Enhancement and stylization of photographs

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2013.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 89-95).A photograph captured by a digital camera may be the final product for many casual photographers. However, for professional photographers, this photograph is only the beginning: experts often spend hours on enhancing and stylizing their photographs. These enhancements range from basic exposure and contrast adjustments to dramatic alterations. It is these enhancements - along with composition and timing - that distinguish the work of professionals and casual photographers. The goal of this thesis is to narrow the gap between casual and professional photographers. We aim to empower casual users with methods for making their photographs look better. Professional photographers could also benefit from our findings: our enhancement methods produce a better starting point for professional processing. We propose and evaluate three different methods for image enhancement and stylization. First method is based on photographic intuition and is fully automatic. The second method relies on expert's input for training; after the training this method can be used to automatically predict expert adjustments for previously unseen photographs. The third method uses a grammar-based representation to sample the space of image filter and relies on user input to select novel and interesting filters.by Vladimir Leonid Bychkovsky.Ph.D

The Application of Image Recognition and Machine Learning to Capture Readings of Traditional Blood Pressure Devices: A Platform to Promote Population Health Management to Prevent Cardiovascular Diseases

Digital solutions for Blood Pressure Monitoring (or Telemonitoring) have sprouted in recent years, innovative solutions are often connected to the Internet of Things (IoT), with mobile health (mHealth) platform. However, clinical validity, technology cost and cross-platform data integration remain as the major barriers for the application of these solutions. In this paper, we present an IoT-based and AI-embedded Blood Pressure Telemonitoring (BPT) system, which facilitates home blood pressure monitoring for individuals. The highlights of this system are the machine learning techniques to enable automatic digits recognition, with F1 score of 98.5%; and the cloud-based portal developed for automated data synchronization and risk stratification. Positive feedbacks on trial implementation are received from three clinics. The overall system architecture, development of machine learning model in digit identification and cloud-based telemonitoring are addressed in this paper, alongside the followed implications

The Implementation of Cluster Identification of Data

In this paper, we combine few transformations to create a single unique transformation based on Threshold, Edge Detector, Simple Skeleton and Hough Line Transformation with information-theoretic-based criteria for unsupervised hierarchical image-set clustering. The continuous image modeling is based on mixture of Gaussian densities. The unsupervised image-set clustering is based on a generalized version of a recently introduced information-theoretic principle, the information bottleneck principle. Images are clustered such that the mutual information between the clusters and the image content is maximally preserved. Experimental results demonstrate the pattern of the image skeleton. Information theoretic tools are used to evaluate cluster quality. Particular emphasis is placed on the application of the clustering for efficient image search and verification. The application is very suit to offer authentic-looking counterfeit checks

Biosensing by “Growing” Antennas and Error-correcting Codes

Food-borne disease outbreaks not only cause numerous fatalities every year but also contribute to significant economic losses. While end-to-end supply chain monitoring can be one of the keys to preventing these outbreaks, screening every food product in the supply chain is not feasible considering the sheer volume and prohibitive test costs. Fortunately, two converging economic trends promise to make this end-to-end supply chain monitoring possible. The first trend is that passive radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags and quick response (QR) codes are now widely accepted for food packaging. The second trend is that smartphones are now equipped with the capability to interrogate RFID tags or to decode QR codes. Together, they have opened up the possibility of monitoring food quality by endowing these tags and error-correcting codes with the capability to detect pathogenic contaminants. This dissertation investigates a biosensing paradigm of growing\u27\u27 transducer structures, such as RFID tags and QR codes, which is triggered only when analytes of interest are present in the sample. This transducer growth or self-assembly process relies on a silver enhancement technique through which silver ions reduce into metallic form in the presence of a target analyte, which in turn leads to changes in electrical or optical properties. By exploiting this, we first demonstrate two remote biosensor platforms, a RFID tag-based biosensor and a QR code-based biosensor, respectively. For the RFID-based biosensor, a chain of silver-shelled particles is assembled during the analyte detection process, which directly modulates the antenna\u27s effective impedance, and hence leads to an improvement in the tag\u27s reflection efficiency. For the QR code-based biosensor, the operating principle relies on the optical absorption changes resulting from silver enhancement. The target detection process assembles an invalid code-word into a valid QR code. This self-assembly sensing approach should produce few false positives since it is a process which transits from a high entropy state (disassembled transducer) to a low entropy state (assembled transducer). While there can be numerous states of a disassembled transducer structure, there are only a few configurations representing the assembled transducer state. Given that there are no active power sources on the RFID tag or the QR code, it is challenging for the proposed biosensors to perform sample acquisition and pre-processing since they are envisioned to be embedded inside food packages eventually. Paper-based microfluidics have been explored and integrated on the biosensors to provide a self-powered approach for reagent sampling and processing. One use case is to trigger target detection remotely by an end consumer. Thermal absorption properties of graphite have been exploited such that the end user can initiate the process of analyte sampling in paper-based biosensors by shining a beam of light on the sensor

