ENCODING PARAMETER ESTIMATION FOR RDTC OPTIMIZED COMPRESSION AND STREAMING OF IMAGE-BASED SCENE REPRESENTATIONS

ABSTRACT Remote navigation in image-based scene representations requires random access to parts of the compressed reference image data to compose virtual views. The degree of dependencies introduced during compression has an impact on the effort that is required to access reference image data and at the same time delimits the rate-distortion (RD) tradeoff that can be achieved. If a limited channel bitrate and computational power of client devices are taken into account, encoding can be performed in a RD optimal manner with respect to the expected maximum transmission data rate (T) and decoding complexity (C). In this work we present a practical framework for parameter estimation for RDTC optimal encoding of image-based scene representations

Camera positioning for 3D panoramic image rendering

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University London.Virtual camera realisation and the proposition of trapezoidal camera architecture are the two broad contributions of this thesis. Firstly, multiple camera and their arrangement constitute a critical component which affect the integrity of visual content acquisition for multi-view video. Currently, linear, convergence, and divergence arrays are the prominent camera topologies adopted. However, the large number of cameras required and their synchronisation are two of prominent challenges usually encountered. The use of virtual cameras can significantly reduce the number of physical cameras used with respect to any of the known camera structures, hence adequately reducing some of the other implementation issues. This thesis explores to use image-based rendering with and without geometry in the implementations leading to the realisation of virtual cameras. The virtual camera implementation was carried out from the perspective of depth map (geometry) and use of multiple image samples (no geometry). Prior to the virtual camera realisation, the generation of depth map was investigated using region match measures widely known for solving image point correspondence problem. The constructed depth maps have been compare with the ones generated using the dynamic programming approach. In both the geometry and no geometry approaches, the virtual cameras lead to the rendering of views from a textured depth map, construction of 3D panoramic image of a scene by stitching multiple image samples and performing superposition on them, and computation of virtual scene from a stereo pair of panoramic images. The quality of these rendered images were assessed through the use of either objective or subjective analysis in Imatest software. Further more, metric reconstruction of a scene was performed by re-projection of the pixel points from multiple image samples with a single centre of projection. This was done using sparse bundle adjustment algorithm. The statistical summary obtained after the application of this algorithm provides a gauge for the efficiency of the optimisation step. The optimised data was then visualised in Meshlab software environment, hence providing the reconstructed scene. Secondly, with any of the well-established camera arrangements, all cameras are usually constrained to the same horizontal plane. Therefore, occlusion becomes an extremely challenging problem, and a robust camera set-up is required in order to resolve strongly the hidden part of any scene objects. To adequately meet the visibility condition for scene objects and given that occlusion of the same scene objects can occur, a multi-plane camera structure is highly desirable. Therefore, this thesis also explore trapezoidal camera structure for image acquisition. The approach here is to assess the feasibility and potential of several physical cameras of the same model being sparsely arranged on the edge of an efficient trapezoid graph. This is implemented both Matlab and Maya. The quality of the depth maps rendered in Matlab are better in Quality

British Independent Record Labels, Memory and Mediation

PhD ThesisThis thesis examines the changing relationship between the material culture of music (in the form of recorded music objects) and memory (as it is sedimented in, and mediated by, the work of a selection of British independent record labels). The principal aim of this work is to explore the significant but often-overlooked material paradigm of recorded music, from Edison’s invention of the phonograph in 1877 up until the early twenty-first century, increasingly characterised by the digital archiving, collecting and consumption of music. Drawing from a broad range of cultural theorists (including Benjamin, Straw, Sterne, Kittler, Gitelman and Huyssen), this research seeks to situate recorded sound within broader discourses on memory and mediation, technology and cultural transmission. The thesis is structured around the analyses of several British independent record labels from the recent past and the present: Sarah Records (1987- 1995), Ghost Box Records (2004-) and reissue record labels, including Finders Keepers (2004-). By focusing on specific record labels and situated configurations of the material culture of music, both physical and digital, I identify and map various aspects of the music object and clarify the particular socio-technological contexts within which such configurations arise.Whittaker Scholarshi

