Humanistic Computing: WearComp as a New Framework and Application for Intelligent Signal Processing

Humanistic computing is proposed as a new signal processing framework in which the processing apparatus is inextricably intertwined with the natural capabilities of our human body and mind. Rather than trying to emulate human intelligence, humanistic computing recognizes that the human brain is perhaps the best neural network of its kind, and that there are many new signal processing applications (within the domain of personal technologies) that can make use of this excellent but often overlooked processor. The emphasis of this paper is on personal imaging applications of humanistic computing, to take a first step toward an intelligent wearable camera system that can allow us to effortlessly capture our day-to-day experiences, help us remember and see better, provide us with personal safety through crime reduction, and facilitate new forms of communication through collective connected humanistic computing. The author’s wearable signal processing hardware, which began as a cumbersome backpackbased photographic apparatus of the 1970’s and evolved into a clothing-based apparatus in the early 1980’s, currently provides the computational power of a UNIX workstation concealed within ordinary-looking eyeglasses and clothing. Thus it may be worn continuously during all facets of ordinary day-to-day living, so that, through long-term adaptation, it begins to function as a true extension of the mind and body

Personal imaging

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts & Sciences, 1997.Includes bibliographical references (p. 217-223).In this thesis, I propose a new synergy between humans and computers, called "Humanistic Intelligence" (HI), and provide a precise definition of this new form of human-computer interaction. I then present a means and apparatus for reducing this principle to practice. The bulk of this thesis concentrates on a specific embodiment of this invention, called Personal Imaging, most notably, a system which I show attains new levels of creativity in photography, defines a new genre of documentary video, and goes beyond digital photography/video to define a new renaissance in imaging, based on simple principles of projective geometry combined with linearity and superposition properties of light. I first present a mathematical theory of imaging which allows the apparatus to measure, to within a single unknown constant, the quantity of light arriving from each direction, to a fixed point in space, using a collection of images taken from a sensor array having a possibly unknown nonlinearity. Within the context of personal imaging, this theory is a contribution in and of itself (in the sense that it was an unsolved problem previously), but when also combined with the proposed apparatus, it allows one to construct environment maps by simply looking around. I then present a new form of connected humanistic intelligence in which individuals can communicate, across boundaries of time and space, using shared environment maps, and the resulting computer-mediated reality that arises out of long-term adaptation in a personal imaging environment. Finally, I present a new philosophical framework for cultural criticism which arises out of a new concept called 'humanistic property'. This new philosophical framework has two axes, a 'reflectionist' axis and a 'diffusionist' axis. In particular, I apply the new framework to personal imaging, thus completing a body of work that lies at the intersection of art, science, and technology.by Steve Mann.Ph.D

Variations in color and reflectance on the surface of asteroid (101955) Bennu

Visible-wavelength color and reflectance provide information about the geologic history of planetary surfaces. We present multispectral images (0.44 to 0.89 microns) of near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu. The surface has variable colors overlain on a moderately blue global terrain. Two primary boulder types are distinguishable by their reflectance and texture. Space weathering of Bennu surface materials does not simply progress from red to blue (or vice versa). Instead, freshly exposed, redder surfaces initially brighten in the near-ultraviolet (become bluer at shorter wavelengths), then brighten in the visible to near-infrared, leading to Bennu’s moderately blue average color. Craters indicate that the timescale of these color changes is ~105 years. We attribute the reflectance and color variation to a combination of primordial heterogeneity and varying exposure ages

Probing for Exoplanets Hiding in Dusty Debris Disks: Disk Imaging, Characterization, and Exploration with HST/STIS Multi-Roll Coronagraphy

