37,669 research outputs found
Real-time food intake classification and energy expenditure estimation on a mobile device
© 2015 IEEE.Assessment of food intake has a wide range of applications in public health and life-style related chronic disease management. In this paper, we propose a real-time food recognition platform combined with daily activity and energy expenditure estimation. In the proposed method, food recognition is based on hierarchical classification using multiple visual cues, supported by efficient software implementation suitable for realtime mobile device execution. A Fischer Vector representation together with a set of linear classifiers are used to categorize food intake. Daily energy expenditure estimation is achieved by using the built-in inertial motion sensors of the mobile device. The performance of the vision-based food recognition algorithm is compared to the current state-of-the-art, showing improved accuracy and high computational efficiency suitable for realtime feedback. Detailed user studies have also been performed to demonstrate the practical value of the software environment
Evaluation of the amperex 56 TVP photomultiplier
Characteristics were measured for the Amperex 56 TVP 42 mm-diameter photomultiplier. Some typical photomultiplier characteristics-such as gain, dark current, transit and rise times-are compared with data provided. Photomultiplier characteristics generally not available such as the single photoelectron time spread, the relative collection efficiency, the relative anode pulse amplitude as a function of the voltage between the photocathode and focusing electrode, and the position of the photocathode sensing area were measured and are discussed for two 56 TVP's. The single photoelectron time spread, the relative collection efficiency, and the transit time difference as a function of the voltage between photocathode and focusing electrode were also measured and are discussed, particularly with respect to the optimization of photomultiplier operating conditions for timing applications
Microstructural evolution in materials during thermal processing
Copyright © 2012 Joseph K. L. Lai et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.This article is made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund
A low-power opportunistic communication protocol for wearable applications
© 2015 IEEE.Recent trends in wearable applications demand flexible architectures being able to monitor people while they move in free-living environments. Current solutions use either store-download-offline processing or simple communication schemes with real-time streaming of sensor data. This limits the applicability of wearable applications to controlled environments (e.g, clinics, homes, or laboratories), because they need to maintain connectivity with the base station throughout the monitoring process. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of an opportunistic communication framework that simplifies the general use of wearable devices in free-living environments. It relies on a low-power data collection protocol that allows the end user to opportunistically, yet seamlessly manage the transmission of sensor data. We validate the feasibility of the framework by demonstrating its use for swimming, where the normal wireless communication is constantly interfered by the environment
Phase-Remapping Attack in Practical Quantum Key Distribution Systems
Quantum key distribution (QKD) can be used to generate secret keys between
two distant parties. Even though QKD has been proven unconditionally secure
against eavesdroppers with unlimited computation power, practical
implementations of QKD may contain loopholes that may lead to the generated
secret keys being compromised. In this paper, we propose a phase-remapping
attack targeting two practical bidirectional QKD systems (the "plug & play"
system and the Sagnac system). We showed that if the users of the systems are
unaware of our attack, the final key shared between them can be compromised in
some situations. Specifically, we showed that, in the case of the
Bennett-Brassard 1984 (BB84) protocol with ideal single-photon sources, when
the quantum bit error rate (QBER) is between 14.6% and 20%, our attack renders
the final key insecure, whereas the same range of QBER values has been proved
secure if the two users are unaware of our attack; also, we demonstrated three
situations with realistic devices where positive key rates are obtained without
the consideration of Trojan horse attacks but in fact no key can be distilled.
We remark that our attack is feasible with only current technology. Therefore,
it is very important to be aware of our attack in order to ensure absolute
security. In finding our attack, we minimize the QBER over individual
measurements described by a general POVM, which has some similarity with the
standard quantum state discrimination problem.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figure
Algon: a framework for supporting comparison of distributed algorithm performance
Programmers often need to use distributed algorithms to add non-functional behaviour such as mutual exclusion, deadlock detection and termination, to a distributed application. They find the selection and implementation of these algorithms daunting. Consequently, they have no idea which algorithm will be best for their particular application. To address this difficulty the Algon framework provides a set of pre-coded distributed algorithms for programmers to choose from, and provides a special performance display tool to support choice between algorithms. The performance tool is discussed. The developer of a distributed application will be able to observe the performance of each of the available algorithms according to a set of of widely accepted and easily-understandable performance metrics and compare and contrast the behaviour of the algorithms to support an informed choice. The strength of the Algon framework is that it does not require a working knowledge of algorithmic theory or functionality in order for the developer to use the algorithms
Brief Mindfulness Meditation Improves Mental State Attribution and Empathizing
Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Combining Physical galaxy models with radio observations to constrain the SFRs of high-z dusty star forming galaxies
We complement our previous analysis of a sample of z~1-2 luminous and
ultra-luminous infrared galaxies ((U)LIRGs), by adding deep VLA radio
observations at 1.4 GHz to a large data-set from the far-UV to the sub-mm,
including Spitzer and Herschel data. Given the relatively small number of
(U)LIRGs in our sample with high S/N radio data, and to extend our study to a
different family of galaxies, we also include 6 well sampled near IR-selected
BzK galaxies at z~1.5. From our analysis based on the radiative transfer
spectral synthesis code GRASIL, we find that, while the IR luminosity may be a
biased tracer of the star formation rate (SFR) depending on the age of stars
dominating the dust heating, the inclusion of the radio flux offers
significantly tighter constraints on SFR. Our predicted SFRs are in good
agreement with the estimates based on rest-frame radio luminosity and the Bell
(2003) calibration. The extensive spectro-photometric coverage of our sample
allows us to set important constraints on the SF history of individual objects.
For essentially all galaxies we find evidence for a rather continuous SFR and a
peak epoch of SF preceding that of the observation by a few Gyrs. This seems to
correspond to a formation redshift of z~5-6. We finally show that our physical
analysis may affect the interpretation of the SFR-M* diagram, by possibly
shifting, with respect to previous works, the position of the most dust
obscured objects to higher M* and lower SFRs.Comment: 26 pages, 15 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS on
Dec. 4th, 201
Food volume estimation for quantifying dietary intake with a wearable camera
A novel food volume measurement technique is proposed in this paper for accurate quantification of the daily dietary intake of the user. The technique is based on simul- taneous localisation and mapping (SLAM), a modified version of convex hull algorithm, and a 3D mesh object reconstruction technique. This paper explores the feasibility of applying SLAM techniques for continuous food volume measurement with a monocular wearable camera. A sparse map will be generated by SLAM after capturing the images of the food item with the camera and the multiple convex hull algorithm is applied to form a 3D mesh object. The volume of the target object can then be computed based on the mesh object. Compared to previous volume measurement techniques, the proposed method can measure the food volume continuously with no prior information such as pre-defined food shape model. Experiments have been carried out to evaluate this new technique and showed the feasibility and accuracy of the proposed algorithm in measuring food volume
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