Archaeology of the Voice: Exploring Oral History, Locative Media, Audio Walks, and Sound Art as Sitespecific Displacement Activities

This thesis develops a notion of an archaeology of the voice that is situated between three principal areas of research and practice: oral history, locative media, and sound art. The research takes place in the context of contested urban space in Holbeck, Leeds one of the most deprived neighbourhoods in the U.K. Through a reiterative and reflexive process of extensive interviewing, soundwalking and field recording the area is deep mapped and material gathered in order to produce a percipient led sitespecific presentation of oral history I term 'phonoscape'. Although the technology exists to connect oral history to place via locative media within a database aesthetic, a practical and conceptual gap is identified between these technologies for those working with audio interview material. In this context a purpose-built app is developed to enable oral history audio archives to be distributed geospatially, becoming navigable aurally on foot. In order to distribute a polyvocal sampling of an archive in time-space, techniques and principles from contemporary sound art are introduced, in particular a form of field composition involving an understanding of constitutive silence, soundscape, and voice editing techniques. Research into contemporary audio walk and memoryscape practice confirms that non-linear, fragmented narrative forms are used the construction of polyvocal understandings of place, and this is taken forward within a conception of the embodied hypertextual affordance of locative technology. The findings are then brought together in a transdisciplinary manoeuvre that introduces Displacement Activities, a translocational form of site-specific participatory performance art, providing a public vehicle that draws attention to phonoscape, its oral history content, and the archive itself. As an open work that is generative and reflexive, Displacement Activities extend the notion of site-specificity, finding global analogues before returning to the original site to begin the work again

Studies in the geomorphology of the mountain regions of the Upper Indus basin

The investigation primarily concerns contemporary geomorphological features and processes in the Upper Indus Basin, Past work, and theories of the denudation chronology of the region are described, and the broad climatic and geological setting. The bulk of the work examines characteristics of weathering, slopes and mass-movements, glacial and fluvial features in the Biafo Gyang area of the Central Karakoram. The nature and role of glacier surges and natural damming in the region are discussed. An effort is also made to support the central theme with background information and visual illustration not normally available, and a comprehensive regional bibliography is provided. Weathering processes show an intimate interaction of chemical decay, salt weathering, frost action and primary mechanical failure of rock, A variety of forms is produced from tafoni to exfoliation structures, while weathering products are mainly angular with little clay fraction. This seems mainly due to rapid rates of removal which preclude advanced decay. Slopes are steep, most of the Biafo Basin area exceeding 45° of angle. This, large upslope variations in climate and lack of vegetation promote vigorous mass -movements and varied slope deposits. The Biafo Gyang Glacier is one of many enormous valley glaciers in the region, and is of the Firn-Stream type, The ablation zone has extensive covers of moraine and large flanking kame terraces. There is a short, vigorous melt season and marked resurgence of the glacier margins and terminus in winter. Above the Biafo the Braldu River flows in a wide belt of valley train, but plunges into a deep gorge with huge terraces and rock walls below the glacier\u27s entry. 80% of the Upper Indus rivers\u27 discharge occurs in three months of the year and over 90% of the sediment transport. Extreme erosional events play an important role in the region, special significance attaching to the many natural dams and dam-burst floods. Overall, the orographic effect tends to express itself by promoting short-lived, high energy erosional events

Studies in the geomorphology of the mountain regions of the Upper Indus basin

The investigation primarily concerns contemporary geomorphological features and processes in the Upper Indus Basin, Past work, and theories of the denudation chronology of the region are described, and the broad climatic and geological setting. The bulk of the work examines characteristics of weathering, slopes and mass-movements, glacial and fluvial features in the Biafo Gyang area of the Central Karakoram. The nature and role of glacier surges and natural damming in the region are discussed. An effort is also made to support the central theme with background information and visual illustration not normally available, and a comprehensive regional bibliography is provided. Weathering processes show an intimate interaction of chemical decay, salt weathering, frost action and primary mechanical failure of rock, A variety of forms is produced from tafoni to exfoliation structures, while weathering products are mainly angular with little clay fraction. This seems mainly due to rapid rates of removal which preclude advanced decay. Slopes are steep, most of the Biafo Basin area exceeding 45° of angle. This, large upslope variations in climate and lack of vegetation promote vigorous mass -movements and varied slope deposits. The Biafo Gyang Glacier is one of many enormous valley glaciers in the region, and is of the Firn-Stream type, The ablation zone has extensive covers of moraine and large flanking kame terraces. There is a short, vigorous melt season and marked resurgence of the glacier margins and terminus in winter. Above the Biafo the Braldu River flows in a wide belt of valley train, but plunges into a deep gorge with huge terraces and rock walls below the glacier\u27s entry. 80% of the Upper Indus rivers\u27 discharge occurs in three months of the year and over 90% of the sediment transport. Extreme erosional events play an important role in the region, special significance attaching to the many natural dams and dam-burst floods. Overall, the orographic effect tends to express itself by promoting short-lived, high energy erosional events