Spatially resolved scattered-light images of circumstellar (CS) debris in exoplanetary systems constrain the physical properties and orbits of the dust particles in these systems. They also inform on co-orbiting (but unseen) planets, systemic architectures, and forces perturbing starlight-scattering CS material. Using HST/STIS optical coronagraphy, we have completed the observational phase of a program to study the spatial distribution of dust in ten CS debris systems, and one "mature" protoplanetrary disk all with HST pedigree, using PSF-subtracted multi-roll coronagraphy. These observations probe stellocentric distances > 5 AU for the nearest stars, and simultaneously resolve disk substructures well beyond, corresponding to the giant planet and Kuiper belt regions in our Solar System. They also disclose diffuse very low-surface brightness dust at larger stellocentric distances. We present new results inclusive of fainter disks such as HD92945 confirming, and better revealing, the existence of a narrow inner debris ring within a larger diffuse dust disk. Other disks with ring-like sub-structures, significant asymmetries and complex morphologies include: HD181327 with a posited spray of ejecta from a recent massive collision in an exo-Kuiper belt; HD61005 suggested interacting with the local ISM; HD15115 & HD32297, discussed also in the context of environmental interactions. These disks, and HD15745, suggest debris system evolution cannot be treated in isolation. For AU Mic's edge-on disk, out-of-plane surface brightness asymmetries at > 5 AU may implicate one or more planetary perturbers. Time resolved images of the MP Mus proto-planetary disk provide spatially resolved temporal variability in the disk illumination. These and other new images from our program enable direct inter-comparison of the architectures of these exoplanetary debris systems in the context of our own Solar System.Comment: 109 pages, 43 figures, accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa

Development of remote sensing technology in New Zealand, part 1. Mapping land use and environmental studies in New Zealand, part 2. Indigenous forest assessment, part 3. Seismotectonic, structural, volcanologic and geomorphic study of New Zealand, part 4

The author has identified the following significant results. As part of the tape reformatting process, a simple coded picture output program was developed. This represents Pixel's radiance level by one of a 47 character set on a nonoverprinting line printer. It not only has aided in locating areas for the reformatting process, but has also formed the foundation for a supervised clustering package. This in turn has led to a simplistic but effective thematic mapping package

Confocal microscopy

Chapter focusing on confocal microscopy. A confocal microscope is one in which the illumination is confined to a small volume in the specimen, the detection is confined to the same volume and the image is built up by scanning this volume over the specimen, either by moving the beam of light over the specimen or by displacing the specimen relative to a stationary beam. The chief advantage of this type of microscope is that it gives a greatly enhanced discrimination of depth relative to conventional microscopes. Commercial systems appeared in the 1980s and, despite their high cost, the world market for them is probably between 500 and 1000 instruments per annum, mainly because of their use in biomedical research in conjunction with fluorescent labelling methods. There are many books and review articles on this subject ( e.g. Pawley ( 2006) , Matsumoto( 2002), Wilson (1990) ). The purpose of this chapter is to provide an introduction to optical and engineering aspects that may be o f interest to biomedical users of confocal microscopy

Nearby Supernova Factory Observations of SN 2007if: First Total Mass Measurement of a Super-Chandrasekhar-Mass Progenitor

We present photometric and spectroscopic observations of SN 2007if, an overluminous (M_V = -20.4), red (B-V = 0.16 at B-band maximum), slow-rising (t_rise = 24 days) type Ia supernova in a very faint (M_g = -14.10) host galaxy. A spectrum at 5 days past B-band maximum light is a direct match to the super-Chandrasekhar-mass candidate SN Ia 2003fg, showing Si II and C II at ~9000 km/s. A high signal-to-noise co-addition of the SN spectral time series reveals no Na I D absorption, suggesting negligible reddening in the host galaxy, and the late-time color evolution has the same slope as the Lira relation for normal SNe Ia. The ejecta appear to be well mixed, with no strong maximum in I-band and a diversity of iron-peak lines appearing in near-maximum-light spectra. SN2007 if also displays a plateau in the Si II velocity extending as late as +10 days, which we interpret as evidence for an overdense shell in the SN ejecta. We calculate the bolometric light curve of the SN and use it and the \ion{Si}{2} velocity evolution to constrain the mass of the shell and the underlying SN ejecta, and demonstrate that SN2007 if is strongly inconsistent with a Chandrasekhar-mass scenario. Within the context of a "tamped detonation" model appropriate for double-degenerate mergers, and assuming no host extinction, we estimate the total mass of the system to be 2.4 +/- 0.2 solar masses, with 1.6 +/- 0.1 solar masses of nickel-56 and with 0.3-0.5 solar masses in the form of an envelope of unburned carbon/oxygen. Our modeling demonstrates that the kinematics of shell entrainment provide a more efficient mechanism than incomplete nuclear burning for producing the low velocities typical of super-Chandrasekhar-mass SNeIa.Comment: 23 pages, 13 figures, 4 tables, emulateapj format; v2 fixed some typos and added a reference; v3 included minor copy-editing changes + fixed typos in Figure 9, Table 4; accepted to Ap

