257,452 research outputs found
What Is Around The Camera?
How much does a single image reveal about the environment it was taken in? In
this paper, we investigate how much of that information can be retrieved from a
foreground object, combined with the background (i.e. the visible part of the
environment). Assuming it is not perfectly diffuse, the foreground object acts
as a complexly shaped and far-from-perfect mirror. An additional challenge is
that its appearance confounds the light coming from the environment with the
unknown materials it is made of. We propose a learning-based approach to
predict the environment from multiple reflectance maps that are computed from
approximate surface normals. The proposed method allows us to jointly model the
statistics of environments and material properties. We train our system from
synthesized training data, but demonstrate its applicability to real-world
data. Interestingly, our analysis shows that the information obtained from
objects made out of multiple materials often is complementary and leads to
better performance.Comment: Accepted to ICCV. Project:
http://homes.esat.kuleuven.be/~sgeorgou/multinatillum
What Is Around the Camera?
How much does a single image reveal about the environment it was taken in? In this paper, we investigate how much of that information can be retrieved from a foreground object, combined with the background (i.e. the visible part of the environment). Assuming it is not perfectly diffuse, the foreground object acts as a complexly shaped and far-from-perfect mirror An additional challenge is that its appearance confounds the light coming from the environment with the unknown materials it is made of. We propose a learning-based approach to predict the environment from multiple reflectance maps that are computed from approximate surface normals. The proposed method allows us to jointly model the statistics of environments and material properties. We train our system from synthesized training data, but demonstrate its applicability to real-world data. Interestingly, our analysis shows that the information obtained from objects made out of multiple materials often is complementary and leads to better performance
What remains is the book: The idea of the book in and around electronic space
The purpose of this study is to question the idea of the book in general and how this idea is transforming in electronic space, understood as a space of flows as distinct to a space of places (Castells, 1989, p. 349). In order to question the idea of the book in electronic space we must begin at its ending, or more specifically, at a point in the histories of the book that is widely understood as representing a closing of a parenthesis - that began with the invention of the printing press, up to the end of print—spanning some 500 years, beginning half way through the 15th century in Western Europe
Let Me Tell You a Story: A Journalist\u27s Pursuit of Redemptive Storytelling
This thesis will explore, and attempt to define, what redemptive storytelling is within the field of journalism. Storytelling is a practice as old as humanity itself. Indeed, it is ancient, originating in the mind of God, the author of the greatest story ever told. Books written by experts in the field of storytelling, as well as scholarly articles, will be utilized. Aside from journalism, aspects of psychology, theology, and philosophy will be included in the consideration of what makes a story redemptive. This thesis also probes the reasons why stories are so crucial to the human experience, and how God uses them for his redemptive purposes around the world
The way forward
For the last few decades the study of disks around stars young and old and of
different types have progressed significantly. During the same time a
completely new discipline, the study of exoplanets, planets orbiting stars
other than our Sun, have emerged. Both these fields, which are interconnected,
have benefited from the development of new instrumentation, and especially by
telescopes and detectors deployed in space. In this chapter we are describing
the state of the art of such instruments and make an inventory of what is being
currently developed. We also state some of the requirements of the next steps
and what type of instruments will lead the way forward.Comment: 25 pages, 4 figure
High-contrast imaging constraints on gas giant planet formation - The Herbig Ae/Be star opportunity
Planet formation studies are often focused on solar-type stars, implicitly
considering our Sun as reference point. This approach overlooks, however, that
Herbig Ae/Be stars are in some sense much better targets to study planet
formation processes empirically, with their disks generally being larger,
brighter and simply easier to observe across a large wavelength range. In
addition, massive gas giant planets have been found on wide orbits around early
type stars, triggering the question if these objects did indeed form there and,
