An O(n) time discrete relaxation architecture for real-time processing of the consistent labeling problem

technical reportDiscrete relaxation techniques have proven useful in solving a wide range of problems in digital signal and digital image processing, artificial intelligence, operations research, and machine vision. Much work has been devoted to finding efficient hardware architectures. This paper shows that a conventional hardware design for a Discrete Relaxation Algorithm (DRA) suffers from 0(n2m3 ) time complexity and Oinhn2) space complexity. By reformulating DRA into a parallel computational tree and using a multiple tree-root pipelining scheme, time complexity is reduced to O(nm), while the space complexity is reduced by a factor of 2. For certain relaxation processing, the space complexity can even be decreased to O(nm). Furthermore, a technique for dynamic configuring an architectural wavefront is used which leads to an O(n) time highly configurable DRA3 architecture

ARCH: a Robust Construction Heuristic for the Layout Design of Food Processing Facilities.

A Robust Construction Heuristic (ARCH) represents the first attempt to develop a facilities layout design algorithm tailored to the particular solution of the food processing facility layout problem where a fluctuating product mix due to seasonality or changes in consumer demand is typical. The foundation literature for this research comes predominantly from the industrial engineering, management science, and food science fields. Construction heuristics built layouts from scratch and provided poor quality results. Robustness algorithms had no simplifying heuristics but were reported to yield potentially higher quality layouts than traditional algorithms for layout problems with fluctuating product mixes. ARCH was developed as an alternative layout design algorithm based on the parallel philosophies that a robustness consideration would improve the relatively low quality solutions reported for construction heuristics and that a construction approach would allow the robust algorithm to be realistically implemented. ARCH was found to provide layout solutions comparable to or better than improvement heuristics for benchmark problems from the literature. A case study of an existing ham processing line was performed and a layout design for the plant generated by ARCH. In-plant surveys were conducted to develop pertinent input data for ARCH. Three products, whole smoked ham, chunked-and-formed ham, and pork sausage were produced by the plant. Historical seasonal demands were used for the expected fluctuation in levels of demand for each product. Certain assumptions had to be made to allow ARCH to consider layouts with certain flow patterns (U-shaped). The resulting layout designs were rather unorthodox in shape but could be used by the human designer to determine adjacency requirements for the final design

A Task-Centred Methodology to Evaluate the Design of Virtual Reality User Interactions: A Case Study on Hazard Identification

Virtual reality (VR) is a computer-based technology that can be used by professionals of many different fields to simulate an environment with a high feeling of presence and immersion. Nonetheless, one main issue when designing such environments is to provide user interactions that are adapted to the tasks performed by the users. Thus, we propose here a task-centred methodology to design and evaluate these user interactions. Our methodology allows for the determination of user interaction designs based on previous VR studies, and for user evaluations based on a task-related computation of usability. Here, we applied it on the hazard identification case study, since VR can be used in a preventive approach to improve worksite safety. Once this task and its related user interactions were analysed with our methodology, we obtained two possible designs of interaction techniques for the worksite exploration subtask. About their usability evaluation, we proposed in this study to compare our task-centred evaluation approach to a non-task-centred one. Our hypothesis was that our approach could lead to different interpretations of user study results than a non-task-centred one. Our results confirmed our hypothesis by comparing weighted usability scores from our task-centred approach to unweighted ones for our two interaction techniques.Conseil régional de Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (reference: CDBOBI

Integração de sistemas de informações geográficas e sistema especialista visando auxiliar a tomada de decisão locacional do setor bancário /

Orientadora : Luciene Stamato DelazariInclui apêndicesDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciencias da Terra, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciencias Geodésicas. Defesa: Curitiba, 2007Inclui bibliografia e anexo