An evaluation of Skylab (EREP) remote sensing techniques applied to investigations of crustal structure

The author has identified the following significant results. Film positives (70mm) from all six S190A multispectral photographic camera stations for any one scene can be registered and analyzed in a color additive viewer. Using a multispectral viewer, S190A and B films can be projected directly onto published geologic and topographic maps at scales as large as 1:62,500 and 1:24,000 without significant loss of detail. S190A films and prints permit the detection of faults, fractures, and other linear features not visible in any other space imagery. S192 MSS imagery can be useful for rock-type discrimination studies and delineation of linear patterns and arcuate anomalies. Anomalous color reflectances and arcuate color patterns revealed mineralized zones, copper deposits, vegetation, and volcanic rocks in various locations such as Panamint Range (CA), Greenwater (Death Valley), Lava Mountains (CA), northwestern Arizona, and Coso Hot Springs (CA)

Using Linear Features for Aerial Image Sequence Mosaiking

With recent advances in sensor technology and digital image processing techniques, automatic image mosaicking has received increased attention in a variety of geospatial applications, ranging from panorama generation and video surveillance to image based rendering. The geometric transformation used to link images in a mosaic is the subject of image orientation, a fundamental photogrammetric task that represents a major research area in digital image analysis. It involves the determination of the parameters that express the location and pose of a camera at the time it captured an image. In aerial applications the typical parameters comprise two translations (along the x and y coordinates) and one rotation (rotation about the z axis). Orientation typically proceeds by extracting from an image control points, i.e. points with known coordinates. Salient points such as road intersections, and building corners are commonly used to perform this task. However, such points may contain minimal information other than their radiometric uniqueness, and, more importantly, in some areas they may be impossible to obtain (e.g. in rural and arid areas). To overcome this problem we introduce an alternative approach that uses linear features such as roads and rivers for image mosaicking. Such features are identified and matched to their counterparts in overlapping imagery. Our matching approach uses critical points (e.g. breakpoints) of linear features and the information conveyed by them (e.g. local curvature values and distance metrics) to match two such features and orient the images in which they are depicted. In this manner we orient overlapping images by comparing breakpoint representations of complete or partial linear features depicted in them. By considering broader feature metrics (instead of single points) in our matching scheme we aim to eliminate the effect of erroneous point matches in image mosaicking. Our approach does not require prior approximate parameters, which are typically an essential requirement for successful convergence of point matching schemes. Furthermore, we show that large rotation variations about the z-axis may be recovered. With the acquired orientation parameters, image sequences are mosaicked. Experiments with synthetic aerial image sequences are included in this thesis to demonstrate the performance of our approach

Plenoptic Signal Processing for Robust Vision in Field Robotics

This thesis proposes the use of plenoptic cameras for improving the robustness and simplicity of machine vision in field robotics applications. Dust, rain, fog, snow, murky water and insufficient light can cause even the most sophisticated vision systems to fail. Plenoptic cameras offer an appealing alternative to conventional imagery by gathering significantly more light over a wider depth of field, and capturing a rich 4D light field structure that encodes textural and geometric information. The key contributions of this work lie in exploring the properties of plenoptic signals and developing algorithms for exploiting them. It lays the groundwork for the deployment of plenoptic cameras in field robotics by establishing a decoding, calibration and rectification scheme appropriate to compact, lenslet-based devices. Next, the frequency-domain shape of plenoptic signals is elaborated and exploited by constructing a filter which focuses over a wide depth of field rather than at a single depth. This filter is shown to reject noise, improving contrast in low light and through attenuating media, while mitigating occluders such as snow, rain and underwater particulate matter. Next, a closed-form generalization of optical flow is presented which directly estimates camera motion from first-order derivatives. An elegant adaptation of this "plenoptic flow" to lenslet-based imagery is demonstrated, as well as a simple, additive method for rendering novel views. Finally, the isolation of dynamic elements from a static background is considered, a task complicated by the non-uniform apparent motion caused by a mobile camera. Two elegant closed-form solutions are presented dealing with monocular time-series and light field image pairs. This work emphasizes non-iterative, noise-tolerant, closed-form, linear methods with predictable and constant runtimes, making them suitable for real-time embedded implementation in field robotics applications