Microgravity Science and Applications: Program Tasks and Bibliography for Fiscal Year 1996

NASA's Microgravity Science and Applications Division (MSAD) sponsors a program that expands the use of space as a laboratory for the study of important physical, chemical, and biochemical processes. The primary objective of the program is to broaden the value and capabilities of human presence in space by exploiting the unique characteristics of the space environment for research. However, since flight opportunities are rare and flight research development is expensive, a vigorous ground-based research program, from which only the best experiments evolve, is critical to the continuing strength of the program. The microgravity environment affords unique characteristics that allow the investigation of phenomena and processes that are difficult or impossible to study an Earth. The ability to control gravitational effects such as buoyancy driven convection, sedimentation, and hydrostatic pressures make it possible to isolate phenomena and make measurements that have significantly greater accuracy than can be achieved in normal gravity. Space flight gives scientists the opportunity to study the fundamental states of physical matter-solids, liquids and gasses-and the forces that affect those states. Because the orbital environment allows the treatment of gravity as a variable, research in microgravity leads to a greater fundamental understanding of the influence of gravity on the world around us. With appropriate emphasis, the results of space experiments lead to both knowledge and technological advances that have direct applications on Earth. Microgravity research also provides the practical knowledge essential to the development of future space systems. The Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications (OLMSA) is responsible for planning and executing research stimulated by the Agency's broad scientific goals. OLMSA's Microgravity Science and Applications Division (MSAD) is responsible for guiding and focusing a comprehensive program, and currently manages its research and development tasks through five major scientific areas: biotechnology, combustion science, fluid physics, fundamental physics, and materials science. FY 1996 was an important year for MSAD. NASA continued to build a solid research community for the coming space station era. During FY 1996, the NASA Microgravity Research Program continued investigations selected from the 1994 combustion science, fluid physics, and materials science NRAS. MSAD also released a NASA Research Announcement in microgravity biotechnology, with more than 130 proposals received in response. Selection of research for funding is expected in early 1997. The principal investigators chosen from these NRAs will form the core of the MSAD research program at the beginning of the space station era. The third United States Microgravity Payload (USMP-3) and the Life and Microgravity Spacelab (LMS) missions yielded a wealth of microgravity data in FY 1996. The USMP-3 mission included a fluids facility and three solidification furnaces, each designed to examine a different type of crystal growth

NASA Microgravity Materials Science Conference

The Microgravity Materials Science Conference was held June 10-11, 1996 at the Von Braun Civic Center in Huntsville, AL. It was organized by the Microgravity Materials Science Discipline Working Group, sponsored by the Microgravity Science and Applications Division at NASA Headquarters, and hosted by the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and the Alliance for Microgravity Materials Science and Applications (AMMSA). It was the second NASA conference of this type in the microgravity materials science discipline. The microgravity science program sponsored approximately 80 investigations and 69 principal investigators in FY96, all of whom made oral or poster presentations at this conference. The conference's purpose was to inform the materials science community of research opportunities in reduced gravity in preparation for a NASA Research Announcement (NRA) scheduled for release in late 1996 by the Microgravity Science and Applications Division at NASA Headquarters. The conference was aimed at materials science researchers from academia, industry, and government. A tour of the MSFC microgravity research facilities was held on June 12, 1996. This volume is comprised of the research reports submitted by the principal investigators after the conference and presentations made by various NASA microgravity science managers