Lifting schemes for joint coding of stereoscopic pairs of satellite images

electronic version (5 pp.)International audienceStereo data compression is an important issue for the new generation of vision systems. In this paper, we are interested in lossless coding methods for stereo images allowing progressive reconstruction. Most of the existing approaches account for the mutual similarities between the left and the right images. More precisely, the disparity compensation process consists in predicting the right image from the left one based on the disparity map. Then, the disparity map, the reference image, and the residual image are encoded. In this work, we propose a novel approach based on the concept of vector lifting scheme. Its main feature is that it does not generate one residual image but two compact multiresolution representations of the left and the right views, driven by the underlying disparity map. Experimental results show a significant improvement using this technique compared with conventional methods

Vector Lifting Schemes for Stereo Image Coding

International audienceMany research efforts have been devoted to the improvement of stereo image coding techniques for storage or transmission. In this paper, we are mainly interested in lossyto- lossless coding schemes for stereo images allowing progressive reconstruction. The most commonly used approaches for stereo compression are based on disparity compensation techniques. The basic principle involved in this technique first consists of estimating the disparity map. Then, one image is considered as a reference and the other is predicted in order to generate a residual image. In this work, we propose a novel approach, based on Vector Lifting Schemes (VLS), which offers the advantage of generating two compact multiresolution representations of the left and the right views. We present two versions of this new scheme. A theoretical analysis of the performance of the considered VLS is also conducted. Experimental results indicate a significant improvement using the proposed structures compared with conventional methods

3D multiple description coding for error resilience over wireless networks

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Mobile communications has gained a growing interest from both customers and service providers alike in the last 1-2 decades. Visual information is used in many application domains such as remote health care, video –on demand, broadcasting, video surveillance etc. In order to enhance the visual effects of digital video content, the depth perception needs to be provided with the actual visual content. 3D video has earned a significant interest from the research community in recent years, due to the tremendous impact it leaves on viewers and its enhancement of the user’s quality of experience (QoE). In the near future, 3D video is likely to be used in most video applications, as it offers a greater sense of immersion and perceptual experience. When 3D video is compressed and transmitted over error prone channels, the associated packet loss leads to visual quality degradation. When a picture is lost or corrupted so severely that the concealment result is not acceptable, the receiver typically pauses video playback and waits for the next INTRA picture to resume decoding. Error propagation caused by employing predictive coding may degrade the video quality severely. There are several ways used to mitigate the effects of such transmission errors. One widely used technique in International Video Coding Standards is error resilience. The motivation behind this research work is that, existing schemes for 2D colour video compression such as MPEG, JPEG and H.263 cannot be applied to 3D video content. 3D video signals contain depth as well as colour information and are bandwidth demanding, as they require the transmission of multiple high-bandwidth 3D video streams. On the other hand, the capacity of wireless channels is limited and wireless links are prone to various types of errors caused by noise, interference, fading, handoff, error burst and network congestion. Given the maximum bit rate budget to represent the 3D scene, optimal bit-rate allocation between texture and depth information rendering distortion/losses should be minimised. To mitigate the effect of these errors on the perceptual 3D video quality, error resilience video coding needs to be investigated further to offer better quality of experience (QoE) to end users. This research work aims at enhancing the error resilience capability of compressed 3D video, when transmitted over mobile channels, using Multiple Description Coding (MDC) in order to improve better user’s quality of experience (QoE). Furthermore, this thesis examines the sensitivity of the human visual system (HVS) when employed to view 3D video scenes. The approach used in this study is to use subjective testing in order to rate people’s perception of 3D video under error free and error prone conditions through the use of a carefully designed bespoke questionnaire.Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF

Robust density modelling using the student's t-distribution for human action recognition

The extraction of human features from videos is often inaccurate and prone to outliers. Such outliers can severely affect density modelling when the Gaussian distribution is used as the model since it is highly sensitive to outliers. The Gaussian distribution is also often used as base component of graphical models for recognising human actions in the videos (hidden Markov model and others) and the presence of outliers can significantly affect the recognition accuracy. In contrast, the Student's t-distribution is more robust to outliers and can be exploited to improve the recognition rate in the presence of abnormal data. In this paper, we present an HMM which uses mixtures of t-distributions as observation probabilities and show how experiments over two well-known datasets (Weizmann, MuHAVi) reported a remarkable improvement in classification accuracy. © 2011 IEEE

NASA Tech Briefs, January 1992

Topics include: New Product Ideas; Electronic Components and Circuits; Electronic Systems; Physical Sciences; Materials; Computer Programs; Mechanics; Machinery/Automation; Fabrication; Mathematics and Information Sciences; Life Sciences

On-Board Electronic Control Systems of Future Automated Heavy Machinery

The level of automation and wireless communication has increased in heavy machinery recently. This requires utilizing new devices and communication solutions in heavy machinery applications which involve demanding operating conditions and challenging life-cycle management. Therefore, the applied devices have to be robust and hardware architectures flexible, consisting of generic modules. In research and development projects devices that have various communication interfaces and insufficient mechanical and electrical robustness need to be applied. Although this thesis has its main focus on machines utilized as research platforms, many of the challenges are similar with commercial machines.The applicability of typical solutions for data transfer is discussed. Controller area network with a standardized higher level protocol is proposed to be applied where data signalling rates above 1 Mb/s are not required. The main benefits are the availability of robust, generic devices and well-established software tools for configuration management. Ethernet can be utilized to network equipment with high data rates, typically used for perception. Although deterministic industrial Ethernet protocols would fulfil most requirements, the conventional internet protocol suite is likely to be applied due to device availability.Sometimes sensors and other devices without a suitable communication interface need to be applied. In addition, device-related real-time processing or accurate synchronization of hardware signals may be required. A small circuit board with a microcontroller can be utilized as a generic embedded module for building robust, small and cost-efficient prototype devices that have a controller area network interface. Although various microcontroller boards are commercially available, designing one for heavy machinery applications, in particular, has benefits in robustness, size, interfaces, and flexible software development. The design of such a generic embedded module is presented.The device-specific challenges of building an automated machine are discussed. Unexpected switch-off of embedded computers has to be prevented by the control system to avoid file system errors. Moreover, the control system has to protect the batteries against deep discharge when the engine is not running. With many devices, protective enclosures with heating or cooling are required.The electronic control systems of two automated machines utilized as research platforms are presented and discussed as examples. The hardware architectures of the control systems are presented, following the proposed communication solutions as far as is feasible. Several applications of the generic embedded module within the control systems are described. Several research topics have been covered utilizing the automated machines. In this thesis, a cost-efficient operator-assisting functionality of an excavator is presented and discussed in detail.The results of this thesis give not only research institutes but also machine manufacturers and their subcontractors an opportunity to streamline the prototyping of automated heavy machinery