224,552 research outputs found
Computer Analysis of Architecture Using Automatic Image Understanding
In the past few years, computer vision and pattern recognition systems have
been becoming increasingly more powerful, expanding the range of automatic
tasks enabled by machine vision. Here we show that computer analysis of
building images can perform quantitative analysis of architecture, and quantify
similarities between city architectural styles in a quantitative fashion.
Images of buildings from 18 cities and three countries were acquired using
Google StreetView, and were used to train a machine vision system to
automatically identify the location of the imaged building based on the image
visual content. Experimental results show that the automatic computer analysis
can automatically identify the geographical location of the StreetView image.
More importantly, the algorithm was able to group the cities and countries and
provide a phylogeny of the similarities between architectural styles as
captured by StreetView images. These results demonstrate that computer vision
and pattern recognition algorithms can perform the complex cognitive task of
analyzing images of buildings, and can be used to measure and quantify visual
similarities and differences between different styles of architectures. This
experiment provides a new paradigm for studying architecture, based on a
quantitative approach that can enhance the traditional manual observation and
analysis. The source code used for the analysis is open and publicly available
On the Reverse Engineering of the Citadel Botnet
Citadel is an advanced information-stealing malware which targets financial
information. This malware poses a real threat against the confidentiality and
integrity of personal and business data. A joint operation was recently
conducted by the FBI and the Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit in order to take
down Citadel command-and-control servers. The operation caused some disruption
in the botnet but has not stopped it completely. Due to the complex structure
and advanced anti-reverse engineering techniques, the Citadel malware analysis
process is both challenging and time-consuming. This allows cyber criminals to
carry on with their attacks while the analysis is still in progress. In this
paper, we present the results of the Citadel reverse engineering and provide
additional insight into the functionality, inner workings, and open source
components of the malware. In order to accelerate the reverse engineering
process, we propose a clone-based analysis methodology. Citadel is an offspring
of a previously analyzed malware called Zeus; thus, using the former as a
reference, we can measure and quantify the similarities and differences of the
new variant. Two types of code analysis techniques are provided in the
methodology, namely assembly to source code matching and binary clone
detection. The methodology can help reduce the number of functions requiring
manual analysis. The analysis results prove that the approach is promising in
Citadel malware analysis. Furthermore, the same approach is applicable to
similar malware analysis scenarios.Comment: 10 pages, 17 figures. This is an updated / edited version of a paper
appeared in FPS 201
Automatic quantitative morphological analysis of interacting galaxies
The large number of galaxies imaged by digital sky surveys reinforces the
need for computational methods for analyzing galaxy morphology. While the
morphology of most galaxies can be associated with a stage on the Hubble
sequence, morphology of galaxy mergers is far more complex due to the
combination of two or more galaxies with different morphologies and the
interaction between them. Here we propose a computational method based on
unsupervised machine learning that can quantitatively analyze morphologies of
galaxy mergers and associate galaxies by their morphology. The method works by
first generating multiple synthetic galaxy models for each galaxy merger, and
then extracting a large set of numerical image content descriptors for each
galaxy model. These numbers are weighted using Fisher discriminant scores, and
then the similarities between the galaxy mergers are deduced using a variation
of Weighted Nearest Neighbor analysis such that the Fisher scores are used as
weights. The similarities between the galaxy mergers are visualized using
phylogenies to provide a graph that reflects the morphological similarities
between the different galaxy mergers, and thus quantitatively profile the
morphology of galaxy mergers.Comment: Astronomy & Computing, accepte
Local flavors and regional markers : The Low Countries and their commercially driven and proximity-focused film remake practice
The practice of Dutch-Flemish film remaking that came into existence in the new millennium quickly appeared to be of great importance in the film industries of Flanders and The Netherlands – and consequently of Europe. Inspired by methods used in television (format) studies, this article conducts a systematic comparative film analysis of nine Dutch-Flemish remakes together with their nine source films. Considering the remake as a prism that aids in dissecting different formal, transtextual, and cultural codes, and subsequently embedding the practice in its specific socio-cultural and industrial context, we found several similarities and differences between the Dutch and Flemish film versions and showed how these can be made sense of. More generally, we distilled two encompassing principles that administer the remake practice: even though a great deal of the remake process can be explained through the concept of localization – or, more precisely, through the concepts of ‘manufacturing proximity’ and ‘banal aboutness’ – we found that it should certainly not be limited to these processes – as both (trans)textual, such as the mechanism of ‘filling in the gaps’, and contextual elements were found
VMEXT: A Visualization Tool for Mathematical Expression Trees
Mathematical expressions can be represented as a tree consisting of terminal
symbols, such as identifiers or numbers (leaf nodes), and functions or
operators (non-leaf nodes). Expression trees are an important mechanism for
storing and processing mathematical expressions as well as the most frequently
used visualization of the structure of mathematical expressions. Typically,
researchers and practitioners manually visualize expression trees using
general-purpose tools. This approach is laborious, redundant, and error-prone.
Manual visualizations represent a user's notion of what the markup of an
expression should be, but not necessarily what the actual markup is. This paper
presents VMEXT - a free and open source tool to directly visualize expression
trees from parallel MathML. VMEXT simultaneously visualizes the presentation
elements and the semantic structure of mathematical expressions to enable users
to quickly spot deficiencies in the Content MathML markup that does not affect
the presentation of the expression. Identifying such discrepancies previously
required reading the verbose and complex MathML markup. VMEXT also allows one
to visualize similar and identical elements of two expressions. Visualizing
expression similarity can support support developers in designing retrieval
approaches and enable improved interaction concepts for users of mathematical
information retrieval systems. We demonstrate VMEXT's visualizations in two
web-based applications. The first application presents the visualizations
alone. The second application shows a possible integration of the
visualizations in systems for mathematical knowledge management and
mathematical information retrieval. The application converts LaTeX input to
parallel MathML, computes basic similarity measures for mathematical
expressions, and visualizes the results using VMEXT.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, Intelligent Computer Mathematics - 10th
International Conference CICM 2017, Edinburgh, UK, July 17-21, 2017,
Proceeding
- …