Converged Digital TV Services: The Role of Middleware and Future Directions of Interactive Television

The migration from analog to digital of the broadcasting technologies, already well consolidated for satellite systems, is becoming a reality also for terrestrial transmission. Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) is also evolving to offer interactive services and a degree of flexibility which can be exploited to offer tailored applications to users which include, for instance interactivity, different levels of personalization, and innovative location-based, as well as context-aware, services. A clear example of this trend is given by the rising success of the Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) which allows for a degree of flexibility on offered services unknown to the traditional broadcasting systems. In this framework, several satellite operators are starting to launch IPTV services using direct satellite links, as well as some terrestrial internet service providers are offering digital TV channels embedded in the IP streaming over XDSL. Furthermore, IPTV services are likely to be broadcast also wirelessly, exploiting advanced broadband access technologies such asWiMAX, LTE, or LTEA. Last, but not least, TV and broadcast services for mobile users have also been deployed in many countries using DVBH and will be soon available on an even broader scale thanks to its satellite counterpart, DVB-SH. In the near future, a set of different technologies able to offer personalized and customized services to different classes of users are expected in the area of wireless broadcasting and convergence of technologies is auspicious. This concept entails different levels of convergence, namely, at terminal level (one device fits all), at service level (convergence of traditional fixed, mobile, and broadcast services), and at transport and network level with a common and standardized set of protocols and at access layer thanks to the harmonic coexistence of different radio technologies. This special issue aims to capture the state-of-the-art research work concerning the integration of DTT/Satellite/IPTV systems for the broadcasting of multimedia and interactive services

Image Zooming using Corner Matching

This work was intended to direct the choice of an image interpolation/zoom algorithm for use in UND’s Open Prototype for Educational Nanosats (OPEN) satellite program. Whether intended for a space-borne platform or a balloon-borne platform, we expect to use a low cost camera (Raspberry Pi) and expect to have very limited bandwidth for image transmission. However, the technique developed could be used for any imaging application. The approach developed analyzes overlapping 3x3 blocks of pixels looking for “L” patterns that suggest the center pixel should be changed such that a triangle pattern results. We compare this approach against different types of single-frame image interpolation algorithms, such as zero-order-hold (ZOH), bilinear, bicubic, and the directional cubic convolution interpolation (DCCI) approach. We use the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and mean squared error (MSE) as the primary means of comparison. In all but one of the test cases the proposed method resulted in a lower MSE and higher PSNR than the other methods. Meaning this method results in a more accurate image after zooming than the other methods

NEUVis: Comparing Affective and Effective Visualisation

Data visualisations are useful for providing insight from complex scientific data. However, even with visualisation, scientific research is difficult for non-scientists to comprehend. When developed by designers in collaboration with scientists, data visualisation can be used to articulate scientific data in a way that non-experts can understand. Creating human-centred visualisations is a unique challenge, and there are no frameworks to support their design. In response, this thesis presents a practice-led study investigating design methods that can be used to develop Non-Expert User Visualisations (NEUVis), data visualisations for a general public, and the response that people have to different kinds of NEUVis. For this research, two groups of ten users participated in quantitative studies, informed by Yvonna Lincoln and Egon Guba’s method of Naturalistic Inquiry, which asked non-scientists to express their cognitive and emotional response to NEUVis using different media. The three different types of visualisations were infographics, 3D animations and an interactive installation. The installation used in the study, entitled 18S rDNA, was developed and evaluated as part of this research using John Zimmerman’s Research Through Design methodology. 18S rDNA embodies the knowledge and design methods that were developed for this research, and provided an opportunity for explication of the entire NEUVis design process. The research findings indicate that developing visualisations for the non-expert audience requires a new process, different to the way scientists visualise data. The result of this research describes how creative practitioners collaborate with primary researchers and presents a new human-centred design thinking model for NEUVis. This model includes two design tools. The first tool helps designers merge user needs with data they wish to visualise. The second tool helps designers take that merged information and begin an iterative, user-centred design process

