Vision systems with the human in the loop

The emerging cognitive vision paradigm deals with vision systems that apply machine learning and automatic reasoning in order to learn from what they perceive. Cognitive vision systems can rate the relevance and consistency of newly acquired knowledge, they can adapt to their environment and thus will exhibit high robustness. This contribution presents vision systems that aim at flexibility and robustness. One is tailored for content-based image retrieval, the others are cognitive vision systems that constitute prototypes of visual active memories which evaluate, gather, and integrate contextual knowledge for visual analysis. All three systems are designed to interact with human users. After we will have discussed adaptive content-based image retrieval and object and action recognition in an office environment, the issue of assessing cognitive systems will be raised. Experiences from psychologically evaluated human-machine interactions will be reported and the promising potential of psychologically-based usability experiments will be stressed

Ground Robotic Hand Applications for the Space Program study (GRASP)

This document reports on a NASA-STDP effort to address research interests of the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) through a study entitled, Ground Robotic-Hand Applications for the Space Program (GRASP). The primary objective of the GRASP study was to identify beneficial applications of specialized end-effectors and robotic hand devices for automating any ground operations which are performed at the Kennedy Space Center. Thus, operations for expendable vehicles, the Space Shuttle and its components, and all payloads were included in the study. Typical benefits of automating operations, or augmenting human operators performing physical tasks, include: reduced costs; enhanced safety and reliability; and reduced processing turnaround time

On the Deployment of Moving Networks in Ultra-dense Urban Scenarios

In future mobile communication systems, more users will rely on mobile data services while riding public transportation vehicles for either working or entertainment. To serve these vehicular users effectively, the deployment of moving base stations on public transportation vehicles is considered as one of the most promising solutions. Each public transportation vehicle forms a moving network (MN) inside the vehicle to serve the users on board. In this paper, we study the deployment of MNs in an ultra-dense urban scenario, and we identify that one of the key challenges is the inter-cell interference, which is worsen by the street canyon effects. In order to address this problem, we employ and compare various solutions to enhance the performance of MNs. We show that by using MNs that have advanced multi-antenna systems, the quality of service at the vehicular users is noticeably improved without obvious influence on the performance of regular outdoor users

A cross-species framework to identify vocal learning abilities in mammals

Vocal production learning (VPL) is the experience-driven ability to produce novel vocal signals through imitation or modification of existing vocalizations. A parallel strand of research investigates acoustic allometry, namely how information about body size is conveyed by acoustic signals. Recently, we proposed that deviation from acoustic allometry principles as a result of sexual selection may have been an intermediate step towards the evolution of vocal learning abilities in mammals. Adopting a more hypothesis-neutral stance, here we perform phylogenetic regressions and other analyses further testing a potential link between VPL and being an allometric outlier. We find that multiple species belonging to VPL clades deviate from allometric scaling but in the opposite direction to that expected from size exaggeration mechanisms. In other words, our correlational approach finds an association between VPL and being an allometric outlier. However, the direction of this association, contra our original hypothesis, may indicate that VPL did not necessarily emerge via sexual selection for size exaggeration: VPL clades show higher vocalization frequencies than expected. In addition, our approach allows us to identify species with potential for VPL abilities: we hypothesize that those outliers from acoustic allometry lying above the regression line may be VPL species. Our results may help better understand the cross-species diversity, variability and aetiology of VPL, which among other things is a key underpinning of speech in our species. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Voice modulation: from origin and mechanism to social impact (Part II)’

Integration of Virtual Programming Lab in a process of teaching programming EduScrum based

Programming teaching is a key factor for technological evolution. The efficient way to learn to program is by programming and hard training and thus feedback is a crucial factor in the success and flow of the process. This work aims to analyse the potential use of VPL in the teaching process of programming in higher education. It also intends to verify whether, with VPL, it is possible to make students learning more effective and autonomous, with a reduction in the volume of assessment work by teachers. Experiments were carried out with the VPL, in the practical-laboratory classes of a curricular unit of initiation to programming in a higher education institution. The results supported by the responses to surveys, point to the validity of the model