if so, by what process. In the following I briefly review what we currently
know about the occurrence rate of planets around intermediate mass stars,
before discussing recent results from Herbig Ae/Be stars in the context of
planet formation. The main emphasis is put on spatially resolved polarized
light images of potentially planet forming disks and how these images - in
combination with other data - can be used to empirically constrain (parts of)
the planet formation process. Of particular interest are two objects, HD100546
and HD169142, where, in addition to intriguing morphological structures in the
disks, direct observational evidence for (very) young planets has been
reported. I conclude with an outlook, what further progress we can expect in
the very near future with the next generation of high-contrast imagers at 8-m
class telescopes and their synergies with ALMA.Comment: Accepted by Astrophysics and Space Science as invited short review in
special issue about Herbig Ae/Be stars; 12 pages incl. 5 figures, 2 tables
and reference
Participatory Transformations
Learning, in its many forms, from the classroom to independent study, is being transformed by new practices emerging around Internet use. Conversation, participation and community have become watchwords for the processes of learning promised by the Internet and accomplished via technologies such as bulletin boards, wikis, blogs, social software and repositories, devices such as laptops, cell phones and digital cameras, and infrastructures of internet connection, telephone, wireless and broadband. This chapter discusses the impact of emergent, participatory trends on education. In learning and teaching participatory trends harbinge a radical transformation in who learns from whom, where, under what circumstances, and for what and whose purpose. They bring changes in where we find information, who we learn from, how learning progresses, and how we contribute to our learning and the learning of others. These trends indicate a transformation to "ubiquitous learning" ??? a continuous anytime, anywhere, anyone contribution and retrieval of learning materials and advice on and through the Internet and its technologies, niches and social spaces.not peer reviewe
The primordial environment of super massive black holes: large scale galaxy overdensities around QSOs with LBT
We investigated the presence of galaxy overdensities around four
QSOs, namely SDSS J1030+0524 (z = 6.28), SDSS J1148+5251 (z = 6.41), SDSS
J1048+4637 (z = 6.20) and SDSS J1411+1217 (z = 5.95), through deep -, -
and - band imaging obtained with the wide-field () Large
Binocular Camera (LBC) at the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). We adopted
color-color selections within the vs plane to identify samples of
-band dropouts at the QSO redshift and measure their relative abundance and
spatial distribution in the four LBC fields, each covering
physical Mpc at . The same selection criteria were then applied to
-band selected sources in the 1 deg Subaru-XMM Newton Deep Survey
to derive the expected number of dropouts over a blank LBC-sized field
(0.14 deg). The four observed QSO fields host a number of candidates
larger than what is expected in a blank field. By defining as -band dropouts
objects with and undetected in the -band, we found
16, 10, 9, 12 dropouts in SDSS J1030+0524, SDSS J1148+5251, SDSS J1048+4637,
and SDSS J1411+1217, respectively, whereas only 4.3 such objects are expected
over a 0.14 deg blank field. This corresponds to overdensity significances
of 3.3, 1.9, 1.7, 2.5, respectively. By considering the total number of
dropouts in the four LBC fields and comparing it with what is expected in four
blank fields of 0.14 deg each, we find that high-z QSOs reside in overdense
environments at the level. This is the first direct and unambiguous
measurement of the large scale structures around QSOs. [shortened]Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in A&
The Shuttle Environment Workshop, executive summary and workshop procedures
One of the main experimental monitors used to determine the environment in the payload bay was the Induced Environment Contamination Monitor. This package of instruments has made environmental measurements during STS flights with a high degree of success. This has shown that the shuttle environment is relatively free of contaminants, except for special instances of increased abundance of methane, water vapor and particulates. Results of these measurements are rapidly becoming more available. In establishing the Shuttle Environment Workshop, the findings were shared with scientific experimenters, users and other individuals who need to know what the Shuttle is like and what experimenters may expect in the payload bay. The Workshop was centered around results obtained from the environmental measurements made on the Shuttle. The program agenda for the workshop is given. The procedures and flow of communications for the workshop are indicated
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