Image Compression and its Effect on Data

This thesis is intended to define and study different image compression techniques, software programs, image formats (from early ones such as “GIF” to most recent ones such as “JPEG 2000”), compression effect on compressed data (compressed images), and its effectiveness and usefulness in reducing the file size and its transmission time, as a result. In many GeoBioPhysical applications, some information inside any image may be the keys to solve different kinds of problems and classify features. This kind of data and information has to be handled with care; i.e. it’s not allowed to be lost during the compression process. On the other hand, dealing with images is more flexible in regular applications such as images used as pictures for simple purposes such as e-mails. An un-compressed aerial image (DOQQ) of Huntington, WV. (with “.Tiff” extension) was taken as the original file to be compressed using different techniques and software programs. The results were studied and attached to each image. The resulting file size of each image was used to perform some comparisons between different software programs that were also used, trying to find the effectiveness of each technique and software from the quality to file size ratio point of view. Some previous work and research from different references was also studied and discussed to show the differences and the similarities between this work and previous ones. One of the goals of this study is to find the software program(s) and the compression types those give the best quality to file size ratio, and the ones that work best for GeoBioPhysical studies. The results show that dealing with different types of imagery is sensitive and depends strongly on the application; the user has to know what he is doing. The user has to use the proper input imagery and compress them to the proper limits to get best results. The results of this study show that JPEG2000 software programs (such as LuraWave) are very good and effective choices. JPEG2000 and ECW are likely to be extensively used in the near future for imagery and internet usage

Topics in environmental and physical geodesy

A compilation of mathematical techniques and physical basic knowledge in order to prepare the post graduate students of the subjects of physical geodesy, environmental physics and the visiting students of Erasmus-Socrates projects of the Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography of Toulon and the Campus Universitari de la Mediterrania in Vilanova i la Geltru, Barcelona.Postprint (published version

The Poetry of Logical Ideas: Towards a Mathematical Genealogy of Media Art

In this dissertation I chart a mathematical genealogy of media art, demonstrating that mathematical thought has had a significant influence on contemporary experimental moving image production. Rather than looking for direct cause and effect relationships between mathematics and the arts, I will instead examine how mathematical developments have acted as a cultural zeitgeist, an indirect, but significant, influence on the humanities and the arts. In particular, I will be narrowing the focus of this study to the influence mathematical thought has had on cinema (and by extension media art), given that mathematics lies comfortably between the humanities and sciences, and that cinema is the object par excellence of such a study, since cinema and media studies arrived at a time when the humanities and sciences were held by many to be mutually exclusive disciplines. It is also shown that many media scholars have been implicitly engaging with mathematical concepts without necessarily recognizing them as such. To demonstrate this, I examine many concepts from media studies that demonstrate or derive from mathematical concepts. For instance, Claude Shannon's mathematical model of communication is used to expand on Stuart Hall's cultural model, and the mathematical concept of the fractal is used to expand on Rosalind Krauss' argument that video is a medium that lends itself to narcissism. Given that the influence of mathematics on the humanities and the arts often occurs through a misuse or misinterpretation of mathematics, I mobilize the concept of a productive misinterpretation and argue that this type of misreading has the potential to lead to novel innovations within the humanities and the arts. In this dissertation, it is also established that there are many mathematical concepts that can be utilized by media scholars to better analyze experimental moving images. In particular, I explore the mathematical concepts of symmetry, infinity, fractals, permutations, the Axiom of Choice, and the algorithmic to moving images works by Hollis Frampton, Barbara Lattanzi, Dana Plays, T. Marie, and Isiah Medina, among others. It is my desire that this study appeal to scientists with an interest in cinema and media art, and to media theorists with an interest in experimental cinema and other contemporary moving image practices

C-9 and Other Microgravity Simulations

This document represents a summary of medical and scientific evaluations conducted aboard the C-9 and other NASA-sponsored aircraft from June 2008 to June 2009. Included is a general overview of investigations manifested and coordinated by the Human Adaptation and Counter-measures Division. A collection of brief reports that describe tests conducted aboard the NASA-sponsored aircraft follows the overview. Principal investigators and test engineers contributed significantly to the content of the report, describing their particular experiment or hardware evaluation. Although this document follows general guidelines, each report format may vary to accommodate differences in experiment design and procedures. This document concludes with an appendix that provides background information concerning the Reduced Gravity Program. Acknowledgment