An integrated dexterous robotic testbed for space applications

An integrated dexterous robotic system was developed as a testbed to evaluate various robotics technologies for advanced space applications. The system configuration consisted of a Utah/MIT Dexterous Hand, a PUMA 562 arm, a stereo vision system, and a multiprocessing computer control system. In addition to these major subsystems, a proximity sensing system was integrated with the Utah/MIT Hand to provide capability for non-contact sensing of a nearby object. A high-speed fiber-optic link was used to transmit digitized proximity sensor signals back to the multiprocessing control system. The hardware system was designed to satisfy the requirements for both teleoperated and autonomous operations. The software system was designed to exploit parallel processing capability, pursue functional modularity, incorporate artificial intelligence for robot control, allow high-level symbolic robot commands, maximize reusable code, minimize compilation requirements, and provide an interactive application development and debugging environment for the end users. An overview is presented of the system hardware and software configurations, and implementation is discussed of subsystem functions

Mobile femtocell utilisation in LTE vehicular environment: vehicular penetration loss elimination and performance enhancement

Mobile computing is fast becoming a vital part of everyday life in which User Equipment (UE) demand being reachable anywhere and at anytime, as they spend much time travellingfrom one place to another, often by trains or buses. The ultimate aim of passengers is the ability to be connected to the Internet while they are moving from one place to another with their mobile devices. Providing indoor coverage on trains and buses directly with outdoor Base Stations (BSs) may not be a good solution due to the high density of use and path losses in the LTE network. This limitation can result in poor signal quality inside the train, and offering broadband services is not always possible. Clearly improvement to broadband access on buses and trains could be achieved by installing more BSs close to railway and bus routes and terminals. However, this solution is not ideal for the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) due to the high investment needed to deploy many more BSs. In addition, such a solution will introduce additional complexity by increasing the number of Handovers (HOs). This issue has focused the research community effort on developing solutions that take advantage of the existing wireless infrastructure without increasing the number of BSs. One method being considered is the development of more efficient methods and technologies to manage the UE’s mobility in seamless ways. In this paper we propose adoption of Mobile Femtocell (Mobile-Femto) technology as a solution to mitigate the Vehicular Penetration Loss (VPL) and Path Loss, with consequent improvement to the vehicular UE’s performance in LTE networks. Our results, using a Matlab simulation model, showed a noticeable improvement in the achieved Ergodic capacity by 5% under a VPL of 40dB while 90% of vehicular UEs spectral efficiency has improved by 1.3b/cu under a VPL of 25dB. In addition, 80% of vehicular UEs have improved their throughput and SINR by 300kb/s and 4dB respectively after implementing the Mobile-Femto into the Macrocell in LTE networks

Interference management for moving networks in ultra-dense urban scenarios

The number of users relying on broadband wireless connectivity while riding public transportation vehicles is increasing significantly. One of the promising solutions is to deploy moving base stations on public transportation vehicles to form moving networks (MNs) that serve these vehicular users inside the vehicles. In this study, we investigated the benefits and challenges in deploying MNs in ultra-dense urban scenarios. We identified that the key challenge limiting the performance of MNs in ultra-dense urban scenarios is inter-cell interference, which is exacerbated by the urban canyon effects. To address this challenge, we evaluated different inter-cell interference coordination and multi-antenna interference suppression techniques for MNs. We showed that in using MNs together with effective interference management approaches, the quality of service for users in vehicles can be significantly improved, with negligible impacts on the performance of regular outdoor users

A general framework for positioning, evaluating and selecting the new generation of development tools.

This paper focuses on the evaluation and positioning of a new generation of development tools containing subtools (report generators, browsers, debuggers, GUI-builders, ...) and programming languages that are designed to work together and have a common graphical user interface and are therefore called environments. Several trends in IT have led to a pluriform range of developments tools that can be classified in numerous categories. Examples are: object-oriented tools, GUI-tools, upper- and lower CASE-tools, client/server tools and 4GL environments. This classification does not sufficiently cover the tools subject in this paper for the simple reason that only one criterion is used to distinguish them. Modern visual development environments often fit in several categories because to a certain extent, several criteria can be applied to evaluate them. In this study, we will offer a broad classification scheme with which tools can be positioned and which can be refined through further research.