Reproducible Evaluation of Pan-Tilt-Zoom Tracking

Tracking with a Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) camera has been a research topic in computer vision for many years. However, it is very difficult to assess the progress that has been made on this topic because there is no standard evaluation methodology. The difficulty in evaluating PTZ tracking algorithms arises from their dynamic nature. In contrast to other forms of tracking, PTZ tracking involves both locating the target in the image and controlling the motors of the camera to aim it so that the target stays in its field of view. This type of tracking can only be performed online. In this paper, we propose a new evaluation framework based on a virtual PTZ camera. With this framework, tracking scenarios do not change for each experiment and we are able to replicate online PTZ camera control and behavior including camera positioning delays, tracker processing delays, and numerical zoom. We tested our evaluation framework with the Camshift tracker to show its viability and to establish baseline results.Comment: This is an extended version of the 2015 ICIP paper "Reproducible Evaluation of Pan-Tilt-Zoom Tracking

Remote Airport Traffic Control Center (2008 - 2012) Final Presentation and Workshop - Extended Abstracts

The present report contains the extended and revised version of the abstracts collection of the presentations given at the final international workshop of the DLR-project RAiCe (Remote Airport traffic Control Center, 2008 - 2012), held on November 30 2012 in Braunschweig. The RaiCe presentations are complemented by two external contributions,from the Swedish ANSP LFV and company Frequentis, representing the industrial perspective on Remote Tower research and development. The RaiCe workshop was a satellite event of the Second SESAR Innovation Days (SID 2012, Nov. 27-29) which was held in Braunschweig, following the first one in Toulouse 2011. One of the RaiCe validation results papers was presented at SID2012 and is also included in the present report for com-pleteness, besides inclusion in the SID2012 proceedings. In addition to the collection of extended abstracts and an introduction, besides some general refer-ences a list of the publications of the DLR Remote Tower Group (time frame 2002 – 2012) is provid-ed. A list of the workshop participants is added as part of the Appendix

Patella Resection in Total Knee Arthroplasty: An Analytical Comparison of Three Techniques

Patella resection, as a routine component of TKA, can be both difficult to plan and difficult to execute. The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate the repeatability of three unique patellar resection techniques used in total knee arthroplasty. The secondary purpose of this study was to establish whether different surgical techniques were able to reproduce preoperative plans made by each surgeon. We used radiographic measurements to evaluate patellar thickness and patellar cut angle preoperatively and postoperatively. Three techniques (45 cases in total) were evaluated, revealing qualitative differences between surgical techniques and significant quantitative differences between average patellar thickness and tilt values. No one technique was found to accurately execute the preoperative plans, and all resections were completed at a more conservative thickness than was pre-planned by the surgeons. Our results reflect conclusions in the literature, finding no significance in the ability to pre-plan patellar resections

Towards an optimal design for ecosystem-level ocean observatories

Four operational factors, together with high development cost, currently limit the use of ocean observatories in ecological and fisheries applications: 1) limited spatial coverage; 2) limited integration of multiple types of technologies; 3) limitations in the experimental design for in situ studies; and 4) potential unpredicted bias in monitoring outcomes due to the infrastructure’s presence and functioning footprint. To address these limitations, we propose a novel concept of a standardized “ecosystem observatory module” structure composed of a central node and three tethered satellite pods together with permanent mobile platforms. The module would be designed with a rigid spatial configuration to optimize overlap among multiple observation technologies each providing 360° coverage around the module, including permanent stereo-video cameras, acoustic imaging sonar cameras, horizontal multi-beam echosounders and a passive acoustic array. The incorporation of multiple integrated observation technologies would enable unprecedented quantification of macrofaunal composition, abundance and density surrounding the module, as well as the ability to track the movements of individual fishes and macroinvertebrates. Such a standardized modular design would allow for the hierarchical spatial connection of observatory modules into local module clusters and larger geographic module networks, providing synoptic data within and across linked ecosystems suitable for fisheries and ecosystem level monitoring on multiple scales.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft