Multi-View Object Instance Recognition in an Industrial Context

We present a fast object recognition system coding shape by viewpoint invariant geometric relations and appearance information. In our advanced industrial work-cell, the system can observe the work space of the robot by three pairs of Kinect and stereo cameras allowing for reliable and complete object information. From these sensors, we derive global viewpoint invariant shape features and robust color features making use of color normalization techniques. We show that in such a set-up, our system can achieve high performance already with a very low number of training samples, which is crucial for user acceptance and that the use of multiple views is crucial for performance. This indicates that our approach can be used in controlled but realistic industrial contexts that require—besides high reliability—fast processing and an intuitive and easy use at the end-user side.European UnionDanish Council for Strategic Researc

Multi-View Object Instance Recognition in an Industrial Context

We present a fast object recognition system coding shape by viewpoint invariant geometric relations and appearance information. In our advanced industrial work-cell, the system can observe the work space of the robot by three pairs of Kinect and stereo cameras allowing for reliable and complete object information. From these sensors, we derive global viewpoint invariant shape features and robust color features making use of color normalization techniques. We show that in such a set-up, our system can achieve high performance already with a very low number of training samples, which is crucial for user acceptance and that the use of multiple views is crucial for performance. This indicates that our approach can be used in controlled but realistic industrial contexts that require—besides high reliability—fast processing and an intuitive and easy use at the end-user side.European UnionDanish Council for Strategic Researc

Using Surfaces and Surface Relations in an Early Cognitive Vision System

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00138-015-0705-yWe present a deep hierarchical visual system with two parallel hierarchies for edge and surface information. In the two hierarchies, complementary visual information is represented on different levels of granularity together with the associated uncertainties and confidences. At all levels, geometric and appearance information is coded explicitly in 2D and 3D allowing to access this information separately and to link between the different levels. We demonstrate the advantages of such hierarchies in three applications covering grasping, viewpoint independent object representation, and pose estimation.European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme FP7/IC

Eragrostis curvula (SCHRAD.) NEES, the African lovegrass, in North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany)

Das aus Südafrika stammende Gebogene Liebesgras (Eragrostis curvula) wurde bisher in Nordrhein-Westfalen nur vereinzelt gefunden. Die charakteristischen Merkmale der Art werden hier vorgestellt und drei ihrer nordrhein-westfälischen Wuchsorte (Rhein-Herne-Kanal in Bottrop, NSG "Brachter Wald" im Kreis Viersen, Quarzsandgrube in Frechen, Rhein-Erft-Kreis), an denen sie eingebürgert ist, ausführlich beschrieben. Eragrostis curvula gelangte z. T. offensichtlich aus Ansaaten ins Gelände, an anderen Stellen bleibt die Herkunft unklar. Wie langjährige Beobachtungen zeigen, ist die Art in der Lage, sich an offenen Standorten massiv auszubreiten. Durch Mahd und Brand wird die Art offensichtlich gefärdert. Im NSG "Brachter Wald" wird sie zum Erhalt der ursprünglich vorhandenen Arten und der ursprünglichen Vegetation bereits seit einigen Jahren durch verschiedene Maßnahmen erfolgreich zurückgedrängt.The African lovegrass (Eragrostis curvula), a native of South Africa, has so far only been found sporadically in North Rhine-Westphalia. The following article presents characteristic traits of E. curvula and describes three of its North Rhine-Westphalian habitats in which it is considered to be established (the Rhine-Herne Canal in Bottrop, the nature reserve "Brachter Wald" in the district of Viersen, and a sand pit in Frechen in the Rhein-Erft distict). In a few cases E. curvula became established by seeds from nearby cultivations, in other cases its origin unknown. Long-term observations showed that E. curvula is capable to spread vigorously on open areas, which may also be amplified by fires and swath. In the nature reserve "Brachter Wald" measures of suppressing E. curvula to benefit the local species and vegetation were successful

Genetic Contribution to Alcohol Dependence: Investigation of a Heterogeneous German Sample of Individuals with Alcohol Dependence, Chronic Alcoholic Pancreatitis, and Alcohol-Related Cirrhosis

The present study investigated the genetic contribution to alcohol dependence (AD) using genome-wide association data from three German samples. These comprised patients with: (i) AD; (ii) chronic alcoholic pancreatitis (ACP); and (iii) alcohol-related liver cirrhosis (ALC). Single marker, gene-based, and pathway analyses were conducted. A significant association was detected for the ADH1B locus in a gene-based approach (puncorrected = 1.2 × 10−6; pcorrected = 0.020). This was driven by the AD subsample. No association with ADH1B was found in the combined ACP + ALC sample. On first inspection, this seems surprising, since ADH1B is a robustly replicated risk gene for AD and may therefore be expected to be associated also with subgroups of AD patients. The negative finding in the ACP + ALC sample, however, may reflect genetic stratification as well as random fluctuation of allele frequencies in the cases and controls, demonstrating the importance of large samples in which the phenotype is well assessed