BAMBI: BLUETOOTH ACCESS MANAGEMENT & BEACON IDENTIFICATION

Cybersecurity is a constantly developing field. Patches that secured yesterday’s technology do not safeguard against occurring threats, necessitating continuous research in the field. The outbreak of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) devices dramatically expands the attack surface. BLE is one of the most widely applicable low-power connectivity standards. The low cost, low power consumption, and ready availability of BLE modules have made them a popular wireless technology for Internet of Things (IoT) devices and power constrained applications. However, the deployment of BLE-enabled devices enlarges the network attack surface. In spite of that, access management is insufficient for Bluetooth Low Energy devices. To elucidate, understanding the difference between known and unknown, malicious and non-malicious devices within a perimeter can be crucial in today’s cyberspace. This research proposes an approach called BAMBI - Beacon Access Management and Beacon Identification, which sought to develop an efficient, accurate, and easy-to implement solution for device/beacon identification and access management. The proposed solution, BAMBI, addresses these areas for the Bluetooth Low Energy Protocol. There are a few components to BAMBI that make up this solution. Device Identification, Device Classification, and Access Management are components that make BAMBI the first of its kind for the BLE protocol. Although this research is limited to the BLE protocol, it does introduce avenues for other connectivity standards such as Zig-bee and Bluetooth to adapt without much overhead

Birch Hill Park: A Case Study of Interpretive Planning

The Fairbanks North Star Borough Parks and Recreation Department is responsible for the planning, acquisition, development, improvement, and maintenance of lands and facilities to meet the community's needs for park and open space lands in accordance with established standards. 1 Current department emphasis is on sports facilities and programs. Some small neighborhood parks and the Growden Park and Picnic Area are the only significantly developed areas in which organized sports are not emphasized. Birch Hill Park was acquired to expand the spectrum of recreational resources and opportunities available to borough residents. Cross-country skiing, both competitive and recreational, is an important winter activity, but the area's size and its natural environment provide for a variety of other uses. The park has a summer youth camp, and planned developments will enhance the opportunities for visitors of all ages to picnic, hike, and study nature. This paper presents a direct contribution to the diversification of the borough's recreational program by highlighting the interpretive resources and opportunities of the park and by making specific recommendations for the implementation of an interpretive program. The interpretive plan proposed here can be integrated with the comprehensive development planning for Birch Hill Park now underway at the Parks and Recreation Department. Preliminary research for this study was done as a University of Alaska class project in the spring semester of 1976. The students in LR 493, Interpretive Services, developed basic information on the natural and cultural resources of Birch Hill and its surrounding region. They also identified policy gaps and provided general guidance for interpretation in the park.2 The plan presented here is a fo llow-up to that work. Additional fieldwork and library research have been done to supplement the earlier effort, and the implementation aspects have been made more specific with regard to the trail and visitor center recommendations. The process followed in this study is adapted from Perry J. Brown's Procedures for Developing an Interpretive Master Plan