be presented in the 2015 Robotics: Science and Systems Conference (RSS

Complex epithelial remodeling underlie the fusion event in early fetal development of the human penile urethra.

We recently described a two-step process of urethral plate canalization and urethral fold fusion to form the human penile urethra. Canalization ("opening zipper") opens the solid urethral plate into a groove, and fusion ("closing zipper") closes the urethral groove to form the penile urethra. We hypothesize that failure of canalization and/or fusion during human urethral formation can lead to hypospadias. Herein, we use scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and analysis of transverse serial sections to better characterize development of the human fetal penile urethra as contrasted to the development of the human fetal clitoris. Eighteen 7-13 week human fetal external genitalia specimens were analyzed by SEM, and fifteen additional human fetal specimens were sectioned for histologic analysis. SEM images demonstrate canalization of the urethral/vestibular plate in the developing male and female external genitalia, respectively, followed by proximal to distal fusion of the urethral folds in males only. The fusion process during penile development occurs sequentially in multiple layers and through the interlacing of epidermal "cords". Complex epithelial organization is also noted at the site of active canalization. The demarcation between the epidermis of the shaft and the glans becomes distinct during development, and the epithelial tag at the distal tip of the penile and clitoral glans regresses as development progresses. In summary, SEM analysis of human fetal specimens supports the two-zipper hypothesis of formation of the penile urethra. The opening zipper progresses from proximal to distal along the shaft of the penis and clitoris into the glans in identical fashion in both sexes. The closing zipper mechanism is active only in males and is not a single process but rather a series of layered fusion events, uniquely different from the simple fusion of two epithelial surfaces as occurs in formation of the palate and neural tube

Conservation architecture and the narrative imperative: Birmingham back to backs

The paper uses a case study to explore how the opposing logics of conservation architecture and interpretive exhibition design were played out in the shaping of a narrative museum space. The former concerns itself with an archaeological conception of physical space, which is defined through the decipherability of traces and their layering over time. The latter concerns itself with a theatrical notion of event space defined through the mapping and programming of performances and information flows. The contingencies of the Birmingham Back to Backs project – its incep¬tion, the in¬volvement of the National Trust, the foregrounding of community interests and the interpretive design process – gave rise to a novel resolution of contrasting interests. A particular idea of narrative was able to frame the use of, on the one hand, physical evidence to interpret what may have existed and, on the other, a combination of lived and documentary evidence to reconstruct the patterns of daily life. This can be understood as a process of recovering ordinary lives. The research addresses the following conference themes: sites overlaid with narrative, the role of visitor-centred design in the production of museum space, and the emergence of new approaches that cut across disciplines. Analysis of interpretive design and heritage management documentation is informed by Samuel’s theorization of the shaping power of memory (1994). However, overall, the approach is pragmatic, in that it engages in critical conversations, resists reductionism, and tries to point up what may be useful in helping us cope together in the world. The principal conclusions concern the role that a focus on narrative (re)construction can play in framing cross-disciplinary collaboration and the potential of embracing radically different conceptions of space in museum design

Listen to Nice

In describing Humphrey Jennings’ wartime documentary propaganda film, 'Listen to Britain' (1942), a film with an overtly poetic sensibility and dominantly musical soundtrack, John Corner asserts that ‘through listening to Britain, we are enabled to properly look at it'. This idea of sound leading our attention to the images has underpinned much of the collaborative work between composer and sound designer, Geoffrey Cox, and documentary filmmaker, Keith Marley. It is in this context that the article will analyse an extract of A Film About Nice (Marley and Cox 2010), a contemporary re-imagining of Jean Vigo’s silent documentary, 'A propos de Nice' (1930). Reference will be made throughout to the historical context, and the filmic and theoretical influences that have informed the way music and creative sound design have been used to place emphasis on hearing a place, as much as seeing it

Invasion of the body snatchers: architecture and virtual space

Architecture, in one sense, has become part of the media: it has an aspect which is symbolic and semiotic, which is as ‘real’ in photography, film, television, advertising, computer games and literature as it is in our experience of landscapes, buildings and machines. But, I shall argue that the media, in one sense, have also become part of architecture, they have an aspect which we perceive as continuous with Cartesian space, and through this pseudo-physical presence they help shape and programme the space of habitation

Subjectivity in contemporary visualization of reality: re-visiting Ottoman miniatures

Though Ottoman miniatures are 2D representations, they carry the potential of conveying an individual’s perception in a more detailed manner as compared to 3D perspective renderings. In a typical 2-vanishing-point perspective; objects / subjects drawn in the foreground hide the ones that are located at their back: This phenomenon is called occlusion. In Ottoman miniatures there is no occlusion, all object / subject illustrations are wholistic, there is no partial description of figures. Consequently, you end up with a life form that is the synthesis of individual forms, a sui generis state... This unique visual narrative can be extended to cubist works where multifaceted descriptions are observed. Another advantage of Ottoman miniatures is that hierarchies of image and image maker are quite clear. Miniatures make use of distance, void, shape, scale relationships and their layout to give a sense of depth in space. Though objectivity is very much valued in visual representation, ideal objectivity is not possible since representations are created by subjects and subjects belong to cultures that have different criteria in forming / perceiving portrayals. Moreover, tools that are used for visual representations usually prove to be narrower than the scope of human perception. Departing from the point of view explained above, Muta-morphosis is a photography project that is created as an almost surreal visualization stemming from the real. The lack of a single perspectival structure due to multiplicity of perspectives after compressed panoramic imaging, can be linked to Ottoman miniatures, which in turn, connects the global contemporary representation to its local traditional counterpart. Keywords: Ottoman miniature painting, contemporary photography, child drawings, visualization, representation, reality, documentary, subjectivity, objectivity, visual narration

SHRIMP ion probe zircon geochronology and Sr and Nd isotope geochemistry for southern Longwood Range and Bluff Peninsula intrusive rocks of Southland, New Zealand

Permian–Jurassic ultramafic to felsic intrusive complexes at Bluff Peninsula and in the southern Longwood Range along the Southland coast represent a series of intraoceanic magmatic arcs with ages spanning a time interval of 110 m.y. New SHRIMP U-Pb zircon data for a quartz diorite from the Flat Hill complex, Bluff Peninsula, yield an age of 259 ± 4 Ma, consistent with other geochronological and paleontological evidence confirming a Late Permian age. The new data are consistent with an age of c. 260 Ma for the intrusive rocks of the Brook Street Terrane. SHRIMP U-Pb zircon ages for the southern Longwood Range confirm that intrusions become progressively younger from east to west across the complex. A gabbro at Oraka Point (eastern end of coastal section) has an age of 245 ± 4 Ma and shows virtually no evidence of zircon inheritance. The age is significantly different from that of the Brook Street Terrane intrusives. Zircon ages from the western parts of the section are younger and more varied (203–227 Ma), indicating more complex magmatic histories. A leucogabbro dike from Pahia Point gives the youngest emplacement age of 142 Ma, which is similar to published U-Pb zircon ages for the Anglem Complex and Paterson Group on Stewart Island