Spatial Configurations: Complex Systems Experiment of Design Automation

The study of design does not seem to shift from the paradigm that design process is a complex and seems similar to the nature of a black box system. It is a process which can be viewed solely in terms of its input and output, without a detail prescription of the process to produce that output. The complex nature of design process, and architecture design in particular have been explained by experts (Alexander 1964, Anderson 1966 to name a few), but this thesis underlines the work around of the rigid clear box system of computing to get a reliably working non-wired-in process to support the notion of architecture design as a complex system. The clear box nature of computing process is a fundamental characteristic of computing, so the process to be proposed has to work within this framework. The process would have to be prescribed or otherwise it cannot be executed. Many machines which given the same input and the same process, will all result in the same output. A single machine which given the same input and the same process to execute for many times will all result in the same output each time. However, the development of computing has enabled the processing of multiple inputs. The significant of parallel computing is that it seems to provide a window of epistemic autonomy within a process. There is a large philosophical and theoretical discussion behind the notion of epistemic autonomy which this thesis tried to introduce a preliminary summary, and sums it into the following description. A system consists of one single bird and a process of how to fly may result in a bird flying. Given many birds and implementing flying process synchronously to all the birds could result in a swarm of birds. There is not much different to see one bird or many birds flying in the sky, except that in many birds that each are using the same flying process would result in an underlying flying configurations. The underlying flying configuration is not part of the system; it is an emergence of the system. So the emergence structure of flying bird was enabled by a window of epistemic autonomy which comes from the use of many flying birds as opposed to a single flying bird. A window of epistemic autonomy seems to have been created in the programming experiments with the implementation of a basic Agent-Based Model (ABM) as ABM is inherently an autonomous non-wired in process (Cilliers, 1993). The coding is based on a system introduce by Reynolds (1987) which a program was already built and modified many times in projects within CECA – UEL. To put simply, the inputs are multiple copies of one type of entity placed in using randomizing code, and the process synchronously applied to all these copies are to move towards the closest out of other three neighboring entities. The utilization of ABM into the programming experiment seems parallel with the findings in the literature review where it proposes a summary of a production of space by way of using a binary approach known to be brought up by Lefebvre (1974). Lefebvre seems to suggest that the very basis of spatial production is that space consists of either a moving or a non-moving social entity. Thus the criteria above since then been adapted to accommodate a simple social relations and this is called Social Preference Matrix (SPM). SPM is an original contribution in the form of coding that comes out of this thesis’s programming experiment. To put simply, SPM enables the identification of heading towards the nearest out of three neighboring entities only when it is the specific entity it relates to in the SPM. When this is triggered, both entities i.e. the one moving towards to and the designated entity both will eventually within a specific constant distance with each other, and these will stay in a loop of attract and repel, which is perceived as simulation of these being stop moving. The development of the programming experiment have found that when all entities are identified as occupying entities, eventually all entities will loop in attract and repel, i.e. all eventually will be non-moving. When introduce with non-occupying entities, i.e. those not identified and included in the SPM, then the possibility to have similar characteristic to what is known in the Configurational Theory as the movement space appears. The specific of architectural production may be seen as an opposite of the dynamics seen in an underlying configuration of bird swarm. Architectural subjects particularly regarding spatial configurations seems to be required to be static; there is not known liquid or ever-changing spatial configurations. Thus instead merely producing a system of moving around entities in space, this then had to be translated into some static versions of events. In this programming experiment, these were built on the basis of notations provided by the Configurational Theory (Hillier, 1996). Interestingly, he also stated in his previous work (Hillier, 1978) that there is a production of space where a larger space is being divided into smaller space. There is a body of research into programming headed by Mitchell, et.al (1976), which stretches for about three decades afterwards. However as far as the literature investigation went, none has seemed to explore the notion of epistemic autonomy in the production of spatial configurations. Following this finding, the programming experiment then added in a program called Voronoi Diagram (version coded in the programming experiment is as prescribed by Akl and Lyons, 1993) which enables several significant developments in producing spatial configurations by way of dividing space. Firstly, the production of space by way of dividing space is based on an emergence of underlying configuration out of possible social relations between entities occupying the space. Secondly, the division is based on maximum arrangement of occupiable space between all occupying and non occupying entities, because Voronoi Diagram divided space equally in between all of the identified entities. Thirdly; a part from an emergence spatial relations by way of utilization of SPM within the ABM, the employment of Voronoi Diagram also enables the emergence of shapes and dimensions out of the divided space. At the end of this study, the programming experiment has resulted in a programming framework named Spatial Languaging. A part from that there seems to be a promising field of research into programming under the notion of epistemic autonomy specifically develops for architectural systems, because there are numerous methods of parallel processing and many different media of implementing ABM. More importantly, the notion of structural emergence seems applicable to many aspects of architecture and all worth exploring

Estudo da distribuição automatica de geometrias planas aplicando conceito de inteligencia artificial

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Centro TecnologicoQuando se deseja obter peças oriundas de matéria prima plana, é importante, aproveitar a maior quantidade possível dessa matéria prima. No caso da indústria do vestuário, onde as peças são distribuídas sobre o recibo, primeiro é preciso reduzir o tamanho real. Cada molde utilizado nesses processos, devido a seu elevado custo, deve ser armazenado em local apropriado e arquivado de forma a facilitar sua recuperação, ocupando, com isso, um espaço físico considerável. Além disso, trata-se de um trabalho bastante moroso e cansativo, realizar o encaixe manualmnte. Os recursos computacionais gráfico-interativos, hoje disponíveis, possibilitam a solução de alguns desses problemas. No entanto, a realização do encaixe propriamente dito, não sendo totalmente automático, continua dependente de especialistas. A formação técnica de um especialista requer tempo da ordem de meses e a produção de uma indústria poder aumentar subitamente, exigindo de imediato um número maior de especialistas. A automatização da tarefa é interessante nesse caso, pois durante a noite os computadores realizariam os encaixes e, se necessário, durante o dia, os especialistas, além de realizarem encaixes normais, aperfeiçoariam os gerados pelo computador, com uma considerável redução no tempo exigido possibilitando que a indústria responda de pronto ao aumento da demanda