Porous media drying and two-phase flow studies using micromodels

In this thesis, we report an investigation of porous media drying and steady-state two-phase flow behaviour at the pore scale using micromodels based on thin section images of real rocks. Fluid distributions (and the deposition of solid salt in the case of drying) were imaged in real-time using optical microscopy. Computer simulations of the two-phase flow was initially compared to micromodel experiments and then used to predict behaviour in geometries not available in the lab. We performed evaporation experiments on a 2.5D etched-silicon/glass micromodel based on a thin section image of a sucrosic dolomite carbonate rock at different wetting conditions. NaCl solutions from 0 wt% (deionized water) to 36 wt% (saturated brine) were evaporated by passing dry air through a channel in front of the micromodel matrix. For deionized water in a water-wet model, we observed the three classical periods of evaporation: the constant rate period (CRP) in which liquid remains connected to the matrix surface, the falling rate period (FRP) and the receding front period (RFP), in which the capillary connection is broken and water transport becomes dominated by vapour diffusion. The length of the deionized water CRP was much shorter for a uniformly oil-wet model, but mixed wettability made little difference to the drying process. For brine systems in water-wet and mixed-wet micromodels, the evaporation rate became linear with the square root of time after a short CRP. Although this appears similar to the RFP for water, salt continued to be deposited at the external surface of the matrix during this period indicating that a capillary connection was maintained. The reduction of evaporation rate appears to be due to the deposited salt acting as a partial barrier to hydraulic connectivity, perhaps allowing dry patches to grow on the evaporating surface. The mechanism causing the square root time behaviour is therefore unlike the case of deionized water where capillary disconnection from the fracture channel is followed by a diffusion controlled process. In completely oil-wet micromodels capillary disconnection prevented salt deposition in the fracture. The resulting permeability impairment was also measured, for the water-wet model, we observed two regions of a linear downward trend in the matrix and fracture permeability measurements. A similar trend was observed for the mixed-wet systems. However, for the oil-wet systems, fracture permeability only changes slightly even for 360g/L brine, a result of the absence of salt deposits in the fracture caused by the early rupture of the liquid wetting films needed to aid hydraulic connectivity. Overall, matrix permeability for all wetting conditions decreased with increasing brine concentration and was almost total for the 360g/L brine. Furthermore, drying with air was compared with drying with CO2 gas, with the latter having important applications in CO2 sequestration processes. We observed that using CO2 rather than air as carrier gas makes the brine phase somewhat more wetting especially in the deionized water case, with the result that hydraulic connectivity was maintained for longer in the CO2 case compared to dry-out with air. Steady-state two-phase flow experiments were also conducted to study the effect of viscosity ratio, flow rate and capillary number on flow regimes and displacement processes using a 2.5D etched-silicon/glass micromodel based on a thin section image of a Berea sandstone rock. Of particular interest here was a new type of pore-scale behaviour, termed dynamic connectivity, previously identified in steady-state two-phase flow experiments in real rocks at the transition to ganglia flow by X-ray tomography. Micromodels have the potential to resolve the dynamics of these displacement processes due to the high speed resolution of optical techniques. Depending on the mean-size, prevalence, and connectivity of the non-wetting phase, four flow regimes were identified: connected pathway flow (CPF), big ganglia flow (BGF), big-small ganglia flow (BSGF) and small ganglia flow (SGF). These flow regimes move from CPF to SGF as the capillary-viscous balance of the system is altered by increasing the total flow rate of the system. The boundaries of the flow regimes are indistinct, however the domain of the BGF increases (and/or SGF decreases) with a decrease in the viscosity ratio of the system. That is the BGF regime persisted to higher capillary number for the water/squalane system than the water/decane system because it is harder for big blobs to split into smaller blobs at low viscosity ratio. However, dynamic connectivity was not observed in these micromodel experiments even after replicating the experiments with the same fluid pair (Nitrogen/Deionized water) used in the real porous media experiment. Therefore, we speculate that the constant depth of the micromodel used in this study does not provide a suitable geometry for dynamic connectivity to develop. One potential reason for this is the compressed range of capillary pressures due to the single etch depth. Hence, a multi-depth non-repeat micromodel was designed based on a single confocal image of a Bentheimer sandstone. Prototypes of small sections of the multi-depth model were produced by 3D printing but it was not possible to fabricate a functioning model due to time constraints. Simulation was therefore used to explore the multiphase flow behaviour of the new geometry. Initially a Lattice Boltzmann code (developed in another project) was applied to simulate flow in a small region of the single depth geometry and compared to the experimental results as a validation step. The LB model was then used to predict flow behaviour in the multi-depth geometry, however only connected pathway and ganglia flow regimes were seen unambiguously. It is therefore likely that the lack of 3D connectivity rather than capillary pressure limitations prevent the appearance of dynamic connectivity.Open Acces