Mudança digital no desenho arquitetónico: uma outra visão para a arquitetura paisagista

Mestrado em Arquitetura Paisagista - Instituto Superior de Agronomia - ULA presente dissertação procura traçar uma perspetiva histórica do desenho digital, em particular, nos processos arquitetónicos. O uso do computador e de métodos computacionais no desenho arquitetónico, por meio de programas específicos, tem sido estudado por vários autores no campo da Arquitetura, levando em consideração as mudanças no processo criativo e noutras formas de projetar. Contudo, não tem sido dado relevo à origem dessa mudança, tornando premente resgatar a memória histórica sobre o contexto e os protagonistas dessa transformação que tanto tem marcado a arquitetura do século XXI. Neste sentido, pretende-se evidenciar as origens do desenho digital e olhar para as alterações que o desenho arquitetónico sofreu com a utilização de meios digitais, primeiro nos círculos académicos, nas décadas de sessenta e setenta e depois com uma massificação dos programas CAD (desenho assistido por computador) nas décadas de oitenta e noventa. A elaboração da tese de doutoramento em 1963, Sketchpad: A man-machine graphical communication system de Ivan Sutherland marca começo do digital no desenho arquitetónico. É a capacidade visionária de alguns académicos, e em particular de Sutherland, que possibilita a criação do primeiro programa de CAD interativo que permite desenhar sem papel, num monitor, num tempo em que os computadores eram dispendiosos, enormes, mas com monitores de dimensão inferior a alguns smartphones. A dissertação tem como principal objetivo esboçar uma perspetiva histórica do desenho digital a nível internacional, através de pesquisa bibliográfica do trabalho de académicos e escolas relevantes para a revolução digital do século XX. A dissertação estrutura-se em três partes. Na primeira, o primeiro capítulo destaca os antecedentes e a ligação da arquitetura à ciência e da computação à indústria. A segunda parte, descreve o começo da mudança digital através do desenvolvimento dos primeiros sistemas CAD interativos e dos contributos de cinco pioneiros do desenho digital arquitetónico. A terceira parte consiste na descrição de um caso prático de aplicação dos meios digitais à renovação do espaço público urbanoN/

Electra : integrating constraints, condition-based dispatching, and features exclusion into the multiparadigm language Leda

Multiparadigm languages are languages that are designed to support more than one style of programming. Leda is a strongly-typed multiparadigm programming language that supports imperative, functional, object-oriented, and logic programming. The constraint programming paradigm is a declarative style of programming where the programmer is able to state relationships among some entities and expect the system to maintain the validity of these relationships throughout program execution. The system accomplishes this either by invoking user-defined fixes that impose rigid rules governing the evolution of the entities, or by finding suitable values to be assigned to the constrained entities without violating any active constraint. Constraints, due to their declarative semantics, are suitable for the direct mapping of the characteristics of a number of mechanisms including: consistency checks, constraint-directed search, and constraint-enforced reevaluation, among others. This makes constraint languages the most appropriate languages for the implementation of a large number of applications such as scheduling, planning, resource allocation, simulation, and graphical user interfaces. The semantics of constraints cannot be easily emulated by other constructs in the paradigms that are offered by the language Leda. However, the constraint paradigm does not provide any general control constructs. The lack of general control constructs impedes this paradigm's ability to naturally express a large number of problems. This dissertation presents the language Electra, which integrates the constraint paradigm into the language Leda by creating a unified construct that provides the ability to express the conventional semantics of constraints with some extensions. Due to the flexibility of this construct, the programmer is given the choice of either stating how a constraint is to be satisfied or delegating that task to the constraint-satisfier. The concept of providing the programmer with the ability to express system-maintained relations, which is the basic characteristic of constraints, provided a motivation for enhancing other paradigms with similar abilities. The functional paradigm is extended by adding to it the mechanism of condition-based dispatching which is similar to argument pattern-matching. The object-oriented paradigm is extended by allowing feature exclusion which is a form of inheritance exception. This dissertation claims that the integration provided by the language Electra will enable Leda programmers to reap the benefits of the paradigm of constraints while overcoming its limitations